Supernanny and Dr. Lynn Koegel

Dr. Lynn Koegel and the Supernanny, Jo Frost, help a couple not only parent their twin daughters, but also their 3 year-old autistic son.

In the Supernanny Episode 7, Supernanny (Jo Frost) and world renown autism expert, Dr. Lynn Koegel, help the Facente family not only work out how to handle their four year-old twin daughters but discover techniques to interact better with their three year-old son, Tristin, who has autism. Dr. Koegel helps the Supernanny tweak her regular techniques and incorporate some new ones. For example: as always, Supernanny, sets up a family routine. To help Tristin understand it better, Dr. Koegel has a picture schedule set-up too. This is a great way to help non-verbal children be a part of the family routine, and pictures often help children on the autism spectrum better understand the events which are about to take place. A great way to start a picture schedule, is to have pictures with the basics (ie, shower, eat, dress, go). Set-up a poster with several different pictures representing the daily events attached with Velcro. Create a designated spot with Velcro to place the picture of the task which is currently going to take place. The child (sometimes with a little facilitating from you) moves the picture to that spot and then you do that task. When the task is complete, the child moves the picture into an envelope and moves the next picture to the activity spot. By the end of the day, all the pictures are placed away "All Done". Visual cues often help autistic children to understand what the expectation is. I use this with my son quite a bit and even though I know he understands a lot of language, the visual cue helps to facilitate the activity better. For more information on this technique go here.