During spring break, Lisa Gerard and I attended the Across the Spectrum Autism/Asperger Conference in Atlanta, GA. The 2 day conference was filled with great breakout sessions, keynote speakers, and inspirational individuals with disabilities. The sessions ranged from picky eaters to LAMP strategies for communication, video modeling, teenagers on the spectrum, and lots more!
Dr. Glenis Benson was the keynote Thursday morning and focused on communicative intent of challenging behaviors. She stated “if they could do better they would do better” indicating that children on the spectrum are not trying to be naughty when using challenging behaviors to communicate. It was encouraging to hear another professional focus so much energy on the communicative intent behind the challenging behavior. It is so important to not only describe and identify the behavior, but really focus on understanding why it is occurring. I was working with a preschool client the other day who was trying to jump out of his chair. If I had not taken the time to try and understand the behavior, I would not have understood that he was wanting to pick something up he dropped and I would have thought he was just trying to escape his work. If I had not understood, I may have kept him in his chair leading to a huge meltdown that could have been avoided. By focusing on what he was trying to communicate, we avoided unnecessary challenging behaviors and/or meltdowns.
Alexis Wineman, Miss Montana 2012, spoke Friday morning and shared her story. She talked about the challenges of the Miss America pageant as an individual on the spectrum and how she did not request accommodations. She currently attends college, but made sure the audience knew that she was not cured from autism and meltdowns, but has learned how to thrive with her disability.
The conference was a wonderful reminder of how much we need to push individuals to reach their potential as well as taking the time to understand behaviors individuals have and why those behaviors may be occurring. I have already marked my calendar for the 2015 conference!
