Autism ADHD Doctor Mumbai india Dr SV Kondekar

“27 Common Parenting Mistakes in Autism: 7 Themes That Can Change How We Understand, Support and Connect With Our Child.” Theme 1: Understanding and Connecting With the Child These points focus on shifting from “fixing autism” to understanding the individual child. Spending more time on the internet than with the child Asking too many questions during teaching Expecting eye contact on command Using screens as the primary babysitter Avoiding social opportunities because the child behaves differently Expecting peer socialization before family connection Forcing physical affection Ignoring the child's strengths Core message: “Connect before you correct. Observe the child, follow the child's interests, and build communication through genuine interaction.” Theme 2: Understanding Behaviour Instead of Calling It “Stubbornness” These points address aggression, tantrums, refusal and other challenging behaviours. Spending too much time controlling behaviour Giving the demanded object imm...

Expressive Speech Begins with Understanding: Why Listening, Attention and Language Readiness Matter Summary A child cannot develop meaningful expressive language simply by being taught to produce words. Before a child can use language thoughtfully, the child needs to understand language sufficiently well. This understanding develops through repeated exposure to meaningful spoken language, sustained listening, attention to the speaker, varied contexts, conversations, sentence structures, and opportunities to connect words with actions, people, intentions and events. Knowing individual words and their meanings is only one part of language development. A child may know hundreds of nouns, identify objects in flash cards, label pictures, repeat phrases, or imitate sounds and still have difficulty using language spontaneously. Expressive language requires much more than vocabulary. It requires understanding how words are combined into sentences, how sentences change according to context, how...

 The Waiting Process: How Long Should Parents Wait for Their Child to Speak   “Doctor, when will my child start speaking?” By Dr. Santosh V. Kondekar, MD Developmental Neuro-Pediatrician One of the most frequently asked questions in developmental pediatric practice is, “Doctor, when will my child speak?” For many parents, waiting for their child’s first words becomes an emotionally exhausting journey. Some remain hopeful that speech will emerge naturally with age, while others believe that once the child starts speaking, everything else can be taught. I once overheard a parent waiting outside a speech therapy room say, “I am just waiting for my child to start speaking. Once he does, I have so much to teach him!” This statement reflects a common misconception: that learning begins after speech develops. In reality, speech is an outcome of several developmental processes that begin long before the first spoken word. A child must first become aware of the surroundings, recog...

Sleep Disturbance in Children With Autism: Look Beyond Autism Abstract Sleep disturbance is one of the most frequent and clinically important comorbid problems encountered in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It may present as delayed sleep onset, prolonged night-time wakefulness, frequent awakenings, early-morning awakening, shortened sleep duration, or an irregular sleep–wake pattern. Importantly, sleep disturbance does not necessarily remain static throughout childhood. It may emerge or worsen at different stages of development and may be precipitated by medical illness, gastrointestinal discomfort, environmental changes, behavioural factors, altered circadian regulation, or medication effects. A clinically useful approach is therefore to avoid attributing every sleep problem to autism itself. Gastrointestinal symptoms—particularly constipation, abdominal discomfort and gastroesophageal reflux—deserve specific attention because gastrointestinal problems are relatively co...

When Repetition Becomes Mechanical: Why Children With Autism Need Dynamic Learning There is a powerful assumption in early intervention: if a child is not learning, repeat the same thing again and again. Repetition certainly has a place in learning. But there is a point at which repetition stops being learning and starts becoming rehearsal. For toddlers with autism, this distinction matters enormously. A child can repeat an action correctly and still not understand it. A child can give the expected response and still not recognize the concept behind it. A child can perform beautifully in a therapy room and fail to use the same skill when the object, person, place, language or situation changes. That should make us question what we are actually teaching. Are we teaching the child to understand , or are we teaching the child to reproduce ? Dr Kondekar says, “Repeat the learning goal, not merely the same experience.” That single distinction can change the way early intervention is deliver...