ALAS Newsletter

• Contributions by children with Autism and Asperger Syndrome
• TEACCH course - North Carolina
• Practical tip - progress in drawing

Contributions by children with Autism and Asperger Syndrome

• The art gallery Pictures which have appeared in the newsletter
• Matthew's Home Page
  Not strictly a newsletter item. However this will tell you a bit about the special interests of a teenage boy with Asperger syndrome.

TEACCH Course, North Carolina - August 1997

TEACCH - Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication handicapped CHildren

The first day consisted of lectures on Autism, assessment, and the structured teaching approach, with a timetable for the remainder of the week for our work with the children. At the end of the afternoon two parents joined us to talk about their children, and to answer our questions about how the TEACCH programme supported them and helped them cope with living with a child with Autism. That was followed by a cheese and wine session.

For the remaining four days, we were divided into five groups, each of five people with varied backgrounds. My group consisted of an occupational therapist, a behavioural consultant (someone who goes into a school to advise on managing behaviour), two teachers with responsibility for setting up specialised education programmes and me. The days followed a set pattern and we worked with a different child and his/her trainer.

The children, aged from 6 years to 17 years, included four boys and one girl and they were of varied ability, from non-verbal to having quite competent language skills. They arrived at 9.00am each morning and stayed until after lunch ie. 1.00pm, when they were fetched by their parents whom we then met and talked to about the morning's activities. The parents were very friendly and saw the courses as providing their children with summer activities, but they were also were very aware that their children were there to help us with our training rather than the reverse. However, each child had the same course trainer with them for the whole time and this provided them with some continuity.

The first task each morning was to review the timetable and then to divide into our small groups to observe our child working with their trainer while we focused on one of the following aspects of their learning each day, communication skills, a cognitive activity, a domestic activity and a leisure activity. One evening there was a dinner for the course participants to which all the trainers and some adults with Autism were invited. I had an interesting discussion with one young man who was very keen to discuss Hong Kong independence and American history, especially how the English lost the 13 States, each of which he named. I later learnt that he is regularly invited to these dinners and that he always asks for a list of the names of each course participant, and where they come from, so that he can prepare suitable discussion topics.

Most people were anxious about working 1:1 with a young person with Autism with whom they were unfamiliar, and in front of the rest of the group and the trainer! I was the "hands on"" person on the day when we had to develop the communication goal. Alex was 17 years old with good understanding and expressive language but limited conversation skills. When we met in the morning he was very fascinated by my English accent and as he enjoys word plays this was a good introduction. Alex could read so we were able to make use of this to complete his timetable. He enjoys going out to eat and we structured a conversation around restaurants with the goal of trying to expand his responses.

TEACCH puts great emphasis on assessing what skills a child already has, which skills are emerging, and what are the child's interests. It starts from the premise that the child has Autism and therefore needs a very specific approach as s/he will learn in a different way and we should accept that and plan accordingly. The child will need to be presented with an environment that is physically well-structured with visual and auditory distractions that are minimised to help the student focus on the concept not the details. The student will need visual presentation of his/her daily schedule in a way that can be understood independently, eg. objects, pictures or words, depending on the ability of the student. The student must be able to recognise visually what work there is to do, when s/he has finished and what happens next. The aim is to help the person with Autism understand what to do, so reduce anxiety, to learn appropriate information, and become as independent as is possible. So often the student with Autism is highly reliant on adult prompts and able to do little on his/her own. Each activity that is developed is designed with the intention that once learnt in a 1:1 setting can be able to carried out independently. This is also true for daily living skills as well as more academic skills and there is discussion and collaboration with parents to develop aims for using at home, eg we watched the little girl brush her hair properly on her own by putting a coloured peg in a hole each time she brushed once, blue for the right side and red for the left. We tried to teach her to play a ball game which would be a good social activity but realised when we attempted it with her that our visual presentation was confused and that was the reason it did not work well. It was our fault not hers! So often it is the child that is blamed when s/he fails to do the activity rather than the way it was presented. I was impressed by the independence of the children and the confident and relaxed way in which they carried out their daily programmes despite being observed and interrupted by groups of new people.

The course was excellent as it provided the theoretical background of the approach followed by practical "hands on" experience with children which taught us how to use our knowledge. There were specific ideas that I hope to suggest to schools and parents that will be relatively straightforward to put into practice. I learnt a great deal and feel very enthusiastic about trying some of the ideas. Tony O'Sullivan followed a different programme organized by the TEACCH division at the same time as my visit, and we had time to discuss our different experiences and gain a wider perspective of the TEACCH approach.

Gill Stephenson - Specialist Speech and Language Therapist
From the November 1997 Newsletter

A practical tip

The Three Bears

This drawing is something of a breakthrough for Josh - previously his drawings consisted of lines (railway tracks) or swirls (fireworks).

Josh has problems with fine motor skills and is a left hander and up to now he has had great difficulties with holding a pencil correctly.

This has been resolved in an ingenious way by Josh's Primary Helper, Carol Webb, at Lewisham Bridge Primary School. She got Josh to hold a small plastic farm animal "Charlie Pig" in the palm of his hand whenever he was to draw or write. With two fingers holding down Charlie Pig his only option was to hold the pencil in a tripod grip. Now three months later he no longer needs to hold anything and his pencil control, writing and drawing continue to improve.

Sue Graves
From the November 1997 Newsletter