Blog
Becoming an Advocate
When children on the Autism Spectrum are young, their parents, teachers, and related service providers are often the ones who advocate for them. Although it is crucial that these children have a support system, it is equally as important that these children learn to become self-advocates as they age. As SLPs, we can incorporate activities into our sessions to help children with ASD transition and become independent adults. The following are some therapy suggestions to help teach independence when working with young adults with ASD:
- Incorporate a calendar/planner into sessions and have your patient write down any homework that may be given. This will make homework your patient’s responsibility to remember and not his or her parents.
- When assigning homework, make all activities functional. For example, suggest that your patient help with chores around the house (ie., doing dishes). This gives your patient a responsibility and something that can be checked off in a planner.
- Encourage your patients to help with preparing meals. Learning to cook is another step to becoming independent. Learning to cook involves following the steps of a recipe and using sequencing skills, many things worked on in therapy.
- Technology is at the center of our world, children with ASD should be encouraged to use technology to further their independence. For example, suggest using an alarm to wake up in the morning so there is less reliance on caregivers to get up and get ready for the day.
- Talk to your patients about their hopes for the future. It is important to remember that everyone has dreams. If it is your patient’s aspiration to work in retail one day incorporate this into sessions. Do some role-playing activities that involve scripts using the language required for a retail setting.
- Practice interviewing skills during therapy sessions. As an SLP you want your patients to feel prepared for everything. Practicing interview questions and the conversational flow of an interview will make the process less daunting.
Reference:
http://blog.asha.org/tag/autism-spectrum-disorder/
Johanna Sullivan MA, CF-SLP
