India Rose Blog

Interview with Stephanie, parent of a little girl with the disease.
Saturday 21 April 2012

We met Stephanie Martins : mother of two, with a girl 8 years with autism. Stephanie came to our meeting to explain developmental disorders in detail:
How they manifest themselves ? What are the symptoms ?
How to handle these problems within a family ?
What are the methods to improve the daily lives of these young children ?

Stephanie is one of those parents ACTORS, She is a member of the Association "Overcoming Autism" through which children can benefit from a network of specialists to work around their learning programs and intensive specialized.

Autism affects one child in 165 worldwide and a boy all 70 births.

It can be defined eg impairment of important social interactions, of language and behavior, with restricted interests and repetitive (stereotypies).
This “disease” neurological impacts the development of certain brain areas.

According to experts, the causes are many, the main ones being :

• genetics (Genes), due to duplication or deletion of certain genes in children.

• an incident causing neurological regression occurred in early childhood.

All causes, impacting the individual reaches slightly, see moderately severe areas directly related to language and interaction with the other.

Autism:

Autism is primarily due to the fact that myelin (and created material that connects the paths between neurons) may miss. We'll have to find a way to stimulate these connections biased in the brain through an apprenticeship program early and intensive.

Professionals :

In France there is a unique Master for the ABA that trains professionals, hence the small number of practitioners in France. It is therefore very difficult to find psychologists trained in behavioral methods.

Methods :

There are two methods to improve the daily lives of these children :
• Psychoanalytic (selon Goethe et Bettelheim) : this approach is recommended mainly in France, but it is the subject of considerable criticism from parents' associations, who criticize, including giving a disproportionate treatment of substance (psychological causes) without giving them the means to have learning and well adapted to empower them to move towards autonomy.

• behavioral (ABA, TEEACH): born in the States – States Leo Kanner these methods are based on the fact that these brain areas impacted by autism need people driven by a focused and repetitive (shaping). They also aim to reduce stereotypies (detrimental to its development) and extinction of behavior problems (violent, inappropriate) giving them the means to communicate through film (photo, images, pictograms) and eventually develop language for most cases. Successful programs work primarily on the fact that the error is not highlighted but success is rewarded with everything he loves (positive reinforcement) and finally he takes pleasure in success and draws a social reward, which is the result expected to move toward self-.

Comments from participants :

Corentin:

The meeting with Stephanie has been helpful at several points. She was first revealed what exactly autism : causes and consequences, and the different degrees to which people could be affected by suffering.
This meeting also allowed us to understand the different methods used to treat autism. The main two being psychoanalysis and behaviorist method.
It emerged from this interview that the behaviorist approach is the most efficient and appropriate against autism. Applying India Rose is a tool that can be integrated with this method, and can be used daily to people with autism.
This meeting allowed us to better understand why and how India Rose should function : significant need for improved methodology and behaviorist for the lives of people with autism; customization of the application key.
Finally, I would like to thank Stephanie for her involvement and the information it provided us, and I hope that other relatives of people with autism show also involved in the development of collections Indiagrams application.

Lucas:

This meeting was very informative. A effet, by Stephanie I learned many things about autism. Autism is not a disease, but rather a handicap. It can be caused by a problem of chromosome (duplication or deletion) or a neurological event. Autism but can also affect a child whose either parent is a "carrier" .

There are different types of autism. Some children are affected by a form called "hyper sensory", others are living with Asperger syndrome …

The fact that Stephanie was able to enlighten me about the different forms of autism is a very good thing, because it allowed me to understand the different preferences that the application proposes India Rose are not "gadgets" but a response to a real need.

Different methods have been suggested to combat autism : the behavioral method, psychoanalysis …

I am personally convinced that the method is an effective behavioral.

So to conclude, I think it should if possible, repeat this type of meeting, not only for the good of the project, but for the purpose of information to educate students, students with autism and may make known the behavioral approach and develop.

We wish, myself and my team to thank Stephanie, as well as the Cloud and Android team,fr.