Auroras Blog

I took a powerpoint presentation to present to the Young Adults Support Group to recruit volunteers for our pilot project.

There were 25 young people present, including my son which helped to introduce me to the group and why I was there. I was accepted as Daniel’s mum. They are a lively bunch and as we stood outside the room and waited for the organiser to appear there were mobile phones, even a new iphone! much texting and looking at pictures happening.

The group migrated into the room on their own, set up the chairs, I set up my table and laptop and at the appointed hour one of the group members informed me that i should start and not wait for the organiser as he is usually late due to work commitments. ( He does this voluntarily after work)

I was impressed by the interaction informally between the group members who greeted every member who came in the door warmly, suggesting where they sit if they looked unsure. They chatted about computers and acitivities and one member has started part time work and they were very interested in that.

As expected it was hard for them to stay focused on my presentation however they were engaged and we had a lively discussion of what holistic means and whether you needed to have a pet to join the course! ( I had used photos of one of my dogs as illustrations)

Five or six members raised their hands when I enquired about previous courses they had done in communication and the three who have signed up for the course have all done previous communication courses through Aspect.

I had two people sign up on the night and we are sending a follow up email to those on the emailing list. One of the mothers who was there thinks that only about half the group have computer access.

The only handout I had with me was a too long (I now realise) consent form to sign. I needed to have a handout for them to take home with the course details and contact details as a number of them said they would like to go home and talk it over with their parents.

The social skills displayed by about half the group were  very engaging. There were other group members further along the spectrum who did not interact much but looked comfortable and definitely enjoyed the pizza!

The main part of this project for me has been a very steep learning curve developing my computer skills and ability to use, love and appreciate the www!

It is however quite like house renovating – you can have brilliant plans, creative ideas and then you have to WAIT!! First there’s the neverending and oh so highly forgettabe passwords and user names.

They can’t ALL be the same surely? You have to vary them depending on whose going to use them and what memory I have at the time of what I did last time. YES I do write them down, but can i remember all the places I write them down? NO! When i get an inspiration and I’m all fired up I sign up on Youtube and log in and THEN  remember that I must write things down. The Invalid Login sign has been my most consistent experience of elearning so far and surely tests my patience and determination.

Then there’s the problem of loose fingers straying over the keyboard and deleting and jumping who knows where and just generally loosing the plot. There’s so much to learn!! Very good for my Alzheimer’s Prevention programme, it’s got to be worth 100 cross words a day!

Alex wanted me to mention the time HE deleted the wrong file and we had to reschedule our work in progress – but I’m not going to!

I was in the States last week visiting friends in San Francisco. This is where i trained as a therapist and i enjoy having a chance to catch up with friends and colleagues who are working as child and family therapists and see  clients with Aspergers. They have many different resources and support services that we do not have here. One of these is a social skills tutor for people with ASD. This tutor will see them once a week and organise social activities, go with them on outings, give them feedback and respnse and come to therapy with them!

I had the opportunity to interview a therapy intern who has just completed a year’s therapy work with a 35 year old man with ASD. He and his family were really excited about the outcomes of this therapy and i enjoyed talking with her about what she did. I recorded this interview on my new Flipcam and am now learning how to upload this onto my elearning project.

Another colleague there works with families with younger children on the spectrum and her clinical experience and expertise are invaluable. I would love to be able to get her out to Australia and offer training to professionals here.

As i review the content of our communication unit as it is currently developed I see more and more how it is based on assumptions for neurotypical people. For example the use of tone of voice to communicate emotion. People with ASD typically have quite mono-tonous voices and do not communicate emotions this way and they often miss these cues when given by others. They do not hear the impatient or unfriendly tone as others might, they also do not respond to the warm and friendly tone in kind as they may be more focused on the content of the message which they can hear best when not making eye contact. We take for granted that communication can occur on more than one sensate channel at once however the person with ASD can look OR hear but not both and will completely miss the facial expressions when doing either!

To address this I am thinking of recording little videos that can be watched over again and asking the students to respond to a series of questions about what they observe. I do not think the goal is to try and have them develop these non-verbal skills themselves, rather to raise awareness of non-verbals being used by others and to be able to somehow address it to help their own understanding of the situation. For example to say “I am not clear about the meaning of this” or “can you say that again for me as i may have missed some of the communication”. This requires the speaker to clarify and perhaps articulate the message in the tone of voice or other kind of non-verbal communication.

I have just spent two days with Howard Errey who is the Co-ordinator of Elearning Victoria and has been involved with previous elearning initiative projects which have developed elearning resources for people with Aspergers and other disabilities

Howard was interested in why this course would be pitched at a relatively high level when Autism Australia for example are developing courses at Cert 1 or 11 level. As i explained to Howard many people with Aspergers or High Functioning Autism are very competent academically and sophisticated in their use of online resources. This environment suits their learning style, which is often very visual, and removes the difficulties involved with being in a classroom environment. I am particularly concerned about young adults who experience difficulties gaining employment and having relationships. I was very excited by an e-portfolio that Howard showed me created by a young man with a disability. He was able to present himself and his skills in an interesting and engaging way which gave the viewer time to adjust to his style of speech, his way of moving and approaching his tasks and to see a demonstration of the skills he had to offer. I think this could be wonderful for people with aspergers who often do not present well in interview situations because of stress and presentation style. I am thinking that making an eportfolio could be an interesting assessment task for this course.

I also think that people with ASD can be very well suited to jobs in the Community Health Services area and the unit I am customising is a part of 32 qualifications from the training package. I think this could be a great career area for people with Aspergers to look into as many of their specialist skills are very useful here.

I am looking at using moodle as the platform for this course and am very excited about the possibilities of using video and other visual materials as part of the course. As i am new to the world of elearning this is all very exciting and challenging.