Strategies to Transition to Independent Living

Strategies for transition to adulthood should begin prior to the student reaching 14 yrs. The therapist and parents need to discuss the resources in the community and legislative issues that help or assist with funding. We could look in Autismspeaks and ASA for local chapters and begin active participation in support groups. It would be very beneficial for families to talk to other parents in the community to see what resources are available- Awareness. We would look in to the Individualized Education Program for answers as the child turns 21. Parents, families and caregivers need to know about Americans with Disabilities Act, IDEA and the benefits of each. Parents may not always be around, therefore caregivers and other family members must be aware of community support.

Knowing that many children with autism later become successfully employed in the fields of math and science, we would need to identify these strengths early and include them in our interventions- continue to strengthen them. Colleges and Universities are now more supportive of the full inclusion idea. Some programs include Grade13. At any rate, there needs to be early preparation for the transition and likelihood of college education. The ASD individual should be able to select an interest based on his strengths, and the OT and life coach need to be ready to address the social implementations. The young adult should have ample opportunities and encouragement to engage in scouting, little league, soccer clubs, etc. to strengthen his social skills.

Module 7.0 Living with Autism: Impact on Family and Siblings

Jake lives with both parents and 5 y.o. sister. The father is self employed and they live in a country setting as what I would describe a typical middle-class family. This home setting does not allow him many opportunities to interact with others outside his home or in his neighborhood. Jake does not fully understand the dangers of traffic and will run out of the yard and into the street. Dad is not as involved in Jake’s treatment as we would like him to be. He is the primary breadwinner of the family, but he needs to offer some alternatives for Jake and mom. The interactions could be very beneficial to Jake.

Mom has the most interactions with Jake and attends every appt. even accompany him during therapy interventions. (I can’t help but to stress the overbearing nature that I feel she imposes on him by directing all his responses. There is not much time for him to process his thoughts or provide a response- whether correct or not. I addressed this again with his primary therapist and she agrees that it could be limiting his learning potentials.). Jake’s preferred communication style for learning thus far has been with verbal techniques. He is lacking the cognitive abilities to realize abstract thoughts or ideas, or so it seems. The abstract thoughts and prompting issues were discussed with mom, and she states that she will be aware of her interruptions as well. Jake needs room to explore and expand his abilities- freely. If mom sees Jake make positive advancements with learning and his play, she identifies a greater need to jump in and lead him. This has a negative impact on Jake’s initiation attempts. We continue to work with mom to decrease “prompting”. While every parent wants their child to succeed, it is sometimes through our mistakes that we learn.

Module 6 Facial Inversion and Configural Processing

Individuals with autism struggle with facial perception and processing as well as reading facial expressions for social interactions. Similar to the characteristics of ASD, these processing skills are no different in Jake. While he will greet you with a hello or good bye (with prompting)- he does not readily make eye contact. To this point I have not called attention to see if it is the eye contact that he avoids while focusnig more on the mouth, or if he is just making head contact. What is clear is that he avoids looking at you during most interactions. This will be observed more closely over the next several interventions.
During our tx interventions with Jake, he is not able to process the emotions (amygdala) or facial expressions that guide our treatments. During one practice session, we ask him to practice imitating our “funny faces” to express emotions and verbalize what we may be feeling. He is unable to complete 2 faces without prompting and cueing at this time. This will play a later role as he continues to develop his social skills and coping strategies. His peer relationships and interactions in large crowds may be impaired as well.