Psychology Today Blogs - Positively Autism

The Power of Positive News

Nicole Caldwell, M.Ed. — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 04:44:25 -0700

An average online news search for "Autism" turns up about 6,000 results. I complete this search on a regular basis as I search for positive news stories to feature in my newsletter. I look for stories that focus on the accomplishments of people with autism (artistic, academic, philanthropic, and the like), success stories from work or school, and the positive characteristics of autism. My goal is to bring my reader's attention from all of the "gloom and doom" portrayals of autism to focus on what individuals can do when given the right opportunities.

Sadly, I usually only find two or three articles each month that meet my criteria. Most of the articles focus on how children with Autism struggle, how awful it was to receive an autism diagnosis, or how to raise money to help cure the "devastating disorder" of autism.

I do think that these types of articles have their place. They focus on real families and individuals, and the challenges they face. This is important for the public to be aware of. However, I think it is equally important for the public to be aware of the potential of individuals with autism. We also need to see them as people who are capable, able to think outside the box, and are often very bright. For us to truly embrace people with autism and welcome them into our schools, workplaces, and communities, this balanced perspective is vital. If we only view people with autism as incapable of learning in school or functioning in society, we will only continue to deny them opportunities to share their gifts and learn valuable life skills in these environments.

As this is the Positively Autism blog, we'll focus on the positive. This month, I've already found four positive articles, and I'm still searching. If you come across a great positive article, or read one in www.PositivelyAutism.com 's newsletter, please send a short e-mail thanking the journalist for writing the article. Their e-mail address is usually found somewhere on each article. I'm hoping that if they get positive feedback, they will continue to write more positive articles, and we can increase the number even more.

"By raising our voices together, we are creating a world that celebrates children for their abilities." - Diane Bubel

College for the Student with Autism

Nicole Caldwell, M.Ed. — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:28:25 -0700

I recently corresponded with James Williams, a college student and Elementary/Special Education major. James is the president of the Council for Exceptional Children at his university, a member of the Kappa Delta Pi Education Honor Society, and a member of his university’s Dean’s List. He also has Asperger’s Syndrome.

James shared with me some strategies, resources, and tips to help students with Autism prepare for college and independent living. Excerpts from the interview are below.

Positively Autism: What advice do you have for high school students with Autism and their families when preparing for and selecting a college?

James Williams: The most important advice I can give regarding preparation is to find good resources. The most helpful resources I found were usually located on the internet. There is so much good information on the internet regarding colleges, degrees, and career paths. I did have to know where to start and for that information I asked my brother, who was already in college, and my counselor’s office. There was a lot of good information available through my local library as well and I found it to be a good place to dig in and get info. I also found good information through some of my local state agencies, although the information was hard to find and at sometimes confusing...In selecting a college, there are a couple of things to think about. First, I would develop a plan that includes my future goals. Then I would take those goals and use them as starting point. For example, I wanted to become a special education teacher and go to a school within 3 hours of my parent’s home. So I compiled a list of all the schools that offered that degree and then I went to the websites of most of them and narrowed them down to a few and made personal visits and contacts to each of them. I contacted both the Services for Students with Disabilities Coordinator and the College of Education Dean’s Office to learn more about what they offered. A strong indicator that you have found a supportive environment is the “culture” or attitude of the campus. A college can be grounded in tradition, but still progressive and pro-active in their effort to assist and promote the attendance of individuals with disabilities.

PA: What supports do colleges provide for students with Autism and how can students access them?

JW: Colleges offer a varying level of support and much of it depends on the size and funding of the Services for Students with Disabilities Office. On a small campus, the office could be minimally funded and offer very few basic services. However, it varies not only on size, but also on the commitment of the university to promote and accept the attendance of students with disabilities. Keep in mind, that the law says accommodations must be available to students with disabilities, but it does not specify the quality or size of those services. At my university, they offer several accommodations such as note-taking assistance, preferential seating, extended time, or alternate test site. In addition, they offer a weekly Asperger’s Syndrome/HFA group that is offered as part of the services available at the counseling center. Again, it varies school to school, but remember that just because an accommodation you want is not on their list, doesn’t mean you can’t ask for it and state your case.

PA: You’re majoring in Special Education. Stephen Shore is another individual with Asperger’s Syndrome with college degrees in Special Education. What do you think that individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome can contribute to the field?

JW: Not to sound boastful, but I think we offer a very unique picture into our world and those of us like Stephan Shore and myself have received a great deal of intervention that enables us to express our thoughts and feelings much more accurately then other individuals on the spectrum. In my opinion, I think this should serve as a model to schools and parents to the power of intervention and appropriate education. One of the biggest arguments in special education is over the term Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) and the lack of clarity as to who determines what is “appropriate”. In my mind, appropriate should be judged on the basis of the outcomes of the students receiving the “appropriate” services. As it is right now, many of our students with Asperger’s Syndrome or High Functioning Autism struggle to live independently, go to college, or obtain employment, wouldn’t they be receiving an inappropriate education because IDEA 2004 says they should be prepared to do all of those things? I suppose I am applying logic to a field that has always been somewhat devoid of it, so maybe it’s just me…maybe not. Either way, I feel that individuals like us that get involved in the field can continue to make great advances in understanding and assisting other individuals like us.

PA: What can teachers do to prepare students for college?

JW: Teachers can be the single most important influences in a student’s decision to attend college. In my case, my high school teacher… inspired me to become a Special Educator and we are still good friends today and we support each other as colleagues. As teachers, we can prepares our students for college by ensuring they are getting challenging academics, social skills training, and living skills experiences. It would also be a good idea to directly discuss with the student what jobs they would be interested in doing and what training would be required to do them.

PA: Do you have any other advice for college-bound students?

JW: My other advice would be to understand your rights and responsibilities as a student. The first and most important step in understanding your rights and responsibilities is to read the basic ideas behind both the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. The laws are confusing and wordy, but several agencies, including the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights provide simplified pamphlets and resources on the main ideas. Using that knowledge, brainstorm a list of reasonable accommodations that you believe would enable you to successfully complete the courses your degree requires. Use this knowledge to request accommodations and assistance from your college. If your school’s SSD office approves certain accommodations and one of your instructors/professors refuse or seem unwilling to provide them, self-advocate your needs with that professor and handle it in a polite and professional manner. If there is no progress, then it is important that you contact your SSD office and explain the situation to them. When you do this, keep two things in mind: approved accommodations are legally protected/enforceable and you are never required to share your diagnosis with a professor or anyone else, if you do not wish to. You are required to disclose your disability to your SSD office if you wish to have accommodations, but you don’t have to defend or explain your disability to anyone who refuses to provide those accommodations. Lastly, remember that Hans Asperger, the father of Asperger’s Syndrome said, “Not everything that steps out of line, and thus ‘abnormal’, must necessarily be ‘inferior’.” In other words, it’s ok to be different, but rather it is how we handle our differences that make us successful members of society.

Classroom Reality TV? Teacher Votes Out Child with Autism

Nicole Caldwell, M.Ed. — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:47:34 -0700

The Autism community has been buzzing this week about a Kindergarten teacher who held a class vote to decide whether a child, who was in the process of being evaluated for an Autism Spectrum Disorder, should be voted out of the class. According to reports, the Kindergarten students were asked to say why they didn't like the child, some calling him "disgusting" and "annoying." Each student was then asked to vote whether the child should remain in the class. He was voted out 14 to 2 and spent the remainder of the school day in the nurse's office.

The reaction that I heard most often to this story was, "Looks like someone has been watching too much reality TV!" But, was this the real reason for the teacher's actions? As appalled as I was by the teacher's behavior, I thought that there must be more to the story. As a teacher myself, I could not imagine anyone in our profession doing this to a child. A new article has been published, with the teacher providing her side of the story. The teacher reported that the vote was only intended to decide whether or not the child should remain in class for the remainder of the school day, not permanently remove the child. (Note: this would NOT be legal anyway). The goal of her actions was to show the child how his behavior was affecting his classmates. She reportedly felt that it would make a greater impact on the child if he heard about the effects of his behavior from other children, rather than adults.

I found the reports overall to be very disturbing. I can't imagine how traumatic this must have been for the young man, and my heart goes out to him and his family and classmates. But was the teacher so off base with what she was trying to teach? It is important for children, particularly children with Autism, to learn how their behavior affects others. Of course, I don't think that humiliating and "voting out" a child is the way to teach it. A strategy called "Class Meetings" provides a better opportunity for teaching these social skills, in a supportive and loving way.

In class meetings, often held weekly, students can share concerns about things happening in the classroom, and brainstorm solutions to help solve problems. Donna Styles, author of "Class Meetings: Building Leadership, Problem-Solving and Decision-Making Skills in the Respectful Classroom," says that class meetings help create classrooms where students are "supportive of one another, [can] work together cooperatively, encourage one another, assume responsibility for their own learning and behavior, and are allowed to make decisions."

In the case of a child with behavioral challenges, students could learn ways that they could help each other. For example, if a student has difficulty transitioning between activities, classmates could provide support by telling the student, "Okay, Joey, in five minutes we'll be going to P.E. class," and then giving a similar one-minute warning. A student that the child gets along with could be a "line buddy" or "lunch room buddy" standing or sitting with the child in these situations to provide a consistent routine for the student. Of course, children should not take on the function of managing another child's behavior, or be put in harm's way if a student exhibits aggressive behavior. Many children do, however, enjoy helping a fellow classmate. Children often come up with great ideas to help each other and their classroom, and this can be done in a way that creates policies for all students, if the teacher does not want to single out a particular student.

Let me know what you think of this strategy. Has it been used in your classroom or your child's classroom?

For more information about class meetings including a brief "how-to," please read the article "Class Meetings: A Democratic Approach to Classroom Management" at http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/profdev/profdev012.shtml .

References

"Class Meetings: A Democratic Approach to Classroom Management" - http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/profdev/profdev012.shtml

"Florida Kindergarten Teacher Defends Having Class Vote 5-year-old Out" - http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/977845,kinder052908.article

"St. Lucie Teacher Has Students Vote on Whether 5-year-old Can Stay in Class" - http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/may/23/st-lucie-teacher-has-class-vote-whether-5-year-old/

Intelligence Testing and Autism

Nicole Caldwell, M.Ed. — Thu, 29 May 2008 06:06:16 -0700

Children with autism are also frequently diagnosed with mental retardation based on results from common IQ tests. But are these results always accurate? Research from the University of Montreal indicates that these tests may not actually be accurate for individuals with autism. In a recent study, children with autism and typically-developing children were given two IQ tests: the WISC (a test that uses a great deal of language) and the Raven's Progressive Matrices (which tests "fluid intelligence" - skills such as creation and management of goals, high-level abstractions, and inference of rules). While typically-developing children scored about the same on both tests, the results were strikingly different for the children with autism. None of the children with autism in the study scored in the "high intelligence" range on the WISC, but thirty-three percent did so on the Raven's Progressive Matrices. Thirty-three percent of the children with autism scored in the range of mental retardation on the WISC, but only five percent scored in this range on the Raven's Progressive Matrices. The current study, as well as future research in this area may lead to more accurate testing of individuals with autism.

The following story illustrates the difficulties of accurately testing individuals with autism, as well as their unique intelligence. In my first year of teaching, testing of my students with autism that accurately captured their abilities had been somewhat of a challenge. Since students with autism may not respond well to typical testing measures, as the above research highlights, some modifications may be necessary. I once had a student who was completing a non-verbal intelligence test that required him to look at a pattern on a paper, then point to the figure at the bottom of the page that completed the pattern. Below is a simplified example.

When the student made no response to these directions, even after modeling, I decided that a modification was in order. I cut off the bottom of each page, cut out every answer choice, and gave them to the student. The student would then select the correct answer to glue in the blank space in the pattern. I did this ‘on the fly’ as I was testing the student, so it took a significant amount of time.

Despite the time it took to cut out all of the answer options, the student was successful with this modification. I now felt that the test was measuring his skills more accurately.

Later in the test, I was rushed on one question, and I accidentally handed the student the block of all four answer choices. The student looked at the answer choices, cut out only the correct answer, and glued it in the space. This was so much faster and more efficient than my method! It’s always fun when you’re outsmarted by one of your students! I thought this was a great example of how this young man showed his intelligence in a way that was not measured by the test.

Look for more blog posts about testing for individuals with Autism in the future, and please share your thoughts and experiences by posting a comment.

References

Association for Psychological Science (2007, August 5). The Matrix Of Autism. ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 27, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2007/08/070803151245.htm

Welcome to Positively Autism!

Nicole Caldwell, M.Ed. — Sat, 17 May 2008 09:43:49 -0700

Why should we be positive about Autism?

As a special education teacher, I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to teach many students with autism. During the course of my career, and my graduate studies in autism, I have encountered many articles, books, and news reports that portray autism in a very negative light. Having seen the unique personalities, sheer determination, and of course, great potential in my students, I wanted to create a resource that focused on the positive: students with autism making achievements, going to college, finding careers, experiencing success in school, etc.

Rudolf Dreikurs said, "Whoever alters a person's expectations changes his behavior." I believe that if we don't expect that individuals with autism can learn, have careers, or be successful in life, we are setting them up for failure. Temple Grandin, a college professor and author with autism, shares in her book, Developing Talents: Careers for Individuals with Asperger Syndrome and High-Functioning Autism, that we "sometimes focus on the deficits in students' lives, and not their abilities. This is a major mistake. Instead, [we] must focus on helping students build on their strengths and work toward goals that will help them become successful."

The focus this blog will be the strengths, gifts, abilities, and accomplishments of individuals with autism, and the news and resources that can help you make your own success story! I invite you to share in the exciting challenges, joys, and unique experiences of the world of autism.