19 May 2012, 1:32 am
Rascal77s wrote:
Isn't that the whole point; to teach them what growing up with autism is like autism is like (torture)? 
You may or may not be saying that jokingly, but as a child I was -quite literally- wanting to kill myself, for much of the time from 1st grade to 5th or so. Multiple suicide attempts, not all of which were known of by my family.
19 May 2012, 1:34 am
19 May 2012, 2:02 am
Atomsk wrote:
Rascal77s wrote:
Isn't that the whole point; to teach them what growing up with autism is like autism is like (torture)?
You may or may not be saying that jokingly, but as a child I was -quite literally- wanting to kill myself, for much of the time from 1st grade to 5th or so. Multiple suicide attempts, not all of which were known of by my family.
It was dark humor. Dark because it's true.
19 May 2012, 6:44 am
19 May 2012, 6:55 am
19 May 2012, 6:57 am
Atomsk wrote:
Wow, I wish things like "experience autism" existed in more places. What you have is excellent, and would remain so even without changes.
However here is some input of things you might want to try including. Some of them I imagine would be quite difficult to replicate, but I'm just tossing ideas out there:
-simulating meltdowns (seems impossible since they'd need to actually be irrationally angry)
-something simulating the need to stim
For this you could give them some sort of stim, like a hand flapping movement or something that someone with Autism does. With one of the ones I do, I put the back of my hands to my face, and wiggle my fingers a lot - while this is going on I have no idea it's happening, until it stops.
When -I- was in school (diagnosed at early age), I was -FORCED- to stop stimming whenever I stimmed, which was really really bad, because it just made me need to stim more, and there was no stopping it. All it did was cause anguish - and to this day I still stim and do compulsive movements, I've just learned to always be playing with my hands to lessen the frequency.
So give them each a stim, and have something very unpleasant happen, which goes away when they do that stim. Then to help them understand how bad it is to try to stop someone from stimming, yell at them every time they stim to get rid of whatever unpleasant thing you come up with (maybe a loud harsh noise? maybe a whistle or something, some sort of signal?), or something like that.
- something to add to the "things to do with gloves on" list
Have them button shirts up while wearing these gloves.
This is one of the most annoying things for me, it takes me a while to button a shirt up, and it really irritated me when I had to wear a button up shirt every day for a job.
Another good one, folding socks and clothes with the gloves.
handwriting difficulty
Have them wear the gloves and write with a piece of pencil led. Just a stick of mechanical pencil led. The pencil led may be overkill, but I wouldn't know - my handwriting looks like a first graders (actually, worse than most 1st graders - I had a job as a teacher assistant for a 1st grade teacher in a German immersion school, so I saw their handwriting frequently).
Sensory issues
What you have for sensory issues is good, but here is a good idea:
Have them wear a blindfold or sit in the dark or something, to make their eyes adjust fully to the darkness. Then shine some really bright light on them. Perhaps, to prolong the time of discomfort, have them wear an eyepatch and just switch eyes once one of them adjusts to the light.
Another option, just have a room very, very overlit, to show how bright fluorescent lights common in classrooms can affect Autistic people.
Make a bunch of metaphors/idiomatic phrases, etc. that only you know the meaning of.
Then use them over and over throughout the training. Give them all a meaning that has nothing to do with their words, like "Oh, of course, the yellow cow cries at midnight." to mean "stand up" or something along those lines. Then get mad at them when they don't understand what you're saying, or act puzzled like they're all idiots.
However here is some input of things you might want to try including. Some of them I imagine would be quite difficult to replicate, but I'm just tossing ideas out there:
-simulating meltdowns (seems impossible since they'd need to actually be irrationally angry)
-something simulating the need to stim
For this you could give them some sort of stim, like a hand flapping movement or something that someone with Autism does. With one of the ones I do, I put the back of my hands to my face, and wiggle my fingers a lot - while this is going on I have no idea it's happening, until it stops.
When -I- was in school (diagnosed at early age), I was -FORCED- to stop stimming whenever I stimmed, which was really really bad, because it just made me need to stim more, and there was no stopping it. All it did was cause anguish - and to this day I still stim and do compulsive movements, I've just learned to always be playing with my hands to lessen the frequency.
So give them each a stim, and have something very unpleasant happen, which goes away when they do that stim. Then to help them understand how bad it is to try to stop someone from stimming, yell at them every time they stim to get rid of whatever unpleasant thing you come up with (maybe a loud harsh noise? maybe a whistle or something, some sort of signal?), or something like that.
- something to add to the "things to do with gloves on" list
Have them button shirts up while wearing these gloves.
This is one of the most annoying things for me, it takes me a while to button a shirt up, and it really irritated me when I had to wear a button up shirt every day for a job.Another good one, folding socks and clothes with the gloves.
handwriting difficulty
Have them wear the gloves and write with a piece of pencil led. Just a stick of mechanical pencil led. The pencil led may be overkill, but I wouldn't know - my handwriting looks like a first graders (actually, worse than most 1st graders - I had a job as a teacher assistant for a 1st grade teacher in a German immersion school, so I saw their handwriting frequently).
Sensory issues
What you have for sensory issues is good, but here is a good idea:
Have them wear a blindfold or sit in the dark or something, to make their eyes adjust fully to the darkness. Then shine some really bright light on them. Perhaps, to prolong the time of discomfort, have them wear an eyepatch and just switch eyes once one of them adjusts to the light.
Another option, just have a room very, very overlit, to show how bright fluorescent lights common in classrooms can affect Autistic people.
Make a bunch of metaphors/idiomatic phrases, etc. that only you know the meaning of.
Then use them over and over throughout the training. Give them all a meaning that has nothing to do with their words, like "Oh, of course, the yellow cow cries at midnight." to mean "stand up" or something along those lines. Then get mad at them when they don't understand what you're saying, or act puzzled like they're all idiots.
I totally LOVE the stim activity. That will be AWESOME!
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