I recently borrowed a DVD from the town library, a documentary about Sue Rubin, a young woman who is autistic. She was considered intellectually and developmentally delayed (IDD) (one of the newer terms for mentally retarded), until at 13 years of age she began communicating using a keyboard. Although she has 24/7 assistance of caregivers, she is a junior in college. This documentary is one of those rare glimpses we get into the minds of an autistic person. She is well aware of her autistic characteristics and how she is different. Her life is not without challenges and she recognizes them and can “speak” to how they affect her life. I think the most important thing I got from Sue’s story was the reminder to never estimate a person’s ability level or potential, based on outward appearance and behavior. Thanks to Sue and others with ASD who have been able to write, speak, and share their inner thoughts, and the reasons for their behaviors, we must look at each person we meet with a disability and approach them with the least dangerous assumption. In 1984, Anne Donnellan, a respected researcher in special education, wrote that the least-dangerous assumption when working with students with significant disabilities is to assume that they are competent and able to learn, because to do otherwise would result in harm such as fewer educational opportunities, inferior literacy instruction, a segregated education, and fewer choices as an adult. From: http://www.includingsamuel.com/Libraries/Resources_for_Teachers_and_Paraeducators/The_Least_Dangerous_Assumption_A_Challenge_to_Create_a_New_Paradigm.sflb.ashx
This weekend in the town of Peterboro NH, at the Toadstool Bookstore, Jerome Schultz Ph.D., a clinical neuropsychologist and faculty of Harvard Medical School in the Department of Psychiatry, gave a discussion about his new book, Nowhere to Hide: Why Kids with ADHD and LD Hate School and What We Can DO About It. I picked up a copy of the book and thumbed through it during the presentation. I like the readability of the book. It is clearly written for the average, non-medical person to understand the brain based concepts involved in understanding attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and learning disability, affecting 10-15% of America’s children. Dr. Schultz states, “In this book you’ll learn about the negative impact that chronic stress has on learning, happiness, and actual brain function, particularly in the brain of a child or adolescent with under recognized or untreated learning, attention, or social problems-and what to do about it.” pg.13. “The underlying thesis of this book is that chronic stress changes brain chemistry and therefore brain function.” pg. 33. This creates a negative loop where the person with a learning difference is further debilitated by the stress they endure in the environments they are expected to perform activities that are not within their ability levels for various reasons. Dr. Schultz promises to provide strategies to help reduce stress at school and at home.
Although the focus of the book is on the person with ADHD and/or LD, the connections that Dr. Schultz is making about brain function and stress, also affect people with Asperger’s, high functioning autism and people with other neurological challenges and learning differences.
Dr. Stephen Shore’s Future of Autism Presentation: : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqkjqiFBMnQ . This is an enlightening 8 min. talk on YouTube, uploaded by the Autism Society on 7-23-09. Dr. Shore shares his story of being diagnosed with autism at 18 months of age. He states that with the research and knowledge we have today, diagnosis can occur, at times, at an even earlier ages (sometimes 6-12 months of age). We are morally bound to help the person with autism by providing FAR-free appropriate resources which include intensive home based early intervention programs. These programs include music, movement, sensory integration, narration and imitation. Interventions should include developmental, cognitive, and affective approaches specific to the child. Dr. Shore mentions that ABA- applied behavioral analysis; a popular research based intervention has not yet been * coded by insurance companies. Dr. Shore advocates for insurance companies to include “intensive behavioral intervention”, a more global intervention description, to include the Miller Method, TEACCH, floor time and other interventions that show success with children on the autism spectrum. Dr. Shore envisions a future in which we accept autism as a part of the human condition with a set of characteristics and strengths vs. a collection of deficits which need to be removed.
The Miller Method- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUReFlvYRTg and http://millermethod.org/
TEACCH- http://teacch.com/
Floor time- http://www.icdl.com/dirFloortime/WhatisFloortime.shtml
Applied Behavioral Analysis- http://www.centerforautism.com/what-is-aba.php
*Insurance Coverage for Autism- http://www.ncsl.org/?tabid=18246
Beyond the Wall, Personal Experience with Autism and Asperger Syndrome, an autobiography by Stephen Shore, 2001. Stephen is a musician, educator, husband, Autism Spectrum- AS advocate, author, and person with Asperger’s Syndrome. The YouTube video at AutismAsperger.net has a nice introduction to Stephen Shore: http://www.autismasperger.net/ I find reading biographies and autobiographies of people on the autism spectrum to be one of the most helpful ways to gain an understanding of an individual’s life from the inside out. The diversity in abilities and challenges within the autism spectrum is so vast that we must avoid trying to compartmentalize their educational programs and instead get to know the person and provide education and intervention strategies specific to the person. In Beyond the Wall, a Dr. Rosenn states, “I’ve seen schools where they know abstractly how to teach kids with AS, but their inability to understand emphatically what the world is like for a child with AS gets in the way of their being good teachers…to understand a child with AS requires a paradigmatical leap that is often counter-intuitive.”
This book is more than a chronology of Stephen Shore’s life. He adds information gained through his search for understanding ASD and his experience working with children with ASD. Stephen refers to music as a means to reach children on the spectrum. “There are many benefits to using music with people on the autism spectrum. One of these benefits is that music provides the structural regularity that children with autism need…music can serve to organize the verbal communication skills that already exist.” (P64-65)
As a teacher I am always interested in learning about interventions that work and broadening my knowledge base to help me be more effective as a teacher, mentor, friend, advocate… I enjoyed reading this book that I borrowed from the library. I will now buy my own so I can highlight it for future reference.
Special Education Teachers: Have you used the Life Centered Career Education Curriculum by Council for Exceptional Children? I
have used it for years and found it to be the most comprehensive career development/life skills/social skills etc. curriculum on the market. Even if you only used the matrix of competencies and sub competences to support your students IEP/ transition goals and educational programming, it is an excellent tool. If you are working with students with moderate to significant cognitive challenges, you will need to do more scaffolding and pre teaching of concepts and be selective when choosing competencies. When my new website is up it will have many of my personally adapted lesson plans.
An opportunity to work on the revision of the LCCE:
As you may already know, the Council for Exceptional Children has commissioned a major revision of the exemplary Life Centered Career Education curriculum. The massive project has been progressing since last December, during which time we have modified Donn Brolin’s original matrix; created or updated lesson plans and instructional materials to reflect differentiated instruction, use of technology, and linkages to the Common Core standards adopted by most states; revised the assessments with a goal of entering virtual venues for assessment; and geared to move away from a paper-based format to a server-based format, which will allow for easier future updates and allow more options for subscribers. As the leader of the project, I am very pleased with all that has happened, but now we are moving into a phase where I would like to invite interested individuals to enlarge our team in this revision project.
I am seeking dedicated persons to assist us as volunteers with completing work on the Personal-Social domain, as well as engaging in post external review revisions on the Employment and Daily Living Skills domains.
Specifically, this would deal only with work on the aspect of the project dealing with the creation and updating of the lesson
plans and materials for the P/S domain, as well as minor revisions in the other two domains.
Full guidelines for the task and any needed support would be available to new team members, and we ask that volunteers commit to the principles that have guided this project: transparency with other team members, dedication, and ability to adhere to externally-set timelines. It would be very beneficial if the new team members would have knowledge of the curriculum and transition background or professional interest, given the nature of the project. However, since this portion specifically addresses instructional materials, I would value the involvement of any person well-versed in differentiated instruction, use of technology, and linkages of content to the Common Core standards.
This level of involvement would result in inclusion of the volunteer team members both in curriculum materials and in marketing as respected members of a nationally disseminated curriculum revision. We invite classroom teachers, school-based specialists, pre-professional and graduate students, and university personnel to consider joining our team as we continue the work on this project.
Anyone who is interested in being a part of this project should send all questions, acceptances, etc., directly to me at dwandry@wcupa.edu or to Stefani Roth at stefanir@cec.sped.org We would like to move expeditiously on this phase, so immediate indications of interest would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Donna Wandry, Ph.D.
Professor, Special Education
Chair, Department of Special Education
304 Recitation Hall
West Chester University
West Chester, PA 19383
610.436.3431
610.436.3102 fax
Inspirational story how technology unlocked this girls life: I got an email from Monadnock Center for Successful Transitions MCST, based at Keene State College (KSC). In the email was a link to a video about a young woman with autism, Carly Fleishmann. It is an incredibly powerful testimony. Carly, who is also nonverbal was introduced to a computer at 11 years of age and from that point on she was able to express what was going on inside of her using the computer to write about her thoughts and feelings. She is intelligent, literate, expressive, and has amazing insights to share with the world about her life. What she has to share should turn heads and open eyes. She is able to identify particular behaviors and tell us why that behavior manifests itself in her. I think she is the most inspiring person since Temple Grandin to make a difference in the understanding of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In the videos and interviews about Carly and her family, they stress the importance of early intervention and intensive applied behavioral analysis (ABA).
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Carly-Fleischmann/68996682748
So much to think about as I prepare the new website. I got my picture taken for the website, so you’ll know who’s behind the scenes. My new office is in progress. I have 2 walls painted and I’m looking for a desk.
About the new Temple Grandin movie. If you haven’t seen the Temple Grandin movie you must see it. It is great! I’ve read most of her books and met her twice at presentations. They did an impressive job using line drawn illustrations that overlapped the movie to show her thought processes. This clearly showed that she was not thinking less, or inferior, just Different. FYI, Temple Grandin is a famous high functioning person with autism. She is a pioneer in her engineering career and she has contributed so much to the world in sharing her inner thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Her work has shed light on how people on the autism spectrum experience life in their own unique ways. I will be getting back to discussing Temple’s work in the future. I am appreciating the cooler day here in New Hampshire today. We just had a few really hot days, back to back.
It’s about 7:00PM in the evening, and I am creating my first blog entry EVER. I am also meeting with my web developer, in the process of launching my new site at ADHDAutism.org. It will be another handful of weeks, but already I can imagine the scores of helpful articles, insights and material being both written and aggregated to help you understand and navigate these subjects. If you are an educator, I have sat in YOUR chair ~ help IS on the way. If you are a parent, I know your needs. I will help you both to meet each other’s concerns, and poise your loved one(s) for the best possible outcome.
Come back soon!
