Mod 8-Transition to Adulthood

We might consider Jonny as being far from his transition into adult life. However, as we have heard and seen in many commercials "Life comes at you fast."

Even though we are helping Jonny's family manage his transition into a school- age kindergarten program, we need to be aware of all the skills that we can teach him as a preschooler or as early elementary student that will help him be successful as an adult. Helping Jonny manage his environment by placing supports initially but removing them as he is successful will help him be less prompt dependent as an adult, minimizing the 'learned helplessness' that is alluded to by Miller-Kuhaneck. Continued development of Jonny's social skills in small group setting will allow him to become more successful as he attempts to interact with peers in school and in other social situations. We can both expect and hope that the many years of practice will only allow Jonny the chance to enjoy a happy adult life that includes productive employment and fun with friends!!

Week 7: Family: Living with autism

As review from the first post, Jonny lives with his parents and older brother. Both parents work and he spends long hours between his specialized classroom and daycare before going home around 5:30 each weekday. There is little consistency between program's although program staff are assigned to the daycare to teach them strategies that are used in his classroom. Because of the parent's work schedule , the communication book sent home from the classroom does not have much information on how tings are going at home and requests to ask for information may go unanswered for several days.

Jonny 's emotional state is very variable. he can be smiling one minute an become very 'whiny' and upset the next. Although he is not a physical or aggressive child, this behavior can be very upsetting for parents as they try to move through a normal routine after having a long day at work, especially since they do not see their child for very much during the weekday.

Obviously these parents are very overwhelmed with their home responsibilities and raising 2 children, 1 with autism. It appears that beyond environmental complexity and processing for Jonny, as stated in previous posts, that some of his behaviors are learned in order to attain what he wants to do in the easiest way possible over 3 very different settings. The best suggestion is to get all parties working with Jonny at the table again and discuss a plan that is very consistent with all 3 environments. Jonny is going to the school age program in the fall, so really 4 programs should be involved. It has been very difficult for parents to be able to attend meetings, so the chances of this happening are not great, but Jonny's greatest chance of success for next year will be to at least gather the groups that will be involved with him as he starts in the fall.

Module 6: Social Skills and Perspective taking, mental flexibility

Jonny has many challenges in independent participation in his preschool setting, even when provided with antecedent supports such as social stories and review of the rules for play during free time. Jonny’s difficulties lie in the areas of perspective taking and social referencing ( attention, eye gaze and joint attention).

Jonny has many special interests that he enjoys engaging in during free play time. One of them is dressing up in a cowboy costume and walking around the room. He enjoys other children and tries to get some of them to participate in the dress up routine, but he attempts to specify the costume the other child should use. His lack of perspective taking makes it difficult for him to understand it when the child protests using the particular costume and decides to play something else. In addition, if a child does decide to play, he becomes so consumed in walking around with his costume he forgets the other child is also playing with him.

Social referencing is also an area that affects Jonny’s interactions with others in the classroom. He has difficulty in maintaining attention during circle and often needs to be called personally to respond while many others have answered chorally. He needs more specific and repeated attempts by staff to get his attention in order to get him to follow a point or a gaze toward the area that has the item of interest that the teacher is discussing. When Jonny tries to express himself, he is often turned away from his peers and is not able to modulate his voice to be sure that he is heard and understood. In addition , unless an adult tells him, he will continue repeating the same message over and over, not realizing that he needs to modify his delivery and not sure how to go about doing it when he does. The lack of response to his requests results in Jonny getting very ‘whiny’ and upset, and he sometimes drops to the floor and refuses to participate further.