8 Fun and Engaging Activities for Autistic Kids

July 20, 2022July 20, 2022 | Srilekha

Do you worry that your autistic child does not respond well? Is he/she extremely hyper or aggressive? Studies demonstrate that engaging them in intense activities for more than 20 minutes can reduce typical behaviour, hyperactivity, and aggressiveness. Here are some fun and interesting activities for kids at home that not only help them reduce hyperactivity but also improve their attention and stimulate their senses.

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Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD):

ASD, also known as an autism spectrum disorder, is a broad term covering several neurological behavioural disorders, including ADHD, Asperger’s syndrome, bipolar disorder, intellectual disability, schizophrenia and others. These disorders can affect a child’s capability for social interaction and communication.

The intensity of the symptoms will vary depending on the child. While some children may lack emotional intelligence yet possess a high level of logical intelligence, other children may find it difficult to perform fundamental functions like getting dressed or eating by themselves. Children with ASD frequently have higher emotional needs, even though they are just as open to compassion and love as other kids.

Although raising a child with ASD can be exhausting, it is your duty to go above and above to support your child in gaining self-confidence and achieving social acceptance.

Fun Sensory Activities for kids with Autism:

Children with ASD are less likely to learn through traditional education, such as reading and writing; instead, they favour activities that use their senses.

Extracurricular activities like art and craft activities and outdoor activities which involves their senses can be an effective method to improve the child’s attention span, understand emotions and express themselves, and ease any anxiety-related problems for children with ASD. Introducing engaging and fun activities for kids with autism makes them easier to understand things and perceive the world differently. This helps them to develop their motor skills and enhance their brain’s ability to recognize and comprehend things through their sensory skills.

The following are the different extracurricular activities which can be performed easily inside the home and are more fun and exciting.

**FUN SENSORY ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS WITH AUTISM**

Indoor Activities for kids:

1. Magic Bottle/ Sensory Bottle:

It is a very easy activities to play at home where a bottle with some water is taken and different things like glitters, marbles, buttons and other shiny items with some colours are added to make a vibrant and spectacular magic bottle. Just tilt the bottle and see how these colours and glitters move. This increases the attention span of the autism kids and helps them stay focused.

2. Coin Shading

This requires a few coins, paper, a pencil or crayons. Take a coin and place paper over the coin. Now shade the coin on the paper with pencils or crayons to get some colourful and beautiful patterns. It is one of the fun activities for autistic kids that helps in developing hand and eye coordination and stimulating their brain in the process.

3. Vegetable Stamp

This is another activities to play at home than stimulates the creative part of the brain and helps in hand-eye coordination in children with autism. It requires certain vegetables like a lady’s finger, potato, carrots, Bell peppers/ capsicum etc and a paint bottle.

Slice the vegetable first and now tell the kids to take a piece of paper and dip the vegetable slice inside the paint and press it on the paper. This gives certain shapes and patterns. Kids can also make different arts using this vegetable stamp with different colours. This helps them to enhance their creativity as well as help them learn using their senses by visual representation.

4. Matching Game

One of the fun activities for kids involving both senses and memory. Take cards with different images of plants, animals, things etc and a bunch of paper with the name of the images written down. Ask the kids to match the name with the appropriate image and see if he/she matches it correctly. This game helps to improve the memory power of the kids as well as the ability to store information and enhance their knowledge.

“Nature is the best healer”, so take the kids outside and play some outdoor games with them. The greenery, fresh air and sunlight bring them calmness and mental peace and help in maintaining the physical fitness of the kids. The following are some outdoor extracurricular activities for autistic kids.

Outdoor activities for kids:

1. Treasure Hunt

Hide chocolates, gifts, pencils, crayons, toys or other things of your choice in a safe space like your garden, park or outside your house. Give the kids the list of objects that is hidden or their pictures and tell them to find those things. Now tell them to sort, match or arrange them in order. These activities for kids bring out the little detective and help them learn about things and organise them.

2. Hopscotch

This requires chalk, a stone or a pebble. Draw boxes and tell your kid to throw a stone or pebble inside a box. Now tell them to hop in the boxes, pick up the stone/pebble, and then come back hopping without stepping on the sides of the boxes. This game helps the kids to improve their motor skills and keep them healthy. Since these games are usually played with other kids, this helps them to improve their social and communication skills.

3. Obstacle Courses

Tell the kids to hug a tree, run around bushes, jump over a rope etc. This helps them to keep their mind and body fully energetic and contributes in developing their motor and sensory skills.

4. Magic of Rain

Water has the capacity to heal and calm a person. So, next time when it rains don’t stop your kids from enjoying it. Let them dance, play and get soaked in the rain which will provide them a refreshing experience and calm their anxiety.

These fun and exciting activities for kids with autism helps them develop their communication and interpersonal skills. It also enhance their brain’s stimulation and help them to comprehend things using their excellent sensory abilities. Most of these extracurricular activities can be played at home and can help in hand-eye coordination, increase their attention span, focus and improve their motor skills. They also boost the kid’s creativity and memory power.

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Speech disorder in Kids

June 22, 2022September 27, 2022 | Srilekha

Every baby grow at their own rate. 1 in 5 kids has delayed speech and language development than that of their peers. Babies normally get approximately 50% of their speech development by the age of two, and 75% by the age of three. A average 2-year-old can talk in two- and three-word phrases and can utter roughly 50 words. By age 3, their vocabulary expands to roughly 1,000 words, and they’re speaking in three- and four-word phrases. Here are some symptoms and factors that can help you identify a speech disorder, as well as some advice and foods that can help you fix it.

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SPEECH DIFFICULTY AND DELAY

A child’s language development is an important aspect of his or her overall growth and development. However, the most common developmental delay a child faces is speech and language problems. Similarly, a child’s speech development refers to the verbal expression or the manner in which words are spoken. Language development in children, on the other hand, refers to a broader concept of expressing, receiving, and comprehending information.

signs of possible speech delay

A child, having a speaking difficulty does not reach the speech milestone at a proper age. Common symptoms of speech delay include:

Not using gestures and non-verbal communication to convey emotions and interests by 12 months
Delay in babbling which should occur by 15 months
Chooses non-verbal communication consistently over verbal communication and speech; appears to have trouble copying and repeating sounds by 18 months
Unable to talk by 2 years of age
Inability to speak short sentences even on reaching 3 years of age
Difficulty in following directions
Poor pronunciation
Putting words together into sentences becomes difficult for the child
Leaving words out of a sentence
uses speech to communicate their basic needs but is not able to expand on this

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Ingredients that help TO MANAGE SPEECH DISORDER/DELAY:

Without the brain, there would be no language. The human brain has a few areas that are specific to language processing and production. Adding foods that support brain development can help to improve speaking difficulty.

ASHWAGANDHA:

BRAHMI:

Brahmi is a superfood for the brain and is believed to sharpen the brain by protecting cells and increasing chemicals associated with learning and memory. It has shown to improve spatial learning and retaining power in kids. That is why in older times, kids were often given Brahmi powder with ghee/honey. This would increase their focus and attention while keeping them calm and distressed.

SHANKHAPUSHPI:

Shankhapushpi is a traditional remedy for increasing the functioning of the brain. The powerful antioxidants and flavonoids present in it improve the memory capacity, focus, concentration, calmness, alertness of an individual. Since it is a brain tonic and stimulator, people taking shankhapushpi have improved memory, reasoning, problem-solving, and other cognitive abilities.

NUTS:

All the nuts like almonds, walnuts, cashew, peanuts and hazelnuts are rich in vitamin E and help in boosting memory. They are also antioxidants which protect against cell damage. Walnuts are rich in omega 3 fatty acids and are a valuable substance for brain function, memory and thinking abilities. This fatty acid also encourages cognitive functions. (best nuts for protein)

SEEDS:

Apart from nuts, seeds like flax, chia, melon, sesame and pumpkins also contain powerful antioxidants like vitamin E that protect the brain from free radical damage. Sunflower seeds impact overall mood and mental processing powers and therefore it is considered a brain boosting snack. Pumpkin seeds are high in magnesium, copper, and much higher in zinc than other seeds, which help in increasing concentration and memory. One of the easiest to feed brain boosting foods for kids.

OMEGA 3 FATTY ACIDS:

Multiple studies have shown the link between low omega 3 fatty acids and poor development, ADHD, speech delay, poor focus and concentration. These healthy fats are crucial for the brain development and helps to manage speech disorder and delay in kids. ( What are some home benefits of omega 3?)

COCOA POWDER

Pure cocoa powder (unsweetened) contains brain boosting components as it is packed with a large number of antioxidants molecules, the main is epicatechin helpful to improve cognition and speech impairment in studies. Hence cocoa powder is also an important brain development food for children. (More benefits of cocoa powder)

TIPS TO IMPROVE SPEECH DISORDER/ DELAY

While it is critical to identify the underlying cause of you speech disorder, you can take several steps to address it. Here are a few recommendations:

Spend a lot of time communicating with your baby. Sing a song or rhyme and encourage imitation of sound and gesture.
Talk slowly and clearly. Use simple and short sentences.
Read stories to your child daily. Encourage them to talk to you about the plot and characters, ask them how they think a character could behave, let them ask questions whenever they feel like they’re simply learning how to express themselves.
Don’t miss any opportunity and use everyday situations to create communication. Keep on telling the name of different objects around the house.
Explain what you are doing as you are cooking, dish washing or cleaning or engage them by saying let’s do this or that.
If you are not watching the television, turn it off. The excess background noise can cause delays in the formation of words
Let the child lead the conversation.
Ask a lot of daily questions and give time to your child to answer questions.
Give lots of praise and positive reinforcement while also correcting, instead of criticizing the child for not saying the word properly.
Encourage you baby to use straw for drinking or just to blow air through it. This helps the child to develop the oral muscles used for speech.

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Down syndrome and Brain Seizures

June 13, 2022October 28, 2022 | Srilekha

You’re in the middle of a function when the child starts acting strangely, staring blankly and moving his hands, leg, and mouth in an odd manner. Well!! These are the symptoms for seizures. 1 to 13% of children with Down syndrome are affected with brain seizures. Out of which 40% of children show symptoms for seizures before the age of 1 year. If it is not treated early on, the symptoms for seizures may worsen. Here’s everything you need to know about seizures in children and how to manage them properly! (Child with developmental delay: Signs and Remedies)

Types of seizures

First understand what are the types of seizures. Doctors divide seizures into two types based on how and where abnormal brain activity begins. First one is focal seizures and second is generalized seizures. (Difficulties in Learning, Reading and Writing: 7 Foods that help)

1.Focal seizures

Focal seizures result from abnormal electrical activity in one area of your brain. It can occur with or without loss of consciousness:

Without loss of consciousness – These seizures can alter emotions or the way things look, smell, feel, taste, or sound, but the person does not lose consciousness. They may become angry, joyful, or sad all of a sudden. Some people experience nausea or other unusual feelings that are difficult to describe.

With impaired awareness – These seizures are characterized by a change or loss of consciousness or awareness that feels similar to being in a dream. The individual may appear to be awake, but they stare into space and do not respond normally to their surroundings, or they perform repetitive movements.

Symptoms of focal seizures can be mistaken for those of other neurological disorders such as migraine, narcolepsy, or mental illness.

Also, check Epilepsy in Kids

2.Generalised seizures

Generalized seizures are seizures that appear to involve all areas of the brain. The following are examples of generalized seizures:

Absence seizures – Absence seizures, formerly known as petit mal seizures, are common in children and are distinguished by staring into space or subtle body movements such as eye blinking or lip smacking.
Clonic seizures – Clonic seizures are characterized by jerking muscle movements that are repeated or rhythmic. Symptoms for seizures on both sides of the body usually affect the neck, face, and arms.
Tonic seizures – Muscle stiffness is caused by tonic seizures. These seizures typically affect the muscles in your back, arms, and legs, causing you to lose consciousness and fall to the ground.
Atonic seizures – Atonic seizures, also known as drop seizures, result in a loss of muscle control, causing you to collapse, fall, or drop your head.
Myoclonic seizures – Myoclonic seizures are characterized by brief jerks or twitches of your arms and legs. Often, there is no loss of consciousness.
Tonic-clonic seizures – Tonic-clonic seizures, formerly known as grand mal seizures, are the most dramatic type of epileptic seizure and can result in an abrupt loss of consciousness, body stiffening and shaking, and, in rare cases, loss of bladder control or tongue biting.

Also, check Speech difficulties in kids with Down Syndrome

The Connection between Seizures and Down Syndrome

Seizures affect people with Down syndrome for a variety of reasons. Some seizures, for example, are caused by cardiovascular disease. Seizures caused by abnormal electrical activity in the brain develop in person with Down syndrome as a result of decreased inhibition of electrical pathways, increased excitation of brain cells, structural abnormalities of the brain, and changes in the amount of certain neurotransmitters. There are almost certainly other reasons why seizures occur in Down syndrome. They have still not been explained.

Seizures in people with Down syndrome are similar to seizures in other people. Some seizures affect only one part of the body while others cause jerky movements throughout the body. Seizures in people with Down syndrome may also cause loss of consciousness, incontinence, and fatigue. Fortunately, right therapy can be successfully control symptoms for seizures.

What to do when somebody is having a seizure?

If somebody with you is showing symptoms of seizures, don’t panic; there are things you can do to help them.

Help them in lying down on the floor.
Turn the person on his or her side to avoid choking on drool or vomit.
Do not attempt to halt the seizure’s movements.
To avoid head injuries, place something soft under the person’s head.
Create a safe and secure environment for the individual and yourself.
Stay with the person who is having seizures.
Remove any clothing that is too tight around the neck.
Do not put anything in their mouth, including your fingers.

Also, check Autism and sensory sensitivity

Treatment of seizures in kids:

Medication is usually the first step in treating a seizure disorder. But because every body is different, no one responds to treatment in the same way, so there is no “right treatment.”

1. Seizure-prevention drugs

There are numerous seizure-prevention drugs on the market, known as anti-epilepsy drugs (AEDs) or anticonvulsant drugs. However, finding the one that works best for each child can take some time.

2. OTHER TREATMENT for symptoms of SEIZUREs :

Brain surgery
Medical devices to prevent and control seizures
Dietary therapies (e.g. ketogenic diet, modified Atkins diet, low glycemic index treatment)

ingredients help to improve SEIZURE IN Down syndrome:

1.BRAHMI:

Brahmi is a brain superfood that is thought to sharpen the brain by protecting cells and increasing chemicals involved in learning and memory. It can improve mental performance by influencing neurotransmission through acetyl choline and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Brahmi improves memory, reduces anxiety, helps in seizures, and promotes attention by restoring brain receptor function. (Drinks good for brain health)

2.ASHWAGANDHA:

This herb functions as an adaptogen. Ashwagandha has been shown to reduce anxiety and stress, which leads to better brain performance. Furthermore, it raises acetylcholine levels, which aid in memory, mental focus, and intelligence. Ashwagandha also improves nerve cell communication and stimulates the body’s ability to heal any nervous system damage. It also helpful for the treatment of seizure and headache without any adverse side effects.

3.SHANKHAPUSHPI:

In order to improve brain functioning, shankhapushpi is an old remedy. The powerful antioxidants and flavonoids present in it improve the memory capacity, focus, concentration, calmness, alertness of an individual. Since it is a brain tonic and stimulator, people taking shankhapushpi have improved memory, reasoning, problem-solving, and other cognitive abilities.

4. NUTS

5. SEEDS

Apart from nuts, seeds like flex, chia, melon, sesame and pumpkins also contain powerful antioxidants like vitamin E that protect the brain from free radical damage. Sunflower seeds impact overall mood and mental processing powers and therefore it is considered a brain boosting snack. Pumpkin seeds are high in magnesium, copper, and much higher in zinc than other seeds, which help in increasing concentration and memory. One of the easiest to feed brain boosting foods for kids.

6. OMEGA-3 FATTY ACIDS

Multiple studies have shown the link between low omega 3 fatty acids and speech delay, poor focus and concentration. These healthy fats are crucial for brain development and help to manage speech disorder and delay in kids. It can also improve speech quality. Include fish like salmon, flaxseeds, walnuts, soybeans and tofu for adequate supply of omega -3 fatty acids. (10 reasons to give kids with omega 3 foods)

7. VITAMIN E

Vitamin E acts as antioxidants and kills free radicals which can damage our nerves resulting in speech problems. Including more fruits, vegetables, nuts, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds in the child’s diet will help.

8.MAGNESIUM, MANGANESE & ZINC:

Magnesium is abundant in nuts such as almonds, peanuts, cashews, and pumpkin seeds. They are also antioxidants which protect against cell damage. Manganese is an important nutrient for seizure patients because it plays an important role in cerebral functions. This mineral is abundant in nuts, whole grains, and legumes. Furthermore, person with seizures required zinc for bone growth and is frequently deficient. It is critical to include meat, eggs, nuts, and legumes in your child’s diet.