Tap into the Power
Mission Statement:
The goal of Treating Autism Positively™ (TAP) ™ is to ensure that people with autism are able to realize their true potential. TAP is dedicated to shifting the view of autism from a disability that prevents people from having typical lives to a trait that enables people to have uniquely full lives. The approach of autism must be individualized according to their abilities and personalities, as well as to their biology.
About us:
Treating Autism Positively began in 2010 in response to the increasing rate of autism and the growing need for effective treatments for autism spectrum disorders. The rate of autism has increased from a rate of 1 in 10,000 in 1990 to a rate of 1 in 91 children today. About a million people with autism live in the United States, with an estimated tens of millions of people across the globe. This is a crisis situation on the school systems, in the health care systems, and within families worldwide. More and more children are falling through the cracks before reaching adulthood. Without the ability to be independent, they are being placed in institutionalized care and therapeutic foster care homes when their families are no longer are able to care for them. Treating Autism Positively promotes real solutions that enable children with autism to grow up to be successfully independent.
About Autism
Autism is a type of brain processing that primarily affects communication and social interaction and is characterized by a narrow scope of interest and repetitive behavior.
Characteristics of Autism
People with autism tend to exhibit the following characteristics. The number of the traits, as well as the degree to which they are exhibited, varies from one individual to another. Note: This is not a complete list of symptoms.
- Insistence on sameness (same clothes, food, routines, etc.)
- Difficulty communicating and expressing needs
- May use gestures instead of words
- May have trouble gesturing (such as pointing and waving)
- Little or no eye contact
- May appear to be deaf (does not respond to own name)
- Repeating words or phrases (echolalia)
- Spinning objects and/or self
- Over-sensitivity or under-sensitivity to pain
- Obsessively attached to certain objects
- No apparent sense of danger or fears
- Physically overactive or underactive
- Tantrums
- Prefers to be alone
- Laughing or crying for reasons not apparent to others
- Lack of imaginative play or imitation
- Uneven gross and/or fine motor skills
- Does not want to be cuddled
- Self-stimulatory behaviors (hand flapping, vocal utterances, repetitive behaviors)
- Extreme sensitivity to sounds, smells, textures, lights
- Aggression
- Self-injurious behavior (head banging, hand biting)
- Lining objects up
- Does not understand social cues
- Toe walking
- Failure to follow directions
The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development states that a child’s health care provider will send the child for an evaluation if any of the behaviors listed below are reported:
- Does not babble or coo by 12 months of age
- Does not gesture (point, wave, grasp, etc.) by 12 months of age
- Does not say single words by 16 months of age
- Does not say two-word phrases on his or her own (rather than just repeating what someone says to him or her) by 24 months of age
- Has ANY loss of ANY language or social skill at ANY age
Autism is a type of brain processing that primarily affects communication and social interaction, and is characterized by a narrow scope of interest and repetitive behavior.
TAPOSITIVELY 