Challenges and Support for Autism in Early Years

Running head: AUTISM
CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Section 1:
Introduction:
The case study is based upon a 3 year old toddler Charlie. Charlie has been described as
an energetic toddler who loves to play with his sister Emily and the family dog. Charlie has been
mentioned to experience speech difficulty from the beginning which was recognized by his
parents at the initial stage. In order to help Charlie with his speech difficulties, his parents had
thought of enrolling Charlie in a child care centre, with the hope that Charlie’s speech would
improve on interacting with a number of children. However, the educators had identified unusual
traits in Charlie which were disturbing. Charlie’s mom was informed about Charlie playing on
his own, being rough with other children, walking on tippy toes, speaking in an unclear language
and choosing white/bland food over delicious food item. The educators suspected that Charlie
had autism and recommended Charlie’s mom to get a diagnosis done. However, Charlie’s mom
assured them that the mentioned traits were not exhibited by Charlie at home. Upon discussing
the concern with Charlie’s father, the couple did not opt for a diagnosis but consulted with an
autism expert who recommended seeking assistance from a speech and language therapist and an
occupational therapist. Further, the parents were asked to shift Charlie from the previous
childcare centre as it was extremely noisy and Charlie found it difficult to cope in the
environment which ultimately resulted in his reported behavioral trait. Gradually, Charlie started
coping and his speech improved to a considerable extent. Also, Charlie found it easier to manage
his activities of daily living. The transition to kindergarten was reported to be smooth, however
Charlie found it difficult to address certain tasks such as moving out from the car to move to the
front gate of the school. Recently, Charlie has been reported to experience an emotional
meltdown upon returning home from school which bothered his parents to a great extent.

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Early year development in autism:
According to Hobson (2016), it should be noted that autistic children develop at a
different pace and do not develop similar to that of normal children. In addition to this, autistic
children find it extremely difficult to pay close attention to other, communicate and understand
the perspective of others so as to get a clear idea about the bigger picture (Sandin et al., 2014).
Research studies mention that while caring for an autistic child, it is extremely important for the
care providers to understand the key areas of challenge that the child faces (Christensen et al.,
2013). This greatly helps in seeking correct guidance and supports the development process of
the children. As has already been mentioned that autistic children develop at a differential rate
and do not develop skills at the same pace and order as normally developing children. For
instance, a normal child can be expected to speak full sentences at 12 months. On the contrary,
an autistic child might only speak a few words at 12 months of age. Also, an autistic child might
take 3 long years to combine words and frame sentences (Di Martino et al., 2014). In addition to
this, an autistic child might be able to identify the body parts but not be able to label the body
parts in a diagram. Further, the child might find difficulty in sorting the colors but could be able
to identify the colors.
Also, autistic child are not accustomed to the normal protocol of interacting with people.
This means that it is not unnatural for an autistic child to not respond upon his name being called
or not waving goodbye to a person if not being asked to do so. Children with autism experience
difficulty in relation to joint attention and this account for the reason why the children avoid eye
contact or using gestures (Werling & Geschwind, 2013). The difficulty pertaining to joint
attention leads to problems with the development of language skills (McStay et al., 2014). This

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makes it challenging for autistic children to interpret facial expressions or participate in a
conversation.
Social development pertaining to acknowledging the belief that other people have
different opinion or perspectives which must be respected develops between the age of 3 to 5
years (Sheehan et al., 2015). However, the skill does not develop in autistic children making it
difficult for them to acknowledge the perspectives of others. This further makes it difficult for
them to interact with other people or develop an understanding about how their behavior could
affect others (Minshawi et al., 2014).
In addition to this autistic children struggle with focus, transitions, memory, time,
attention, organization, frustration and emotional control (Owren & Stenhammer, 2013). These
are basic abilities that are used to address problem solving and daily activities. As a result,
autistic children find it difficult to solve problems even when they are aware about the approach
but are unable to organize the approach.
In addition to this, autistic children find it difficult to concentrate on the bigger picture
but might remember the minute details (Hwang et al., 2015). This leads to problems with
understanding meaningful messages or comprehending messages with inner meaning. For
instance upon being said, a place where there are lots of wild animals, a normal might assume
the place to be a ‘forest’ or a ‘zoo’ but an autistic child might just imagine a number of animals.
Key issues of the case:
Upon closely analyzing the case study, the two key areas which seem to be challenging
for Charlie can be mentioned as experiencing difficulty in communicating his concern and
experiencing difficulty in managing activities of daily living. I feel that for Charlie, it is