Great Achievements
I attended several sessions today at the Autism Society of America's conference. First was a presentation by Zosia Zaks, MA, MEd. She has Aspergers, and now works with adolescents who are on the autism spectrum. She reviewed a number of social strategies she uses for adolescents and young adults to help them cope with social challenges they face. Many social skills interventions available aren't that great -- they may have questionable research methodologies (eg, measuring social improvement based solely on parent report), or kids have a hard time generalizing the skills outside the skills-training setting, or kids may have immediate gains but then lose them over time, or the strategies are geared toward young children, not adolescents. She provided a number of strategies she uses and how they can work for adolescents to keep them safe in social situations, even when they have difficulties understanding non-verbal social cues. Check out her website at www.autismability.com.
Next was a presentation by two successful adults who have Asperger's on how they have learned to cope with and succeed despite their disorders. Lars Perner, PhD, discussed how he's overcome difficulties with driving, and dealing with still being single. Julie Herndon, OTR/L, BCP -- an OT with Asperger's! -- only found she had the condition four years ago, though she told the audience that she has known "something was up" since childhood. She gave an A-Z list of her coping strategies, including doing jigsaw puzzles, driving a manual transmission car, and practicing ki Aikido.
Finally, I listened to representatives from Indiana, Ohio, Connecticut and California talk about policy issues at the state level. In Indiana they recently passed a bill requiring autism training for EMS personnel. The Ohio legislature recently passed a Medicaid buy-in law, which allows people on Medicaid to work and still retain their Medicaid coverage by buying into the program on a sliding scale. They also passed an Autism Screening Pilot bill that will allocate $800,000 over two years to train physicians and other providers on screening for autism and other developmental disorders. In Connecticut they are excited about the newly passed insurance mandate that will require insurance policies to provide OT, PT and speech therapy for children with autism at the same level as they cover the services for other medical conditions. In California, the state's Blue Ribbon Commission on Autism proposed 15 bills to further services for children with autism, including an insurance mandate bill, a law enforcement training bill and a special education bill. All 15 are under consideration in the legislature and so far all are unopposed.
The autism community -- both those "on the spectrum" as well as the "neurotypicals" who advocate for them (I'm also learning the autism community's lingo) -- is really accomplishing a lot!