[silentwhisper]

I will be teaching autistic high school students this next year as a long-term substitute. I was wondering if some of you would share with me what is important to you. What do/did you need to learn in order to survive high school and life there after? I want to help my students succeed.

[Perna]

Good autism teacher site with lots of resources:

http://www.angelfire.com/pa5/as/asteachersites.html

[unico]

I have autism and it would have helped to be able to limit sensory stimulation/leave if I became overwhelmed, and to have everything concretely shown in a visual way. Learning how to apply lessons to the outside world would have been helpful, too.

[Callista]

Practical skills. For example: Doing shopping, ordering in a restaurant, using a bus, driving a car, calling a repairman, finding an apartment, buying a computer, paying bills, cleaning a room...

Lots of kids aren't prepared for independence because they don't have all the little miscellaneous skills that the world just expects you'll somehow pick up. And a lot of the time, it's just a matter of somebody showing you how it's done. Whether they will move out or stay with their parents, the more things they can do, the more they'll be able to do for themselves.

As for the classroom environment itself: Keep it quiet, orderly, and make sure they know exactly what the rules are and what to expect if they break one.

Make sure they have time and opportunity to use their strengths and their interests. Some kids, for example, will be great at math and horrible at writing (or vice versa or something altogether different). There's often an impulse to spend all the time working on weaknesses; but don't do that. Let them specialize--work on those strengths, because that's what'll get them a job later.

[birdcrazy]

Originally Posted by Callista

Practical skills. For example: Doing shopping, ordering in a restaurant, using a bus, driving a car, calling a repairman, finding an apartment, buying a computer, paying bills, cleaning a room...

OMGosh, I wish I had that stuff taught to me, well not all of it, I can now do most of the stuff on that list, but cleaning especially and many other things I can't do properly and my basic life skills are so bad my relatives think I need assisted living.

I had extensive social skills training as a kid, that helped a lot. I don't remember much of that, but I do remember lessons about when to properly say "please" and "thank you" which helped tremendously.

[sane1logic1]

- how to study especially producing written work as I was unsuccessful at it

- how to advocate for myself requesting specialised OT for my household layout and activities (paper work, food, linen & clothes) and effective health care

[Omers]

For life skills check out the Casey Life Skills web page it needs to be translated for those who read things literally but it can be done easily. It is free and has a ton of free/low cost teaching tools. It works well with adults too. I know a lot about the tools and how to modify them for autism. Feel free to PM me. I have trained these tools nationally and am one of the only ones to use it (with the blessing of the creators) with populations other than foster care.

The book I make everyone who works with my son read is "Simple Strategies that work!" by Brenda Smith Myles, Dian Adreon and Dena Gitlitz. It is a 40pg quick read of pure practical ideas.
Temple Grandon also co-wrote a book about talents that is very helpful.

How restriced are you by school required materials?

The most important thing I can say is to keep it as practical as possible. Also, are these kids on deploma track or certificate of completion? I have a college degree (dual degree with honors) and cannot get/keep a typical job because of my aspergers. The degree keeps me from getting retail jobs that I could do well with as I am "over qualified". Skills portfolios can be more helpful than a typical degree.

Help them to learn as much about themselves as possible and how to advocate. There is no such thing as an IEP at a job. Also... push them towards jobs that pay a livable wage. I followed my obsession areas and they don't pay enough to live on.

[Callista]

There is no such thing as an IEP at a job.

Actually, the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) requires that an employer make reasonable accommodations for any worker who is disabled and capable of performing the major functions of the job in question. Autism is a disability; and qualified individuals who happen to be autistic are entitled to adjustments that will allow them to do their jobs. (Many other countries have similar laws.)

[Omers]

Yes, the ADA provides requirements however the unemployment rates demonstrate that this in reality provides little support. Burden of proof is very difficult to get. I have a formal diagnosis and have been fired and denied jobs due to my autism. When challanged employers were able site other reasons and because I am accusing them of discrimination burden of proof fell on me.

[hatteras duck]

Try to keep the same basic routine. If changes are required please, please give them time to adapt to those changes.

[Callista]

Originally Posted by Omers

Yes, the ADA provides requirements however the unemployment rates demonstrate that this in reality provides little support. Burden of proof is very difficult to get. I have a formal diagnosis and have been fired and denied jobs due to my autism. When challenged employers were able site other reasons and because I am accusing them of discrimination burden of proof fell on me.

This isn't the part of the ADA I'm talking about; I'm talking about the part that requires businesses to be accessible to the general public. It shouldn't come to a lawsuit at all, if it's done right. In universities, what the school has to do (at least public universities that take government grants) is adjust its services so that you can be a student. This comes under the same category as the requirement to put wheelchair ramps and automatic doors in supermarkets. In the case of universities, it generally includes things like distraction-free testing rooms, tutoring, and other useful services. Most of the time it's easier for physical disabilities, but people with learning disabilities and PDDs are increasingly going to college, and colleges are learning how to accommodate them.

[Omers]

Sorry but the belief that the ADA is going to do anything for these kids, to me as a person on the spectrum, is nieve. Do the research, at the very least google "unemployment rate for persons with autism". The last statistc I heard is that it is 80% unemployment and the 20% that are employed are in part time work and work well below their abilities. Try to find out the % of persons on the spectrum who are making a "livable wage" my guess is that it is under 1%. Children have autism, not adults and a wheelchair ramp is more tangable to a "normal" person than a light that doesn't flicker (because the "normal" person can't see the difference). The accomidations for a person on the spectrum are often SO much less dramatic than say a wheelchair ramp that they get discounted.

"Only 3% of adults with autism live fully independently. In terms of employment, only 6% of adults hold paid, full-time jobs." - http://www.child-autism-parent-cafe....th-autism.html

[Omers]

BTW, I hold a dual degree from an acredited private college with honors and an IQ in the gifted range. I have never been late to work, never been out of dress code, never violated a rule listed in the employee handbook, am rarely sick and allways call in. I have only held one job for more than a year and one job that paid a livable wage. I have had insurance once. I have been denied SSI as is typical on the first try but seeing as I have been unemplyed for 5 years I can not afford the retaining fee on the lawyer to challenge. The state I live in is no longer accepting applications for disability services for people on the autism spectrum as there is currently a 20yr waiting list for services.

The last job I held I was fired because my manager threw me into a wall because I turned off the overhead lights that were flickering (only impacting my work area) and turned on lights that I brought with me from home. They agreed to the accomidations for autism before hiring me. Turning the lights off in my office looked "too unprofessional as we have a meeting in the office today and we can't have you looking weird".

In college I was loved, respected and accepted. In college thinking (something we do well) is valued. That too is NOT the real world. Social skills, more than any NT would like to admit, are more a part of who is hired and retained in jobs that hard core skills.

[Callista]

I know that the employment rate is low. I also know that I'm in college myself and getting accommodations that are helping me, because my school complies with the ADA and then some when it comes to disabled students. I've done two internships in the labs, and was a useful lab assistant both times. I know the situation is bad; but I also believe that it isn't impossible, and I believe it can be improved.

A low employment rate for disabled people is a problem; but it's not entirely due to the ADA being insufficient. There are a lot of other factors. There's the way that parents and doctors often teach disabled children that they shouldn't expect to work. There's the way that schools often have inadequate transition training. There are the many cultural biases that teach disabled kids, as they grow up, that they must fulfill the "disabled" social role and cannot stray outside those boundaries. In college, my disabled friends and I are addressing that, some of us for the first time, and realizing that yes, we can make our own way, and that we don't have to assume that the things we've been told all our lives are actually true.

Even gifted students like yourself can get into trouble precisely because they are gifted--because teachers assume that if you are intelligent in one area, you must be intelligent in all areas. I wasn't taught some extremely important life skills--some as basic as keeping oneself clean--because I was so good at schoolwork and instead was called lazy and rebellious for not knowing how to do them. And the opposite can happen: Students who aren't good at schoolwork will be assumed to have no other useful skills, even when they do. I know of one young woman who is horrible at math to the point of being unable to use a calculator, but such a genius at spelling and grammar that she would be a wonderful proofreader. And yet she is currently in a sheltered workshop because she is considered developmentally delayed (which she is--but they are ignoring her very real talent with language... this girl has an IQ of around 60 and learned to read at age three! Her skills are not even being used simply because she's being stereotyped).

The system needs to be changed. I know that; you know that. But I think maybe you've given up too soon.

[Michah]

Boundaries, social skills, coping mechanisms and patience.

Sorry for bluntness, but I learned of a savage and forgiving world, in the most dire of ways.

They would be my top 4.

Michah