CASE STUDY -- KARTIK

KARTIK

Kartik a 11 year old boy with Autism Spectrum Disorder was referred at Saksham around 3 and a half years back for his hyperactivity, self-injurious/self hitting behavior, head banging, biting, no eye contact, social isolation and inability to sit in a place.

Kartik is a nonverbal Autistic child. In his initial months at Saksham, Kartik showed hypersensitivity to light touch and favored moving or spinning objects, rotational objects and glasses to spin. Kartik used to run from a place to another and was usually Bunny-hopping, or was on foot.

Kartik was introduced to various sensory experiences of which he favoured Brushing or a towel rub, swinging in a hammock, bouncing on a therapy ball. Brushing his feet improved his ability to gain sensations in a better way from ground and now he places his foot properly on the ground when he walk. As Kartik learned his sensory needs, he used to gain those sensory experiences on his own such as bouncing on ball for long times but these made him even more worse as he would over-stimulate himself beyond the requirements of his Sensory Diet. Slowly, Kartik learnt to Sit and transfer objects from a container to another which would take him around half an hour earlier to transfer 4-5 blocks and now he would even pick a whole lot in 2-3 minutes. He was gradually introduced to Water Play as a medium to Sensory activities. Kartik slowly progresses to improved seating behavior.

Kartik was then trained in Activities of Daily Living skills starting with Dressing and now he is able to aid his mother in Dressing such as lifts and moves his arm into the shirt or lifts his pants up.

Kartik was then trained for Eating and now is able to feed himself independently but spills his food and asks for food when hungry. Kartik has now become potty trained and takes his parents to toilet when feels an urge, but has no control over his urination needs. 

Kartik now follows commands such as get your shoes or bag, go sit on your seat, wait don’t run, eat your food, etc.  Kartik when on a vacation enjoys outings and has become easier to manage. He is now able to sit and watches a movie for around 2 hours. 

Kartik at Saksham is currently being trained for Tooth Brushing, Ball Activities, and being provided sensory experiences to improve mental functioning, reduce self hitting despite other goals.