Storytelling therapy for autism

Children with autism are special and need a different approach to help them. Such children do not notice what is going on around them, may ignore questions and requests, and do not want to make eye contact or communicative contact with people around them. But they interact much more easily with dolls, favorite toys, or cartoon characters.

Storytelling therapy for children with ASD is an effective method for a child’s active socialization and the development of their natural talents.

A therapeutic fairy tale has many differences from a regular fairy tale, as it focuses on a specific child. In this case, the autistic child has their own fears, problems, and dysfunctions. Specialists believe that storytelling therapy can correct unwanted behavior, educate the child, and instill basic communication skills.

As a result, storytelling therapy for autism can shape the personality, guide its development in the right direction, develop creative abilities, and help to interact with the world. This happens at the moment when a child listens to the fairy tale, experiencing various emotions: joy, offense, anger, jubilation, fear, delight, etc. In this way, their emotional sphere learns to react adequately to similar events in real life.

Therapeutic fairy tales for children with autism can be:

• Finger
• Articulation
• Grammatical
• Lexical
• Phonetic
• Developing coherent speaking

This methodology uses a variety of fairy tales. It is important to choose them depending on the child’s age, level of development, and needs. It is ideal when the fairy tales are concise, colorful, emotional, and memorable.

Peculiarities of using therapeutic fairy tales for children with ASD

At the beginning of therapy, the child should be introduced to the theme of the story before reading it, telling it, or playing it on audio media. After listening to the story, it can be dramatized using, for example, finger puppets. This method is suitable for group activities, as children learn to communicate by interacting with each other, for example, during a small play based on a fairy tale. Then it is necessary to talk about the fairy tale and draw out its moral. The teacher can use the retelling of the fairy tale to summarize the story. The obligatory condition is that the child retells the story independently.

Benefits of storytelling therapy:

• Activation of curiosity
• General development of communication skills
• Enhancing understanding of grammatical and lexical forms
• Differentiation of sounds

Storytelling therapy for autism is a good developmental and socializing method. It suppresses some of the manifestations of the disease when used regularly. Curiosity, sociability, and activity increase. However, storytelling therapy does not significantly affect the disease’s pathogenesis. It is much better to resort to a more effective treatment for a child’s autism.

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Several decades ago, ASD was considered an incurable pathology. The situation has changed dramatically since stem cell treatment for autism spectrum disorder began. Scientists have high expectations for this method of restoring the brains of autistic children; doctors are actively practicing it; and parents are delighted with the results.

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