Autism Awareness Centre

By Paula Aquila Occupational Therapist

Everyone experiences the world a little differently. The same person may even experience the world differently depending on their level of pain, fatigue or in response to a physical/emotional stress.

We experience the world through our senses. Our nervous system receives messages through specialized receptors and relays these messages to the central nervous system where meaning is given to the message. Our brain interprets that the colour is yellow, the sound is loud, the touch is soft, etc. Our brain interprets whether we are moving or still, the direction we are moving and whether we are accelerating or decelerating. In fact, our nervous system is so proficient at this process that we barely think about it unless we have difficulty processing sensation and we need to pay attention.

By Barbara Bloomfield

A visual support can be anything that shows a student what to expect and/or what is expected on the student. The image itself may take any one or a combination of forms: objects, photographs, line drawings, printed words. The benefits of using visual supports with students with ASD are well established and can be obvious to even the casual observer in a classroom, home or community setting.

Students with ASD tend to process visual information more easily. Visual supports often assist students in better understanding and recalling important information and in predicting future events. Just as helpful but not as often cited in the literature – visual supports help to engage and maintain a student’s attention.Many visual supports can be faded over time while others can be used to prompt oneself through a task or situation, e.g. printed directions or a recipe. The use of visual supports has been designated a best practice by the National Professional Development Center on ASD: http://autismpdc.fpg.unc.edu

Five Easy Strategies for Inclusive Classrooms

by Paula Kluth

Many general educators believe that they need specialized strategies to teach students with disabilities. While it can be beneficial to know about certain types of disabilities before teaching students with labels, often teachers are effective when they are accepting, look for strengths in their students, provide personal attention when necessary, and allow for differences in the ways students approach tasks and complete classroom work.

Teachers can also support the learners in diverse classrooms by differentiating instruction. But what exactly is differentiating instruction? To put it simply, differentiating instruction involves providing instruction that is accessible and challenging to all:

Leslie Broun, M.Ed.

As the new school year begins, many parents of students who have Autism Spectrum Disorders are filled with trepidation as they know this involves establishing a relationship with their child’s new teacher, as well as the development of routines of communication and interaction. Many parents worry about how much the teacher knows about Autism Spectrum Disorders. They wonder: How much training have they had? Will the teacher be patient? Will he or she like my child? Will everyone get along and agree on goals and expectations?

With greater public awareness and a deliberate effort to provide teachers and paraprofessionals with information and training, schools and teachers are increasingly better able to work effectively with students who have ASD. Nevertheless, teachers, too, worry how they are going to create a successful year for all of their students. Classrooms today may be comprised of many students who have learning differences or physical disabilities. It is difficult, if not impossible, for a regular classroom teacher to be an expert in all areas of disability. It may be that the teacher is in the process of learning about more than one area of disability, as well as dealing with students who live in poverty or other difficult situations. 

The Nova Scotia Government formed an advisory committee to help it improve services to those affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder. The Autism Management Advisory Team (AMAT) included representatives from local autism organizations such as the Provincial Autism Centre, Autism Society Nova Scotia, Autism Society of Cape Breton, AnnapolisValley Autism Support Team, and three government departments: Education, Community Services and Health. Their excellent report which includes a list of 53 key recommendations can be viewed in its entirety here:

The recommendations in this document, with minor adjustments that would reflect the names of various organizations and departments in each province, are applicable nation-wide. Other countries such as Denmark have developed a National Autism Plan. Canada could do the same using this document as a model.

Here is a summary of the 53 recommendations:

By Cindy B. Schneider

Persons diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome (AS) lack the understanding of nonverbal communication that so many of us take for granted. A nod of the head, a smirk, a change in voice tone is so often misinterpreted or totally missed by those with this diagnosis. If you do not read these non-verbal signals, you are not likely to send the appropriate non-verbal messages either. Additionally, youngsters with AS often interpret language literally and miss the more abstract references. These youngsters often have difficulty building relationships with their peers. For this reason many of these individuals also suffer with poor self-esteem. Yet traditional “social skills” programs have not been very successful in teaching these capable individuals the skills they need in our social world.

By Dan Coulter

What’s your child with Asperger Syndrome going to do for a living?

Too early to start thinking about that?  Really, it's not.   While your ten year old or teenager doesn’t have to immediately choose a career, he’s much more likely to find and keep a job when the time comes if you start preparing him in two important ways.

First, assess any social skill deficits your child has and help him work to overcome or mitigate them.  Many people with superior job skills have trouble getting hired or staying employed because they lack basic social skills.

Second, expose your child to a variety of jobs and careers.  Don’t apply pressure to have him pick a job or even a career field, but make it an interesting topic of conversation.  Take him to see people working.  Your goal is to have your child find something that sparks his interest so he tells you what he wants to do with his life.  From my experience, when a child with Asperger Syndrome latches onto a special interest, you don’t need to do any pushing.

Advocating for your child at school is not an easy task. To be effective, you have to keep your emotions in check, be concise about what problems your child is experiencing, bring possible solutions to the table, and be prepared to wait for change to take place.

Schools are run much like the government – everyone has their post, responsibilities and territory and that is what employees stick to. I was a teacher for 13 years and know that you have to be careful about overstepping your boundaries. You can’t promise what you can’t make happen. The school is only as effective as its administrative team is. Poor leadership frequently means no solutions, solid information, or resistance to change.

This study set out to increase knowledge about the clinical presentation, impairment level, associated problems, and screening/identification of girls coming to clinics with non-specified social and/or attention deficits.

By Kari Dunn Buron

Emotional regulation can be defined as the ability to separate your emotional responses to a problem from the thinking you must perform to resolve the problem. The 5-point scale is a visual system that can help to organize a person’s thinking when working through difficult moments, particularly those that require social understanding.

Autism impacts a person’s ability to understand social information. This can involve understanding other people’s intentions, knowing how to manipulate social situations, and repairing social interactions that have gone poorly. Difficulty in social thinking can affect a person’s ability to be comfortable in social situations and cause social confusion and anxiety. Social anxiety makes it even more difficult for a person with ASD to work through big emotions. Creating a visual system for working through challenging situations can be considered a strength based approach since most individuals with autism tend learn most effectively through concrete, predictable systems (Baron-Cohen).