March 7, 2009
Divided by High-functioning, Low-functioning Labels?

president

By Toni Lapp

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the 2009 Autism Conference, organized by the Autism Alliance of Greater KC and the Autism Society of America Heartland chapter.

Keynote speaker Peter Gerhardt’s comments in particular provided food for thought. He noted that he prefers not to use labels such as high-functioning and low-functioning, instead using terms describing how verbal an individual is. He made the point that some folks on the spectrum who can hardly utter a word have learned to lead productive lives, in some cases supporting themselves through microbusinesses (more on that for another day). Thus, he categorizes according to verbal skills, i.e., highly verbal or not verbal.

The labels tend to divide us as a group, Gerhardt asserted. We might agree on issues 90 percent of the time, yet instead focus on the 10 percent of issues that we are divided on.
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Games to Enhance Turn-Taking, Sportsmanship, Social Skills

By Jeanne Holverstott, M.S.

Q. I read that when Temple Grandin was a young girl, her mother hired a nanny to play turn-taking games with her to improve social skills. What sort of games do you recommend? Are there any that you don’t recommend?

A. After every holiday meal, my family would gather around the dining room table with a game purposefully selected by my mother for this occasion. I remember Taboo, Scattergories, Trivial Pursuit, Outburst. No matter the age of the player, the expectations were the same: follow the rules, win with humility, lose with grace, do your best, and never, ever complain. Games make up the fabric of a childhood and, perhaps, a lifetime, and appropriate game play opens doors to respect, friendship, and fun.

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DEVELOPING TALENTS

Intervene, Intervene, Intervene

By Kate Duffy

A while back, Toni, the SpectrumConnection editor, asked me to write about how far parents should go to help their teens on the spectrum land a job. Since then, several of our Hot Topics parents have shared their kids’ job search stories with me, and I realized there was no easy answer to her question. For the most part, though, their stories revolved around the kids’ inability to accurately read situations, to remember instructions and to multitask to make a deadline. Looking at that list, it sounds like business as usual on the job for most of us — which is why it is so very important that our kids start learning about the world of work as soon as they can.

That’s why the short answer to Toni’s question is this: do what you need to do.

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