Down The Pub?!

My Boy brought a work book back from College the other day, and it has writing and expressive words in it.
He uses PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) to form a sentence, and at 16 he is still learning more symbols within the system.

His teacher told me at our recent meeting that he was asked what fruit he likes to eat.
He was shown pictures of a variety of fruit, and he had to put each picture into either a 'yes' or 'no' column, to say if he liked eating them or not.
He put each item of fruit into the 'yes' column, and none into the 'no'.
When the teacher told me this, I knew what she was going to say next!
When seeing all the fruit he apparently liked to eat, she presented him with a piece of each, to eat.
His verbal response was a resounding "no"!
J doesn't like fruit. He loves vegetables, but fruit is something he's always shied away from.

This task shows that J is still not comprehending the choice of 'yes' and 'no' when given the option.
It's something the college and I will be working on with him.

In another page of his work book, he had written a sentence down, describing what he had done during the Christmas holidays. He is assisted with the words by staff, as he can copy the writing someone else does, but cannot write a sentence by himself. The process from saying something, to writing it down isn't there yet. I'm not sure he even understands that what he is copying down is what he's just said.
I hope you understand what I've tried to convey here - it makes sense to me, and I hope I've explained it clearly.

This is what he wrote.....

Now, bare in mind, he is 16. In the UK the legal age to drink alcohol is 18, but under 18's are permitted in a lot of pubs, but minus the alcohol consumption.
We didn't visit a pub of any description, and it made me laugh when I read it.

Does he want to go to a pub, but can't tell me?
Probably not.

I think he was asked what he did over the holidays, and he replied "park", as he loves to go to the local playground and play on the swings. I believe the way he said "park" was misconstrued as 'pub' and he was given the words to write down.

The second part, where he says his favourite present was chocolate, is true. Absolutely no doubt about that at all!
He received various chocolate gifts, and they were eaten in under 20 minutes flat.

He also received a yard stick Jaffa Cake tube, which had four boxes of the cakes (biscuits?) in.
These were rationed out to him, as he would have eaten them all in one go, and made himself feel very sick.
                         

I have written about his love of Jaffa Cakes a few times over the years. 
I still reference 'Jaffa Cake Mountain' to people, as it's still a funny story to me.
You can find two posts I wrote here >> Jaffa Cake Mountain
 and here >> The Jaffa Cake Disappointment

Happy reading!

Auticon - All Employees Are On The Spectrum

Last week I read about a company in America that only employs people who are on the spectrum.
Auticon (formerly Mindspark), is the idea of Gray Benoist, and is only one of a handful of companies that does this.

Gray Benoist from Auticon

From the get go the Auticon interview process takes into consideration the difficulty around eye contact, and the need to look away a lot. There is also the  pressure and stress to talk about yourself and 'sell' yourself, which can be very overwhelming for even the most experienced interviewee, and this again is understood and accepted. 

Another action Auticon implements is that its employees can wear headsets to minimise the noise in the office, and they even have chance to take time off if they become overloaded - called 'anxiety days off'. 


A German company - SAP - employs a mixture of people, some of who are on the spectrum, and they offer ASD interviewees the choice to build Lego robots, instead of a traditional interview. 


Steve Silberman wrote a piece about this, called 'The Geek Syndrome', and said that this Lego building showed "problem solving skills and commitment to a task". 

Steve Silberman

If more companies understood this, and the struggle people with autism can experience, and implement it during interviews, they could become better aware. This would in turn enable people with ASD, who have passion, commitment, skills, and the drive to do the job on offer, a chance to prove their capabilities.  

Another action Auticon implements is that its employees can wear headsets to minimise the noise in the office, and they even have chance to take time off if they become overloaded - called 'anxiety days off'. 

It goes for everyone however, that when you feel comfortable and accepted, you achieve more, and progress further. 
I hope more companies follow suit.

You can read more about this here >>> The Firm Whose Staff Are All Autistic

Tired? Try Drained!

Courtesy of The Special Needs Forum, Facebook

Most parents, especially those with babies, know that feeling of incredible tiredness, and the need to have a quick lie down for a few weeks, but for those of us with a child with a special needs, that tiredness never seems to abate. The 'baby' phase continues on, sometimes relentlessly, making days and nights meld into one, long, never ending struggle to stay upright, or at the very least, awake.

If you're reading this, and can relate, keep going, keep fighting, and stay strong. Try and remember to give yourself credit for all you do, even if no one else does.