For many autistics on the spectrum, moving out from your parents house and living independently can seem like a daunting task. We like routines and familiarity so any change can be hard to handle. But I think we need to embrace growth, even at the expense of comfort. Since college, I’ve lived in a variety of different places, but I’ve made a point of always living away from home.

Alex in his Dorm Room

Living in dorms is a great way to prepare you for living more independent after you graduate. But I would recommend getting a single room because sharing a room for an autistic person is the worst possible thing I can think of. I need my own space. Fortunately my University had accommodations for individuals with disabilities and I was able to get a single room.

Even with a single room, I quickly had to learn to deal with issues like noise that come with living in dorms (and apartments). I have a sound sensitivity so the bass from other people playing music was hard to deal with. I’ve written about the importance of noise canceling headphones, but I didn’t have those at the time. I’ve also developed simple strategies for improving sound over time like using foam to seal the door frame and even a jacket on the door to block sound, and having a white noise machine, fan, or AC to make it harder to hear outside sounds.

I moved from the original dorm into a four bedroom apartment style dorm I shared with three other people. This brought up new issues I had to deal with, such as keeping the common areas clean and sharing the space. An autistic friend of mine commented that the most important thing you can do with roommates is to keep things clean. If you can do that, there won’t be many other problems.

In the summer after my freshman year, I got an internship at AOL headquarters in northern Virginia. Since I could only live in the dorms during the school year, I lived at my grandparents’ house which was close to the metro. I could take a train some of the way and a bus the rest of the way. But the whole trip, including transfers, took an hour and a half (see my article on the benefits of driving & autism).

After a while, I decided to rent a room from an engineer at AOL who worked on my team. I was able to carpool with him every day or we could ride bikes along the bike trail from the house to our work. This was much better because driving with him cut out an hour an 15 minutes for me (saving 2.5 hours a day). Living with someone older taught me a lot of things that would help me in the future for living with roommates. I learned the importance of helping to clean (doing things like sweeping and vacuuming, for example). The next summer, I rented the basement of a house in Washington, DC. I picked a home a block from the subway so I could easily get to work. Living independently in a city is much easier if you don’t have a car so this experience was great for me.

I started dating a girl in college while I was living in DC. We eventually decided to move in together. Living with a significant other brings a whole new set of issues, some great, and some challenging. We decided to rent a house. While the relationship didn’t last, I learned a lot about living with a partner and the importance of having your own space. I do recommend making sure you have your own space if you’re going to live with a partner. A studio apartment might be challenging!

When I graduated from college, I lived with my grandfather again for a little bit and then moved to western Massachusetts where I lived with my friend John Elder Robison. After almost a year, I decided to move to Los Angeles. This was one of the scariest moves for me because I’d be leaving the east coast where I had my support system of friends and family. I went on Craigslist to find an apartment in Los Angeles and I still live there. Making the move to LA was one of the best decisions in my life. It gave me countless opportunities that I didn’t ever have on the east coast.

While I had to go out of my comfort zone in order to become increasingly independent, doing so has given me many opportunities and has increased my quality of life. I’ve also gained confidence knowing that I’m living on my own, supporting myself. While some people may think living at home is the best option, I urge you to at least give living on your own a shot. After all, if it doesn’t work out, you can always move back home and you’ll merely be back to where you were. After all, life is about experimenting, trying new things, sometimes failing, and sometimes succeeding. But without trying, you’ll never grow.

The post Leaving Home & Living Independently on the Autism Spectrum appeared first on Wrong Planet.

“That’s really incredible,” said a well-meaning educator who had called in April about our Autism Advantage program, which runs six-week training cohorts for autistic individuals around specific talent sets. “I’m searching for a program which can teach autistic people acceptable behavior for the workplace. Yours is like that, correct?”

We now love conversations like these. They give us an opportunity to explain what we’ve helped dozens of leading companies understand. Our Autism Advantage program doesn’t make autistic people ‘acceptable’. We bring out and strengthen their talents to improve their careers.

Our programs provide training and structure to help individuals understand and accept who they are as autistic people, identify and master their skills long overlooked by others, and employ those skills in order to find career success. We provide understanding of neurotypical behavior in order for autistic individuals to better navigate integrated workplaces, coach companies in building neurodiverse workplaces, match autistic candidates with employment opportunities, and provide coaching and assistance once hired.

We do this because we’re located in Silicon Valley and realized that many autistic talents are well-suited for hard-to-fill technology roles. We started our training from this point and our current series focuses on autistic individuals with data analytical skills (if you are interested in these programs, we encourage you to sign-up). However, it would be ridiculous to think that autistic talent is limited to tech. That’s why we don’t just place candidates within tech roles and why we’re structuring future training opportunities around additional talent sets. Our six-week training acts as a deep dive into developing the talents of autistic individuals from the autistic frame. We go over many things, but at the core of our trainings are four key components we’ve realized are applicable to anyone looking for work.

1. Self Awareness. When autistic people hear the term “self awareness” it’s often in being reprimanded for not mirroring neurotypical behavior. In Autism Advantage, we emphasize the actual meaning of the term: understanding who you are and how you operate in this world. Some of our program participants are deeply ashamed of their autistic traits at the beginning of each of our trainings. We help them see that autistic traits can used to their advantage. If the X-men has taught us anything, it is that unique traits are needed and necessary. Accepting and understanding who you are as an autistic person allows you to find ways to leverage your autistic traits as an advantage throughout your career.

2.Master Your Skills. Cal Newport is a computer scientist who does deep thinking on workplace success. In his book So Good They Can’t Ignore You he examines the repeating patterns of success found in individuals from blues musician Jordan Tice to Apple founder Steve Jobs. Newport discovered that the most successful people are the ones who take an existing skill set and practice it over-and-over again to mastery. What inspired Newport to first research this pattern was seeing an interview with comedian Steve Martin on the Charlie Rose show where he discussed giving advice to aspiring comedians:

Nobody ever takes note of [my advice], because it’s not the answer they wanted to hear. What they want to hear is “Here’s how you get an agent, here’s how you write a script,”. . . but I always say, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.”

It wasn’t an exceptional talent that distinguished Steve Martin from his peers. Like other new comics, he was good but not great. While other new comics focused half of their attention on finding better and better gigs, Martin tried a different approach. He focused all of his attention on practicing his own skills over and over again. He worked clubs whose audiences would boo him but would also laugh three weeks later when he finally got the joke he had tried before just right. In mastering his skills, Martin began to distinguish himself. It was in learning how to be obsessively good at what he did that found Steve Martin success.

There is a dwindling number of educators who deride “narrow autistic interests” as a bad thing, an antithetical attitude to Newport and Martin’s advice to apply rigid structure and obsessive focus on a subject in order to master it (“If I stay with it,” said Martin in the same interview discussing the advice he gave himself when he decided to learn how to play the banjo “then one day I will have been playing it for 40 years and anyone who sticks with something for 40 years will be pretty good at it.”). If the key to skill success among neurotypicals is adopting autistic traits, then we should encourage those traits in autistic individuals themselves.

Whether it be city bus schedules or complex data systems, autistic people build expertise on the subjects they love by rigorously acquiring knowledge. If you are on the spectrum, you’ve most likely done this by becoming proficient at a key group of skills that you may not have even realized that you were practicing over-and-over again to perfection – skills like research, observation, analysis, evaluation, and communication. Think about the things you love, then think about the skills you used to build your knowledge of them. These are all skills you can apply to other aspects of your life, including work. Neurotypicals spend millions of dollars each year on books and seminars to get them to this place. Recognize your skills, lean into them, and practice them over-and-over again.

3. Market Your Skills. No one likes a shameless self-promoter, but almost all hiring managers love when someone can demonstrate how their skills can fit their company’s needs. That’s a big thing we work on in Autism Advantage. Here is what Daniel, one of our recent graduates shared with us after we placed him in a position with professional services firm EY.

What the Autism Advantage program gave us was a space to relax and dig deeper into our personal strengths. I discovered that I’m actually a great presenter and I’m good at public speaking. Understanding that means that I now know how to personally pitch myself.

When Daniel started our program, he hadn’t yet discovered that he had those skills. By graduation, he was able to confidently talk about them with others. You most likely have a different skill set than Daniel. As you discover yours and practice your skills to mastery, they will become much easier to talk about. Many autistic people have difficulty talking about themselves, but discussing your skills and how they apply to others is one way to accommodate our strengths.  The interview process if filled with people who love to talk about how great they are. There’s no need to copy that. Talking about how your skills can provide solutions to the job you seek will be valued by the the person hiring for the position.  Once hired, offering your skills as solutions to your managers and teammates will help you advance throughout your career.

4. Network. There’s a misconception that autistic people aren’t good at networking. Most of the internet would collapse if that were true. People just network differently. Neurotypical people tend to highly engage interpersonal networking while autistic people often more easily navigate networking online. Our team has also noticed that many autistic people tend to be great (and better than neurotypical peers) at interpersonal networking if allowed to use it to exchange information on subjects they love. Academia and the arts are filled with autistic people skilled in networking this way. Networking is absolutely essential to your career. The more connections that an individual makes through networks, the more opportunities for success there will be. However, that doesn’t mean that everyone needs to network the same way.

We heavily emphasize networking in Autism Advantage, but we do so from an autistic frame. We recently took our program participants to a strategy session at the San Francisco offices of LinkedInto discuss networking from the autistic point of view. Connecting with others is key to career success. Think through how you best network and then use those channels as you look for work. Let people know you are looking for employment and what your skills are. Other people know of opportunities and connections that you don’t. Everyone networks differently. Figure out how you best network and use those networks to increase opportunities throughout your career.

At the end of each of our Autism Advantage training programs, we increase the opportunities for our attendees by connecting them with leading companies who need their individual skills. We help companies realize why they need autistic talent and how building support for neurodiversity within the office is not only good for the individual employee but for the entire team. On the candidate side, our trainings dive into many things, but these four concepts our participants deeply examine will also prove key concepts to you: develop your self awareness, master your skills, market your skills, and then network. We don’t make autistic talent ‘acceptable’. We help autistic individuals strengthen their talents to improve their careers. The world needs autistic talent. Focus on developing each of these things and you’ll be able to confidently show everyone why.

——-

By Jack Hogan and John Marble, Autism Advantage

Jack Hogan is a technology expert and co-founder of Autism Advantage, a program which trains autistic talent and matches them with leading companies. John Marble is the program’s senior advisor and is a former presidential appointee in the administration of President Barack Obama. He is autistic.

Autism Advantage operates in partnership with Expandability, a non-profit initially established in Silicon Valley to aid disabled programmers. Autism Advantage was developed out of Expandability’s highly successful Autism at Work program it first pioneered with software company SAP. Those interested in the program can sign-up here. Additionally, Autism Advantage continuously seeks input from autistic individuals as they build programs and welcomes the input of suggestions and new ideas.

This is a sponsored article. 

The post Before You Look for Work Here Are Four Things You Should Absolutely Know appeared first on Wrong Planet.

It was seven in the morning as I walked the half mile to their shop, the weather was dreary, and the air was humid, but I felt well rested. I was confident, dressed appropriately, and had practiced in the mirror. I walked in with a smile, and over a cup of coffee I held my own in the interview.

No, I don’t have experience as a barista, but I’m a quick learner.

Yes, I had to handle plenty of unhappy customers at my on campus job. I’m well versed in how to deal with them.

The stars seemed to be aligning, I felt like the job was mine. As the owner shuffled through her stack of papers, she looked up at me and said,

“You seem like you might have….”

She had paused, mid-thought. What was she going to say? Did she Google me before the interview? Does she know? I began to fill up with anxiety and dread. I had to say something. I let out a casual and dismissive laugh,

“Yeah, I was diagnosed as autistic as a kid, but it doesn’t really affect me day-to-day, and it certainly won’t affect my performance on the job.”
“Oh,” she said, “That’s not what I was going to say, but okay.”

It was horribly awkward, but I did my best to dismiss it.  They gave me a free brownie on the way out, and I walked home in confident bliss. But, after a few weeks, it had become clear I wasn’t going to hear from them again. I’ll never know why they didn’t hire me, the store is gone now, along with the identity of the woman who I interviewed with. I do know how it felt afterward. I felt insecure. I obsessed over that one moment, the one goof that I believed lost me the job. She didn’t need to know that about me, she probably wasn’t even suspicious. I usually keep my autistic identity close to my chest, but all the evidence of my advocacy work as a teenager is only a Google search away. How could I have been so rash? I could rail against the system, how stereotypes of autism both harmed her perception of me, as well as my own self image, which caused my slip of social conventions. I could mope about how much my diagnosis actually does affect me, and has made parts of my life more challenging. But the reality is, I had committed a faux-pas for someone with autism and someone perfectly neurotypical; I showed my true self.

People have to hide who they are in a job interview, no matter who they are. Introverts pretend to be people persons. We list moderate Photoshop skills as “proficient” on our resume. Dress conservative! Talk white! Act normal! It’s all the same thing. Advertise yourself. Not the best version of yourself, their concept of the best version of yourself. It’s an unspoken rule that the real you and the job interview you have only a passing resemblance. While we dance around saying this out loud, you can see a sort of collective acknowledgement of these kinds of truths in meme culture. But what if the quirks you have to bury are simultaneously central to your identity, your personhood even, and also generally frowned upon in the workplace, much less the job interview?

The unemployment rate for young adults with autism is absurdly high, even when compared to other mental disorders. There’s a marked 25 to almost 40 point difference. Only 58 percent of  ASD-identifying twenty somethings are holding down jobs, according to a 2015 NPR article.

Certainly, there are career fields that being on the spectrum puts you at an advantage. Nobody needs to be reminded the prevalence of our kind of thinkers in the world of engineering and programming. Whenever I meet someone with a diagnosed family member, said family member usually is an engineer. It taps into the oft-voiced but rarely heard truth, that there are positive differences between people with autism and neurotypicals. Outside of skills suited for complex mathematics and problem solving abilities, skills ripe for engineering, we have a notable tendency for tunnel vision, and we are usually quick, tactile learners. But not everyone wants to be an engineer, or a programmer, or a scientist.

I grew up convinced I’d be working in physics or paleontology, or some other equally lofty or adventurous scientific field. But in high school, I fell in love with art. Creative endeavors like writing and fine art have proven a purposeful path for me to take, but the field isn’t befitting for my identity, even as a particularly passing Aspie. The art world, as with many career fields, is one built on knowing the right people, being able to network, and rub elbows. The arts community is supposed to be one of the most progressive and accepting parts of society, but has many times proven otherwise in this respect. Even in the arts people react inappropriately when I open up about my disorder. They still say things like “you don’t seem autistic at all”, they still talk to you differently, and they still try and set you up with their friend’s sister who they think is on the spectrum. Being autistic in the art world means hoping people will find your quirkiness and strange personality endearing, or attribute it to me being one of those “artist types.” Without that hope, it’s easy to get ostracized by accidentally breaking social convention, making one curator or gallery director uncomfortable. I, along with many others in many fields, have chosen to hide this part of my identity. I’m lucky that my autistic traits are subtle enough for me to pass for neurotypical, but it doesn’t make the masquerade any easier. A friend whom I’ve told about my disorder once told me how strikingly similar these issues were to his as an in-the-closet teen back home. The main difference being he can’t be fired for being gay.

When I graduate in a couple months, my Bachelors in Fine Art will essentially be a degree in barista-ship. Most people in my field work hard on their writing or paintings or sculptural work, but make ends meet employing those networking skills behind the counter of the local coffee shop or as a waiter. Jobs that are high pressure, multitask oriented, and heavily social aren’t always the most healthy environments for people on the spectrum. Worse yet, there are no accommodations required or expected from employers for this issue. The Americans with Disabilities Act mostly covers on-the-spectrum customers and patrons to public and private spaces, but when it comes to holding down jobs, it defends the employer. If someone black or gay is working for a restaurant in a particularly conservative part of America, and the customers don’t like said employee, the business can’t do anything about it.  But if that same employee is autistic, or deaf, or burdened with any disability really, the business only needs one complaint to fire them, on the grounds that their presence is hurting the bottom dollar.

Working for smaller businesses that have closer, less corporate, relationships with their employees is one way I’ve found circumvents this issue. It makes it easier to develop an understanding relationship between you and your employer. There are people out there on our side, that want us to succeed. Getting a job isn’t impossible, and those parts of you that you have to hide to get that job will help you in the workplace. But know what you are up against, the only way to overcome this issue is by pushing autism advocacy and getting your voice heard until the legislation is changed. This isn’t a call to arms, it’s just something nobody seems to be talking about.

I know that at my next job interview I won’t mention my autistic Identity. But if they do figure me out, and they bring it up, I’ll wear that badge proudly.

The post Autism and The Job Market appeared first on Wrong Planet.

Some things are obvious. For example, if you’re a computer programmer and you’ve been asked to compile a program that does X, Y and Z, you find out soon enough.

Other things are not quite so obvious. Like how your co-workers, customers and boss perceive you. Keep in mind that people generally won’t go out of their way to tell you how they feel about you. Especially if it’s negative. (Want to know why? See below.)

Yet other people’s opinions of you matter at least as much as your technical skills. In fact, studies in the Harvard Business Review have shown that people would generally rather work with a likable dunderhead than a brilliant boor. Apparently, since the dunderhead is likable people are willing to take more time to help him or her learn, whereas the boor gets no benefit of the doubt since they don’t like him…and sooner or later the boor will make a mistake.

Not to mention that, as career expert Penelope Trunk has pointed out, modern teleworking, outsourcing and automation mean that if a problem can be solved from across the hall, it can be solved from across town, across the country…or across the Pacific Ocean. Or from the software’s Help screen. That means that more and more, the jobs that stay in the U.S./First World at good salaries are the ones that involve helping people face to face and making them feel good about it. If all you do is deliver technical information, someone, somewhere can and will do it a lot cheaper.

The only way we can escape this worldwide race to the bottom is to build close relationships with those around us, so we’re special to them.

Of course we need to do our jobs and do them right. We also need ways of knowing when our relationships are going astray, while we can still either save them or change jobs ourselves before it’s too late.

So, without further ado, here’s some warning signals:

• You have less and less to do. Your peers do parts of your job for you, or even just learn to get everything done without you. Or your boss has reassigned pieces of your job. It’s a pretty clear signal that you’re not seen as necessary to the organization. Sooner or later, the boss will decide that the company can just do without you — and eliminating your job will save money (and not just your salary either, especially if you get benefits).Also, your boss may reason that if you just let other people do parts of your job, you’re not really attached to your work and hence not really doing well at it. (Not to mention that if you just let others take over, the company may not want you managing its fate in a competitive world!)
• You do get plenty to do…it’s just a bunch of “special projects”. Now, some special projects are very important, and help propel you to higher things. The “special projects” I mean more like sorting and alphabetizing the agency’s catalogs it gets from suppliers. Anything that might be nice to do but they could certainly do without.They’re probably getting ready to do without you.
• People don’t chat with you as readily as they used to. There are two reasons for this.One is that if they know the boss is after you, they don’t want the “guilt by association”. That is, if the boss sees or just hears of them talking to you, she might assume they’re on your side and thus they’re just as bad as (she believes) you are.

  Another is that no one likes to be the bearer of bad news. That’s because many if not most people “kill the messenger” — they attack the person who just happens to tell them about bad stuff. The human mind hasn’t yet evolved to be clear about who’s saying stuff you don’t want to hear and who actually caused it. And if they don’t yet know that you know, they’re afraid of inadvertently telling you.

  Sure it’s important that somebody warn you. Somebody else, that is.

• When you walk into a room, it goes quiet and everyone looks at you.Somebody might as well get a bullhorn, jump on the nearest table and go: “ATTENTION, ATTENTION! WE WERE ALL TALKING ABOUT YOU, AND NONE OF US WANTS TO TELL YOU WHAT IT’S ABOUT (OTHERWISE, WE’D’VE DONE THAT ALREADY). IN FACT, THE MOMENT YOU’RE GONE, WE’LL TALK ABOUT YOU SOME MORE!”
• You just had a serious disagreement with a customer or your boss. Or maybe even several co-workers, or a co-worker who’s popular, or anyone in public.

Forewarned is forearmed!

The post Job Red Alert! appeared first on Wrong Planet.

Chapter 15: Autism, Craft and Calling

It is through the values of craft and calling that will come additional hiring of adults with autism in the practical economy.

The autism-focused businesses,  major employer initiatives and employer outreaches set out in the previous chapter are necessary, but not sufficient. They must be tied to answering how adults with autism bring advantage to employers in the practical economy. The answer in turn lies in the qualities of craft that adults with autism bring to the practical economy, and can be the autism community’s competitive advantage.

Craft and calling are not new concepts. But they are finding new relevance in the American economy, especially in the practical economy.

I. The Re-emergence of Craft in the Practical Economy

First, let’s start with the re-discovery of craft, in the unlikely venue of television.

In the early 2000s, it would have been difficult to find anyone in the entertainment industry  predicting the popularity of “work reality” television shows about bakers, car repairpersons and hair stylists. Yet, these shows appeared in the next few years, found an audience in the general public and brought fresh insights about work.  Work reality shows such as “Cake Boss”, “America’s Next Top Model”, “American Pickers” , “Pawn Stars”, and “Tabitha’s Salon Takeover” not only achieved ratings, but also generated numerous related shows in their occupations.

The success of these shows is in how the profiled workers perform their jobs: the care for detail, going beyond the cash nexus, finding pleasure in the work itself . Jobs termed “throwaway” jobs by policy commentators a few years earlier, are shown as sources of dignity and satisfaction to these workers.

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s,policy analysis and journalism often portrayed  jobs in the practical economy as jobs to be avoided at all costs.  No matter that these practical economy jobs usually provided a service that people desired (car repair, hair care, nursing home care) or produced a real product (baked goods, pawn shop items). Still, they were often characterized as  throwaway jobs, distinguished by lack of challenge, tedium, low status, and low wages.

The most influential account in shaping this throwaway jobs view was  Barbara Ehrenreich’s  Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, published in 2001.[1] Ehrenreich takes a series of low wage service jobs over a year’s period—as a waitress in Florida , a housecleaner and nursing home aide in Maine, and a Wal-Mart employee in Minnesota. She takes these jobs without indicating her education or background on her job applications. She lives only on the wages she earns, which means she stays in cheap motels and apartments.

Ehrenreich is a talented observer and writer, and her book set the meme on practical economy  jobs. These jobs are distinguished by their low wages, well below what is needed to support a family. These jobs have no mobility opportunities. Further, they are characterized by difficult physical labor (waitressing, cleaning hotel rooms, nursing home care), unsafe and unsanitary conditions, and/or constant petty humiliations ( psychological tests and drug tests).

Also in 2001, novelist/writer Ben Cheever published  Selling Ben Cheever: Back to Square One in a Service Economy, with critique of the non-knowledge job world.[2] Like Ehrenreich, Cheever is a college graduate, though unlike Ehrenreich he does not hide his background. He takes service sector jobs outside the knowledge economy. Over a period of five years he works as a Burns security guard, a telemarketer, a salesman at CompUSA, a salesman at Nobody Beats the Wiz, a sandwich maker at Cosi Sandwich Bar and a car salesman at Wegman Auto.

Cheever introduces  the reader to several former while collar workers  he meets in these jobs who have been fired or downsized from higher-status and higher paid jobs. Downsizing is a main theme of the book: a former IBM manager who is working at the car lot on commission, a certified public accountant who is working at the computer store, a Burns security guard who tells Cheever he’d been  a phone company executive. Other themes are the tedium, repetition and difficulty of surviving on the low wages of sandwich making, or security guard, or commission salesperson.

Even at the time of these books and other critiques of the service sectors, a number of writers dissented from the conventional wisdom. They showed the practical economy jobs in some positive light, including the craft possible in the jobs. A few  followed the approach of Ehrenreich and Cheever and took practical economy jobs. Charles Platt, a senior editor at Wired Magazine, took a job at Wal-Mart, and though he highlighted the low pay, he also highlighted the craft possible in a retail clerk position.[3]  Adam Shepard, a recent college graduate, set out with $25 in his pocket in Charleston, South Carolina, living in a homeless shelter. He  moved through a series of practical economy positions to show the income and mobility possible even in low wage jobs.[4]

The re-emergence of craft in the practical economy, though,  found its fullest expression in the   first decade of the 2000s with the rise of the work reality shows. These shows focused not on the knowledge economy jobs of analysts, lawyers, accountants, software engineers, web designers. Instead, they show craft and meaning in the jobs of bakers, car repairpersons, waiters, ice road truckers, pawn store owners, and antique restorers.  Four of the highest rated of these shows were “The Cake Boss”, “America’s Next Top Model”,  “American Pickers”, and “Pawn Stars”. They are worth briefly describing, for their celebration of the diverse forums for craft.

“The Cake Boss” premiered on April 19, 2009, on the TLC network. The main character is Buddy Valastro, who runs a bakery in Hoboken, New Jersey. The bakery, Carlo’s Bake Shop, has a baking and sales crew of nearly 30, including Buddy’s mother, four sisters and three brothers-in-law.

On the surface, the “Cake Boss” episodes are standard sitcom fare. On Christmas Eve, the crew must pull together to meet a rush of customers, which allows Buddy to reflect on the importance of family. A drag queen, Miss Richfield 1981, orders a “happy holidays” pop-up cake, which the crew must deliver to her New York City show. The shop’s two delivery guys, Anthony and Stretch, dress up as elves to deliver a cake to a women’s fashion business.

What is original, compelling and important about the show is the job values it demonstrates.  Buddy and his crew do not approach baking as low skilled, production work. Instead, they are craftsmen; operating with creativity, care for detail, and willingness to put in time to get the product just right. Buddy and crew approach the pop-up cake and the women’s fashion cake as works of art, just as they approach the other theme cakes they create (robot cake, roller stake cake, billiards table cake and life-size race car cake). “I’ll redo a cake 10 times if I have to,” Buddy says of his drive. “I’ll work, you know, four days straight. I will do what I have to do to get the job done.” Even with the non-theme items, the regular cupcakes, cookies and pies, Buddy and crew continually are looking for ways to innovate, improve, be creative.

Though Buddy calculates how to make money, he also approaches the bakery as a calling. Through the bakery, he is serving others. He is providing his customers, mainly Hoboken residents, with quality cakes and cookies that they value and derive pleasure from. Further, through his response to customer demand, he creates a job not only for himself but also employment for others.

“Cake Boss” has led to other shows featuring the craft of bakery workers, “Ace of Cakes: and “Amazing Wedding Cakes”, as well as the craft of cupcake specialists, “Cupcake Wars”, “Cupcakes Girls” and “DC Cupcakes”.

                “America’s Next Top Model” (ANTM) premiered in May 2003, on the UPN network, and quickly became one of the highest rated shows on the network, continuing for over twenty seasons (2 seasons per year). Despite on-going changes in the judging panel, the format  remained similar: each season started with 10-14 contestants and each episode one contestant was eliminated, based on modeling ability.

ANTM was criticized as over-emphasizing female physical appearance. Yet, the main message of ANTM was exactly the opposite. Listen each week to host Tyra Banks and technical advisors Jay Manuel and  J. Alexander: Modeling is far more than looking good, modeling is a craft. A model cannot simply show up. She must study the rules and norms of modeling, must understand photo-shoot directions, must master the runway walk. J. Alexander, the runway adviser, speaks about balance and posture and meeting the client’s goals, rarely about looks.

“American Pickers” premiered on the History Channel in January 2010, and has continued to the present. It focuses on Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz, whose business is “picking”, traveling throughout the country to purchase antiques and collectibles, from ordinary people. Usually, the goods are in run-down condition and are in need of repair or restoration. The pickers try to identify the gems among the bars and antics of junk.

For  Mike and Frank, their business is craft and calling. They are looking to make a profit in their antique restorations—each week, the Pickers announce, “We’ll buy anything we can make money on”, and “Where other people see junk, we see dollar signs”. In practice, though, they purchase antiques that will not be profitable, but are objects of beauty or importance that should not be lost. Mike purchases a rusting guitar which he’ll probably lose money on because he believes it should be rescued; so too with Mike’s collection of Indian motorcycles and vintage bicycle that are more labors of love than money makers.

                Pawn Stars is another work reality show on the History channel, premiering in July 2009, and continuing to the present. It focuses on the workers at the World Famous Gold & Silve Pawn Shop,  a family-owned pawn shop in Las Vegas, Nevada. The main character is Rick Harrison, and he works with his father Richard “Old Man” Harrison,  son Corey “Big Hoss” Harrison, and Corey’s friend Austin “Chumlee” Russell.

These pawn shop workers daily meet with customers who bring in a wide range of items, from old cars to silver goods and furniture, to sell or pawn. The workers provide history lessons on the items, as well as discussion of their cost estimates. The pawn shop becomes not a cheap and empty  means of commerce. Rather, it is an on-going history lesson, by workers whose mission is to identify and rescue artifact.

Beyond these four shows are more than twenty work-reality spin-offs, variations and competitors in the same industries and others: “Pimp My Ride” on workers in an auto custom repair  shop,  “Tabitha’s Salon Takeover” and “Shear Genius” on hair stylists, “Ice Road Truckers” on long-haul truck drivers in isolated areas of Canada.

II. Craft, Calling and the Autism Workforce

                How refreshing  are these work reality shows; and how much they canhelp all workers, those with autism and the neurotypicals, recapture jobs in the practical economy. How much the these shows can push back against the idea of “throwaway” jobs, and help all workers try to find craft. For it is in craft, our economy obtains quality services and products. It is also in craft that workers inject meaning in jobs.

This point about meaning is worth elaborating on. The same job that one baker, hair stylist or nursing home attendant might regard as without meaning, can be a source of pride for another worker. It all depends on perspective and craft.

Perhaps no book expresses the values of perspective and craft in the practical economy better than one of the early 1970s, Studs Terkel’s  Working. [5]  The book subtitled, “People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do”, is an oral history of workers primarily in practical economy jobs: waitress, bookbinder, cement mason, gravedigger and other non-knowledge occupations. The popularity of the book was due in good part to the craft described in these jobs, and how workers injected meaning in their work.

A waitress tells Terkel, “When I put the plate down, you don’t hear a sound. When I pick up a glass, I want it to be just right. When someone says, ‘How come you’re just a waitress’, I say, ‘Don’t you think you deserve being served by me.’”

A bookbinder takes pleasure in repairing old books because “a book is a life”. A gravedigger takes pride in the neat lines and square edges of his work.

In the years since Working was published, other books have addressed this relation of craft and work meaning in our post-industrial economy, notably Robert Schrank’s  Ten Thousand Working Days[6] and Don Snyder’s The Cliff Walk. In The Cliff Walk: A Job Lost and a Life Found,  Don Snyder, a former college professor, details his loss of job in academia and re-emergence as a carpenter. [7]  Snyder first describes how he loses his job as a college English professor, remains unemployed for  a lengthy period of time, and is reduced to supporting his family through food stamps and handouts. He slowly gets his life back together, first by taking a job as a golf course maintenance main ($8 an hour), then as a carpenter ($15 an hour) and finally as a handyman ($18 an hour). As the book ends, he is getting back to a middle class lifestyle. Much of the book is about the satisfaction and craft Snyder finds as carpenter and handyman, in  providing a service that his client homeowners need.

For adults with autism, craft will offer a source of meaning. It will also offer a competitive advantage in many cases. The founders of the autism-focused businesses and autism-focused hiring initiatives of the previous chapter see their experiences as bearing out a competitive advantage in craft. Other professionals in autism employment have come to this view.

In chapter 11 on technology employment, technology professionals spoke of the autism advantage in certain technology positions, such as software testing and quality control. These professionals identified abilities in concentration, comfort with repetition and memory for detail that were held by many adults with autism and central to job performance.

So too these abilities are main elements of performance and  craft in the practical economy, and linked to adults with autism. For car wash owner John D’Eri, his workers with autism perform better than other car wash workers, in concentration, attention to detail and loyalty. Ms. Heather Davis, the parent of a son with autism and prime mover behind the TIAA-CREFF apple orchards business, claims that the ten apple harvesters with autism perform better through their concentration and routine than other harvesters. “Most people not on the autism spectrum get bored” Ms Davis told an interviewer, but for someone with autism “routine isn’t such a problem for them”. [8] The performance study of the workers with autism at the Walgreens Distribution Centers reported better performance outcomes by these workers and lower turnover.

Going forward, an autism advantage in the skills linked to craft needs to be further explored, documented, and hopefully built upon.  Job coaches and counselors and others who work with adults with autism (including family members) need  to be aware of the advantage, help cultivate these craft skills and sell these skills to employers.

By no means will all workers with autism possess these craft skills, but experiences so far should give us hope that many will do so. Approaching employers under the banner of craft will be the better strategy for expanding autism’s domain in the practical economy.

[1] Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, Henry Holt and Co., New York, 2001.

[2] Ben Cheever, Selling Ben Cheever: Back to Square One in a Service Economy; A Personal Odyssey, Bloomsbury, New York, 2001.

[3] Charles Platt, “Life at Wal-Mart”, Boing Boing, February 1, 2009.

[4] Adam Shepard, Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream, Harper Collins, New York, 2008.

[5] Studs Terkel, Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How they Feel About What They Do,  Pantheon, New York, 1972.

[6]  Robert Schrank, Ten Thousand Working Days (MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1978.). Schrank, a former Ford Foundation official, details the many jobs he has held over the fifty years of his work life. He starts in the 1920s in a furniture factory and over the next years works with his hands as a plumber, coal miner, and machinist. He then turns to a career as a union official, city commissioner, and foundation official. In these latter jobs, he continues to be plagued by the thought that he is not “productive”. He adds, “I must confess that since I left the shop floor I have never been able to answer that question satisfactorily for myself or my fellow union officials, or for professionals, academics, or consultants.”

[7] Dan Snyder, The Cliff Walk: A Job Lost and a Life Found, Little, Brown and Co., Boston, 1997.

[8] Susan Ladika, “Companies Find Fruitful Results When Hiring Autistic Workers”, www.workforce.com, July 16, 2012.  Ms. Ami Klin of the Marcus Autism Center at Emory University tells the writer,Ms. Ladika, that her research shows adults with autism pay close attention to detail and following rules, to a greater extent than other workers, and are more reliable than other workers.

The post Autism Job Club appeared first on Wrong Planet.

Barbara Bissonnette is the Principal of Forward Motion Coaching, and specializes in career development coaching for individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome. This is a sponsored article.

Since 2006, I have coached individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome on how to find and keep employment. My clients include young people who are entering the workforce, and individuals in their 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. Job seekers work with me to explore occupations, learn interviewing skills, and develop effective job search plans. Employed people need help addressing performance problems, improving their interpersonal communication skills, or planning how to disclose their Asperger’s Syndrome and request accommodations.

I wrote The Complete Guide to Getting a Job for People with Asperger’s Syndrome, and the Asperger’s Syndrome Workplace Survival Guide: A Neurotypical’s Secrets for Success to share ideas and strategies that my clients have used successfully. Here are my Top Ten Tips for getting a job and staying employed.

If you are looking for a job…

1. Respond only to positions for which you are qualified. Although you do not need to meet 100% of the criteria in a job ad, you do need the critical competencies. These are listed first, and may be emphasized with phrases such as, “demonstrated success using;” or “must have.”

2. Target your job search. Looking for too many different jobs at once quickly becomes overwhelming, and makes it hard to prepare for interviews. Instead, limit your search to one or two job categories.

3. Rewrite your resume if it isn’t producing results. The purpose of a resume is getting an interview. It is a marketing document that must clearly communicate the value you bring to an employer. If you are qualified for the jobs you are applying to, but you are not getting interviews, you need to revise your resume.

4. Volunteer while you are looking for a job. This offers several benefits. It provides current experience to include in your resume. The people you interact with may know of job leads. It also adds structure to your week. (Usually, when people have too much free time, they have trouble getting things accomplished.) Try to find a volunteer opportunity that is related to the type of paid work you want.

5. Don’t mistake sending resumes with a job search plan. Passively sending resumes over the Internet is the hardest way to find work! Most people find jobs through networking, or direct contact with an employer (e.g. internship, part-time job). There are several ways to network that do not involve walking into a room full of strangers. An effective job search plan will have four or five activities that you perform on a consistent basis.

Keeping a job is contingent upon meeting your employer’s performance expectations, and getting along with your co-workers. Hard skills, which are the proficiencies needed to perform the technical aspects of a job, account for only about 20% of the abilities that employers want. The remaining 80% of desired abilities are soft skills, which relate to interpersonal communication and working within a group. Soft skills often present the biggest employment challenge for people with Asperger’s Syndrome. If you are employed…

1. Develop hard skills that are that are in demand. Employers are more willing to overlook “eccentricities” in individuals who have technical skills and expertise that are hard to find.

2. Make the most of soft skills that you already possess. Communication is not the only important soft skill. Qualities such as honesty, helpfulness, loyalty, conscientiousness, and creativity are also valuable. Look for ways to maximize your personal attributes on the job. For example, is your work very accurate because you are careful and methodical?

3. Accept feedback and act on it. Some individuals resist employer feedback, questioning whether there is really a problem, or becoming angry when asked to change. Others become anxious and ignore the issue, hoping that it will resolve itself (this almost never happens). If a problem is brought to your attention, think about what you need to change in order to solve it. Get help from someone you trust, if necessary.

4. Consider disclosing to your employer. For some people, disclosing their Asperger’s Syndrome makes the difference between keeping and losing a job. The Americans with Disabilities Act compels employers to make accommodations for employees or applicants who have a disability. The Job Accommodation Network (www.askjan.org) offers free information about the Americans with Disabilities Act, workplace disclosure, and accommodations.

5. Find a work buddy. This is a colleague, preferably a peer or someone in your department, who can translate the myriad unspoken workplace rules for you. A work buddy can explain what the real job priorities are, suggest short cuts to improve your efficiency, or fill you in on office politics. While this can be a formal mentoring arrangement, most times, your work buddy is someone you like and trust.

If you are having difficulty finding work, or managing your current job, try one or more of these tips. Learning new skills, and experimenting with new strategies, can dramatically improve your results. 1 Top Qualities and Skills Employers Seek, Ronald Manalastas,

Barbara Bissonnette’s books, The Complete Guide to Getting a Job for People with Asperger’s Syndrome and Asperger’s Syndrome Workplace Survival Guide, are available from Jessica Kingsley Publishers. As a special benefit, Wrong Planet readers can get a 15% discount on Barbara’s books as well as on JKP’s complete list of books on autism, Asperger’s Syndrome and related conditions. Order on the JKP website using voucher code JOBS13 on or before July 31, 2013 to receive the discount.

Jessica Kingsley has over 500 books, videos and other resources in print covering all aspects of the autism spectrum. Click this link to sign up for a free copy of JKP’s Complete Autism Catalog.

Keep up-to-date on the latest new books, contests, author events and other fun stuff by “liking” the JKP Autism Community on Facebook.

Wrong Planet’s Summary

“The Complete Guide to Getting a Job for People with Asperger’s Syndrome” is an excellent resource for anyone with ASD that needs help choosing a career, finding a job, or managing the social complexities in the workplace. Author Barbara Bissionnette is an expert on her topic and has written a book with so much great advice, it should be required reading for anyone that is having a tough time finding a job or facing challenges at work. Parents of adult children with ASD will find he book’s information extremely valuable in their own efforts to support their adult child in the workplace.

The book is comprehensive in scope with topics on effective job search plans, successful marketing and networking strategies, insightful interviewing techniques, tips on how to stay motivated during a job search, when to disclose a disability, and how to request workplace accommodations – pretty much anything a person with ASD needs to know to become successful at work. Throughout the book are great organization tools with templates of profiles, checklists, and planners that can be copied or downloaded by the reader.

If you have ASD and are just starting your job search, looking for a job more than 6 months, or fired from numerous jobs over the last few years, this book was written for you!

Friends of Wrong Planet receive a 15% discount off their purchase, so don’t forget to enter voucher code JOBS13 when placing your order.

The post Ten Tips for Getting and Keeping a Good Job appeared first on Wrong Planet.

Like many individuals with autism, I’m prone to misplacing things. Unfortunately, I recently lost one of the worst things you can lose; my wallet. No one wants to endure a situation as such. What should someone who has AS do in a situation like this (but may feel overwhelmed with a blank stare)?

The easiest way to deal with this type of situation is not to lose things in the first place. Keeping your wallet in a specific pocket and always checking to make sure it’s there before leaving places is a good rule to prevent misplacing it. Another tip is to never take it out unless you need something from it. When you do take it out, immediately put it back in the pocket in which you keep it.

However, even if you try your best to keep track of it, you could still lose it. Here’s what to do if, like I did, you lose your wallet. . .

1. Contact the local police station/public safety officials. I went to the station a few blocks away and told them what had happened. They took down everything I said, and filed a report. Although the station’s policy is for people to call, my instinct was that the police don’t always respond to calls as quickly as possible. So, I walked over there.

2. Contact your bank. I called my bank’s 1-800 number listed on its website. I talked with a customer service rep., and she froze my checking and savings accounts. After leaving the local police station, I talked with my local branch’s customer service rep. (who has been helpful and another reason why it’s not a bad idea to establish a good banking relationship with your financial institution). She will be forcing certain transaction through the bank’s system, and told me if I didn’t find my wallet by Friday. She will close my accounts and create new ones (along with a debit card). Currently, I can make withdrawals from inside the local branch.

3. Contact your insurance carrier/agent. Regardless of whether or not you have life insurance, health insurance, or even a variable annuity, you don’t want the wrong hands getting your insurance information. I contacted my health care insurance provider, and they will be sending me a replacement card within the next 7-10 days. Additionally, they gave me critical information I needed, in the event I should end up in a hospital or go to the pharmacist.

4. Contact your local Social Security Administration office about your situation. SSA requires that people need some sort of identification (like a birth certificate) in order to get a replacement SS card. If for some reason you are unable to get to your local office, the phone number for SSA in Washington, DC is (800) 772-1213. Someone at the national branch took my information (because I had forgotten to tell someone at the local branch about my situation, and referred me to (6.)

5. Notify your local branch of your state’s DMV (department of motor vehicles). Because I have a valid driver’s license, I did not need additional identification to obtain a replacement card. However, many states may require a birth certificate, social security card, or other identification in order to obtain a replacement.

6. Contact the Federal Trade Commission’s ID theft hotline. Their number is (877) 438-4338. After taking my information, they put a fraud alert on my account. So if anything fishy is happening, I will get a call on my cell phone from a retailer, etc, asking if I want to ok a transaction. Of course, I won’t The FTC gave me the telephone number for (7.)

7. Contact your credit reporting agencies. If you have a very good credit rating, identity theft could ruin it and more than you could ever want. I think it was Experian (one of the three national credit reporting agencies) that has the following number: (800) 525-6285, EquiFax and Trans Union are the two other credit reporting agencies in the United States. Fraud alerts were placed with all three agencies. Within a week or two, I will receive information from them confirming communication. That leads to (8. and 9.).

8. Make sure you get a credit report (free online) within 90 days after reporting potential identity theft. You want to make sure you check for anything unusual that might arise in the report. Things like new accounts, past due payments (which you have been making monthly payments on time), any amount that you didn’t put on a charge account, and anything else that is out of the ordinary or doesn’t “feel right” to you.

9. Everything else. Contact any and all places that you have loans, co-signed or not. Contact those you co-signed with on anything. Contact credit card companies. Consider contacting other places, as needed.

In closing, identity theft will exist. It’s not what happens when people experience identity theft. How people respond to being taken of their identity may or may not affect their lives in the long run to a large extent. Most importantly, stay calm as much as possible and take control of the situation. Be proactive and not reactive. Realize that you are facing a strongly adverse situation. However, don’t let your emotions get the best of you or you may find yourself feeling even worse.

This information is for people who live in the United States. If you live outside the USA, contact the appropriate authorities/agencies in your country.

I hope that this has helped you greatly. I know it has for me. By Scott Kramer

The post What to do if you lose your wallet or it gets stolen appeared first on Wrong Planet.

Maja Toudal is a student with Asperger’s I met in Copenhagen, Denmark. Here are her tips for succeeding in your classroom.

I realize that not every part of this will be applicable in every country. We have different educational systems, and this is tailored to mine. This is meant as an inspiration to what you can do to make the student-teacher relationship go well from the beginning.

When I begin a new semester there’s a conversation I must repeat. Actually, it’s getting to the point where it’s more of a monologue. I have some diagnoses that make it difficult for me to be in a classroom, and while I do my best to deal with it, there are still a few things that will be affected.

I need a place – preferably always the same – on the first row, and away from the door. This allows me to create an imaginary sensory bubble around myself, the teacher and blackboard, which excludes the rest of the room. That way, I can pay attention in class. It is exhausting to do this, and to keep it up, but not as much as every other strategy I’ve tried.
As for taking part in the class, I do my best, but the teacher should never expect me to take part in group work. It is one of the most stressful things to do, and I am only capable of it on very good days, in a group of two with someone I like. That’s a problem in Denmark, because group work is a huge part of our educational system.

When I explain my issues with it to teachers, I try to keep a non-dramatizing, matter-of-fact tone, and let them know that I will generally learn more for the whole week if I am not forced into group work, due to the extra stress it would cause to take part in it.

I will have to take a day here and there to decrease my stress levels. I am aware that this pattern in absence can easily appear as though I am skipping school, and because of that I find it important to let the teachers know that this is not the case. I mention it in an effort to avoid misunderstandings.

Finally, I tell them not to worry about me learning the subject. I’m a good student and I will work hard to do as well as I can. After this conversation, we’re usually on good terms.

I have not promised to be perfect. I have not promised that I will be a straight A student – only that I will do my best. I’ve also been open and honest. This is something most people appreciate.

On the really bad days, I remind myself that whatever I do, I must not piss off the teachers. There is nothing at all to gain from it. I want them to be my allies, not my enemies. So I am always polite to all teachers.

Aside from this, I keep two things in mind:
I can only expect them to take me seriously if I uphold my end of the agreement. So no matter how long I will be taught by this person – one semester or several years – I have to do my best.

Second, my diagnoses are explanations, NOT excuses. So while they demand attention on certain points, they do not keep me from being a decent person or student, or from advancing both in education and in social matters. I must always improve.

As for the conversation itself, the key elements to it going well (there are no guarantees!) are:

1) Be polite Make sure everything seems like a request, but one that will make it all easier for both parties.
2) Be exact About the difficulties and the solutions.
3) Make it short The whole conversation, from “hello” to “thank you, goodbye”, should only last 5 minutes – remember you can always have another at a later time.
4) Only give the necessary information Don’t explain every detail of the difficulties that are relevant. Present them in short, simplistic form, and stay focused on what they need to know in order for things to go as smoothly as possible.

Maja started writing songs when she was 9 and released her debut album, Live, Acoustic & Stripped less than a year ago. She has also released quite a few singles, available online.

Listen to Maja’s Music on Myspace and check her out on Facebook. and check out her music channel on Youtube.

Maja also has a youtube channel where she talks about Asperger’s and Autism.

The post How to Deal with Classrooms and Autism appeared first on Wrong Planet.

Jerry Webster is our newest columnist. Jerry will be serving as WP’s official Special Education expert. Here’s his first article:

I remember well the first time I heard the title of Oliver’s Sack’s book, An Anthropologist on Mars (1995.) I had seen the movie Awakening and read a couple stories from The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. I remember hearing that it was how a woman with autism described her experience in the neurotypical world. It was only later I discovered it was Dr. Temple Grandin.

It comes back frequently, as I am in my fifth year of teaching students on the Autism Spectrum, now in Las Vegas, Nevada. I find I spend a lot of time trying to understand how my middle school guys (all boys in my class) see and understand the world.
As well as post graduate education from Pennsylvania State University, I am also the online guide for Special Education at About.com, and read and review a lot of resources. Nevada is one of the few states that require an autism endorsement for teaching, and I have it. But I am also an anthropologist.

I’m clearly aware that the “Anthropologist on Mars” quote referred to Dr. Grandin’s experience of the neurotypical social world. She found it baffling. In interviews she did around the time of the release of Animals in Translation, I heard her say that she had no need for a primary “romantic” relationship.

I know that is not true for all people on the spectrum, especially young men on the higher functioning end of the spectrum as well as people diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome. I was delighted to read the front page article http://specialed.about.com/b/2011/12/29/serendipity.htm) where I spent lots of time trolling, getting to know more about the organization and Alex, the founder.

As the special education guide for About.com, I write for special education teachers. I see my role as providing resources for the whole range of teachers, those who work in resource rooms to those who deal with students with multiple handicaps. I have noticed a lot of interest in articles I write about social skills and behavior management. I also have found that many of the books written about teaching social skills are designed for therapists in clinical settings or afterschool programs. In my situation, and classrooms like mine, there are a range of abilities. Some of my guys are able to participate in some general education classrooms with support: they have Aspergers or high functioning autism but their difficulty in dealing with the expectations of a general education classroom makes a full day impossible. Others are low functioning. There are no social skills programs that can support both groups.

It’s time to write the book. I have decided I need to address this need, using the resources I have at hand and research that has already been done. It will be a middle school curriculum with a cafeteria style organization, to equip teachers and provide a rich menu of options. It will involve emotional literacy, scripting, video modeling and video self-modeling, role playing and lots of explicit teaching, using the “teaching interactions” method from the Autism Partnership. It will also involve peer mentoring.

What I really need is feedback and suggestions from the Autism Community, from family members and those on the spectrum. I need to know what is essential, what you have done that didn’t work or seemed like a waste of time, what you wish someone had taught you.

Alex and I spoke by phone the last week of 2011, and he agreed to give me this opportunity. I’m thrilled (I’m also on the forum with my own name) to contact the community and get your input. I hope you will share based on these questions:

Jerry will be reading the comments. He’s looking forward to hearing your answers to these questions so please comment!

The post An Autism Anthropologist in Need of Help: Special Education and Autism appeared first on Wrong Planet.

Joanne Houldsworth is the parent columnist for WrongPlanet.net. She covers autism through the perspective of a mother of a young son with Aspergers Syndrome. She writes a weekly blog, entitled Aspergers: A Mom’s Eye View, where this article was originally posted.

OK, I’m a nerd….I’ll admit it. I’m one of those kids who loved school, adored books and even enjoyed a challenging homework assignment! (Can’t you just see that big “L” on my forehead???) For me as a child, the end of summer brought a mix of feelings. On one hand, I adored the long, lazy, unstructured days spent playing with my friends. On the other hand, the siren song of the new school year enticed me…all those new supplies, new school clothes, new books, new teacher and treasures of knowledge – vast potential awaiting me. Even today, although I won’t be heading off to school myself in September, I feel that nostalgic excitement building. Instead, I live vicariously through my children – planning, dreaming, imagining all the promise ahead for them.

But for Gregory, now heading into 5^th grade, September brings with it, not excitement and anticipation, but dread and anxiety. Typically, Gregory has had a very difficult time adjusting to each new school year. The new teacher, new room, new schedule, new class work – all requiring simultaneous adaptation – has often proven too much for him to cope with. He would have melt-downs during school, followed by full-blown tantrums at home. At school, it would be shredded projects, head-banging and crying jags. At home we experienced slamming doors, projectile toys and even running away. Obviously Greg’s limited and over-taxed coping mechanisms were insufficient to meet the burdens being placed upon them.

Over the years, we’ve learned a few ‘tricks’ that have helped his school year transitions. And while Greg’s transition into 4^th grade was not without episodes, it was by far the smoothest to date. I’m hoping that by applying some of the strategies that we’ve developed, this fall will be even better!

With that in mind, I wanted to share some of the tactics that we’ve employed previously with good results:

1.

Select the ‘right’ teacher.

The personality and teaching style of the teacher can have dramatic impact on the student. While no one type of teacher is ‘right’ for every student, there most probably is a ‘right’ teacher for each child.

In Gregory’s case, the type of teacher that has been most positive is one who is nurturing, but has good control and structure within the class. He/she is knowledgeable about Asperger’s Syndrome (and Greg’s need in particular), but maintains high expectations for success and achievement – both academically and socially. And perhaps most importantly, Greg’s ideal teacher must maintain a calm, accepting, tolerant classroom, where the students support one another.

To help make sure your child gets the appropriate teacher assignment, start a dialogue with the guidance councilor, principal and current teacher the spring prior. Discuss the types of teaching qualities to which your child responds best. Include teacher assignment in the annual IEP meeting. While our school administration will not necessarily make commitments or talk ‘specifics’ about teachers, the open discussion at least puts everyone on the same page about the needs of your child. And face it, if your child transitions well and has fewer disruptive episodes, everyone benefits.

2. Maintain skills over summer months.

Gregory is a perfectionist and finds it very stressful when he can’t do something or when he gets answers wrong. To help combat this anxiety, I have Gregory (all three of my kids, actually) read nightly and do two workbook pages every weekday during the summer break. They are free to read anything they would like, but I’ve utilized the Summer Bridge Activities workbook series by Michele D. Van Leeuwen for a several years now. The material varies each day, but includes math, reading, writing, language and science over the course of the summer. Since the work is based on the previous year’s curriculum, all the material is review, which makes the tasks fairly simple and the enables the child to feel successful. And most importantly, this practice keeps the material fresh in the child’s mind, ready for the new school year.

3. Meet teacher before school starts.

Last year for the first time, I arranged for Gregory and me to visit the school the week before school started. It enabled us to meet his new teacher, see his new classroom (including which seat was his), see a list of other kids in his class, look through his new books, etc. We included the guidance councilor in the meeting and took this opportunity to discuss some of Greg’s challenges and strategies. The school was calm and quiet and Greg could stroll around at his leisure, taking it all in at his own pace. He loved the experience and became more excited for the first day of school. And when the first day arrived, Greg was already an ‘expert’ about his new class, entering with confidence instead of anxiety.

4.

Build positive excitement – but not too much!

Knowing how stressed Gregory can get about the new school year, I am careful to not talk about it too much ahead of time. I might mention it in a round-about way, saying something like, “Look how much you’ve grown. I can see you are ready for 5^th grade.” I’ll also mention in passing the particular kids who will be in his class and maybe even some of the things he’ll be learning and doing (for example, the 5^th graders put on a musical at the end of the year.) I want Gregory to know that the new year is approaching (so as not to catch him off-guard) and that he has a lot to look forward to, but I don’t want to build it up too much.

5. Maintain close communication with the teacher.

Since so much with Gregory is helping him manage his moods and emotions, during the first few critical weeks of school, I have almost daily communication with the teacher. I will email the teacher to let her know if something at school that day was difficult or stressful for Gregory, so that she can head-off an issue the following day. If he has a rough night or morning at home, I will also alert the teacher, so that she knows to handle him with kid gloves…at least until she senses his mood.

6.

Hold off on extra-curricular activities.

Knowing that Gregory’s senses and coping mechanisms are worked over-capacity at the start of the school year, I’ve learned not to have him start any other new activities after school for at least 6 weeks or so….and that includes play dates! He needs the after school time to decompress from the stress of the day without any added pressures or performance expectations. In fact, I usually encourage him to have some down-time (such as riding his bike, swinging or jumping on the trampoline) before even attempting homework. In that mode, I also try to minimize any weekend activities or commitments during September to provide maximum down-time.

7.

Define safe havens at school and at home.

Even with the best laid plans and sensitive accommodations, Gregory will sometimes ‘lose it’. His emotions will get too big for him to manage and he’ll have a melt-down. We’ve arranged with the school, teacher and guidance councilor for a specific place to go when he feels the need to escape. In our case, Greg’s ‘safe haven’ is the guidance councilor’s office, where hopefully she will also be available to aid him in calming down. At home, Greg’s bedroom is his safe haven to escape from the intrusions of family life with two noisy siblings. We’ve also equipped his room with a beanbag chair which provides added sensory input to help him calm down.

So, as September fast approaches, I can feel my excitement brewing. I’m avidly anticipating back-to-school shopping for shoes, clothes and supplies. I’m drooling over all the brochures that arrive in the mail daily, announcing great sales and a myriad of after-school activities. As I drive past our local elementary school (at least 5 times every day!), I look over fondly, imaging my kids in their new classrooms, absorbing all those ‘treasures of knowledge’ that I so enjoyed. And hopefully, with some planning and foresight, Gregory’s transition into 5^th grade will be smooth sailing, and someday he’ll be able to think back upon his back-to-school days with fond nostalgia too.

Do you have any strategies that have helped ease your child’s back-to-school transitions? If so, I’d love to hear them!

This story was originally posted on Asperger’s – A Mom’s Eye View

The post Back-to-School Basics – Asperger Mom appeared first on Wrong Planet.