Fwd: The latest from Autism Asperger's Digest » Blog

[Guest guest]

From: trixiepujol@...Sent: 4/17/2012 5:12:39 A.M. Eastern Daylight TimeSubj: Fwd: The latest from Autism Asperger's Digest » Blog ---------- Forwarded message ----------Date: Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 3:01 PMSubject: The latest from Autism Asperger's Digest » BlogTo: Trixie Pujol Web version | Update preferences | UnsubscribeLikeTweetForwardYes, It Is Your ProblemPosted by kimfields on 13 April, 2012Postcards from the Road Less Traveled: Yes, It Is Your Problemby Ellen NotbohmAutism Asperger’s Digest | July/August 2009 It’s very rare that I hear from a parent who is livid about something I’ve written, but this one was. She had read my article, “The Other Side of the Desk,†in which a number of special education teachers articulated the challenges they face in trying to forge good working relationships with the parents of their students. Among many issues, they described in realistic terms the sheer resource and time constraints under which they work. How difficult it is to close achievement gaps of several years given mandates in multiple content areas, how important it is to define adequate yearly progress in the IEP. How caseloads have skyrocketed in recent years, often running into dozens of IEPs for a single teacher, squeezing the individualized attention they are able to give a student. My reader rejected these teachers’ thoughts wholesale.Read more →Rule Number One: Ask for HelpPosted by kimfields on 11 April, 2012Postcards from the Road Less Traveled: Rule Number One: Ask For Helpby Ellen NotbohmAutism Asperger’s Digest | March/April 2009It’s very rare that I hear from a parent who is livid about something I’ve written, but this one was. She had read my article, “The Other Side of the Desk,†in which a number of special education teachers articulated the challenges they face in trying to forge good working relationships with the parents of their students. Among many issues, they described in realistic terms the sheer resource and time constraints under which they work. How difficult it is to close achievement gaps of several years given mandates in multiple content areas, how important it is to define adequate yearly progress in the IEP. How caseloads have skyrocketed in recent years, often running into dozens of IEPs for a single teacher, squeezing the individualized attention they are able to give a student. My reader rejected these teachers’ thoughts wholesale.“I challenge (these special educators’) right to think and espouse some of their attitudes,†she wrote. Schools, she argued, are obligated to bring students to grade level equivalency, period, and “a parent isn’t required to consider the other children in the class when their child is in need.†The teacher’s working conditions – large class sizes, lack of training and materials, lack of classroom assistance or support staff, IEPs that fail to define progress in meaningful, measurable ways – “is not a parent’s problem.â€Read more →With a Litle Help from Your (New) FriendsPosted by kimfields on 11 April, 2012Postcards from the Road Less Traveled: With a Litle Help from Your (New) Friendsby Ellen NotbohmAutism Asperger’s Digest | January/February 2009The woman is a mother, well known in her community as an autism activist. Navigating the holidays with her son with autism takes careful choreography. She dances with the issues of when and how to arrive at the gathering, what to bring (food, fidgets, other sensory-calming tactics), and how far she can let him stray from her side or sight, ever alert for the warning signs that will tell her it’s time to intervene, or leave – now. Her friends blow off her vigilance. They tell her she needs to lay down the law, let him know who’s boss. Just tell him she’s not ready to leave yet and he has to suck it up and find something to do for another hour.*Read more →Right on the MoneyPosted by kimfields on 11 April, 2012Postcards from the Road Less Traveled: Right on the Moneyby Ellen NotbohmAutism Asperger’s Digest | July/August 2008 Having been involuntarily conscripted, as most of us are, into the world of autism well over a decade ago, I’ve had the opportunity to observe many things that have changed monumentally and many things that need to change but have remained stubbornly static. Sometimes it feels like I’m sitting on the 50-yard-line of a game whose lead keeps see-sawing back and forth. Football teams have huge play books, because they know there is no single game tactic or strategy that will work every time against every opponent. So it is with autism too.Read more →All’s Fair?Posted by kimfields on 11 April, 2012Postcards from the Road Less Traveled: All’s Fair?by Ellen NotbohmAutism Asperger’s Digest | January/February 2008 “You ain’t fair.â€Read more →You're receiving this because you either subscribe to our magazine, or you signed up for our amazine newsletters.Edit your subscription | Unsubscribe instantlyAutism Asperger's Digest 721 W. Abram St., Arlington TX 76013-6995, USA-- Trixie Pujol, MA, LPCCounselorKipepeo TherapiesNairobi, Kenya(254) 0729-446-713

[Guest guest]

From: trixiepujol@...Sent: 4/17/2012 5:12:39 A.M. Eastern Daylight TimeSubj: Fwd: The latest from Autism Asperger's Digest » Blog ---------- Forwarded message ----------Date: Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 3:01 PMSubject: The latest from Autism Asperger's Digest » BlogTo: Trixie Pujol Web version | Update preferences | UnsubscribeLikeTweetForwardYes, It Is Your ProblemPosted by kimfields on 13 April, 2012Postcards from the Road Less Traveled: Yes, It Is Your Problemby Ellen NotbohmAutism Asperger’s Digest | July/August 2009 It’s very rare that I hear from a parent who is livid about something I’ve written, but this one was. She had read my article, “The Other Side of the Desk,†in which a number of special education teachers articulated the challenges they face in trying to forge good working relationships with the parents of their students. Among many issues, they described in realistic terms the sheer resource and time constraints under which they work. How difficult it is to close achievement gaps of several years given mandates in multiple content areas, how important it is to define adequate yearly progress in the IEP. How caseloads have skyrocketed in recent years, often running into dozens of IEPs for a single teacher, squeezing the individualized attention they are able to give a student. My reader rejected these teachers’ thoughts wholesale.Read more →Rule Number One: Ask for HelpPosted by kimfields on 11 April, 2012Postcards from the Road Less Traveled: Rule Number One: Ask For Helpby Ellen NotbohmAutism Asperger’s Digest | March/April 2009It’s very rare that I hear from a parent who is livid about something I’ve written, but this one was. She had read my article, “The Other Side of the Desk,†in which a number of special education teachers articulated the challenges they face in trying to forge good working relationships with the parents of their students. Among many issues, they described in realistic terms the sheer resource and time constraints under which they work. How difficult it is to close achievement gaps of several years given mandates in multiple content areas, how important it is to define adequate yearly progress in the IEP. How caseloads have skyrocketed in recent years, often running into dozens of IEPs for a single teacher, squeezing the individualized attention they are able to give a student. My reader rejected these teachers’ thoughts wholesale.“I challenge (these special educators’) right to think and espouse some of their attitudes,†she wrote. Schools, she argued, are obligated to bring students to grade level equivalency, period, and “a parent isn’t required to consider the other children in the class when their child is in need.†The teacher’s working conditions – large class sizes, lack of training and materials, lack of classroom assistance or support staff, IEPs that fail to define progress in meaningful, measurable ways – “is not a parent’s problem.â€Read more →With a Litle Help from Your (New) FriendsPosted by kimfields on 11 April, 2012Postcards from the Road Less Traveled: With a Litle Help from Your (New) Friendsby Ellen NotbohmAutism Asperger’s Digest | January/February 2009The woman is a mother, well known in her community as an autism activist. Navigating the holidays with her son with autism takes careful choreography. She dances with the issues of when and how to arrive at the gathering, what to bring (food, fidgets, other sensory-calming tactics), and how far she can let him stray from her side or sight, ever alert for the warning signs that will tell her it’s time to intervene, or leave – now. Her friends blow off her vigilance. They tell her she needs to lay down the law, let him know who’s boss. Just tell him she’s not ready to leave yet and he has to suck it up and find something to do for another hour.*Read more →Right on the MoneyPosted by kimfields on 11 April, 2012Postcards from the Road Less Traveled: Right on the Moneyby Ellen NotbohmAutism Asperger’s Digest | July/August 2008 Having been involuntarily conscripted, as most of us are, into the world of autism well over a decade ago, I’ve had the opportunity to observe many things that have changed monumentally and many things that need to change but have remained stubbornly static. Sometimes it feels like I’m sitting on the 50-yard-line of a game whose lead keeps see-sawing back and forth. Football teams have huge play books, because they know there is no single game tactic or strategy that will work every time against every opponent. So it is with autism too.Read more →All’s Fair?Posted by kimfields on 11 April, 2012Postcards from the Road Less Traveled: All’s Fair?by Ellen NotbohmAutism Asperger’s Digest | January/February 2008 “You ain’t fair.â€Read more →You're receiving this because you either subscribe to our magazine, or you signed up for our amazine newsletters.Edit your subscription | Unsubscribe instantlyAutism Asperger's Digest 721 W. Abram St., Arlington TX 76013-6995, USA-- Trixie Pujol, MA, LPCCounselorKipepeo TherapiesNairobi, Kenya(254) 0729-446-713

[Guest guest]

Web version | Update preferences | Unsubscribe

Like

Tweet

Forward

Diagnosis for Dad

Posted by kimfields on 26 April, 2012

Diagnosis for Dadby Pacton, MAAutism Asperger’s Digest | Online Article May 2012

My husband is a strange guy.

He is difficult, socially abrasive, and has been known to be arrogant. He doesn’t tolerate small talk, he doesn’t understand why I send paper birthday cards and thank-you notes, and his general sense of social norms is skewed to say the least. He can’t fathom why more words are required when less will do the job just fine. Besides calling me, he only makes one phone call a week (to his parents). He gets frustrated with friends if they don’t act according to the exact parameters he has for friendship.

Read more →

Whole Task Teaching for Individuals with Severe Autism

Posted by kimfields on 26 April, 2012

Autism: The Way I See It; Whole Task Teaching for Individuals with Severe Autisby Temple GrandinAutism Asperger’s Digest | September/October 2007

The standard method for teaching a nonverbal person with autism tasks such as dressing or cooking is to provide a picture schedule that shows the steps of the task. This works well for many individuals, but some have difficulty linking the steps together. To learn a simple task such as making a sandwich, they have to see a person demonstrate the ENTIRE task, from start to finish, with no steps left out. If they do not see how the second slice of bread gets on top of the peanut butter they may not try to perform the individual steps because, as a whole, they do not make sense to the individual.Sandwichmaking is easy to teach because when the task is demonstrated the ENTIRE task is observed, and the end product – the sandwich – is concrete and has meaning to the individual.

This idea of “whole task teaching†is particularly relevant in the area of toilet training. One of the challenges with toilet training individuals on the severe end of the spectrum is that the individual may not know how the urine or feces gets into the toilet. The picture schedule shows the waste in the toilet, but it does not show how it got there. There are often more problems with teaching the person to defecate in the toilet compared to urination. This is because the individual has more likely been able to directly observe how urine comes out of the person and goes into the toilet. This is especially true with boys, but even girls can observe this. It is not as obvious an action – for either sex – when it comes to defecating. If seeing how the waste goes from the person to the toilet is left out of the teaching sequence, these individuals may not know what they have to do.

Read more →

The Importance of Practical Problem-Solving Skills

Posted by kimfields on 26 April, 2012

Autism: The Way I See It, The Importance of Practical Problem-Solving Skillsby Temple GrandinAutism Asperger’s Digest | March/April 2008

Both normal children and kids on the autism spectrum need to be challenged. Those who have heard me speak or read my books know I think many parents and educators coddle their children with ASD far more than they should. Children with ASD don’t belong in a bubble, sheltered from the normal experiences of the world around them. Sensory issues do need to be taken into consideration, but aside from those, parents may need to push their child a little for any real advancement in learning to occur.

This is especially true in teaching a pivotal life skill: problem-solving. It involves training the brain to be organized, break down tasks into step-by-step sequences, relate parts to the whole, stay on task, and experience a sense of personal accomplishment once the problem is solved.

Read more →

Learning Never Stops

Posted by kimfields on 26 April, 2012

Learning Never Stops

by Temple Grandin

Autism Asperger’s Digest | November/December 2009

Read more →

Hidden Medical Problems Can Cause Behavior Problems

Posted by kimfields on 26 April, 2012

Hidden Medical Problems Can Cause Behavior Problems

by Temple Grandin

Autism Asperger’s Digest | May/June 2009

Read more →

Learning to Do Assignments that Other People Appreciate

Posted by kimfields on 26 April, 2012

Learning to Do Assignments that Other People Appreciate

by Temple Grandin

Autism Asperger’s Digest | November/December 2008

Read more →

You're receiving this because you either subscribe to our magazine, or you signed up for our amazing newsletters.

Edit your subscription | Unsubscribe instantly

Autism Asperger's Digest721 W. Abram St., Arlington TX 76013-6995, USA

-- Trixie Pujol, MA, LPCCounselorKipepeo TherapiesNairobi, Kenya(254) 0729-446-713