A view of autism from along the spectrum

My wife and I place high expectations on our school district. However, we are also pragmatic and know that there are many things competing for the attention of teachers and administrators. We recognize that, in some situations, it’s faster and easier to accomplish things on our own than trying to work the system. Providing information on autism for mainstream teachers is one of those situations.

One of our boys has been mainstreamed since kindergarten. He starts third grade next week, which means his fourth teacher in four years. He’s also on his second full time para. Right or wrong, we don’t expect that every mainstream teacher knows as much about autism as we’d like. My son’s teachers receive a lot of support from special educators, school psycologists, etc, but we want them to know the basics of autism on their own.

The same goes for his paraprofessional (or ‘aide’). Paras’ experience vary greatly and, in general, the school district does not do much to prepare them. When my son got a new para a year or so ago, she admittedly knew very little about autism. She had supervision and support, but was certainly willing to learn more on her own.

We gave two different resources to teachers and aides recently. We may ‘lend’ the materials but if the teacher or para wants to keep it, we’ll happily go buy another.

The first is a publication developed jointly by the ASA and the NEA (and other professional organizations) called The Puzzle of Autism. I hate the title but I think it is a wonderful overview of autism for an educator. It’s only 44 pages total and about 25 pages are content on autism. I can’t imagine any teacher not wanting to take the time to read it. Copies of the guide have been made availalbe from the NEA, and while they are currently out of stock, you can download the document and print it.

The second resource is a book titled How To Be A Para Pro : A Comprehensive Training Manual For Paraprofessionals. Although not clear from the title, the book is written for paras and teachers of students with an ASD. The first part of the book presents an overview of ASDs and the second part focuses on how paras can provide appropriate supports. One of the co-writers, Diane Twachtman-Cullen, has authored several books on autism.

Again, it would be great if the school provided these resources, but I don’t mind investing an extra $20 or so each year in the kids education. Providing it ourselves is also a good way to start a dialogue with the teacher.

I begin a one week vacation today, not to travel but simply to be home with the boys. For the next week, while my wife is working full time, I get to spend the day with the boys, setting the agenda on what we do, where we go, what we eat, and just about everything else. It’s a real treat to have both the responsibility and the freedom to make the decisions. My wife and I do a great job working together as parents, and I couldn’t imagine doing it without her, but sometimes it’s nice to be independent for a while.

My wife and I work our schedules like this a lot during school breaks, and it’s how most of my vacation is spent each year. It’s usually a few days at a time and I’m looking forward to having a whole week. It’s much easier to get into a routine over the course of a week.

We’ll do some ‘guy’ things and we’ll do some things that the boys normally do with mom. Sometimes the boys will enjoy the change and, as I’ve already seen today, sometimes I will just be messing up their routine. I’ll be ready for that to happen and we’ll all get to practice our flexibility.

We’ve had a great half of day so far and we’re actually having some ‘quiet time’ after lunch. We ran some errands this morning and as I tried to get my youngest off the tire swing and into the car, he informed me:

You don’t do errands! Mom does errands! You’re not thinking right!

My first coaching opportunity had presented itself.

I love this job!

I was doing some work at home late last night when my wife said “You’ve been tagged.” For us “tag” is a code word meaning “You are now 100% responsible for the children.” I looked at her, thought about the fact that the kids were both in bed and asleep, and replied, “Uh, . . . OK.” She then smiled and said “You have no idea what I’m talking about do you?” I’ve learned that this is the type of question that can get you in trouble if you answer wrong, so I stalled for time and said, “Huh?” She then explained about Ian’s post.

Here we go:

1. I married the girl next door. OK, she was really the girl downstairs and we were in our twenties when I rented the apartment upstairs (from her dad, no less). I call this close enough to the ‘girl next door’. As I write this, I’m upstairs and she’s downstairs. We’ve long since moved but some things haven’t changed.
2. In the car, I only listen to AM talk radio and geeky podcasts. I listen to a lot of music but the only music radio station I’ve tuned into years is WMVY. Thanks to the internet I don’t have to to to Cape Cod to listen.
3. I taught myself to use biodfeedback / meditation to cure frequent cases of the hiccups. I figured that if Buddhist monks can do this to lower their heart rate I should be able to control spasms in my diaphragm. It worked the first time I tried it and has been near 100% effective. Since I’ve learned this technique, it only takes me about 30 seconds to rid myself of the hiccups and I don’t have to drink water upside down.
4. The last time my face was completely clean shaven was during Ronald Reagan’s first term as president. I sport the common goatee / moustache combination that is called a Van Dyck.
5. My license plate reads “PRRT-HD”. It was a gift from ‘the girl next door’ when I celebrated A Pirate Looks at Forty day. It came with an inflatable shark, a cheesburger, a margarita and a change in attitude.

I’m not going to tag anyone else, at least for now, because I’m behind in my blog reading and I don’t want to tag someone twice.

Here I am posting another piece of fluff . . .

I notice that more and more bloggers are using captchas in order to fight comment spam. Captcha is the name for the image of blurred and twisted letters that you must decipher and enter before submitting a comment. They are used because automated programs cannot read the letters (yet!) and if they can’t read the letters they can’t leave comments directing people to adds for drugs and bodily enhancement products.

The problem with captchas is that I can’t read them either. I always think I can read them and then I type the letters and confidently click submit. Most of the time, the program gives me a message telling me I was wrong and that I need to type the letters correctly next time. There are times when I pay extra close attention and am absolutely sure that I read and typed them correctly. I click submit and get the same message telling me to try again with a new set of letters.

I give blogspot.com lots of credit for the design of it’s captcha program. Whenever I incorrectly type in a captcha at blogspot, it gives me a new captcha that is noticeably easier to read. I call it the old guy with bad eyes captcha. It’s kind of comforting that blogspot recognizes me everytime I leave a comment. Now if only I could get blogspot to give me the old guy with bad eyes captcha on the first try, I’d be very impressed.