The Art of Creative Thinking

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Behavior strategies can be creative. There's no law against it. In fact, some professionals even encourage creativity with behavior issues. I thought I'd take a minute to blog about some strategies that I've seen work.

Making a team- Several kids I know need serious help during a meltdown. A meltdown, which any veteran survivor of special education can tell you, is the moment after the moment when a kid has had way too much. You can write a team approach into your behavior intervention plan. Who works with your child best? A teacher? A coach? You simply write up a game plan for dealing with a meltdown and those are the people you put in the game.  The goal is always the same; Get the student passed the meltdown and calm, then you move on to the business of his day.

One-on-One- Schools don't want to do it because they just can't afford it too often, but it does work. One aide to manage one student is sometimes called for when interventions will be intensive and of long duration.  This is likely something a parent has to put on the table. Don't wait for a teacher or administrator to put it out there. You could be waiting a while.

Give Sign a Try- I know all the arguments. It's not widely used. Others won't know how to talk to them. Okay, I get it, but communication is the biggest stumbling block there is for a child with Autism especially. I have two responses to the argument drawn from my own experience and philosophy. First, my experience is that it really reaches kids who work better tactilely or visually. Second, my philosophy is that people need to stop being lazy in our society. If you are in a social situation with a sign speaker, then get off your bum and learn some! Could I have put that more diplomatically? Yeah, but what fun is that?

These are by no stretch of the imagination the only creative interventions you can use. These are examples only. Parents drive the case conference committee, and while some educators disagree with me that it should be that way, it's the way it is. Think about it. Every other person at that table has multiple other students to work with this year. Yours isn't the only one. You are the only member of that committee who is exclusively focused on your child. A teacher doesn't live with the result of that committee's hard work. The family does.

Aspie's Online

Who knew there were autistics out there who love autism? It's really amazing. YouTube's The Wrong Planet is actually a study in what's wrong with autism and defines it as a disorder.

Kids with autism can't always get social cues and have difficulty empathizing. Since the broadcaster of The Wrong Planet is fine with his disorder, he doesn't understand why my son might not like his. The point is that Aspberger's/high-functioning autism is not the end of the spectrum that will destroy a child's life. On our end of the spectrum, computer broadcasting seems like a pipe dream.

My point is not to belittle the contribution of this child to the world at large. He has great talent and ability but little human understanding. That's another symptom, not a reason to rejoice. Egocentricity and autism go hand in hand.

Darrel has many strengths. Autism isn't one of them. Unlike some parents, I am not waiting for a cure, but you won't see me going to Autism the Musical anytime soon either. My son isn't NON-neuro-typical. His brain is physically hindered, and I wish to God it hadn't been because he deserved much, much more happiness in life.

Instead of marriage and children, he will grow old with me and his father. We will all work tirelessly to get rid of autism because the only thing that's changed over the last twenty years about our world is the environment. We are doing this to ourselves, and that is my heartfelt belief. There are changes to be made, and complacency isn't an option. Thank God for Autism Speaks and others like them.

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A Special Ed Blog With Soul

He's my reason. Waking up each day may be hard, but somebody needs me to wake up and go on. Darrel is on the autism spectrum, on the severe end. He cannot talk. He can't sit still, just runs and spins things. D loves to spin things. He isn't my only child, but he's my permanent child. So I wake up even when I've only had two hours of sleep the night before.

This blog will, hopefully, fulfill a need we have seen so many times over the years to educate others on what it is to be on this spectrum. High-functioning autism isn't what D has, and yet so many assume that is what autism is when, in fact, the majority of children on the spectrum cannot be classified as high-functioning. In other words, Rain Man is not the norm.

Our experience with autism has not been a musical. It's been a nightmare; the nightmare of watching our child suffer through symptoms we couldn't change or fix. Every child with autism is in some way or other, slightly or severely, uncomfortable in their own skin. Every day is teaching D how to cope with the way things are because they aren't going to be different tomorrow.

For the sake of every child on the spectrum, spend 15 minutes with us each day, or even each week. This disorder is spreading rapidly. 1 in 150 children are diagnosed with autism.