bridges mid-funct. adults and parents w/ nonverbal children?

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And yes, I do think most of us should at least consider embracing the label mid-functioning. Hell, even if I were a rock star, all that would mean is that I've gotten extraordinarily lucky. I'd still have the same patchy skills, sensory issues, need for alone and recoup time, and meltdowns that I have now.

Parents of nonverbal kids, on the other hand, hope upon hope that they'll find some kind of miracle cure. They certainly don't want to hear the advice, embrace the spectrum.

And I trust that we have largely learned that it's about engaging the world, not conforming to it. Or that conformity is merely one tool and probably best done sparingly.

Okay . . . what advice and info might we give parents?

Okay, I understand that learning sign language has positive transfer with spoken language. Meaning, if a child not yet verbal learns sign language, that actually speeds and helps verbal language if such is going to come.

This is something parents should know.

Communication is more important than speech. Push to teach a child to communicate in whatever modality is easiest and/or most comfortable for her. If she can string together sentences, but gets less frustrated and upset when using AAC or letterboards, let her use them.

Don't make everything about therapy, appointments and improvement. Autistic children are still children, and deserve to just be themselves for a while every day. Don't get so focused on fixing them and filling their schedules with classes and therapies that they don't have the opportunity to relax and do the things they enjoy. Just because you see lining up toys repeatedly to be a waste of time, doesn't mean they see it that way.

Don't talk about them in front of them without acknowledging their presence. Just because a child may not speak, or may appear to not be paying attention, doesn't mean he can't hear you, or isn't listening to what you're saying. Treat him with the same respect you'd afford anyone else.

ACC being a good-sized screen with pictograms, right?

And I bet this has positive transfer just like sign language.

From my perspective, one would want to replicate success stories, someone who has raised a low functioning or mid functioning autistic child and transformed them into a high functioning autistic or Aspie. The one case that I know about is Jason H.J. Lu who had 2 non-verbal children that he has successful helped make that transition. He wrote a book called "Eikona Bridge" which he describes the approach he used. Jason is a member of this message board and pops in here every now and then.

It would be great if some writer/researcher could make a point of interviewing lots of people who either (1) learned to talk very late or (2) are unable to talk but have learned to read and write/type. A collection of interviews with such people, plus interviews with their parents, could be very helpful to parents of nonverbal kids, it seems to me.

This may be a bridge too far!

Look, I’m all in favor of long shots and quasi-miracles and hitting home runs. I just don’t want to put forward to parents that, say, a 10% chance is somehow standard or automatic.

Many times NTs devise programs and approaches to help low and mid level autistics. And IMHO many of these programs do not work. Aspies (or High Functioning Autistics) look at life differently, we are a lot closer to the problem and in many cases are smart enough to create unique solutions. So I am not talking about quasi-miracles or long-shots but rather developing best practices.

I know you’re talking about best practices and not quasi-miracles. I just want us to understand that even some best practices might, for example, only work 70% of the time. And when they don’t work, we should easily and gracefully move onto another best practice.

I think the label of “professional” probably works against the person providing the teaching and coaching. Yes, they want all their training to amount to something. And not just difficulty in admitting a mistake, they even have difficulty in acknowledging something that’s a good idea is just not working well in a particular case.

Last edited by AardvarkGoodSwimmer on 27 Jan 2020, 11:12 am, edited 3 times in total.

Thoughts on these ?


https://www.outcomesstar.org.uk/using-t ... -and-adhd/

Not real impressed.

When I went to the site and drilled down, it seemed a bunch of generalities.

CSULB - Temple Grandin - Focus on Autism and Asperger's Syndrome

from 2007

I like the part at the beginning in which Temple emphasizes early childhood intervention and older, experience speech teachers.

Which I take to mean . . .

Experienced with a variety of methods and approaches, and not necessarily married to any one particular theory.