When diagnosing autism, the diagnosis is best made by a multidisciplinary team including a paediatrician (or psychiatrist) a psychologist and a speech pathologist. They will use the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th edition), or DSM-5, produced by the American Psychiatric Association. The DSM-5 lists the signs and symptoms of autism and states how many of these must be
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Many children with autism can exhibit aggression. This aggression can be unexpected outbursts of biting, scratching, kicking, hitting, or destroying property – sadly, it is relatively common with children on the spectrum. It usually stems from a stressful situation, like sensory overload, frustration over communication due to lack of communication skills, unknown environments or a
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Does your child engage in repetitive or unusual body movements or noises? This is called “Stimming” Everyone has some elements of stimming, like – chewing on a pen while you are thinking, tapping your toes while you are going to sleep, and cracking knuckles. There are many things we all do, which could be referred
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If you have received a diagnosis that your child may be on the autism spectrum here are some handy tips to help you feel less overwhelmed: Educate yourself: The more you know about autism, the better equipped you’ll be to make informed decisions for your child. We have resources on our website that may be
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Even though it only feels like yesterday that the kids went back to school, school holidays approaching in a couple of weeks. We have all been locked up for so long you might want to get away for a while. But if you have an autistic child, it can be difficult, but it doesn’t have
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Managing screen time, encouraging home learning and working with our own kids is challenging at the best of times, let alone throwing in an extended lockdown and our whole lives have moved online. As parents and adults I know some of us are struggling with our own lives being online, so we can only imagine
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If your child is heading to a new school this year, you may need to start talking about it asap, as it is it’s normal for your child to feel anxious about starting school. Your child may also be feeling a bit uncertain after the turbulent school year we endured last year too. Children with
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Autism Spectrum disorders are continuing to rise, and no one knows why, but at Complete Children’s Health we have found that it could be due to better awareness and better, earlier, diagnosis. ASD usually appears early, and most parents know that their child isn’t meeting the standard development stages at the same rate as their
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Child Psychology Research suggests that half of all mental health issues start before the age of 14. These struggles can lead to family difficulty, school disruption, and violent behaviour in some cases. As such, early intervention and child psychology is vital. What is a Psychologist? A psychologist is a registered health practitioner who completes a
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Pronunciation and talking is the ability to physically move the tongue, lips, palate etc to produce sequences of speech sounds that make up words and sentences which are clear and can be understood by others. By 6 months, the baby makes cooing sounds (e.g. ‘oo’, ‘ee’, ‘ah’, etc.), turns towards sounds and gives eye contact
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