The Parents' Guide to Teaching Kids with Asperger Syndrome and Similar ASDs Real-Life Skills for Independence - Softcover

Romanowski, Patricia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0307588955 ISBN 13: 9780307588951

Verlag: Harmony, 2011

Inhaltsangabe

The definitive resource for teaching kids with Asperger syndrome the life skills that build independence, confidence, and self-esteem. 

Children with autism spectrum disorders learn differently. Our kids' choices are too often limited and their paths to success restricted, not by a lack of intellectual ability but by deficits in acquiring, applying, and generalizing basic life skills. Success in school, at home, on the playground, and beyond depends on mastering countless basic living skills that most other kids just "pick up" almost by osmosis. 

This book shows parents how to teach these so-called easy skills to complex learners. This is the first book for parents and caregivers of kids with Asperger syndrome and similar learning profiles that features strategies based on applied behavior analysis--the most widely accepted, evidence-based, and effective teaching method for learners with ASDs--including how to:

-Identify critical skills appropriate for your child's age--how to teach them and why
-Implement new techniques that can replace, mimic, prompt, override, or impose missing order on your child's learning style
-Design a curriculum for your child that reduces reliance on prompts (including parents) and promotes new learning, new behaviors, and independence

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Patricia Romanowski Bashe is the coauthor of the acclaimed OASIS Guide to Asperger Syndrome, a board-certified behavior analyst,and the mother of a son with Asperger syndrome.

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Mission Statement

At every age, at every level, people with Asperger syndrome and similar autism spectrum disorders too often fail to gain access to or sustain participation in social, emotional, educational, vocational, and recreational situations they consider meaningful or desirable. 
The skills that they need for independence are often mistakenly considered "simple" and "easy" enough to be learned without intensive intervention, direct teaching, and guided practice. However, we now know that having Asperger syndrome and other forms of autism spectrum disorders complicates the learning--and the teaching--of these "basic" skills.
There are specific, research-based, and data-driven strategies and techniques for teaching these skills. Most of them are based on applied behavior analysis, or ABA. While we can do little to change how someone with Asperger syndrome learns, we can do much to change how we teach. 
For many of these skills, the best place to learn is at home, and the best-qualified teachers are parents and others who care. 

Chapter 1

Is this your home?

Is this your child?

Nine-year-old Sally’s friend Beth just knocked on the door. Beth is the ideal buddy for Sally: kind, understanding, and tolerant of Sally’s Asperger/autism quirks and odd phobias. This is a perfect--and all too rare--social opportunity.

“Come on, Sally,” Beth says. “Let’s go!”

“Wait for me! Mom has to tie my shoes.”

While Beth waits at the screen door, Sally roams through the house whining “Mooooommmmmm!” until she finds Mom halfway through infant brother Nick’s diaper change. A typical five-year-old would read her mother’s tone of voice and follow her request to wait. But Sally can’t do that, so she melts down, crying and stomping her feet. Overhearing the commotion through the screen door, Beth looks around nervously. She knows that Sally is “different,” and she’s witnessed some of these tantrums before, in class, right before Sally’s special teacher takes her out of the room. Maybe, Beth thinks, Sally doesn’t really want to play after all. Two minutes later, when Mom finally can tie Sally’s shoes, Sally is in such a state of emotional upset that she can’t go out to play. And it doesn’t matter anyway, since Beth has taken what she assumes is the hint and gone off in search of another playmate, someone who is not such a “baby.”



Ten-year-old Tommy has just received his first invitation to a sleepover with a group of boys at his church. Though Tommy has Asperger syndrome, he attends his neighborhood school, has been successful implementing his new repertoire of social skills during specially structured group activities led by the school psychologist, and has recently started talking about wanting to “be like the other kids.” He’s even made a couple of friends who share his interest in all things Pokemon.

Tommy’s father, Craig, stares blankly at the colorful flyer announcing the sleepover, listing drop-off and pickup times, a night full of activities, and a supplies list. As Tommy anxiously pulls at Craig’s arm, begging, “Can I go, Dad? Can I go?” his father wonders what the adult group leaders will say if he asks them if it’s okay for him or his wife to drop by around bedtime. Despite years of occupational therapy and countless attempts to teach him his bedtime routine, Tommy still needs help brushing his teeth, washing his face, and attending to the finer details of toileting hygiene. Already a veteran of teasing from older bullies at school, Tommy can’t go it alone, and Craig knows it. What will the other ten-year-olds think when Mommy or Daddy shows up at the sleepover? He’s overheard some of the kids at the bus stop calling his son a “weirdo” because Craig or his wife waits with him until the bus comes. Either way, it is a risk. Craig starts racking his brain for a way to tell Tommy that the family has “other plans.”



Sixteen-year-old Adam scowls as his older brother, Aidan, sits staring at the flat screen and furiously kicking his ninja opponent by clicking the buttons on his Wii controller. “It’s not fair!” Adam whispers just loudly enough to ensure that his mother hears. “Every night, it’s ‘Adam, set the table’ ”--the dull thud of stoneware plate against the woven cotton placemat--“ ‘Adam, fold the towels’ ”--a louder thud--“ ‘Adam, load the dishwasher.’ ”

After a long day reviewing briefs on her next case, Christine is beat. But, as she often says, nothing that crosses her desk at work is ever as hard as what she does at home. Adam has a valid complaint--one she’s heard a thousand times. And what can she do about it? Aidan is Aidan; he will always be Aidan. It isn’t fair, but life isn’t fair.

“You know why!” she hisses, crossing the kitchen to stand close enough to Adam to stop him from thunking down the next plate. With her hand on his, Christine looks into Adam’s eyes as she says, “You know Aidan can’t do these things. You know--”

“It’s the Asperger’s. Right, Mom, I do know. How could I not? It’s the reason he can’t do anything around here, and the reason I can’t hang out with my friends, because I have to do everything he can’t.”

Christine pats her son’s shoulder. “I know, honey, but it’s just his fine-motor skills--”

“Like what he’s using right now, playing with his video game?”



Do these scenarios sound familiar?

They may if you are one of the millions--parents, grandparents, family members, friends, or teachers--who know and care about a child with Asperger syndrome, a child like Sally, Tommy, or Aidan. These are the kids who have come a long way in growing through an early diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), kids for whom we all share high hopes and in whom we sense uncharted potential. Yet despite years of special education, intervention, social skills, and other therapies, we find these kids stuck, stranded, and left behind academically, socially, or emotionally.

Is this your child?

At every age, at every level, individuals with Asperger syndrome (AS) and similar ASD learning profiles too often fail to get access to or sustain participation in social, emotional, educational, vocational, and recreational situations they consider meaningful or desirable. Dr. Ami Klin, chief of the Division of Autism and Developmental Disabilities at Emory University School of Medicine, and director of the Marcus Autism Center, in Atlanta, says, “There is an enormous discrepancy between their cognitive power and their ability to negotiate everyday life.” One reason is that they often have failed to acquire skills or learn behaviors needed to pursue socially relevant, personally fulfilling goals with no assistance or with the least amount of assistance possible. Many of these skills are often mistakenly considered simple and easy enough to be learned without intensive intervention, direct teaching, or practice.



HOW DID WE GET HERE? FROM OVERLOOKED TO OVERQUALIFIED FOR HELP

Interestingly, the need for intensive, structured, and data-based instruction and practice in these areas is well recognized and addressed for children with other forms of autism and types of learning and cognitive disorders. Little ones with autistic disorder or pervasive developmental disorder--not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) tend to be identified while still babies or toddlers....

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Harmony
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2011
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0307588955
• ISBN 13: 9780307588951
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 400
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: MUSIC STORE professional GmbH; 022188841282; Lars.Mueller@musicstore.de; ; Istanbulstr. 22-26; Köln; 51103; Deutschland