Autism Across the Lifespan

In this story about Danny whose development was delayed possibly due to genetic, biological and environmental factors, the techniques I used to draw him out were based purely on intuition. They included elements of Greenspan’s “floor time”, and “informed and acute observations of child to determine level of functioning” to become “functionally integrated and connected”. This interactive work “addresses developmental delays in sensory modulation, motor planning and sequencing, and perceptual processing (Current Interventions, n.d., p. 2). Danny entered pre-school in 1983, and was never assessed for any disabilities or learning disabilities—nor did he need accommodation, as he appeared to fully integrate during those 20 or so months.

Chloe, as a teen, wrote, “Sometimes it can be like as if your words are stuck, locked in a jail, and you cannot get them out, or the words you want out that is”. Chloe was diagnosed with PDD-NOS and wrote about the processes her brain wiring went through in order to speak—while thinking about sitting in the chair, the hidden “rules of curriculum” (which came naturally to others), and trying hard every minute to keep it all glued together. A thought would get stuck, frustration would arise, self-regulation wan as attentions were elsewhere, overstimulation of all systems going, and would then hit the wall. “So next time you think about criticizing me or yelling at me…think about how hard this world is for me…” (Rosthchild, 2011). There was nothing to be done about it, she was tired of being poked and prodded to dispose of something that is part of who she is—something that cannot be unlearned, extinguished or changed. Chloe would have been in school during the 1990’s when autism was still thought of as “bad behavior” or mental illness which was to be medicated.

I had spent two years in training to counsel persons with dual-diagnoses (usually drugs and mental illness), but in 1990 the program quit seeking funding for programs to help those “who would never recover” or become working members of society. I don’t know about the educational field, and how they nay have seen autism apart from the general population, but this past decade has bee the one for advancement in Human Development, Psychology, and Disability fields due to government initiatives. In 2003 the government announced that recovery from “mental illness” was possible, and that the best options for recovery were peer mentors who had been through recovery themselves. At the time, this also inferred across to autism, which was also still thought of as “mental illness”. Court cases began to uphold parent’s request for Lovaas programs to “teach child[ren] how to learn by focusing on developing skills in attending, imitation, receptive/expressive language” using the ABC model (antecedent, behavior, consequence)—first replications of initial research reporting gains in IQ, language comprehension and expression, adaptive and social skills” (Current Interventions, n.d., p. 1).

Sondra Williams is an adult with Asperger’s syndrome, on the autistic spectrum. While she is a national speaker on autism, she finds verbalizing and being a participant of speaking the words at the same time, overwhelming at times. Because autism is a processing overrun situation, all sensory pathways can be reacting to the other person’s movements, scents, body language, the sounds of her own words…leading to chopping sentences, and inappropriate timing in conversations. These types of sensory problems were being labeled as “schizophrenic delusions” just 20 years ago. While Sondra says it is easiest to have a pre-rehearsed script of what she is going to say—like a speech—that in conversation she prefers to type on her iPad. She advocates that “parents and professionals…observe and watch for signals and clues of how the person is already attempting to communicate or what skill sets they already have, and try to transfer that to a model that matches their ability level…” (Rothschild, 2012). Sondra would have been educated in the 1960’s, before medicalization of all disorders or the special education mandates.

Today, while we have a medical model, with person-centered approaches buddying, there are many alternatives to education and also alternatives to medication. Special education seeks to reach out to those in need, and offer different ways of communicating. Twelve-year-old Emma has gone from a classroom where she is misunderstood and where everyone doubted she could learn—to speaking, first through RPM, and now by typing into an iPad. Soma, the creator of the Rapid Prompting Method, can be seen **online working with a student on the advanced stencil board; the next step is typing on the iPad. More about Soma’s workshops can be accessed **online. As I am writing this, Emma’s first video of writing with the stencil board was posted. Emma is going to school in the mid 2000’s educational system and special education programs have been tried, but in spite of her IEP, without Soma’s RPM program, no one would know that there is a bright person in there! We cannot stick with just the proven, or best evidence interventions, because all interventions begin out of need and intuition.

References

Current Interventions in Autism—A Brief Analysis. (n.d.). Bethesda, MD: Autism Society of America. Retrieved 3/11/2014 from: www.wrightslaw.com/info/autism.methods.compare.pdf

Rosthchild, Chloe. (2011). Stuck in the Mud: Explaining the “Stuck” of Autism. Retrieved 12/30/2013 from: http://makingprogresswithautism.blogspot.com/2011/11/stuck-in-mud-explaining-stuck-of-autism.html

Rothschild, Chloe. (2012). Autism and Communication: An Interview with Sondra Williams. Retrieved 12/30/2013 from: http://special-ism.com/autism-and-communication-an-interview-with-sondra-williams

The Unfolding Miracle. (2012). Holladay, UT: Equitable Balance, Inc. Retrieved 3/11/2014 from: http://equitablebalance.wix.com/home#!untitled/c1w2f

**Soma works with student: www.halo-soma.org/videos.php?small-stencil.flv

Soma’s workshops listed at: http://emmashopebook.com/2010/06/07/soma-mukhopadhyays-workshop

Emma writing on stencil board: www.youtube.com/ no longer available