My Autism Insights

Manic Monday prompt from Mo

The other day, someone was asking about tools to help a teenager with high-functioning autism get more organized (I apologize for not remembering who/where this came from).  Kids with high-functioning autism, Asperger’s syndrome, ADHD, and other learning challenges can find it overwhelming and frustrating to keep track of all their responsibilities as they get older and expectations increase.  There are a few tools and strategies that may be helpful.  Some of these I use in my own home office because I seem to have a harder time keeping my own brain straight with every passing day.

Young Students & Pre-readers

When Gus went into kindergarten, he transitioned from an ABA program to a TEACCH program.   Each student had an office, a desk walled in by tall file cabinets that held the student’s instructional materials and files for the year.  The front of the student’s cabinet held his schedule, small laminated image cards to represent each segment of his day (think of PECS cards).  Each card had a Velcro back and the student could remove each task as it was completed.

With the help of Gus’s teacher, we adapted this system for home to help Gus in managing his routine without constant verbal cues from us.  For example, at bedtime, he could put up his cards and then remove each one (bath/pajamas/brush teeth) as it was done, right up to the point of getting in bed.  Until he was able to set his own schedule up, I could do it for him and he just had to follow it.  It was very helpful at the time.

Older students

There are several computer applications that work wonderfully for getting organized.  I personally use the calendar in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.  But I also spend a great deal of time in front of my computer, so this type of tool is great!  Google offers a free calendar if you have a Google account.  If your child has a cell phone, many of them have some sort of calender function, or information from an online calendar can be imported into many of them. This may not seem appropriate for a special needs student, but it largely depends on the child.  Some students are much better interacting with technology than others.

The computerized calendars may not be practical for other special needs students, so my next best suggestion would be the Flylady system.  I have no affiliation with Flylady, except that I’ve used her suggestions, and even though I fall off the wagon regularly, they’ve helped me a great deal.  She offers a section of her site geared toward kids including tips specifically for students that can be customized any way they need to help get organized.

You can also get creative and work with your child to create the organization method that best suits him or her.  You can have loads of fun with a large desk sized calendar and some stickers, or perhaps your child is tech savvy and responsible enough to handle more sophisticated tools.  How do you help your child learn to become more organized?

Weeks like this, when everyone is feeling awful and communication is essential, make me truly appreciate just how far Gus has come over the last few years. He’s very verbal now with his main speech issue still being pragmatics. But there was a time that I remember quite well when he stopped developing language.

From around 12 to 18 months, he was acquiring words at a fast rate. Then around 18 months, he didn’t exactly regress, he just sort of stopped. And instead of starting to put those words together to communicate, he fell into a pattern of constant tantrums. The winter between 18 months and 2 was the worst we’ve ever had. I was pregnant and home bound with a child that I didn’t understand.

Fast forward five years and we have a child who can tell me exactly how he’s feeling.  Last night, he had a stomach ache, but didn’t feel like he was going to throw up.  This morning, his head was hurting a little bit, and his cough was “50% better.”

All his progress was a direct result of intensive education from the time he was 2 and a half.  Speech therapy, a brief time with PECS  and ABA for 2 years  all helped Gus to be the boy he is today.

Here we are again!  It’s been a pretty good week on the school front, so finding something to feel thankful about isn’t too much of a stretch today.

1. I am thankful that Gus is getting back into the school routine pretty quickly.  Afternoons are a little tougher than mornings, but we’re trying to give him some additional supports.  So far they seem like they may help.

2. I am thankful that Gus’s teacher has been open to suggestions so far.  Unless she goes through a drastic change, I think we’ll be able to have a good working relationship.

3. I am thankful that there is so much information available about so many different strategies to try.  I’ve gotten lots of ideas for ways to work with Gus’s challenges that don’t necessarily involve medication.  If I have one goal this year it is for him to start managing his distractibility without needing drugs.

And a bonus:

4. I am thankful for Claritin because allergy season has just said hello to me and I’ve got a pounding headache!

What are you grateful for today?

This is not exactly a brand new report, but Harvard researchers have some telling findings about the genetics of autism, as reported today in The Phoenixville News.  The most interesting part of this for me was a statement about why educational programs seem to have such good results for autistic students:

The findings also may help explain why intense education programs do help some aistic children — because certain genes that respond to experience weren’t missing, they were just stuck in the “off” position.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Gus’s progress and development over the years, and I’ve come to the conclusion that he was at his best when he was getting ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) services with a very competent ABA teacher.  He’s done all right with the TEACCH method, but the more emphasis that’s been placed on his academics, it seems the more he loses focus, which they then want to ‘fix’ with medication.  I think that if he still had ABA, even if only a couple of times a week, he’d be so much better off.   Both methods have their merits, but I think a combination would work the best FOR GUS.

As for the genetic findings, they’ve given me a good deal to think about.

“We have trouble getting through to these children, but with repeated stimulation we can do it,” he said. “These are circuits that have an ability not so much to recover but to work around the problem.”

I’m all for creative solutions!