Practical Tips for Professionals

Physicians and Other Medical Professionals Tips for Dentists
 
Additional Tips for Medical Staff Tips for Teachers, SLPs, and Job Coaches
 
Tips for Counselors

 

Physicians and Other Medical Professionals

  • Suggest that parents prepare their child for a visit to your office by writing a social story and provide parents with photos of your office.
  • Suggest that parents bring activities that their child enjoys for the wait.
  • Suggest that parents start a spiral notebook or 3-ring binder to document their visits. Include names of all providers, medications, interventions, etc.
  • Suggest that parents get their child a play doctor’s kit and role play with them (e.g. listening to the heart beat and breathing, taking temperature, looking in ears, giving shots, etc.)
  • Have on hand our list of recommended resources to give to parents at their visit:
  • Ask parents to tell the scheduler that their child has special needs and the appointment may require more time than a typical visit.
  • For new patients, have your office send release of information to the parents before their visit so that you have access to important information from school and specialists. Also, send any medical history or insurance forms to the parents so they can fill out the paperwork in advance.
  • Ask the parent if the child prefers a light or firm touch. Ask the parent how the child likes to be called.
  • Ask the parent to bring something the child can share with the professional, such as their favorite toy or book. This will help build rapport and help you assess general communication skills.
  • Have autism or developmental disabilities follow-up appointment slots that allow more time with the patient and family.
  • Tell the child what you are going to do before you do it (except for giving shots).
  • Have a room with no florescent lights for children who are bothered by them.
  • If a child is bothered by noise, do not schedule them at the same time as well child visits.
  • See the American Academy of Pediatrics for information about creating a medical home for children and youth with special needs.
  • Assess whether some level of sedation is appropriate for invasive procedures.

Tips for Dentists

  • Suggest that parents come in with their child a couple of times before their first appointment to build tolerance and success at the office. Start the child just sitting in the chair for a moment and getting a reward. Come back another time to build tolerance for being touched with rubber gloves and metal tools. Eventually have an exam.
  • Suggest that parents prepare for a visit to your office by writing a social story and provide parents with photos of your office.
  • Assess whether some level of sedation is appropriate for invasive procedures.
  • If it is feasible, give the patient sample tools to take home prior to their exam to practice with.
  • An article from the New York Times offers one point of view on the importance of helping children with autism get used to dental visits. Read article

Additional Tips for Nurses and Other Hospital and Medical Staff

  • Be clear, brief and specific in your instructions. Break down what you want the child to do into simple steps.
  • Describe what you are going to do before you do it.
  • Discuss plans for the exam with the parent to see if they have suggestions on how to handle certain tasks.
  • Giving choices may or may not be appropriate. A choice might be “Do you want to sit in a chair or lie on the table for your exam?”.  If there is no choice, you need to phrase it definitively “Please take off your shirt,”  instead of “Do you want to take off your shirt now?”
  • Be prepared that in certain situations (especially when giving shots) you may need more than one person in the room to assist.

Tips for Teachers, SLPs, and Job Coaches

  • Teach social thinking before teaching social performance.
  • Use comic strips to teach understanding social and language inferences.
  • Teach verbal and nonverbal comments such as head nods, “mmmhmmm,” and “Okay.”
  • Use social target phrases such as: “Listen with your whole body,” “Try to understand,” “Focus on friendly things to do,” and “Keep your brain in the group.”
  • Role play, role play, role play!
  • Integrate catching a ball into teaching conversation, turn taking and body language.
  • Focus on “expected” behaviors.
  • Teach social problem-solving from the view of a “social detective.”
  • Teach assertiveness.
  • Role play recognizing and refusing “teasing and testing” peer suggestions.
  • Focus on “listening” to reduce interrupting.
  • Integrate social lessons with typical peers.
  • Use these worksheets from OAR to help guide your classroom planning

Tips for Counselors (Psychologists, Social Workers, etc.)

Communicate with the patient’s primary care physician so that all of the medical team is on the same page.