Some of the traits associated with HFA that will be addressed in the ebook include: (1) emotional problems and sensory sensitivities; (2) difficulties with school-related skills; (3) issues related to health and movement; (4) social skills deficits; (5) behavioral problems; and (6) deficits in linguistic and language development.
Let's look at each of these in turn:
1. Why do children with HFA experience unique emotional problems and sensory sensitivities? For example:
Let's look at each of these in turn:
1. Why do children with HFA experience unique emotional problems and sensory sensitivities? For example:
- An emotional incident can determine the mood for the day.
- They can become overwhelmed with too much verbal direction.
- They often experience difficulty with loud or sudden sounds.
- Emotions can pass very suddenly -- or are drawn out for a long period of time.
- They have an intolerance to certain food textures, food colors, or the way food is presented on the plate (e.g., one food can’t touch another).
- They may laugh, cry, or throw a tantrum for no apparent reason.
- They may need to be left alone to release tension and frustration.
- They usually resist change in their environment (e.g., people, places, objects).
- They experience sensitivity - or lack of sensitivity - to sounds, textures, tastes, smells or light.
- They tend to either tune out - or break down - when being reprimanded.
- They have an unusually high - or low - pain tolerance.
2. What are the difficulties associated with school-related skills that need to be addressed? For example:
- Difficulty transitioning from one activity to another
- Difficulty with fine motor activities (e.g., coloring, printing, using scissors, gluing)
- Difficulty with reading comprehension (e.g., can quote an answer, but unable to predict, summarize or find symbolism)
- Excellent rote memory in some areas
- Exceptionally high skills in some areas -- and very low in others
- Resistance - or inability - to follow directions
- Short attention span for most lessons
3. How should issues related to health and movement be dealt with? For example:
- Allergies and food sensitivities
- Apparent lack of concern for personal hygiene (e.g., hair, teeth, body odor)
- Appearance of hearing problems, but hearing has been checked and is fine
- Constipation
- Difficulty changing from one floor surface to another (e.g., carpet to wood, sidewalk to grass)
- Difficulty moving through a space (e.g., bumps into objects or people)
- Frequent gas, burping or throwing up
- Incontinence of bowel and/or bladder
- Irregular sleep patterns
- Odd or unnatural posture (e.g., rigid or floppy)
- Seizure activity
- Unusual gait
- Walks on toes
- Walks without swinging arms freely
4. Why do these children lack social skills, and what can parents and teachers do to help? For example:
- Aversion to answering questions about themselves
- Difficulty maintaining friendships
- Difficulty reading facial expressions and body language
- Difficulty understanding group interactions
- Difficulty understanding jokes, figures of speech or sarcasm
- Difficulty understanding the rules of conversation
- Does not generally share observations or experiences with others
- Finds it easier to socialize with people that are older or younger, rather than peers of their own age
- Gives spontaneous comments which seem to have no connection to the current conversation
- Makes honest, but inappropriate observations
- Minimal acknowledgement of others
- Overly trusting or unable to read the motives behinds peoples’ actions
- Prefers to be alone, aloof or overly-friendly
- Resistance to being held or touched
- Responds to social interactions, but does not initiate them
- Seems unable to understand another’s feelings
- Talks excessively about one or two topics (e.g., dinosaurs, movies, etc.)
- Tends to get too close when speaking to someone (i.e., lack of personal space)
- Unaware of/disinterested in what is going on around them
- Very little or no eye contact
5. How can behavioral problems be managed effectively? For example:
- Causes injury to self (e.g., biting, banging head)
- Difficulty attending to some tasks
- Difficulty sensing time (e.g., knowing how long 5 minutes is or 3 days or a month)
- Difficulty transferring skills from one area to another
- Difficulty waiting for their turn (e.g., standing in line)
- Extreme fear for no apparent reason
- Feels the need to fix or rearrange things
- Fine motor skills are developmentally behind peers (e.g., hand writing, tying shoes, using scissors, etc.)
- Frustration is expressed in unusual ways
- Gross motor skills are developmentally behind peers (e.g., riding a bike, skating, running)
- Inability to perceive potentially dangerous situations
- Meltdowns
- Obsessions with objects, ideas or desires
- Perfectionism in certain areas
- Play is often repetitive
- Quotes movies or video games
- Ritualistic or compulsive behavior patterns (e.g., sniffing, licking, watching objects fall, flapping arms, spinning, rocking, humming, tapping, sucking, rubbing clothes)
- Transitioning from one activity to another is difficult
- Unusual attachment to objects
- Verbal outbursts
6. What can be done to help with deficits in linguistic and language development? For example:
- Abnormal use of pitch, intonation, rhythm or stress while speaking
- Difficulty understanding directional terms (e.g., front, back, before, after)
- Difficulty whispering
- Makes verbal sounds while listening (i.e., echolalia)
- May have a very high vocabulary
- Often uses short, incomplete sentences
- Pronouns are often inappropriately used
- Repeats last words or phrases several times
- Speech is abnormally loud or quiet
- Speech started very early and then stopped for a period of time
- Uses a person’s name excessively when speaking to them
