Tonight I had the pleasure of going to a workshop on "Creating Visual Strategies for Children with Autism and ADHD" that the Special Education Parent's Advisory Council (Which I am the Chairperson of) sponsored at a local school. It was run by this lady who has a son with Autism. Her son spoke a bit too. It was great hearing him. He is 13. The sister spoke a little bit too. She is an older teen.
The workshop was awesome! I really loved listening to the son tell about what life is like for him. The mother was very informative too. I hope to hear her again sometime. She brought up the quote "Quiet mouths have the loudest minds". She highly recommended
Carly Fleishman's Facebook Page Autism Sparkles and
and Single Mothers Who Have Children with Autism. I've never looked at Carly's facebook page, but look forward to reading more of her story. The mother also recommended reading "The Difficult Child" which is an old book, but a very informative one she said. She went into how many times children with Autism have medical issues going on. That could be anything from Celiac, vision issues, seizures, neurological issues, allergies and more. She said how too often people don't look deep enough into the causes of negative behaviors. She explained autism as having a computer keyboard that works but a printer that does not. The info can get in but not out. She explained how to a child with Autism, learning English (Or whatever language the family speaks) is actually like learning a second language. She explained the benefits of teaching children sign language. She also said that when a child with Autism is having a meltdown it's best to not speak. When children scream, try to whisper. She also recommended the book "My Many Colored Days" to teach children about feelings and making a "Feel Good" collage which can help them calm down. It's just things that make the child feel better. It could be food or anything they are interested in. She recommended "Tobin Learns to Make Friends" which is a book with a train theme. She talked about working to increase children's visual language through teaching feelings, using visual schedules (I used these for a very long time with Honeybunches... You can see more about ours here), power cards (Which she suggested putting on a ring with index cards that show the child's favorite superhero or objects with things such as "Thomas the train follows directions" that have positive messages), using social stories and behavioral programs. One thing I plan on using in the future is a "Goodbye Hello Book" to help with the transition from elementary school to middle school. She filled the book with happy memories, pictures of teachers with happy memories and other happy things to remember about the previous school. She also added in pictures of good things to look forward to at the new school. She talked about using stop signs on places like siblings room and other places you don't want the child with Autism going. That creates a visual stop. The Child With Special Needs is another book she highly recommended. She highly recommended this Super Flex curriculum and books. She ended by saying a few quotes:
"Children with Autism do not have missing pieces. Instead their brains are wired differently."
"Autism is not a processing error. It's a whole different operating system."
She also threw out a scary statistic: 80% of marriages in parents of children who have Autism end in divorce.
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