This is a few minutes of footage from a KVCR TV show I was on in April 2006 to promote Autism Awareness. It was an hour show where we answered questions from callers. The producer and moderator is Lillian Vasquez of KVCR, and the other guest is Patty Gross Founder of Northstar (where Jeremy’s assistance dog, Handsome, came from). Lillian has produced a few shows on autism creating great community awareness.
How the Rapid Prompting Method Gave Me A Voice
My son, Jeremy Sicile-Kira, wrote the article below about the Rapid Prompting Method (RPM) which appeared in the January 2010 issue of The Autism File. If you watch the HBO movie on April 2, A Mother’s Courage: Talking Back to Autism, you will see Soma Mukhopadhyay teaching a child using RPM.
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How the Rapid Prompting Method Gave Me A Voice
Having Autism is hard enough, especially when it comes to communication for people who are non-verbal like myself. The Rapid Prompting Method (RPM) is not only a learning method but a door to open-ended communication for different people with autism. It is my good fortune to have been taught by Soma Mukhopadhyay, who pioneered RPM.
Soma, originally from India, has a son with autism named Tito, who is the mighty inspiration behind RPM. Soma needed to create a method that would help him not only to learn, but to communicate as well. Soma was frustrated with the schools in India, where they lived, because they wouldn’t accept Tito as a student. Just like they told my parents in France, where I was born, they told Soma that Tito was mentally retarded. I was “diagnosed” with mental retardation too, yet here we are both using RPM to discuss our similar past experience.
RPM is a method that can be used with different people as it is adapted to the needs of each individual. Some are auditory learners, some are visual learners and the RPM teacher uses the learning channel that is best for that person. RPM uses a “teach and ask” paradigm for eliciting responses through intensive verbal, visual and or tactile prompts. RPM starts with the idea that all students are capable of learning. Despite behaviors, the academic focus of every RPM lesson is designed to activate the reasoning part of the brain so the students becomes distracted and engaged in the learning. The prompting competes with student’s self-stimulatory behavior. Continue reading »
Successful Inclusion
Nancy Brady
Providing Literacy Opportunities to Students with Autism
For those who are not aware, once a month I moderate webinars for momsfightingautism.com. It’s a great resource because I interview all kinds of experts working in the field of autism and you can send in your own questions to be answered. You can listen in for free live the night of; after that you can download it for a fee by that organization.
Tuesday March 23 at 6:00-8:00 PST, my guest is Nancy Brady, MA-EdSP, ATS. Nancy is an Inclusion Specialist and Assistive Technology Specialist who strives to include those with the most severe disabilities in general education classrooms. She has been working for the past 7 years on including those who have autism and are nonverbal in the general education classroom environment, advocating and emphasizing literacy opportunities through the use of Assistive Technology.
Nancy is actually my son’s inclusion specialist, so I can personally attest to her talents. Life has been much easier for me in terms of my son’s education and inclusion in the general education population. We had a willing school and wonderful staff, but having Nancy’s expertise in there has made my son’s experience so much more effective.
The topic of the webinar is Successful Inclusion: Providing Literacy Opportunities to Students with Autism and some of the points Nancy will be covering include: Inclusion as a philosophy; Accommodations vs. Modifications; “Bottom up” support strategies; Teachers’ attitudes toward inclusion; Literacy Ladders vs. Literacy webs; How to create a successful team; Assistive Technology in the general education classroom; Independent Yes/No and A-B-C-D multiple choice – high tech vs. low tech; Motor planning in Autism; Presuming Competence as the Least Dangerous Assumption.
More things to know about Nancy: Nancy has a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Studies and Sociology from UC Santa Barbara, and a Masters Degree in Special Education from Chapman University. She received her certificate in Assistive Technology through the Orange County Department of Education and California State University, Dominguez Hills in 2009. Nancy completed the Mentorship Project for Communication Partner Support through WAPADH in Santa Fe Springs in 2008 and the FC Institute Summer Conference at Syracuse University in New York in 2005 and 2006. Nancy is a professional member of RESNA and a parent member of TACA. Nancy’s agency, S.T.A.R. – Supported Typing and Autism Resources, is located in Laguna Hills, CA and teaches those who are unable to communicate verbally an alternative communication strategy using Assistive Technology.
Also, this week, my latest book 41 Things to Know About Autism is being published by Turner, just in time for April – Autism Awareness Month. I wrote this book for the parents who wanted a book to hand their relatives and neighbors so they could ‘get’ what they are living though. It’s a small book and a quick read, great for spreading community awareness.
Back to School 101: Tips for general education teachers
Tips for general education teachers
Back in August, I wrote this post for my Autism and Adolescence column in the Examiner.com, and I’m re-posting it here because I’ve received a few emails with questions recently from general education teachers. Maybe there are others who could use these little nuggets of information.
Often junior high and high school teachers have teenagers with Asperger’s Syndrome included in their classrooms, and are not given much in the way of useful information. This column will provide a few practical tips that may be helpful to educators with no practical knowledge about students on the spectrum. For more information, check out this webpage.
Asperger’s or High Functioning Autism (HFA) is often described as an ‘invisible disability’ because students on the spectrum do not look different frorm most students. Most teachers expect them to act like everyone else, but often the student gets in trouble for behaving in a way that seems rude, disruptive or non-compliant. A diagnosis of Asperger’s or HFA is based on challenges in the areas of communication, and social relationships, as well as what appears to be an obsession or passion for a particular area of interest.
Here are some tips that may help the school year go a little easier for you and your student on the spectrum:
- It’s a good idea to have a hard copy of the homework assignment to hand to your students on the spectrum, because most of them are mono-channel. This means they cannot look at the assignment on the board, write it down and still be able to focus on what you are saying. By the time they have finished copying down the assignment, they have missed your intro to that day’s lesson. This mono-channel aspect makes it hard for a student to multi-task, and by only requiring him/her to do one thing at a time, it will be much easier for the student to stay focused. Continue reading »
Holly Robinson and Autism Facts the media is not covering.
Here’s a post by Holly Robinson Peete on Huffington Post, Shifting Focus: 8 Facts About Autism the Media is Not Covering that makes some good points.
I like to remind people that when your child with autism hits the teen years, it’s not that their autism is getting worse, it’s that they are now teenagers. Puberty plus autism is a volatile mix!
What Can Be Done to Help With Sensory Processing Challenges?
Auditory Integration Training / Photo Rebecca Sicile-Kira
In my last Psychology Today post I discussed sensory processing disorder, and received comments and questions from readers. I had mentioned an article in The Boston Globe that mentioned that a group of professionals and parents was lobbying to get sensory processing disorder included in the next Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Reader Dr. Joshua Feder wrote in to give us the link where people can provide input: “Remember, the public commenting on the upcoming DSM-V is still in process and the addition of SPDs is in flux, so if you think it is important you can make your voice heard. Go to http://www.spdfoundation.net/dsmv.html to learn more!“
Sensory processing challenges is a hot topic at autism conferences and this provides me the opportunity of asking adults on the autism spectrum what we could do to make the sensory aspects of life easier for them, as well as children who may be unable to discuss what they are sensing. I have written up the answers in my book, 41 Things To Know About Autism, and I am mentioning some of them here. Continue reading »
Modern Love
My son is pining for a girlfriend. He’s on Facebook.
Relationship Status: Single
Interested In: Women
Looking For: Friendship, Dating, A Relationship, Networking.
Political Views: Go Obama!
About Me: I like to listen to music and walk on the beach. I can type with one finger. I have autism.
Jeremy is quite a catch – he’s buff from working out at the gym, has an endearing personality, and he starred in an award-winning episode of the MTV ‘True Life’ series. Never mind that he is autistic, and needs help with everyday living skills, and probably always will. (In my opinion, he should be looking for a traditional wife who will take care of him, instead of a girlfriend, but I digress).
One night recently I woke up at 3:00 am to find that all the houselights had been turned on. Usually a sound sleeper, Jeremy had been making the rounds. I heard him downstairs and decided to investigate. He was looking through my husband’s collection of architecture books. He found the one he was looking for, Las Vegas: The Fabulous 50’s, and flipped it open to the section on strip clubs and showgirls. “Why are you up, Jeremy, what’s going on?” I asked. “I’m thinking about girls,” he replied.
One Small Step Towards Self-Regulation
How to teach your teen with autism to request a break
Self –regulation is a needed life skill not practiced by most teenagers. Often teens on the spectrum need sensory breaks to help them self-regulate, yet some are unable to communicate the need for one. If you are a parent or an educator, you may want to consider teaching the teen to request a break using a “ I need a break” card.
Let’s say you have a student that you work one-on-one with for a one hour slot of time. Every time you sit down to work with him, after about 20 minutes he gets up and leaves the worktable and there is no holding him back. What you need to do is teach him to communicate to you when he needs a break, and allow him to have those needed breaks within reason. Here is one way to do that: Continue reading »
One small step towards self-regulation
How to teach your teen with autism to request a break
Self –regulation is a needed life skill not practiced by most teenagers. Often teens on the spectrum need sensory breaks to help them self-regulate, yet some are unable to communicate the need for one. If you are a parent or an educator, you may want to consider teaching the teen to request a break using a “ I need a break” card. This may be helpful in preventing meltdowns or compliance issues. Teenagers need to be given more control over their time and need to be able to request necessary breaks in an appropriate manner.
Let’s say you have a student that you work one-on-one with for a one hour slot of time. Every time you sit down to work with him, after about 20 minutes he gets up and leaves the worktable and there is no holding him back. What you need to do is teach him to communicate to you when he needs a break, and allow him to have those needed breaks within reason. Here is one way to do that: Continue reading »
Temple Grandin: The HBO Movie starring Claire Danes
Temple Grandin, a world-renown designer of livestock handling facilities and a professor of animal science at Colorado State University, is arguably the world’s most famous person with autism. Temple has written many books about autism, others about animals, and even more about both. Last week I called Temple (who wrote the forward to my first three books) to get her input on my latest book, 41 Things to Know About Autism. Temple told me that the long-awaited “Temple Grandin” directed by Mick Jackson is finally premiering on HBO on February 6. The screenplay by Christopher Monger and William Merritt Johnson is based on Temple’s book “Thinking in Pictures,” as well as “Emergence” by Temple Grandin and Margaret Sciariano.
For Emily Gerson Saines, Executive Producer, this movie has been a labor of love for nne years. A parent of a child diagnosed at three, she was given Temple’s autobiography, “Thinking in Pictures,” by her own mother. The book became a source of inspiration for her in raising her own child.
Temple is well-known for her ability of thinking in pictures, and I was therefore curious as to how she would react to seeing her life in images created by others, not necessarily the same pictures she has in her mind about her life. Temple discussed her thoughts with me about the movie.
How much input did Temple have on the making of this movie?
“I gave input into the screenwriting, spent a good amount of time, four days, with the writers and two days with the director. I think they did a great job. They built a cattle dipping vat based right on my original, off of my drawings. My drawings are all over the movie; I really liked that. In a scene near the end of the movie, I am selling a job to one of the meat plants, my drawings are out on the conference room table. Well, not my originals, I copied them at Kinko’s! They did really cool animations of the conveyor system for handling cattle at the slaughter plant from those drawings – really cool animations taken form my drawings – they really emphasized my projects. The cattle stuff was very accurate. They showed all the sexual discrimination I had to put up with in the livestock field. Women did not work in the yards back then just the office. It’s a lot better now.”
What was it like for Temple to see Claire Danes playing her?
“Weird. It was weird to see me on the screen. It was like going in a weird time machine, going back in a time machine into the 60’s. They put a wig on Claire and dressed her up in clothes and she had to wear these ugly false teeth apparatus. She looked like me, except she was shorter than me and we couldn’t do anything about that, but she sounds and moves just like me. She does accurately portray how I would act in the 60s and 70s. Claire did a great job.”
How did Temple help Claire prepare for the role?
“We met in New York for a half a day and I gave her all my tapes of me, of old lectures from the late 80’s, early 90’s and an old Larry King show I did. I only had still photos from childhood; they didn’t take video in our house then. Claire had a voice and movement coach.
Did the film attempt to portray how Temple’s mind thinks in pictures; and if so how did they do that?
“The movie is great. They really showed how my mind works. They have a neat scene where they show how I think in pictures, very effective. I love how they showed that. They showed sequentially pictures of ‘shoes’ that is exactly how I think – like snapshots of different types of shoes: high heels, flats, all different types and shapes and colors.”
What was Temple’s favorite aspect of the movie?
“The visualizations and they way they used my drawings. They showed the optical illusion I built, the science teacher challenged me to do that, the Amesʼ “Distorted Room. They built a working squeeze machine I designed and the gate at my aunt’s ranch.”
What was it life for Temple being on the movie set, watching them put her life story into pictures?
“I only watched a small part of it being filmed. I watched it through a monitor because I didn’t want to make Claire nervous. What really interested me was the number of people on the set that had Asperger’s Syndrome. Smart people. Let’s just say they weren’t sweeping the floor. They are all part timers. There are a lot of technical jobs in production and it was like a big construction project.”
What message does Temple want people to take away from seeing this movie?
“I hope one of the things they get from it is the importance of a good teacher and mentors. Mr. Carlock (David Strathairn) saw that I had some areas of strength and he developed that. He spotted my ability with science; mentors are attracted to ability. Sometimes you find the mentors in the oddest places. In fact, the first meat plant I ever went to, I got in because I met the wife of their insurance agent, because she liked my hand embroidered shirt.
People are going to hire you because of your skill not your personality. You need to have a portfolio to show them what you can do. When I first went into the American Society of Agricultural Engineers, they thought I was weird, they didn’t even want to talk to me. Then I whipped out the cow dip vat drawing and that made them respect me.
Also, it’s important for people with Asperger’s to understand they need to make things that people want in order to make a living. Like the opening gate at my aunt’s farm – I would get upset at my aunt, but I ended up building the gate my aunt (Catherine O’Hara) wanted. I figured out how to open the gate without getting out of the car. This gate – it solved other’s people’s problems. That’s something you can make money from. The gate was an early project at age 16 before I made the squeeze machine. I hope this movie inspires a lot of parents.”
What is it like for Temple to know that there is a movie of her life out there?
“Well, I’ll never get a fat head. I’ll go on the movie tour, and go on my book tours, and then I’ll come back here. I never forget what my real job is, which is my livestock stuff. Today, I’m having lunch with one of my students to discuss a project we are working on together. That’s my real job.”
A few days after talking to Temple about the movie, I was given the opportunity to see it. I have to agree with Temple. It’s a great movie and not just for people interested in autism or cattle, because It’s a wonderful, inspirational, and entertaining story. The messages that Temple hopes people will take away are true for everyone, not just those with Asperger’s, especially in this economy. As a friend of Temple’s I was impressed with Claire’s interpretation of her: she really sounds and moves like Temple. As a former production professional, I appreciated the effort and care with which they took words on a page and translated them into sounds and images that accurately portrayed a person who is a hero to many of us – not an easy thing to do. As a parent of a child with autism, I could not help but relate to Temple’s mother, Eustacia Cutler (Julia Ormond), and was moved to tears during the final scene. Watch this movie, you’ll be glad you did.
This article was first published on HuffingtonPost.com, January 13, 2010.