Blog 18: 2 Hour Meeting Answer #3

1. How can a psychiatrist best support a child with autism?

2. In order to best support a child with autism, a psychiatrist must find a way to make repetitive treatment feel like fun.

3. Details/ Examples

• For example, a child who attends treatment in an office for up to 40 hours a week will get tired of going and eventually resist attending.
• The child may notice that they aren't doing any better at whatever task they are supposed to be doing, whereas with a fun activity, they don't care and don't know that it is actually treatment.
• If we used games like Candyland or puzzle games, they are both treatment based and cost efficient.

4. My volunteering at Parents' Place gave me justification because the kids continually attend the groups. Also this site: http://www.toysrus.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=3088669

5. Next, I plan to study how autistic children act in real life. I've done enough research on other people's accounts of what they observe; now it's my turn. To do so, I plan to attend events for autistic children.