By Jeanne Holverstott, M.S.
An initial clinical interview with a parent of a child with an ASD commonly follows this script:
Me: “Can you tell me about your child?”
Parent: “Yes. Well, he’s high-functioning. He…..”
Pause Script.
Question to Reader: Have you heard this before? Said this before? If so, complete the sentence with what you have said or heard.
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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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By Jeanne Holverstott, M.S.
Question: It seems like summer can be full of pitfalls for my son with Asperger’s — the structure has gone away, and he’s no longer in contact with classmates. He is content to play on the computer all day, but seems to get moody more easily. Should we treat summer vacation as a long break from school-year stress, or what?
Answer: Summer vacation presents a contradiction: Children with autism spectrum disorders thrive on structure, routine, consistency. Summer vacation throws these principles of ASD parenting and behavior management in flux.
» READ MOREBy 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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