Therapy for children and teens with autism | Burnaby | Vancouver

Dr. Jim Roche provides individual and family therapy as well as parent education to individuals with Asperger's disorder and autism in Vancouver and Burnaby. He is a registered psychologist and approved behaviour interventionist with ACT (Autism Community Training). Additionally he provides diagnostic assessment and testing for individuals suspected of autism which can lead to government funding. Information on his autism/Asperger's practice can be found here:
http://therapists.psychologytoday.com/rms/70682
http://www.relatedminds.com/autism/
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A recent article in the New York Times addresses children with autism, "Inside the Mind of a Child with Autism." Here is the link: http://nyti.ms/1kk8Zcq  This is a great article about something so simple you might wonder why it needs to be discussed, but it does. How to work --- actually, how to PLAY---with your child who has autism (or Asperger's).  It talks about something really basic we all do: The more time a child spends giving eye contact - and some social reciprocity - the more time the child gets to play with those special little things they like to play with. Using the child's "affinities" to reinforce social reciprocity. An example they give is, "If a child is fascinated by Thomas the Tank Engine, use those characters to prompt and reinforce social development." This is what I actually do with children in their homes, in the office and at schools. Often being down on the floor playing side by side and demonstrating how to encourage this social reciprocity.  Many people do this, and when I model it I often use "self talk" to teach parents not just how to do this, but what they are doing and why it helps. Understanding why something makes things better lets you do that thing better than before.

There is a new book about this by Ron Suskind, a former wall street reporter called, "Life, Animated" in which he describes going through this process with his autistic son.

Finally Sally Rogers, a professor of psychiatry at the Mind Institute at the University of Davis in California (they have a great series of podcasts by the way) is looking at this teaching process and gathering some real data on it's effectiveness. The whole aim is to find out how best to do this "joint play" that is so critical to a child with autism spectrum disorder or Asperger's in order to develop social interaction skills. Another place you can read about this is Dr. Stanley Greenspan's "Floortime," which is, for the most part, exactly what it seems. Time on the floor interacting through joint play.

Using play that is an "affinity" to the child a lot can be done, and while I am always stressing the need for basic research on the causes of autism, it's a pleasure to read about some in depth research on the day to day therapeutic interventions we use when working with children with autism spectrum disorder.

Take a look at the article, and at the New York Time's website on mental health issues.