You are currently browsing the archives for April, 2012.
An Evening with Dave Rice, UNLV Runnin’ Rebels Head Basketball Coach is taking place on May 4, 2012 at the Palms, Las Vegas, NV. This special evening will include celebrities, an auction, dinner, and presentation of the Armon Gilliam Award. What an evening and all of the proceeds support the Dave Rice Foundation & UNLV Center for Autism Spectrum. My husband and I will be there.
My new children’s book, Bayo the Boo Cow, launched today from Ink and Quill Publishers. Bayo means “To find Joy.” A little cow in a big world finds joy through determination and hard work. Oral motor exercises for parents to assist their young child with speech development accompany Bayo.
YOU, the parent, the teacher, the caregiver, ARE the model that a child sees. Be cautious in what you say and do. Children learn from YOU.
If you are happy ~ your child will glean joy in his/her life.
If you are strong ~ your child will learn strength.
If you share convictions ~ your child will learn to stand up for what is right.
If you show kindness ~ your child will be a giver.
If you have faith ~ your child will learn that faith will defeat despair.
If you have love ~ your child will learn that love can sustain.
These are my words, my beliefs, my experience. Kathie Harrington
Many people on the autism spectrum teach themselves. In other words, they know WHAT to learn. What they are lacking, misunderstanding, or just do not glean like typical people do, is the HOW to learn.
Kathie’s Sweet Sixteen
I would like to think that my Sweet Sixteen would cure this HOW to Learn gap in people with autism but cure and autism should not be used in the same sentence. I do know that if all of these Sweet Sixteen principles are applied to every activity and across environments, they will help the person with autism in the following ways:
• Expressive language
• Receptive language
• Social language
• Improved eye contact
• Eliminating undesirable behaviors
• Attention/focus
• Theory of Mind (understanding emotions of others)
• Anxiety reduction
Sweet Sixteen
These principles are not only good for children with autism;
they are beneficial for all children.
Let your common sense, not any one program,
drive each activity you do with a child.
1. keep the child interactive within each environment to gain independence
2. use turn taking
3. many activities should be done simultaneously to enhance each other and overall effectiveness of communication skills
4. use positive, tangible, and/or verbal reinforcement
5. find the child’s reinforcement preferences and use them for motivation
6. use a combination of visual, auditory, and tactile stimulation
7. focus the activities toward the student’s ability to self-monitor
8. any activity is only as good as the amount of enthusiasm and anticipation the speaker (SLP) brings
9. find and build on the child’s strengths
10. move the activity from individual to small group with typical peers as soon as possible
11. share successful activities/strategies between the home and school
12. maintain a structured, predictable, and routine setting
13. offer choices very early (start with two items and add more slowly)
14. maintain a highly verbal environment using self and parallel talk (statements not questions)
15. the child needs an investment in all activities: holding, coloring, counting, cutting, manipulating, choosing, drawing, writing, selecting
16. vary the activity while keeping the goal the same ~ use a variety of stimuli to maintain interest
I am the Keynote Speaker at this year’s Florida State Speech/Language/Hearing Association Convention. Come, “Experience the Magic.” I will be delivering three presentations: Keynote Address, “The Magical Kingdom of Autism,” and two other presentations: “Experience the Magic of Statements,” and “Magical Pacing Board.”
You see, WHEN YOU WISH UPON A CHILD, your dreams come true.
This pic makes me think of my husband, Tim. Last week he drove the Shrine van over to CA to the hospital. One boy went in with crutches and came out without them! “I can play soccer now,” he shouted. Isn’t life grand.
What I want to share with you is what Dr. Temple Grandin communicates to her audiences that are important for SLPs and their families with whom you work. These are important because they are life-long. Autism is life-long.
• The strongest piece of advice I can give to both teachers and parents is to develop the child’s strengths and teach them from those.
• Drop the label and look at the kid.
• We are too hung up on autism. Autism is part of what I am but it is secondary to what I am.
• Don’t worry if you are not doing evidence based therapy/strategies. See what works with each individual child and use it or drop it and try something new.
• Sort everything into categories (teach categorization).
• Teach by specific examples.
• People with autism get worse when they get tired. Sleep is important and many have sleep problems.
• Give children a lot of experiences. Get them out in the real world.
• Start teaching social rules in the real world – one specific explanation at a time.
• Sit kids by windows (natural light) in classrooms.
• Laptops and tablets are better than desktop computers. Desktops often flicker to people with autism.
• Children with autism do not hear hard consonant sounds. Use flashcards to teach and practice them.
• Echolia is output. It is not that they do not understand.
• Children with autism need three types of sensory integration:
For sensory seeking
For picky eating habits
For low tone kids
• Anxiety is a part of all people with autism (many, including Temple, are on medications for anxiety – if so, these medications need to be increased in small increments)
• People with autism do not get enough exercise.
• People with autism build relationships through shared interests rather than emotions, but we do have many emotions.
• By the age of middle school, people with autism need to get a job outside the home.
• To person with autism, sell your skill, not yourself.
• It is important to teach good manners.
• For behaviors, make things consistent and constant with the consequences.
The Autism Awareness Ribbon –
The puzzle pattern reflects the mystery and complexity
of the autism spectrum. The different colors and shapes
represent the diversity of the people
and families living with the condition.
The brightness of the ribbon signals hope—
hope that through increased awareness of autism,
and through early intervention
and appropriate treatments,
people with autism will lead fuller,
more complete lives.
I like this symbol and its definition because it does not talk about a cure for autism/ASD. Rather, it portraits awareness, hope, and the mystery of life itself, through the eyes of autism. The representation includes not only the person with autism but it includes families and professionals through treatment and intervention. In other words, this little puzzled ribbon covers the autism spectrum.
I feel guilty because today I thought to myself with great relief, I’m so glad that I don’t need to go grocery shopping today. Then I looked at the headlines in Syria and I once again thought about all of the women over there who prayed, I so wish I could go grocery shopping today so that my family can eat.
My husband, Tim, has brought home an Easter Lily to me every Good Friday for the past 44 years. This year, he didn’t bring one home to me. Instead, Tim took me and together we picked out the perfect lily for the middle of our table. It has plenty of buds to bloom ~ just as our love always has. It’s like a kiss from an Easter Lily. Happy Easter.
