Put me in coach!!

My husband spent years coaching our boys (and many other neighbourhood kids) on the baseball diamond:

John let everybody play - took the kids that no other teams would take and showed them how to play ball and love the game. He was a model of what coaches should be: teaching, encouraging, calm and unflappable, endlessly optimistic. Some seasons we lost a lot of games, but the kids always felt like winners ("Coach, did you see my hit?" "Coach, I only pitched one over the backstop!"). And many of those kids went on to enthusiastically and successfully play baseball for years and years, in large part because John gave them a chance and taught them how to play (they still greet him as "coach" when they run into him at the grocery store).

My friend Kevin has recently joined a special baseball league, and is discovering the joy of the game as a young adult. Here are some pictures he drew of himself (and Mr. Bean and Teddy, of course!) at the ball diamond:

Teddy & Mr Bean ready to play ... drawn by Kevin 2012

Mr. Bean hitting the ball .... drawn by Kevin 2012

Kevin catching the ball .... drawn by Kevin 2012





And here's a "big picture" that Kevin and I drew together as part of our last language therapy session (teaching baseball vocabulary and concepts, so he'll have a better understanding of the patterns of the game):

 "Baseball Game" ... drawn by Kevin & Sheila (2012)

Learning how to play baseball and be part of a team sport is a happy thing for Kevin. He gets to meet new people and learn new skills in a very positive atmosphere. He looks forward to it every week. Win, win, win.

I love the leagues that share the joy of sports and games with all kids, not just those who look like they're headed for the mythical "Big Leagues". And I love the coaches who see the potential in all kids, who give them a chance and patiently teach them how to play.

So, on this Father's Day weekend, I'd like to propose a toast to all the parent coaches:

"Here's to your warm-hearted dedication to making the lives of kids a little bigger and a little brighter, one pitch, hit and catch at a time!!"

(and thanks for bringing the water bottles and the popsicles!)

Through the Eyes of Autism - part 1

This post is the first in a series inspired by a recent blog post written by "Mama Be Good" ( The Autism System: Not Good Enough ). 

In her post, the author (mom of a son with autism) talks about the unintentional messages we can give to our children, students and loved ones who have autism when our goal is "fixing" them. Without meaning to, we focus on the negatives - the "can't do's", the difficult behaviour and struggles with learning and interaction - to the point that we see a "to do" list rather than a person. We accidentally treat them as "less than", and this is a message they absorb.

Drawing for communication has allowed the people I work with to share their inner perceptions and perspectives on the situations they meet in their daily lives. Today I would like to invite you into a world that I have been privileged to see by sharing some drawings with you:

Brett is verbal (AS) but has difficulty discussing emotionally loaded topics. He never liked gym class, especially in the spring and fall when there were outdoor activities. To find out what was behind the distress, we discussed the situation through drawing.

note: I am sharing this very personal glimpse into Brett's mind with his permission (he thinks it might be helpful to you)

I drew out the initial class situation where the gym teacher is asking them to run laps around the outdoor track (Brett is the guy with the dark cloud over his head):

2006 - "the setup" by Sheila B

Then I handed the pen to Brett, and he drew out the next series of pictures:

2006 - by Brett

He had always referred to this gym activity as the "death run", and now we knew why. From his perspective, 5 laps in the hot sun was a trip around the world ... past the Eiffel Tower, through Russia and past the Taj Mahal, across the desert and past the Pyramids, across the ocean ... only to end up half-dead as "last runner in" with the gym teacher "tsk tsking". The sun was too hot, the run too long, the bugs (featured in other drawings of outdoor gym class) too annoying.

--- and may I just say here that my friend Brett's "dark humour" is his trademark, cutting and hilarious, constantly and effectively illustrating his frustration with the inflexibility and absurd assumptions of the NT world - I love it ---

He also drew out two "wishful thinking" alternatives to the "death run". 

One which I think he actually tried (a quick exit from class):

2006 - by Brett

and one which he only entertained in his "thought bubble" (running mini-laps):

2006 - by Brett

Hilarious.

And educational. Once we knew Brett's perspective on the situation, it was possible to give him help and support that worked for him. I have to say that the teachers at Brett's schools were really good with him - respectful of the information that he put out through his drawings, and willing to accommodate because they could "see" where he was coming from.

Drawing for communication is an effective method to help the "helpers" understand how the person with ASD sees the situation - what do they want? what do they need? what's giving them trouble? - valid and important perspectives that provide the information we really need to help a person with ASD integrate and deal with the world to the extent that they need and want to.

Respect, love, humour and understanding .... that would be my prescription.

A day to spoil your moms!

In honour of Mother's Day tomorrow ... 

I would like to share with you one of my all-time favourite "mom" portraits, drawn by Adam when he was 10 years old, and just beginning to express himself through his drawings: 

drawn by Adam (2000)

Adam loves his mom. At the time he created this picture, Halloween monsters and creatures were his passion. He draws "mommy" as a "mummy", the highest compliment, and the facial expressions suggest that he and his mom are set for risky (but fun) adventures at a moment's notice.

When Adam was small, his mom was not only the center of his world, but the only salient part - the lone voice he recognized and responded to, the single person he actually "knew". As he's grown, his world has expanded to include other people, but she is still the constant (and I would guess still the favourite ... sorry Case!).

So to all the extraordinary moms of kids with autism - the ones who listen, help, teach, defend, comfort, love, etc, etc, on a daily basis - I'd just like to say, from one mom to another:

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!! 

... and I hope you get (edible) breakfast in bed!

A glimpse back at where one boy's drawing for communication started

We have gradually been expanding the library of teaching videos on our YouTube channel (AUTISMartCOMMUNICATE). One of our recent videos features Kevin, a less verbal young man (age 20) who has a diagnosis of autism. I have known Kevin since 1998, and we have been drawing together since 1999.

picture of Mr Bean & Teddy at the movies by Kevin

I thought it would be interesting for you to see where Kevin started. In March 2000, when Kevin was 7 years old, we videotaped some of our therapy activities - this series of 5 short video clips (extracted from those tapes) gives a "flavour" of who Kevin was at that point. He was a beautiful boy, physically delicate with many medical issues, and he was mostly non-verbal (occasional single words to give basic information, echoing of longer word strings from computer games and movies). He was prone to melt-downs, especially in the school environment, and would be unable to say what was wrong. He was clearly intelligent but very difficult to engage in social/communication interactions.

Click the following links to see the video clips:

Kevin (2000) - part 1 - hard to engage

Kevin (2000) - part 2 - non-verbal turn-taking

Kevin (2000) - part 3 - simple dramatic play & scripted story play

Kevin (2000) - part 4 - Kevin engages in drawing

Kevin (2000) - part 5 - drawing of person continues

I'm still hoping to be able to post the longer versions of these therapy clips, but at the moment, these small snippets are all that I was able to successfully convert from my old VHS videotapes to video files that will play on YouTube.

Drawing was a context that gave us long stretches of quiet focused attentive interaction. The boy who actively blocked me out of his play scenarios (in favour of playing every part himself) would now watch and listen and soak up all of the information, then wait for more. It felt like magic to a desperate "attention-seeking" therapist like myself.

Over the years, we have used drawing to teach language, literacy and many other social and academic topics. Kevin draws wonderful stories full of emotional reactions and interactions between the characters (usually Mr. Bean, Teddy and the members of Kevin's immediate family). We "back-fill" meaning into his reading and writing activities as we draw out the complete meanings of the words and phrases. In addition, his mom has made an extensive library of visual teaching materials to help Kevin learn complex subjects (like higher level math & computer animation) with meaning. He is an intelligent young man who learns in a very different way.

Here's an entertaining series of pictures from last week, when Kevin and I were doing a language drawing activity involving unscrambling word tiles to make words, then writing and illustrating the word. Successive turns added more words that created a growing phrase with constantly changing meaning. Take a look (all writing and pictures by Kevin):

When you do activities like this, the point is teaching not testing.When we added the fourth word, Kevin did not fully understand the meaning of the new phrase:

He drew the baby eating an apple, and then drew the wart? or eyeball? protruding from the top of the baby's head - we weren't able to figure out what this was, and Kevin couldn't verbally explain it (but he put it there very carefully and purposefully, so it obviously reflected what he thought the changed sentence meant). I then added the visual clue of the sad face by the word "sadly" and he drew the worm in the apple (apparently the reason that the baby was sad). When we asked him how the worm made the baby feel, he drew the arrow and the second picture showing a sad baby.

And here's a recent video of Kevin drawing with me (demonstrating a language-learning drawing activity). Kevin has developed his own distinctive style - he draws in a relaxed confident way, and he enjoys displaying his art-work to share it with his family.

Click the following link to see the video:

Kevin (2012) - give & follow directions (a language drawing activity)

It's hard to connect this calm young man sitting attentively beside me, interacting visually and verbally, with the challenging reactive young boy that he used to be - but they're one and the same. Drawing is a great way to make the connection and find out who's inside the complicated exterior.

drawing of Mr. Bean & Teddy by Kevin

I love a surprise ending!

Monday, Monday ...

I'm looking out my window, and it's snowing! A spring snowstorm AND it's Monday. So, for all of you who, like me, might be having a hard time getting your work/school week started, here's a great picture that my friend Owen drew a couple of weeks back when he was having a hard time starting his week:

The title he gave to this picture? "Hangover Monday".

A picture really is worth a thousand words ... hope this visual humour carries you all the way to Tuesday!

"What's wrong?" ... unraveling medical mysteries

An incident from the early days of my autism practice sticks in my mind. I went to see a young boy with autism for a therapy session and he was lying on the couch, listless and unresponsive - this was about the fourth week he had been in that state. When I asked his mom if she had taken him to the doctor, she said yes, for all the good it had done. Apparently the doctor told his mom "What do you expect? He has autism". The mom's comment to me?

I could take him to that doctor bleeding from the head and missing one leg, and the doctor would tell me it was just the autism acting up!

picture by Owen 2012

A diagnosis of autism doesn't give a person immunity to all of the other illnesses and ailments that are unfortunately part of the human condition. In fact, some types of medical problems seem to be more common in the ASD population than in the general population - allergies and food sensitivities, gastro-intestinal problems, and seizures, to name a few.

Diagnosing illness in less verbal individuals with autism is extremely challenging. They can't tell you what hurts, how long it's been hurting, how much it hurts - all questions that the doctor usually asks in a diagnostic medical appointment. They may not even know that the way they are feeling is abnormal (as far as they know, maybe everyone's head hurts and it's normal to feel sick after you eat).

We had a recent medical situation with Adam that highlighted this problem:

drawing by Adam

As I've mentioned before in this blog, Adam has multiple allergies and sensitivities, including seasonal disintegration every spring, and to a lesser extent in the fall. So when he was "fuzzy" and having trouble with learning this fall, we put it down to a reaction to the unusually warm and prolonged seasonal change.

It got worse. He became sluggish and reluctant to do anything. He didn't want to get out of bed. He started to complain that things "hurt", but couldn't really say where.

Then he went to the dentist for a regular check-up, and we got a "puzzle piece" - his wisdom teeth were pushing in, and the dentist said that he would be having pain related to that. The dentist wanted to monitor the situation, and said that the wisdom teeth would likely need to come out within the next year.

So, we drew the situation out in his next therapy appointment, and made two visual cards (for posting on the wall) that he could use to let his parents know when he was having pain, and when he might need to go to the dentist and get the teeth extracted:

drawings by Adam 2011

We thought we had solved the problem ... but we were wrong.

Adam's symptoms multiplied and became more severe. He was sensitive to light, so we wondered if he was having sinus headaches or migraines secondary to his allergies. We made more "I don't feel good" cards to try to help him define what was wrong:

drawings by Adam 2011

And things kept getting worse.

He was barely interested in Halloween (his high holiday). He showed no interest in his up-coming birthday or the lead-up to the Christmas season.

We continued to draw his way through pain and suffering and doctor's visits and specialized medical procedures - experiences that are made worse by a person not knowing what's going on or what to expect next. Here is one of the drawings where Adam explained to us where he was feeling pain:

Long story short ... it turned out to be kidney stones ... not one of the pictures we had drawn, and not something that was "short-listed" (or even on the list) as a possible cause of his pain and distress. Not a "guessable" disease.

Moral of the story? You can't explain everything that a person is doing or feeling by invoking the word "autism". It's not usual to feel sick and sore and distressed every day. You will have to search to find medical professionals who are knowledgeable enough to look beyond the ASD diagnosis to discover and treat the other physical illnesses and ailments that are causing the pain and discomfort. When an ASD person is less verbal, your challenge is multiplied, because they can't tell you what's wrong, and you can't easily tell them what to expect in the unknown world of doctors and hospitals. Drawing helps - it still takes time and effort to solve the mystery, but drawing provides a communication channel to exchange important information.

The good news is that Adam is now on the other side of this episode, and seems to be more himself again. In late January, he made up for lost time and put together his birthday Lego sets, then watched a slew of Christmas videos. He got back on track with his learning, and we had some very productive sessions.

The less good news? ... we've had an early spring thaw, and yay, it's allergy season again!

oh well ... to paraphrase Tina Turner: "We will survive!"

3 more videos added to the YouTube channel!

Hi everyone!

Quick post to let you know that there are three more new teaching videos on our YouTube channel AUTISMartCOMMUNICATE :

1. Part 2 of the "how to weave" video ... for all of you out there with unfinished pot holders!

How to weave (part 2) - finishing the edge

2. A video demonstrating how to use a "follow me" approach to teach young children how to draw:

Drawing with young children - part 1

3. A video demonstrating how to use a "follow me" approach to teach new art media and techniques to less verbal ASD individuals:

Teaching Art & Communication - "follow me" pastel drawing

We would appreciate your feed-back as we expand our library of reference videos. Don't be shy to let us know what you think!

Sheila B