With the prevalence of autism in the United States, one business is hoping its special reading system will be a boon to parents seeking new methods to help their autistic children develop checking out skills.

About 1.5 million individuals are identified with autism in the United States – a sharp increase from just 1 in 10,000 in the 1970s.

Dr. Temple Grandin, an associate teacher at Colorado State University and author of 2 books on autism, has done significant research into the mentor of autistic children and lectures on the subject all over the world.

” Many individuals with autism are visual thinkers,” said Grandin, who herself was an autistic kid. “I think in photos. I do not think in language. All my ideas resemble videotapes running in my imagination.”

Therein lies the idea behind the Readent learning system established by SFK Media Specially For Children Corp. The program uses “Reading Films,” interactive film adjustments of timeless children’s stories in DVD format.

As the actors speak, the words appear simultaneously on the screen as text, supplying the autistic viewer with composed words along with the visual photos required to understand language concepts and construct vocabulary.

” The Readent system integrates all the contemporary research study for mentor reading to autistic kids, including the observations of specialists such as Dr. Grandin and other cognitive scientists,” said Len Anthony Smith, ceo of SFK Media. “Its interactive wordplay dictionary and comprehension tests and video games appear to work wonders for autistic learners.”

Grandin provides the following tips for mentor children with autism.

* Avoid long strings of verbal instructions. People with autism have issues remembering the series. Rather, compose the guidelines down on a paper.

* Use concrete visual approaches to teach number concepts, such as a set of blocks that have a various length and color for the primaries through 10, or wooden “fruit” cut into quarters and halves to teach portions.

* Many autistic children have issues with motor control in their hands, therefore neat writing is sometimes difficult. To minimize disappointment, let your child type on the computer.

* Keep the keyboard close to the screen. Some kids have trouble remembering something on a computer screen if they have to look up after they struck a key on the keyboard.

* Non-verbal children will discover it much easier to associate words with images if they see the printed word on a flashcard.

Some people do not comprehend line drawings, so it’s best to work with genuine things and photos first.

” Many individuals with autism are visual thinkers,” said Grandin, who herself was an autistic child. “I think in pictures. * Prevent long strings of spoken instructions. Individuals with autism have issues keeping in mind the series.