What you wish Social Workers understood about ASD? (Help!!)

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Yes. I'm actually person with an ASD diagnosis myself, so I do hear what you are saying. Did you have any articles or films that you thought would help me get your points across?

Most media is focused on kids. One thing that did make an impact on me was the video by Taylor Morris; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV_CcmLlaw4

She was nonverbal at two. It's mindblowing to see the bright, intelligent well spoken teenagers she has become. I think that is a powerful image that many do not see when confronted with a non verbal meltdown kind of kid.

I also think it is very compelling in a purely advocate kind of way.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c5_3wqZ3Lk[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/user/silentmiaow#p/u/10/JnylM1hI2jc[/youtube]

Although she actually is a member of this site too thought i would promote her rather well made and articulated videos she has made on youtube.

Thanks, that is helpful. I had been thinking about using that video, Laz, so that makes me feel a little more confident that I'm on the right track.

In addition to showing films made by persons on the Spectrum, I was thinking about showing "I Am Autism." (Just to open a discussion about media portrayal).

I cannot seem to find an active link to it, though. Does anyone have one?

I will add to this the stuff I created for my work. Feel free to us any/all of it however you please.

First a quick intro to Aspergers and BKM (Best Known Methods) for dealing with me as an ASD person at the workplace.

Thought it might be prudent now to post some really good links, sites and articles RE ASD and Aspergers. There is actually some really, really good stuff out there.

Let me start by writing the Aspergers Primer for folks. Aspergers is defined as the following in the ASD IV:

(I) Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following: (A) marked impairments in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body posture, and gestures to regulate social interaction
(B) failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
(C) a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interest or achievements with other people, (e.g.. by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people)
(D) lack of social or emotional reciprocity

(II) Restricted repetitive & stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following:
(A) encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus
(B) apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals
(C) stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g. hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements)
(D) persistent preoccupation with parts of objects

(III) The disturbance causes clinically significant impairments in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

(IV) There is no clinically significant general delay in language (E.G. single words used by age 2 years, communicative phrases used by age 3 years)

(V) There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of age-appropriate self help skills, adaptive behavior (other than in social interaction) and curiosity about the environment in childhood.

(VI) Criteria are not met for another specific Pervasive Developmental Disorder or Schizophrenia."

While this criteria is pretty well written it cannot possibly help anyone to actually identify on sight an person with Aspergers. There is a saying that goes, "Once you met a person with Aspergers, you met only one person with Aspergers" for in as much as people are unique so are people with ASD. (I use ASD and Aspergers interchangeably)

For me personally the symptoms are fairly invisible and that is what (I believe) makes this a very hard disorder to "manage" as a "people manager". If you cannot see the disorder, how can you help? I have observed ways in the past few weeks that people can interact with me that allows for better communication.

1. Understand that sensory hypersensory and hyposensory issues are a real problem. My biggest problems is audio and visual hypersensitivities. If I am in the cafe and cannot follow your conversation or have to put in my earplugs it is a real problem as my hearing is super sensitive. Visually when there are a lot of patterns or details or bright lights or sparkly things, I will potentially become very distracted. I cannot train myself to not be distracted by these things or to be less sensitive. If you intend to make loud noises around me, please give me warning so I can cover my ears. On the opposite side of this, when I injure myself I will almost never know that I have done it unless someone points the blood out to me or the broken bone. (Seriously this has happened to me. I did not realize I had a broken bone for weeks until a friend pointed out that my finger was really not quite right)

This link is an AWESOME representation of what it is like for me when I am having issues with processing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Paf82OiE ... playnext=8



2. I don't get the subtle cues and I may not look you in your eyes, see your face or remember your name: Neurotypical people (those of you without ASD) have a whole Language that you understand called "body Language" and you place great emphasis on this form of communication. I may miss some or all of that. Reading people is something I have never done well. If we are in a conference room and you want me to know that you are disappointed with something I am presenting you will have to come out and say it to me. I will most likely not see your signals or subtle cues. I always have said, "I don't do subtle" and now I know why. Likewise if we are walking down the hallway and I do not recognize you or your name please be patient with me. I only remember people in the context of their environment unless I have seen you 10-20 times before. So if I meet you in the cafe and again in the cafe, I may remember you but if you are in the hallway the 2nd time I meet you I may not. The reason for this is that we process things at a much more detailed way (see above) and looking at faces is too much processing for me during a conversation. I need to focus on the words you are saying to me so I typically do not see you until after many meetings.

Same producers an excellent representation of the whole Body Language thing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6nNcW2M ... 01&index=4



3. Literal translation and context switching will often paralyse me: I have learned that I cannot handle context switching very well at all. If we are on a topic in a conversation and you make a leap to another topic (even if it is "obvious" what the leap is to everyone else) I will get lost. It helps me tremendously if you stop at a switch and tell me that you are making the switch before we go into that topic. Likewise, if you use a word that has more than one meaning I may take a long time to process the conversation as I may get stuck on my literal meaning. The other day someone was talking to me about "models" that we have been learning (he meant paradigms) and I could only think of car or airplane models. It took us some time to get past the word. Sometimes my communication is very stilted as a result and I am much better to have an email follow up from any important conversation so I can process the words in text. Pictures (btw) are always best for me.

4. Theory of Mind (ToM) is weak in my case: I have a very serious ToM weakness. ToM is basically the ability to attribute mental states—beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc.—to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires and intentions that are different from one's own. In my case, I very often assume that if I know something everyone must know that thing. I will often forget to include some basic background information in reports and other communications without some gentle reminders from my peers/managers that what I am stating is not as obvious as I think it is. Likewise, I will not always be able to emphasize with you when you are upset or otherwise emotional. I will respond in ways that I know I am supposed to respond but it may appear "fake" to you as it is impossible for me to actually emote with you most of the time. I will tend to look at your problems with a logical instead of an emotional point of view. I am personally a Language/Logic ASD person and my logic wiring rules above all.

5. I may have to stand or pace or shake my leg or twirl my fingers, etc. These are known as stimming behaviors and I do them because they calm me. I am often very stressed out in places where there are a lot of people, a lot of things to process, etc and it calms me to do these things. You may also witness me rocking on my feet or some other weird repetitive behavior. I try to make these not too obvious but they are what they are....

In addition to the above things, ASD comes with a lot of co-morbid conditions that I must always be mindful of to stay healthy. Depression, ADHD, Anxiety just to name a few. People on the spectrum have to make a lot of adaptations to fit into this world and to keep these conditions at bay. To this end you may find me locked in a quiet space somewhere in Intel working quietly alone as that is how I draw my strength. Here is my latest blog on the Autism Womans Network website that talks to adaptations that I make to play on a football team here in Portland. (yes, I do that too)

http://autismwomensnetwork.org/category ... rla-fisher

Here is the football story if you are interested...

http://stories.makingmylife.com/2011/01 ... /#more-293



But for all the things this syndrome gives to us that are negative there are plenty of positive things too.

1. Ability to focus for long periods of times. Nobody will work harder or longer than your ASD affected employees. Give us a problem and we will attack it like a dog on a steak bone. My friends always say they wish they had my ability to focus and my determination.

2. Out-of-the-box thinking. We do not subscribe to social norms or pressures to do things in any particular way so we are the likely candidates to do the new and unusual thing. See this video of Nobel Prize winner Vernon Smith.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7030731/ns/business/

3. Honest to a fault. If you want to know what is going on in your group or organization ask an Aspie. Many of us have little ability to lie and couple that with the lack of social awareness agendas and you have a great combination for honesty.





Here are some interesting ASD links I dug up over the weeks to share:

Aspergers General:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/asp ... -aspergers (social tips for people on the spectrum)

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/asp ... ers?page=2 (here are tips of NTs to handle ASD people)

Anxiety and Sensory Assesment Stuff:

http://www.ot-innovations.com/images/st ... 007pdf.pdf (This is a great tool for self discovery of sensory calmers)

http://www.ot-innovations.com/content/view/30/46/ (all of us should get to know our sensory profile)

http://www.oregonautism.com/presentations/p10.pdf (Great presentation on sensory profiling)

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/my- ... m-and-fear (Great article on Autism and anxiety - why we have it, etc)


Oregon Autism Presentations

http://www.oregonautism.com/presentations.html (several great presentations here all regarding ASD)

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sis ... adults-asd (Here is the announcement to the conference hosted by Oregon. I missed this year but perhaps next year...)



And finally, I have embarked upon a project. His name is xxx and he is a 13 year old Aspergers child who was in dire need of a role-model in his life. We have had 4 meetings so far and reports from his Mom are that he has benefited tremendously from having someone to look up to who is wired like him. I am hoping to make an ASD special group happen at our local Big Brother Big Sister organization.

This link is for anyone with a teen who has ASD (I found it funny!)

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the ... -need-know

Next my blog on Engineering and ASD

kfisher1's Blog
The "Geek Syndrome" (Autism/Engineers)
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Fisher, Karla Fri, Jan 7 2011 2:46 AM
Comments 3
I am convinced that Simon Baron-Cohen was on to something IMHO when he wrote the Geek Syndrome Theory as described in this article....

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aspergers.html

Essentially he claims that the rise in autism today is partly due to the fact that we are now including high functioning autism (HFA or Aspergers) in our counts. He also asserts that there is another potential reason for the rise in Autism today and engineers at Intel would do well to pay attention.

Consider the fact that today Autism Spectrum Disorders (including HFA, PDD-NOS and Aspergers) are now being found in 1-150 children and significantly higher in some demographics. What demographics is this? You got it. High Tech areas.

Simon Baron-Cohen suggests that the high-tech explosion of the last two decades caused a number of us otherwise socially awkward people to come together and form relationship and even partnerships that resulted in children.

http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine ... erger.html

And MANY of our children are now also afflicted with ASD though many times it is the case that the children are more severely affected.

What to do about this? I think we start with awareness. We need to be aware as a group that we are high-risk for having and passing on this disorder. We need to have access to qualified diagnosticians to help us assess the risk. We need services for those of us affected and also for our children.

The disorder is out there and it walks among you. It is possible that as many as 30% of engineers in any groups may be affected. Many will not know it as they have made appropriate adaptations to become functional adults and Aspergers did not exist until 1994. (When we were growing up, we were just geeks or nerds)

Hi. My name is Karla Fisher. I am a 19 year high-tech engineering employing and I have ASD. I have collected a series of links and articles that I think you will find useful and have advocated for a special group in Intel Diverse Abilities Network (IDAN) so that we have a place to meet. Help me get the word out and help me to form a support group for every Intel employee affected by ASD. I am committed to serving this population in this company in any way that I can.

Here are some GREAT resources for you to read if you have the time on ASD:

General Information (Start here if you do not know what ASD is)

Threshold (awesome US Oregon-based Site) http://understandingautism.org/

UK Based Autism Org (Awesome UK-based site) http://www.autism.org.uk/TDAA





GREAT Vidoes if you have ever wondered what it is like to have Autism (even high funtioning)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPb5WPvp ... F&index=12



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WSQLXVt ... F&index=14



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfbRuhG1 ... F&index=15





On Giftedness/AS (Geek meets Autism):

http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10167.aspx

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/eric/fact/asperger.pdf

http://www.twicegifted.net/id6.html



Check out Vernon Smith (Gifted/AS)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7030731/ns/business/



Introversion and Autism (are they the same thing?)

http://etd.fcla.edu/CF/CFE0003090/Grime ... O_201005_M