Snapshots from the perfectly logical world of Asperger Syndrome
Here, Gail Watts – mother of a son on the Autism spectrum and primary school teacher – shares a couple of her favourite illustrations from her new book, Kevin Thinks…about Outer…
Tag: speech and language therapy
Combining ideas from SLT and OT to Speak, Move, Play and Learn with Children on the Autism Spectrum – An Interview with America Gonzalez and Corinda Presley
“The idea was born out of a spirit of collaboration that came up when we noticed that our students were working on similar projects but with an OT or SLP spin. Another way we came together was when the speech team would make quesadillas with the students to work on sequencing, vocabulary and describing goals. And the OT would say, “Can I jump into your activity to practice cutting the quesadilla into triangles with my student?” And so we began to purposely create activities around both OT and SLP goals. We recently found out that the University of California – San Francisco has built therapy rooms for the explicit purpose of the collaboration between therapists. This is a wonderful step towards collaborative therapy.”
How professionals can help empower parents of a newly diagnosed child with Autism Spectrum Disorder
“Professionals need to feel comfortable as facilitators of parents’ learning and engagement with their child at home, rather than seeing themselves as therapist experts who work one-on-one with children. While the latter is sometimes necessary, the former is where we can have the biggest long-term impact on helping parents realise their full potential and assisting them to maximise their daily interactions with their child so that they become more responsive to their child’s needs and communicative attempts. This builds positive parent-child relationships.”
VIDEO: Building Successful Relationships with People on the Autism Spectrum
Brian R. King is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and an international consultant on the Autism Spectrum. He, his wife and their three sons are…
An Interview with Michael Barton, creator of a new illustrated guide to the confusing world of idioms and metaphors
“I never actually drew the pictures to be entertaining! I did the drawings because that’s what I thought when I heard the expression… However I soon realised that people found my drawings amusing because they then realised how little sense the English language makes!”
Fostering independent learning, participation and inclusion in education and beyond
By Dr Dorothy Howie, author of Teaching Students Thinking Skills and Strategies: A Framework for Cognitive Education in Inclusive Settings. The teaching of thinking has…
Incorporating Music into Speech and Language Therapy for Kids with Autism Spectrum Disorders – An Interview with Dr. Hayoung Lim
“Children with ASD appear to have intact pattern perception and production ability. They also tend to follow the Gestalt style of language acquisition which is based on the pattern perception. In parallel, all of the musical behaviors require pattern perception and production; and these abilities are commonly found in children with ASD. It follows that patterns in music can facilitate the Gestalt style of language acquisition and the consequent speech- language development in children with ASD.”
“One should never underestimate the capabilities of children with special needs or their creativity.” – An Interview with Johanne Hanko
“…one of my favorite games [in the book] is ‘Contemporary Music or Drawing Music’ (activity #80, page 103) because I was told not to use this game with children with differentiated capacities or in mainstream classes because it would lead to failure: ‘Children in special education and elementary school children cannot compose,’ I was told. Well I can tell you this is not true. I was amazed to see the creativity of some of the children, while all came up with something different and interesting; some compositions were quite beautiful. One should never underestimate the capabilities of children with special needs and their creativity.”
VIDEO: A preview of children’s book ‘The Red Beast’ by Kay and Haitham Al-Ghani
Last April, JKP celebrated World Autism Awareness Day 2011 at the V&A Museum of Childhood’s special autism event and exhibition. The highlight of this special day was a reading…
Looking beyond “bad” behaviour – Melanie Cross on the importance of recognising communication difficulties in young people
“Non-compliance might be due to not understanding what’s been asked and not knowing how to ask for clarification. What might be seen as a refusal to explain might be due to difficulties constructing coherent narratives. Conflict resolution and negotiation require high-level language skills and if these are lacking, then aggression can result. If adults do not recognise the underlying communication problems, the children and young people who experience them can be misunderstood and even misdiagnosed.”