The Role Of Psychologist In Helping With Autism In Children

Psychology studies the human mind and it has made some rather significant contributions to treatment and understanding of autism. If you or someone in your family is a parent to an autistic child, you can consult a psychologist in UAE as they can guide you most efficiently.

Unlike some professions, all psychology undergraduate students learn about child development during their studies. Some students take subjects in disability, including ASD, in their undergraduate degrees. This allows them to have a sound understanding of the complications of both typical and non-typical development.

Psychologists tend to have a good comprehension of the development of a normally developing child in terms of their adaptive skills, cognition, learning style, and memory. So, they can specialize in both the assessment and intervention of children with autism. A regular person has to understand what normal development is to fully know the range of differences in autistic children’s development.

Psychologists and Autistic Children

Psychologists play a substantial role in helping autistic adults and children. Psychiatry also involves medical interventions (pharmaceuticals treatments). They can recommend the most suitable treatment programs while carrying out the evaluation, benchmarking, and ongoing assessment.

Child psychologists in UAE work closely with children and assist them in engaging with others via play and learn skills like joint attention that means doing something with someone rather than near someone. They help children manage stress, engage with their peers, and handle difficult interactions. Psychologists also work with autistic children to treat social anxiety and depression. They can significantly help them manage self-stimulation, school, and work relationships, along with understanding social issues.

Autistic children have a tough time in interactions. Behavioral psychologists are quite in demand within the autism community. This is because they provide parents with assistance regarding evaluating autistic behavior for the development of behavioral programs to teach a variety of skills, understand meaning and purpose, and help them with curbing aggression and other problematic behaviors.

Use of Applied Behavior Analysis

Applied behavior analysis, also called ABA, is a form of behavioral therapy. It is based on traditional psychology. ABA is a successful method to treat autistic individuals. However, it does not involve verbal or what is commonly called talk therapy. It is a meticulously structured process where individuals are taught skills using rewards for reinforcing preferred actions or correct answers. Only therapists with specific ABA training can provide this therapy.

Psychotherapy, along with other forms of therapeutic interventions, boosts psychological functioning via behavioral methods. These therapies can ideally be completed individually as well as in groups at clinics/schools. Both children and parents are welcome to participate.

Assessment

Psychologists perform complete assessments of autistic children. This can be regarding cognition, diagnosis, or the perception of the autistic child – the way he sees or thinks of the world. If a child shows strengths in visual processing, it means they are sharp at utilizing visual data compared to auditory information (what they hear).

Assessments help in knowing the strength of a child’s memory. For example, if a child lacks strong short-term memory, and is capable of holding two commands, it would be ineffective to give them three commands, as they would forget the third bit.

Intervention

Intervention is crucial for children who have ASD. Psychologists use multiple techniques such as emotional regulation, social skills training, and behavioral strategies so the children can cope and function effectively in their routine lives.

Usually, children with ASD are anxious, and a psychologist can provide them with targeted intervention to subsequently reduce their anxiety levels. Families can also provide interventions as many psychologists specialize in working closely with families. With the help of intervention, family life can be more organized and less stressful for everyone in the house.

Since you won’t find an autism psychologist anywhere, you can look up the internet for an autism center in Dubai to get professional assistance for your autistic child or loved one.