Talk Autism by Debbie
Let's talk about Autism. The ups and downs for guiding an individual that is on the spectrum. Let's not forget about the parents and other children during out talks.
Talk Autism by Debbie
Checklist Magic: Enhancing Environmental Awareness and Celebrating Fathers in Autism Care
Ever wondered how a simple checklist could transform a child's experience of their environment? This episode promises practical strategies for enhancing the environmental awareness and organizational skills of children on the autism spectrum. We'll explore the unique challenges these children face in noticing their surroundings and how methods like scanning their environment and using visual aids can make daily life smoother. We also pay tribute to the often-overlooked role of fathers and caregivers, shining a light on their crucial contributions, especially on Father's Day.
Join me as I share a personal update about a joyful Father's Day weekend spent with my son and the excitement of my upcoming birthday. Despite the whirlwind of a busy schedule driven by an uptick in summer tutoring demand, the love and support from our listeners keep me motivated. We'll talk about managing this hustle and bustle while extending heartfelt wishes for a blessed week ahead. Tune in for insights, stories, and a dose of positivity that will leave you feeling inspired and connected.
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Hi everyone. I hope you're having a great weekend. I know it's Father's Day, so I just want to take a moment to kind of honor our fathers, our grandfathers, the uncles, stepfathers, any of you that are being fathers, or even some women that are both father and mother. I hope you're having a good weekend this weekend. This weekend, today, we're going to talk about how a child on the spectrum, or even sometimes ones that are not on the spectrum, do not notice things around them, and we are going to look at why is that happening. Why do some children miss things around them? Or maybe they go through a door and don't see the people and just kind of plow through the door. Why does that happen, and what can we maybe do to help retrain them to be more alert to their environment? And so we're going to talk a little bit about that. But before I do, what I want you to do is kind of stop this podcast and I want you to go to YouTube and I want you to watch a video it's just over a little bit of a minute and then you can come back and listen to the rest of this podcast. It's called Selective T-I-V-E Attention Test, and I want you to watch that. When you do watch it, I want you to count how many white shirts are there in this little video and then when you come back, you'll just pick up where you left off and we'll talk about that, okay, so go ahead and go on that.
Speaker 1:So if you counted, how many of you counted 10, 12, or more? And how many of you counted 10, 12 or more, and how many of you saw a gorilla? So if some of you may say yes, I saw the gorilla, and some of you may say what gorilla? And that was me, I said what gorilla? And I actually I watched this twice. I watched it once a long, long time ago and then again it's been a lot of years and stuff and I had forgotten about it. I was at a conference for autism and this lady showed it and I had forgotten it. Both times I did not see the gorilla and some people catch it right away and see it and some of us, like me, didn't.
Speaker 1:And that's the same way with our autistic kids. They don't always see what you see. They're so focused and that's what I was. I was so focused on counting and trying to get those white shirts correct that I missed it. I missed the gorilla completely. And that's what our kids on the spectrum do. They get so focused on something that they don't see the people around them. Like if they're going through the doorway and somebody's kind of stand there or going through the doorway too, they're just focused, going from A to B and they don't, and they just walk through A to B and they don't, and they just walk through and, and so we have to kind of train them to kind of look at their environment a little bit. I think that's a really good test to take and have other people to see that too, that work with autistic kids, um, and try to experience that and realize that some people just don't. Because I was so focused, like I said, on the white shirts that I missed the gorilla. Matter of fact, when they said there was a gorilla, and I thought no, and I thought it was a trick or something, and I watched it again and I thought no, this is a different one, but I guess it was the same one. So, but I missed it completely.
Speaker 1:And that's what our kids, what can we do? What can we do to help them? I think that we need to teach it for one thing. So let's say that they're working around their desk or whatever and they are going back and forth to school. They have to pack their backpack and stuff like that, maybe give them a checklist or like, if they're going from one situation to another, have them take a minute and look around and say, okay, did you get this, did you pick up this or did you get that, whatever the case may be, and have them training to take that moment and kind of look around and not just be focused on A to B, and then they have to have that little time to do that.
Speaker 1:Now, if they are not cleaning the room, let's say you tell them to go in and clean the room and they go in and they sweep and they pick up. And then you go in there and it doesn't even look like anybody's hardly swept or pick up the trash or whatever the case may be. And they don't necessarily see the same thing that you're seeing. They feel, okay, I swapped, what comes comes, what don't, don't, I guess. But it may be that they don't see it the same.
Speaker 1:So a suggestion that I can make is um, help them clean their room and then like, okay, like, let's say, make their bed. So they make their bed and then take a picture of it, or if their dresser or their desk clean it for them or not clean it for them, but help them clean it. It should be them doing it too. Take out the trash, take a picture of it and then get those pictures developed and then put those pictures like on their headboard or on the wall or by their desk and on the floor what the floor should look like. Then, when they go in to clean, you tell them listen, I want you to make your bed and the bed's got to look like the picture, or the dresser or desk needs to look like this picture, the floor needs to look like this picture so they can see what you're seeing, what you want, what your goal is to, maybe to really learn how to clean and what it should look like and not what it shouldn't look like. So sometimes pictures can really help our students that are on the spectrum.
Speaker 1:If they have a certain area in the house that they work on to do their stuff also, take a picture of that you know and have that hanging and say, okay, this is when you're done working or done this activity or doing this craft. This is what it should look like when it's cleaned up, and I think those will really. When I say to go, you have 20 seconds or whatever, and maybe set a little timer or a sand timer or something like that. I want you to clean up, I want you to make sure you got all your stuff and make a list, have them, have a little list. Okay, I need my phone, I need my water bottle, I need my glasses or whatever the case may be, and put them in my backpack. So, anyway, that was a little bit of something.
Speaker 1:I had been thinking about this one for a while and I just wanted to be able to share that with you, to give you some ideas. And that's what most of my podcasts are. They're just ideas from my work experiences working with kids and still working with kids, even though I'm supposed to be retired, but I've been working a lot this summer. But anyway, I just wanted to share some of that with you, to go over to help you, because I know that's an issue with a lot of our kids. They just don't see what we see, and I even had to explain that once to a parent. She couldn't understand why. He was one that just plowed through the door, didn't matter who was there, and I says all he's thinking about and all he's seeing is A, I need to be from A to B and I'm going through, I don't care who's there, and so it's something that's skilled, that we need to work on. And he has a little trouble with balancing too. So there's that kind of issue also. But you know, how many times have you said you know how can you forget this? Or you forgot your phone again, or you forgot your water bottle again? Well, we just need to train them that they take that minute and kind of go through a list. After a while they can get rid of the list, because they'll be trained to stop before they leave and then go through the list. What do they need? Make sure it's checked off, and then they go to the next station or next event, whatever they're doing. So, anyway, that's just a short one today.
Speaker 1:At Sunday, I hope you guys had a great weekend. My birthday's coming up pretty soon, so on Father's Day I had my son over, so it was really a nice day and a nice weekend for me, and I hope you all are having a wonderful, wonderful week ahead of you. I have a very busy week this week. With summer, a lot of the parents want me to do extra tutoring and stuff, so I've been just like working twice as hard during this summer. Anyway, I hope you have a blessed day. Love you all. Talk to you later.
