The Life Autistic Documentary - By Lumos Learning
Transcript
| 00:0-1 | This program is part of the move to include initiative | |
| 00:03 | made possible with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting | |
| 00:07 | , a private corporation funded by the American People , | |
| 00:13 | the Max and Helen Guernsey Charitable Foundation , in support | |
| 00:18 | of educational programming on statewide Iowa PBS . Autism spectrum | |
| 00:27 | disorder affects how an individual processes information and interprets the | |
| 00:32 | world . As the prevalence of autism increases , so | |
| 00:36 | do efforts to understand and provide assistance to those affected | |
| 00:40 | by ASD . The Life Autistic series explores the successes | |
| 00:46 | and challenges of individuals at different life stages . My | |
| 00:50 | name is Tyler . Learn about my story and meet | |
| 00:54 | others on the spectrum from the very young to the | |
| 00:58 | elderly , living the life autistic . Well , sure | |
| 01:24 | . Thank you for telling me . Oh , more | |
| 01:28 | bubbles . The diagnosis of autism talks about significant impairment | |
| 01:36 | and communication socialization . And , uh , this last | |
| 01:39 | category of these restricted , repetitive and stereotypical patterns of | |
| 01:42 | behaviors . Autism isn't developmentally delayed . Autism is a | |
| 01:48 | different operating system . Think of it in terms of | |
| 01:51 | it not being right or wrong , but just a | |
| 01:53 | different way that people take in information and how they | |
| 01:56 | organize that information . And then how they share that | |
| 01:58 | information with other people and these are all things that | |
| 02:01 | are impacted by autism . So I think early intervention | |
| 02:05 | is one of the most important things that , um | |
| 02:08 | , we can direct families towards or identify for families | |
| 02:11 | . When they get started . Kids grow and they | |
| 02:14 | start with foundational types of goals and needs . And | |
| 02:18 | really , those grow on each other . So I | |
| 02:20 | think the earlier you can intervene , the better it | |
| 02:23 | is to build those foundations and those blocks that they | |
| 02:25 | need to succeed as they grow . Mhm . Uh | |
| 02:35 | huh . I tell him , Good night , every | |
| 02:37 | night , and he says , Then I love you | |
| 02:39 | . That's something I did not know I'd ever here | |
| 02:42 | . So that's been huge . He's always making just | |
| 02:46 | strides forward and forward . Oh , I didn't hear | |
| 02:50 | you say Go Ready , set , go . He's | |
| 02:57 | always been very , very happy . But there was | |
| 02:59 | a lot of moments of anxiety and stress and things | |
| 03:03 | that we're seeing a lot less of , and I | |
| 03:05 | think that's because he's just kind of figuring out how | |
| 03:09 | to interact with the world . Better out came the | |
| 03:13 | sun and dried up all the rain , so itsy | |
| 03:18 | bitsy spider climbed up the spout again . I can't | |
| 03:23 | imagine my life , our lives how it was a | |
| 03:27 | year ago just because it's so different and we still | |
| 03:29 | have a lot of work to do . But he's | |
| 03:32 | just marching along , making huge , huge strides . | |
| 03:37 | So my son Finn , he is four years old | |
| 03:42 | . He has autism . He is very , very | |
| 03:46 | inquisitive , very curious about the world , mostly items | |
| 03:50 | objects , not necessarily people . So much so overwhelming | |
| 03:55 | in that first beginning stages because it's a life you | |
| 03:59 | never really could have even planned . Or you don't | |
| 04:01 | even think about what a person with a child with | |
| 04:04 | autism does to help them . You know , you | |
| 04:07 | just you don't think about that . He was a | |
| 04:09 | very easy , happy baby . Um , nothing alarming | |
| 04:14 | as we started to kind of introduce solid foods had | |
| 04:17 | a really big aversion to it , you know , | |
| 04:18 | kind of gagging . And the biggest kind of red | |
| 04:23 | flag was there was no talking at all . He | |
| 04:25 | just didn't have a lot of even really babbling . | |
| 04:31 | We didn't think like autism because he did always give | |
| 04:34 | eye contact , gave kisses and was affectionate . I | |
| 04:37 | think it's probably his 18 month appointment . His doctor | |
| 04:40 | suggested a developmental doctor , and by that point things | |
| 04:44 | were kind of popping up a little more . You | |
| 04:46 | know he's flapping his hands and spinning around in circles | |
| 04:49 | and things like that . Hi , Ben is a | |
| 04:54 | hard worker . He's going to try really , really | |
| 04:57 | hard to do what you ask of him . What | |
| 04:59 | do you say to Mom ? And this environment is | |
| 05:03 | all new to him at the Children's Autism Project . | |
| 05:05 | So to come in and and engage with all kinds | |
| 05:08 | of new toys and new people and new kids really | |
| 05:10 | does tell you a little bit about him as a | |
| 05:12 | person . It's empty . That's a light . We | |
| 05:17 | go five days a week here from 9 to 11 | |
| 05:20 | 30 then he goes over to child serve and they | |
| 05:23 | have an Autism Day health program . So during that | |
| 05:26 | time , he's there for five hours . Mhm . | |
| 05:30 | You're popping them . The research on early intervention in | |
| 05:33 | autism is profound . The earlier a child is diagnosed | |
| 05:37 | and intervention can begin , the more likelihood that you'll | |
| 05:40 | have the most desirable outcomes and the most desirable outcomes | |
| 05:44 | is to be as independent as possible Pipe cleaner . | |
| 05:48 | Hi , good trying . So in this case , | |
| 05:52 | within one of the most significant barriers for him is | |
| 05:56 | that he doesn't have a concept of safety it has | |
| 05:59 | been . One of our major focus is to teach | |
| 06:02 | him to stay with us without holding onto our hands | |
| 06:05 | without running into other rooms . Stay with me to | |
| 06:08 | the lion room , be safe . There we go | |
| 06:13 | . That's staying together . His other area of big | |
| 06:17 | need is his communication skills . He it has recently | |
| 06:21 | learned to make some level of local language to get | |
| 06:24 | his needs and wants met . However , he's not | |
| 06:26 | always understandable . Clean , clean , clean . Being | |
| 06:35 | understood is so important because it also is what establishes | |
| 06:37 | trust . And he comes here . And he needs | |
| 06:40 | to trust that when he says something , his words | |
| 06:42 | have power , so that later in life , when | |
| 06:44 | he's older , when he really needs to tell someone | |
| 06:46 | that something's wrong or he needs help with something that | |
| 06:49 | he has that built in relationship of communication . In | |
| 06:52 | addition to that , behaviorally , there's some challenges . | |
| 06:54 | He engages in some Syriana fee , and you might | |
| 06:58 | have seen that with the pipe cleaner where he kind | |
| 07:00 | of flips them around in front of his eyes . | |
| 07:02 | And when he does those types of things , he | |
| 07:04 | disengages from the people around him . Realistically , you | |
| 07:08 | have to kind of keep in the back of your | |
| 07:09 | mind . You know his future you have to plan | |
| 07:14 | for Will he need assistance far into his adult life | |
| 07:19 | ? We don't know that because that's kind of a | |
| 07:22 | looming thing that you don't want to think about As | |
| 07:25 | far as when I'm gone . You know what will | |
| 07:29 | happen with him ? Will he be safe ? Will | |
| 07:31 | he be loved ? Will he be taken care of | |
| 07:33 | or will he be able to do that himself ? | |
| 07:35 | What are you doing ? What are you doing ? | |
| 07:37 | What are you doing ? He'll be six in June | |
| 07:42 | . He is actually gonna start kindergarten this fall . | |
| 07:46 | It's like you almost can't imagine how things were just | |
| 07:50 | 12 months ago . It's crazy . He's always steadily | |
| 07:52 | made progress . But the amount of progress that he | |
| 07:55 | has made is what is , um , just so | |
| 07:58 | remarkable . It's really , really important to to be | |
| 08:02 | in that intensive therapy world because that's how you see | |
| 08:07 | progress . Everybody has to be on the same page | |
| 08:09 | working really , really hard to get him to a | |
| 08:12 | point where he is able to be the best He | |
| 08:16 | can be yellow , yellow star . You got them | |
| 08:20 | all High five . Good job . So Finn not | |
| 08:24 | only receives speech therapy here twice a week , he | |
| 08:27 | is also receiving occupational therapy , and he is also | |
| 08:31 | receiving feeding therapy . He is getting a lot of | |
| 08:36 | interaction with our therapists and his teachers today . He | |
| 08:41 | asked for assistance multiple times for me , and he | |
| 08:46 | requested for different objects or activities he wanted to play | |
| 08:50 | with . So I would say in the last year | |
| 08:52 | and a half he's hit this explosion , where he's | |
| 08:55 | just started to speak more and use his voice to | |
| 08:58 | change the environment around him . It's been really cool | |
| 09:01 | to watch what , 231 of his behaviors that we | |
| 09:07 | really , really dealt with was , um , screaming | |
| 09:09 | , Uh , you know , a lot covering his | |
| 09:11 | ears and screaming . And as he has made huge | |
| 09:16 | progress in communication , especially , Oh , it's all | |
| 09:19 | God that has gone way , way , way , | |
| 09:21 | way down . So his distress level , I would | |
| 09:23 | say , in his anxiety level , that's all going | |
| 09:26 | down . Finn works so incredibly hard . Every little | |
| 09:31 | milestone that we meet with him or every goal that | |
| 09:34 | we meet is so huge . You can't help but | |
| 09:37 | feel like so proud and happy and excited . And | |
| 09:40 | there are things that in a typical household wouldn't be | |
| 09:43 | that big of a deal . But to us , | |
| 09:45 | they are there , such huge victories . So there | |
| 09:49 | are some Children who appear maybe from the very beginning | |
| 09:53 | , that something just isn't right . Then there are | |
| 09:55 | others who we refer to it as a regressive form | |
| 09:59 | of autism who appear to be developing in almost always | |
| 10:03 | hitting their milestones until somewhere around that second birthday in | |
| 10:08 | those Children , a set of skills and activities that | |
| 10:12 | used to be in place just stop happening . It | |
| 10:15 | may be gradual over time . There are Children who | |
| 10:18 | literally were saying words and who end up nonverbal , | |
| 10:23 | and they lose those skills . Mm , mhm . | |
| 10:30 | When the two were born , they did everything on | |
| 10:33 | time . Crawled , walked , rolled over . Everything | |
| 10:37 | was pretty much almost a week apart between the two | |
| 10:41 | . I can't even tell you when he really went | |
| 10:43 | downhill , all of a sudden , it just seemed | |
| 10:45 | like Jack just was miserable . And that's what's hard | |
| 10:50 | . Your child is , you know , developing right | |
| 10:53 | along . And all of a sudden they just kind | |
| 10:55 | of go down on the paper . Can you ? | |
| 11:03 | Color ? Jack is three years old . He loves | |
| 11:06 | to color , which is a new thing that he's | |
| 11:08 | just gotten into . He's starting to clap , which | |
| 11:11 | he never did before , and stop his feet once | |
| 11:14 | in a while . There's certain songs that he really | |
| 11:17 | loves . If you're happy and you know it , | |
| 11:20 | then your face will surely show it if you're happy | |
| 11:23 | and you know we clap your hands . When Jack | |
| 11:27 | was little , we couldn't even get him to sit | |
| 11:30 | . He would just run off and be crying . | |
| 11:32 | He didn't want to sit and do anything , didn't | |
| 11:35 | play with toys appropriately . And now , if you | |
| 11:38 | give him a reinforce , our like his shaker , | |
| 11:40 | he'll sit in . My immediate family is my husband | |
| 11:45 | , Sean , and we have a six year old | |
| 11:47 | Max . My oldest son , Max is on the | |
| 11:49 | autism spectrum as well , and then Jack has a | |
| 11:52 | twin sister , Josie . Oh , no , you're | |
| 12:01 | not all die . Where he's at now is he | |
| 12:04 | loves school for him to take the numbers one through | |
| 12:06 | 10 , and they can be mixed up and he | |
| 12:09 | can line him up . A year ago , I | |
| 12:10 | wouldn't have thought he could do that Good for you | |
| 12:13 | . Jack is a kindergartener here in Northeast Elementary School | |
| 12:16 | , and he's in the general classroom . I would | |
| 12:18 | say about 80% of his day . And then he | |
| 12:20 | comes in here for a lot of intense one on | |
| 12:22 | one work with his goals . Right now , Jack | |
| 12:25 | right now is nonverbal . That's how I would classify | |
| 12:27 | him . He does have some words , but he's | |
| 12:30 | not using them to communicate so much as he's using | |
| 12:32 | them just to identify certain things around the room . | |
| 12:35 | Guy Pay pig , pig , pig , Jack Strength | |
| 12:42 | . Right now in the classroom are his letters and | |
| 12:43 | numbers . He's really just fascinated by letters and numbers | |
| 12:46 | . It seems to be a characteristic of Children with | |
| 12:48 | autism that they do like numbers because the order of | |
| 12:51 | numbers is never going to change . He is using | |
| 12:54 | a piece of assistive technology right now . He's had | |
| 12:57 | it for about four weeks . If you want to | |
| 12:59 | drink , tell me Drink , drink , please . | |
| 13:01 | And thank you . Good job , Jack . One | |
| 13:05 | of the biggest things that I would like to see | |
| 13:07 | for Jack is for him to have a way to | |
| 13:09 | communicate . Right now , he's not able to let | |
| 13:11 | us know I'm hurt or I'm sick or I'm hungry | |
| 13:15 | or I'm grumpy right now . Just leave me alone | |
| 13:17 | . He doesn't have a way to say those things | |
| 13:20 | . Jack has a one on one associate , which | |
| 13:22 | he needs because of the fact that he could run | |
| 13:26 | off at any point if somebody wasn't watching him . | |
| 13:28 | And still , he's not completely potty trained , so | |
| 13:32 | he needs help with that . Potty training is like | |
| 13:36 | my next school that I would love to have done | |
| 13:38 | . That's you keep working on the speech . I've | |
| 13:43 | heard him say words . He said words at school | |
| 13:46 | , so I know he can speak . It's just | |
| 13:48 | getting it out of him . He's just a happier | |
| 13:53 | child , and the earlier you can start doing intervention | |
| 13:57 | , the better . That's been huge for Jack . | |
| 14:00 | When we started , I thought , Oh , his | |
| 14:02 | goal was to get him to sit for 10 minutes | |
| 14:04 | without crying or running off , and then today you | |
| 14:08 | see him and he'll sit and do work . Safety | |
| 14:14 | is the biggest thing , especially for a child like | |
| 14:16 | Jack , and that's why we do swimming lessons , | |
| 14:19 | because we want to make sure that he's able if | |
| 14:22 | he gets in a pool or gets into a pond | |
| 14:24 | or something , that he can get up and get | |
| 14:26 | back to the side . Like if he fell off | |
| 14:27 | a dock or something . Because that was my biggest | |
| 14:30 | fear . Mm . I have had Jack on my | |
| 14:40 | roster for the last year and a half . When | |
| 14:42 | I first got him as an eighth grader , he | |
| 14:45 | was displaying some more negative behaviors . Whereas he was | |
| 14:49 | maybe having some self injurious behaviors . He got upset | |
| 14:54 | . He would maybe hit his head a little bit | |
| 14:56 | . He had We called them vocal aggressions . Sometimes | |
| 15:04 | he would leave the area where he was supposed to | |
| 15:06 | be because something else was bothering him . Or he | |
| 15:10 | wanted to Just get out of work . Jack , | |
| 15:13 | over here . Get your tray . It's okay . | |
| 15:16 | Get your trade . Well , animal Yeah , you | |
| 15:22 | say ? Yeah , we're working on him , communicating | |
| 15:26 | more so rather than the behaviors being the form of | |
| 15:29 | communication , we're having him use his argumentative alternative communication | |
| 15:34 | device to say what might be bothering him or ask | |
| 15:38 | for a break . I would describe him as low | |
| 15:42 | verbal , so he has the ability to speak . | |
| 15:46 | And we hear that often in little snippets or short | |
| 15:49 | little phrases or one word answers Rabbit the rabbit . | |
| 15:56 | Good trying , Jack . But when it comes to | |
| 16:00 | having a conversation , that's something . At this point | |
| 16:03 | in time , he still has a little bit of | |
| 16:05 | a wall in front of him that we need to | |
| 16:07 | help him jump over nice hands . One of the | |
| 16:11 | things that Jack does communicative Lee is he reverses his | |
| 16:16 | sounds , or he'll put an initial sound at the | |
| 16:19 | end of a word . So saying fish is very | |
| 16:22 | hard for Jack . It sounds like Sri Shish because | |
| 16:25 | he's not sure about exactly where to have proper mouth | |
| 16:28 | placement . Yes , they're wise . You've got your | |
| 16:32 | sounds good jump , Jack . I would say Jack's | |
| 16:37 | area of strength is doing work tasks that are very | |
| 16:41 | repetitive that have a clear answer for T High five | |
| 16:49 | . Good job . 63 High five . Good job | |
| 16:54 | . He needs to know . Here's how I started | |
| 16:57 | . Here's exactly how I do it and here's how | |
| 16:59 | I end it . You do see that no matter | |
| 17:03 | what abilities or disabilities the students have , they are | |
| 17:08 | teenagers , so they're going to have the same feelings | |
| 17:13 | that a neuro typical student might have . Jack also | |
| 17:17 | sometimes struggles with understanding social cues from other people . | |
| 17:21 | One of the biggest challenges is he has feelings that | |
| 17:27 | he doesn't know how to appropriately display and communicate with | |
| 17:31 | us . So We're trying to help him navigate when | |
| 17:34 | you're frustrated . This is what you could do . | |
| 17:38 | We also really hit up the living component where we're | |
| 17:42 | working on hygiene or , um , living skills . | |
| 17:46 | And one of the big living skills for Jack is | |
| 17:49 | making his lunch . So we're trying to help him | |
| 17:52 | understand It's your lunch . You need to be the | |
| 17:56 | one that makes it , because as an adult , | |
| 17:59 | if he's hungry , I want him someday to be | |
| 18:01 | able to go to the kitchen and do it on | |
| 18:04 | his own . It's scary at times to think about | |
| 18:07 | that , but it's a skill that he needed to | |
| 18:10 | have last year . Yeah , where was this child | |
| 18:15 | ? As a three year old , as a seven | |
| 18:18 | year old as an eighth grader ? Right , gone | |
| 18:23 | . It's everything that we do , and all of | |
| 18:26 | the goals from here on out are very much aligned | |
| 18:29 | to What is Jack Hope for himself in the future | |
| 18:33 | ? What do parents hope for him in the future | |
| 18:35 | ? And how can we meld those into applicable goals | |
| 18:40 | that will make a difference for him for the rest | |
| 18:43 | of his life ? Mhm . Probably down the road | |
| 18:46 | when he's 18 1920 . If he's still , you | |
| 18:51 | know where he needs full time care ? What do | |
| 18:53 | you mean ? What do you do ? Is there | |
| 18:55 | places that he can live That he can have help | |
| 18:58 | where he can go out and get a job and | |
| 19:01 | come back and live somewhat independently ? That's probably the | |
| 19:06 | biggest goal . And the biggest fear . No , | |
| 19:10 | I'm uh huh , Yeah , yeah . I definitely | |
| 19:24 | think he knows he's different . But understanding what role | |
| 19:28 | autism plays in that is going to be a difficult | |
| 19:32 | conversation . I don't think he necessarily feels bad about | |
| 19:36 | it or feels sorry for himself . Generally is a | |
| 19:40 | pretty happy go lucky kid . Kids , even before | |
| 19:47 | a year start to babble . And Brandon didn't even | |
| 19:50 | babble . He was just silent unless he cried as | |
| 19:56 | he progressed . We still had no speech , and | |
| 19:59 | that was really kind of a huge red flag for | |
| 20:01 | us . Was that he wasn't saying anything . No | |
| 20:04 | words , no sounds nothing . Yeah , In the | |
| 20:09 | meantime , we were having some more tantrums and really | |
| 20:13 | difficult behavior . He was difficult to take out in | |
| 20:17 | public . We kept adding therapies . And so we | |
| 20:21 | started with speech . And then we added ot occupational | |
| 20:25 | therapy . And then we added feeding therapy Yes . | |
| 20:29 | And then we added , um , the Children's autism | |
| 20:32 | project here . So for a time , he was | |
| 20:35 | essentially doing four different therapies . But there comes a | |
| 20:38 | time where we can't do it all anymore . And | |
| 20:41 | we have two other kids who are now in activities | |
| 20:44 | . Carter plays basketball . Jana does dance , and | |
| 20:47 | there's a lot of guilt . Where am I doing | |
| 20:50 | Enough and trying to balance all three of them at | |
| 20:52 | the same time ? Yeah , yeah , yeah . | |
| 21:01 | Mhm . Brandon is obsessed with Mario Mario Brothers Super | |
| 21:08 | Mario . He loves every Mario game , and that's | |
| 21:12 | been an interest of his for a really long time | |
| 21:15 | . And if we let Brandon , he would play | |
| 21:17 | video games all day , every day . And so | |
| 21:20 | we work on rotating different activities throughout our day so | |
| 21:23 | that he gets some time with the electronics , but | |
| 21:26 | then also has time to go outside or read or | |
| 21:30 | cut paper or some of the other things that he | |
| 21:32 | likes to do . One . Let's do some scooter | |
| 21:40 | . Does that sound like a plan ? Yeah , | |
| 21:43 | Yeah , right . Thank him . Triggered it . | |
| 21:55 | Oh , really ? Is that rough ? Yes . | |
| 21:58 | How about tell you what we do ? A little | |
| 22:03 | bit of chalk and you can sit and also see | |
| 22:05 | Super Mario . I'll do it on the driveway . | |
| 22:09 | There's no sun , so you don't have to worry | |
| 22:12 | about getting sweaty . Okay ? What do you think | |
| 22:18 | ? You want to go find some chalk ? Green | |
| 22:25 | green scene ? Yeah . Dreams . It's kind of | |
| 22:31 | like a mix right with green and yellow . Yeah | |
| 22:39 | , yeah , yeah . I didn't . Yeah , | |
| 22:41 | not yet . Did a good job . I need | |
| 22:43 | the time . Okay . No time or yet . | |
| 22:48 | What do you think ? How did this Maybe after | |
| 22:51 | the chop Middle school and high school are tough socially | |
| 22:58 | for anybody . And for him , the gap will | |
| 23:01 | get whiter as kids start to be interested in movies | |
| 23:04 | and music and things like that and , you know | |
| 23:07 | , interested in boys and girls and he's not going | |
| 23:10 | to have those interests . He's still gonna be playing | |
| 23:12 | Mario , probably . And so , um , friendship | |
| 23:15 | is really hard . And that's a concern I have | |
| 23:17 | for when he's an adult to being the parent of | |
| 23:22 | a special needs child is a huge stress . On | |
| 23:27 | day on , day to day , living right , | |
| 23:30 | he was stressed on relationships with ourselves , each other | |
| 23:35 | with friends outside of our family , which makes us | |
| 23:40 | a very tight and close knit family . There's a | |
| 23:42 | lot of love between the five of us , but | |
| 23:45 | it doesn't come without its challenges . Yeah . Oh | |
| 23:52 | , yeah . What ? Color green . I don't | |
| 23:57 | have any green the Children's autism project here . Really | |
| 24:01 | , though I mean , has changed our lives . | |
| 24:03 | I don't know where Brandon would be if we have | |
| 24:05 | not spent the past 5.5 years here . Disease X | |
| 24:08 | . We'll ask for a break if someone is out | |
| 24:12 | an area that Brandon really struggles with his understanding why | |
| 24:14 | people engage in social behavior and especially why they engage | |
| 24:18 | in behavior that he doesn't like . So when Brandon | |
| 24:20 | here is a baby screaming in a public location , | |
| 24:23 | he will get frustrated and attempt to yell at the | |
| 24:25 | baby and tell it to stop crying . He doesn't | |
| 24:28 | understand that they're not out to get him . And | |
| 24:30 | so we do a lot of perspective taking on Why | |
| 24:33 | is this person upset ? How is your behavior impacting | |
| 24:37 | them ? My name is Brandon . I like to | |
| 24:41 | play the Wii . Oh , Brandon is pretty famous | |
| 24:47 | right now for saying it's no big deal whenever something | |
| 24:49 | happens . And that's something that we taught him to | |
| 24:51 | cope with . Those challenges every year . I think | |
| 24:54 | we push Brandon on some phobia and some fear , | |
| 24:57 | and he always comes out on top . You're going | |
| 25:00 | to move . Do you think you can do that | |
| 25:03 | with decimals ? Let's go ahead and do this problem | |
| 25:05 | today , please . How do we say that ? | |
| 25:08 | First number 32 and one 10th times Times eight tens | |
| 25:21 | . Good job . I am Brandon's general education teacher | |
| 25:24 | . He's in my classroom 80% of the time . | |
| 25:26 | Um , 20% of the time , he's in special | |
| 25:29 | education . He really loves math . Anything on the | |
| 25:32 | computer , I could see him just continuing his love | |
| 25:36 | for computers and just being a whiz on the computer | |
| 25:39 | . He's a very good speller . He's a very | |
| 25:42 | good reader . It's the comprehension side of reading that | |
| 25:45 | is a little more difficult , especially as books are | |
| 25:48 | getting more challenging and there's a lot more inferring . | |
| 25:51 | But my expectations for him in the classroom are just | |
| 25:54 | like everyone else's . And he really rises to the | |
| 25:56 | challenge . Yeah , man shows where your next round | |
| 26:04 | , the shoulders . Show them the way . That's | |
| 26:07 | it . Yeah . Okay . Yeah . On there | |
| 26:34 | . Yeah . Thank you . Okay . Brandon is | |
| 26:41 | only in special education classroom for 30 minutes . of | |
| 26:44 | reading instruction and 30 minutes of social skills instruction . | |
| 26:47 | So to work on that social emotional behavior piece he | |
| 26:51 | now is working on over the last year having a | |
| 26:53 | conversation and being able to start a conversation with his | |
| 26:57 | peers and to carry on the conversation , how to | |
| 27:00 | appropriately end it and not just get up and walk | |
| 27:03 | away or say , I'm done . How do you | |
| 27:06 | like we're gonna highlight that ? Thank you . Brandon | |
| 27:10 | is the only student I've ever had in 22 years | |
| 27:13 | to start from kindergarten through fifth grade . He's grown | |
| 27:17 | a lot from this little kiddo that didn't talk a | |
| 27:20 | whole lot , just trying to get him to work | |
| 27:22 | and stuff . And then to this guy that who | |
| 27:24 | now he talks and he'll have a conversation with you | |
| 27:27 | and he'll ask you questions , greets you every morning | |
| 27:31 | . It will be amazing to watch him over the | |
| 27:33 | next seven years to see what he does for sixth | |
| 27:35 | through 12th grade . No , maybe three . Depending | |
| 27:38 | on the weather . Yeah , we know he's gonna | |
| 27:41 | have limitations . We just don't know obviously what all | |
| 27:44 | those will be in long term . What happens when | |
| 27:47 | we're gone ? What will he do once . Once | |
| 27:51 | . We're not around anymore . That also makes me | |
| 27:54 | emotional . That's what keeps me up at night , | |
| 27:55 | is what happens when we're gone . Best for the | |
| 27:58 | bullet . He has two amazing siblings , but that's | |
| 28:01 | a lot of pressure to put on a sibling to | |
| 28:04 | , so we want Brandon to be as independent as | |
| 28:06 | possible . Brandon has changed our lives , and he's | |
| 28:15 | had a huge impact on us , and I think | |
| 28:17 | we both found a strength that we didn't know that | |
| 28:20 | we had . We just hope that by raising awareness | |
| 28:23 | and telling our story that people just be a little | |
| 28:26 | more kind , that they will be a little bit | |
| 28:28 | more understanding for those who are different from them . | |
| 28:30 | And even though Brandon struggles with speech and he struggles | |
| 28:33 | with social skills , he wants the same things that | |
| 28:36 | we do . Sometimes it is really , really hard | |
| 28:38 | , but sometimes it's also just amazing , because I | |
| 28:41 | feel like we really have a idea of what's really | |
| 28:44 | important in life , and sometimes it's not all that | |
| 28:46 | superficial stuff . And if people could understand that , | |
| 28:50 | then um I guess we've done our job , isn't | |
| 28:53 | going , Yeah , okay . Siblings of Children with | |
| 29:03 | autism play a really important role for their brothers or | |
| 29:06 | sisters . They often are models for developmental skills that | |
| 29:12 | their sibling might be lacking , and because of that | |
| 29:16 | , they often are the catalyst for their sibling . | |
| 29:20 | With autism , developing communication skills or social or play | |
| 29:24 | skills . They also are often their sibling with autism's | |
| 29:30 | first friend , or maybe even their best friend and | |
| 29:33 | quite often their greatest defender working with adolescents . It | |
| 29:36 | is particularly challenging , uh , only because there's an | |
| 29:42 | end to the financial support when they graduate at the | |
| 29:48 | end of the 21st year or in the 21st birthday | |
| 29:52 | , the world changes . It just gets overwhelming when | |
| 29:57 | we sit down and try and think about what we | |
| 30:00 | have to do in that very short amount of time | |
| 30:03 | . But we have to get better at it . | |
| 30:05 | We have to get better at this whole thing , | |
| 30:06 | because when I look at adults and we have this | |
| 30:10 | growing number of individuals , you know that leading edge | |
| 30:14 | of the epidemic of autism diagnoses when all of a | |
| 30:18 | sudden everybody was like Oh my God , so many | |
| 30:20 | kids with autism being diagnosed and like they're all becoming | |
| 30:22 | adults now , I've also been here long enough to | |
| 30:26 | know some Children that have started when they were in | |
| 30:29 | preschool and now are transitioned into high school and doing | |
| 30:32 | so well and even going to college or other dreams | |
| 30:36 | that maybe they had for their child . We are | |
| 30:42 | working on some job skill related things . Anything hands | |
| 30:45 | on with Matthew is great . He is on more | |
| 30:48 | of a functional learning program now , so we can | |
| 30:50 | start kind of looking past high school . What are | |
| 30:53 | things gonna look like ? Matthew is 1/9 grader right | |
| 30:58 | now . I've had him since he's been 1/6 grader | |
| 31:00 | . He comes from us to us from Corning , | |
| 31:02 | a different school district . Um , Matthew is a | |
| 31:05 | lot of fun . He's got a very bubbly personality | |
| 31:10 | . I know that when he first came to us | |
| 31:12 | , Mom was worried because that wasn't always the case | |
| 31:15 | . However , I think the pen to gotten his | |
| 31:17 | learning style pegged a little bit . And , um | |
| 31:20 | , we try to capitalize on that , and he | |
| 31:22 | he's one of those kids that really does like school | |
| 31:24 | . I mean , he comes here , you'll see | |
| 31:26 | what he walked from the door . He'll have a | |
| 31:27 | smile on his face . Do you guys like learning | |
| 31:30 | ? Matthew ? Do you like learning . I could | |
| 31:37 | just take your smile . Yeah , you do , | |
| 31:38 | don't you ? Very good . He's somebody who can | |
| 31:41 | be distracted very easily . We are working on communications | |
| 31:44 | . And in the past , if we've ever seen | |
| 31:46 | any kind of adverse behaviors or anything like that , | |
| 31:48 | it's never been in a mean way . Honestly , | |
| 31:51 | it's just him trying to communicate . And so for | |
| 31:53 | the last several years , we've just seen a study | |
| 31:55 | increase in his abilities . Matthew , can you put | |
| 31:57 | the pennies in the penny bag ? Yeah . Mm | |
| 32:03 | , yeah . Mhm . Good morning , Matthew . | |
| 32:11 | Because communication is a deficit . He has his communication | |
| 32:14 | device . His is more of a physical nonverbal . | |
| 32:17 | I think if if he had the ability to make | |
| 32:19 | his vocal cords work in the way he wanted to | |
| 32:21 | , he would . Because you'll see him , he | |
| 32:23 | will try to say worse . He very much understands | |
| 32:27 | how to use his communication device to communicate with others | |
| 32:30 | , which is really cool . You know , he | |
| 32:31 | uses that at school he uses at home . He | |
| 32:33 | uses it when we go to our community outings or | |
| 32:36 | community experiences . We do run into situations that were | |
| 32:41 | just really not sure what he wants . Then what | |
| 32:44 | do you have a very good different . I'm not | |
| 32:47 | sure what he's wanting . I think it's true which | |
| 32:49 | one ? Which one perfect example . They have so | |
| 32:56 | much going on with their sensory systems . You know | |
| 32:58 | , the lighting even , just like I'm sitting here | |
| 33:01 | looking at you . They're taking in all of that | |
| 33:03 | , and then all of a sudden they literally could | |
| 33:06 | not hear you . Matthew kind of had been like | |
| 33:10 | that in the past . You could tell he was | |
| 33:11 | taking in all of his surroundings in his environment . | |
| 33:14 | But now he's got that focus down to where he | |
| 33:16 | can actually really dive into what the person is saying | |
| 33:19 | and go beyond those scripted messages that we work on | |
| 33:23 | . Kind of coping with those sensory systems . Thanks | |
| 33:29 | . Yes , yes , very good . As an | |
| 33:31 | adolescent , Matthew goes through all of those changes every | |
| 33:35 | other teenage boy would go through . You know , | |
| 33:37 | we're starting to see him go through some hormone and | |
| 33:40 | puberty changes . He's gonna eventually here need to learn | |
| 33:43 | how to shave . There's different hygiene , things that | |
| 33:45 | we're going to need to start learning , or he's | |
| 33:47 | gonna need to start learning . Um , so we'll | |
| 33:49 | work on that at school , you know , alongside | |
| 33:51 | mom and dad at home . But hormones and in | |
| 33:53 | puberty is the biggest thing , because that in itself | |
| 33:57 | causes more attention issues it causes . My body feels | |
| 34:01 | funny . I don't know how to deal with that | |
| 34:02 | . You know , all of these things are going | |
| 34:04 | , so it's more sensory challenges on top of what's | |
| 34:06 | already there . Okay , brush teeth , right ? | |
| 34:13 | You'll see . I also work on a lot of | |
| 34:16 | sequencing things . So if you think about jobs that | |
| 34:18 | we do every day , usually they have an order | |
| 34:20 | to them . So just anything we can do to | |
| 34:22 | help Matthew understand that there's an order and purpose to | |
| 34:25 | everything that we do . Number one group work , | |
| 34:28 | which is a huge thing that we've been able to | |
| 34:29 | accomplish this year , and his attention has greatly increased | |
| 34:33 | . We work on the social aspect of it , | |
| 34:35 | so it's not just the content of what I might | |
| 34:37 | be reading your teaching . It's more of the body | |
| 34:40 | awareness , the social skills . If somebody else is | |
| 34:43 | talking , whether it be appear or an adult , | |
| 34:45 | can I turn and actively listen in hopes that they'll | |
| 34:49 | keep capitalizing on those skills and then be able to | |
| 34:51 | use that outside of the of our room . It | |
| 34:54 | doesn't do me any good if they can do it | |
| 34:55 | here , but they can't do it , you know | |
| 34:57 | , in the hallways , at school or when we | |
| 34:58 | do our community experiences . Okay , we're gonna take | |
| 35:01 | that We got are looking for our school and our | |
| 35:09 | level through program does have a coffee shop that we | |
| 35:10 | run . We always make our coffee shop baked goods | |
| 35:13 | like today . It's , um , muffins . And | |
| 35:16 | we have breakfast enchiladas . We do . Deliveries between | |
| 35:21 | our high school are elementary and our courthouse downtown . | |
| 35:25 | That's a great way to work on the social and | |
| 35:27 | the communication goals that we've been working on here to | |
| 35:29 | transfer them out . It also works on money skills | |
| 35:34 | . I always like it when I get other teachers | |
| 35:35 | that'll stop me in the hallway or staff that will | |
| 35:37 | email me or even like we go to the courthouse | |
| 35:40 | . I small enough town . Everybody knows , you | |
| 35:42 | know , they'll say , you know , we can | |
| 35:44 | really see the progress your kids are making , which | |
| 35:46 | is really cool . That's the number . Now we're | |
| 35:48 | gonna go for the day , so I need you | |
| 35:49 | to look . Look first , can you find the | |
| 35:52 | same ? What is today awesome . Today is Wednesday | |
| 35:56 | . Do we agree with Matthew ? In the morning | |
| 35:58 | ? We do coffee shop , and then it goes | |
| 35:59 | to calendar and we have a little bit of a | |
| 36:00 | calendar daily news time , and then I always have | |
| 36:03 | a morning walk . It just was something that kids | |
| 36:05 | started asking for it . Just getting out of this | |
| 36:09 | setting helps them to be able to come back and | |
| 36:11 | focus . So instead of doing like 10 or 15 | |
| 36:14 | minutes of group work this year , we've been able | |
| 36:16 | to get upwards of 45 minutes at a time . | |
| 36:19 | So this morning walk is kind of provided an extended | |
| 36:21 | learning ability for my students . Matthew is my first | |
| 36:26 | student I've had who's going to be able to go | |
| 36:28 | to Camp Camp Sunny Side . He does well in | |
| 36:31 | new settings , for the most part , and he | |
| 36:33 | loves to be outside . He's a kid that will | |
| 36:36 | go , you know , play with the bugs on | |
| 36:37 | the sidewalk , and he's kind of all boys . | |
| 36:39 | So I'm really excited that he gets to go . | |
| 36:46 | Mm , I think Easter Seals Camp Sunnyside really supports | |
| 36:51 | individuals who haven't had an opportunity to be away from | |
| 36:54 | home by giving them a safe environment for some campers | |
| 36:57 | . They come and it is their first time away | |
| 36:59 | from home , and they are very apprehensive and they | |
| 37:03 | don't know what they want to experience or do . | |
| 37:06 | And perhaps there's someone who needs that 1 to 1 | |
| 37:09 | support to be successful in the camp environment . What | |
| 37:13 | we want to do for every single person is give | |
| 37:15 | them an opportunity to do something they haven't done before | |
| 37:18 | , because when you do something for the first time | |
| 37:20 | in your successful , it builds confidence . And what | |
| 37:23 | we know is the confidence that they experience here at | |
| 37:26 | Camp . Sunnyside goes back with them in their communities | |
| 37:29 | and their schools and their work , and they not | |
| 37:31 | only have more confidence to try new things , but | |
| 37:35 | they also experienced more success . And that's what Camp | |
| 37:37 | is all about . Is creating that environment where you | |
| 37:40 | are successful ? Yeah , Matthew is getting older now | |
| 37:45 | . We're looking at more specific job skills specific , | |
| 37:49 | um , you know , activities that he might need | |
| 37:51 | to know how to do to be successful . And | |
| 37:53 | in Matthew's case , it is living , learning , | |
| 37:55 | working that we're focusing on more now so we can | |
| 37:58 | help them be successful beyond high school . So building | |
| 38:01 | those skills that he could potentially need in the workforce | |
| 38:04 | . We don't have it really specific right now because | |
| 38:07 | as he continues to grow and and shows things that | |
| 38:10 | he likes and doesn't like , I mean , there | |
| 38:12 | is no doubt in my mind that he will be | |
| 38:14 | successful in the workforce . Well , that's mm . | |
| 38:22 | I think that when you are relating to someone who | |
| 38:26 | doesn't have speech or is very limited in their verbalization | |
| 38:30 | , it's difficult . You don't get that reciprocal back | |
| 38:35 | and forth , easy conversation . I think that people | |
| 38:38 | need to remember they are listening . They are hearing | |
| 38:41 | you . They are feeling it and they need to | |
| 38:44 | have a voice . I like that . You do | |
| 38:47 | like blocks . You pick them a lot very good | |
| 38:49 | . Each of us has a communication difficulty of some | |
| 38:51 | kind where there were verbal or nonverbal in one of | |
| 38:55 | the most frustrating things , Um , that we experience | |
| 38:58 | as humans is the inability to express ourselves the way | |
| 39:02 | that we need to . Sometimes we nail it and | |
| 39:04 | sometimes we miss it , so be patient and seek | |
| 39:07 | to understand what the person is communicating . One of | |
| 39:09 | the things people talk about with autism is theory of | |
| 39:12 | mind theory of mind is the ability to look at | |
| 39:14 | the world from someone else's perspective than your own and | |
| 39:18 | realize that they are perceiving things differently . Cheers covers | |
| 39:22 | . Yeah , we've got to stop looking at the | |
| 39:25 | world from our own perspective and saying That's what's right | |
| 39:29 | or wrong and recognize the greatness of saying Somebody looks | |
| 39:32 | at something different , processes information , different . There's | |
| 39:35 | value to them being a part of us . A | |
| 39:40 | . You want a guitar ? A baby ? Good | |
| 39:45 | job , Courtney . People always ask you , even | |
| 39:48 | now , as Courtney is , 29 people will say | |
| 39:51 | , Oh , and what does she do or where | |
| 39:53 | does she work ? And so we still are explaining | |
| 39:56 | that she lives in a group home in her neighborhood | |
| 39:59 | and goes to a day program and about her diagnosis | |
| 40:02 | , from where we started to where we are now | |
| 40:05 | , it's huge for her to be able to have | |
| 40:07 | those services and to have that full life and live | |
| 40:10 | independently in a group home and for us , you | |
| 40:14 | know , we're still kind of proud to be able | |
| 40:15 | to say that . Yeah , Courtney had different traits | |
| 40:24 | of autism right from day one , and she was | |
| 40:28 | her first born . So we kept thinking , Oh | |
| 40:31 | , you know , maybe she'll get through this or | |
| 40:32 | things will be a little bit different . She did | |
| 40:35 | not sleep . She never played appropriately with toys . | |
| 40:39 | When Courtney was , too , we realized she taught | |
| 40:43 | herself to read , and she could read and spell | |
| 40:46 | everything She could not communicate . Could say a few | |
| 40:49 | words . She would list what things were when Courtney | |
| 40:53 | was 20 months old . Our second child was born | |
| 40:56 | and I slept through the night . Like to be | |
| 40:59 | held . Things were very different . And so at | |
| 41:02 | that point , we knew something was off with Courtney | |
| 41:05 | . And then when she was three , she was | |
| 41:07 | formally diagnosed at the University of Iowa Child Psych at | |
| 41:10 | the Autism Clinic after you received the diagnosis . Um | |
| 41:16 | , there's a time where you're going to go through | |
| 41:19 | some grieving , And that's because maybe the future that | |
| 41:23 | you had planned for the child is going to be | |
| 41:26 | a little bit different . And so you just have | |
| 41:28 | to remember that you are not in this alone , | |
| 41:30 | but you're really important , and so is your child | |
| 41:35 | . You know , when Courtney was young , she | |
| 41:37 | was very active . When she turned 14 and started | |
| 41:40 | having seizures , she also received an additional diagnosis of | |
| 41:43 | epilepsy . She did slow down . It wasn't really | |
| 41:47 | even a progression . It was just pretty quickly what | |
| 41:50 | seizure started in those medications . She is much more | |
| 41:54 | careful , much more slow . She still gets excited | |
| 42:00 | and can be a little excitable , but it's it's | |
| 42:03 | pretty short lived way you ready ? He stopped . | |
| 42:14 | Oh , Kourtney is the oldest of three in our | |
| 42:21 | family . She endorsed her siblings , and they adore | |
| 42:24 | her as well . In high school , our son | |
| 42:27 | wrote an essay about how Courtney was his hero because | |
| 42:31 | she could face life always being positive with everything that | |
| 42:36 | she dealt . All right , so storybook . What's | |
| 42:41 | this , a good girl ? When we started to | |
| 42:46 | think about possibly having Courtney moving out of our home | |
| 42:49 | , she was 23 it was just a huge decision | |
| 42:54 | . It took about two years before we found a | |
| 42:56 | house where we could have a group home and felt | |
| 43:01 | that we could turn over the care to the staff | |
| 43:04 | of Christian Opportunity Center . She made the transition much | |
| 43:07 | easier than my husband and I . We still have | |
| 43:11 | her come home on weekends , carrot to They're just | |
| 43:16 | regular homes in neighborhoods and so to support these individuals | |
| 43:23 | . We wrap 24 7 , 365 day a year | |
| 43:28 | care . I think Kourtney has made gains . Yes | |
| 43:31 | , she has support and different things , but we | |
| 43:33 | all have support in our lives . Hers is just | |
| 43:35 | that . Maybe a little bit more care . Let | |
| 43:37 | me help . Good job , Courtney . Yeah , | |
| 43:42 | it's the Blue Diamond with Diamond . We can't understand | |
| 43:48 | what she wants all the time , and she has | |
| 43:51 | to kind of think it through like if we'll say | |
| 43:55 | , you know , what do you want ? And | |
| 43:56 | she's knows what she wants , but she's trying to | |
| 43:58 | process us to how to say it or how to | |
| 44:01 | show it . So I think sometimes that is a | |
| 44:04 | big challenge for her . All right . Do you | |
| 44:06 | want carrots ? Cauliflower , broccoli , broccoli , Parkway | |
| 44:13 | ? All right , Show me what you want . | |
| 44:16 | Broccoli already ? It's broccoli we are going to have | |
| 44:22 | . I think she enjoys writing the van because she'll | |
| 44:24 | say music . So we listen to music in there | |
| 44:26 | , and she may giggle and laugh and smile and | |
| 44:30 | here , talking . So she goes to Easter Seals | |
| 44:39 | program Monday , Tuesday , Wednesday and Friday . COC | |
| 44:43 | transports her from her home to that program , so | |
| 44:47 | The official definition is a Life Club is a day | |
| 44:49 | program for adults with special needs . Courtney wears a | |
| 44:53 | helmet for her safety . Kourtney is she's contagious when | |
| 44:59 | she's saying kind of random phrases or she just smiles | |
| 45:04 | spontaneously that is so contagious . Of course I love | |
| 45:07 | you . Yeah , you know , sometimes when she's | |
| 45:10 | really active some other times where she prefers to be | |
| 45:13 | a little bit more quiet , Kourtney does have here's | |
| 45:16 | friends that she interacts with every day . It typically | |
| 45:19 | is those peers and those friends approaching Courtney there , | |
| 45:24 | John , just the understanding and kindness that they share | |
| 45:32 | with one another is always very inspiring to me . | |
| 45:34 | I think so many of our clients , they've had | |
| 45:38 | a lot of barriers in their life , things that | |
| 45:40 | they could have they could have used as an excuse | |
| 45:43 | . Um , but they're always working to improve their | |
| 45:46 | life . They're always working to do better . We | |
| 45:51 | go on outings every day of the week into the | |
| 45:53 | community . Courtney does seem to enjoy going on outings | |
| 45:57 | , and I think it's important for her to have | |
| 45:59 | the experiences that she wants to have you hollow . | |
| 46:04 | Yeah , fair . Hello . I'm gonna bow . | |
| 46:08 | No One thing that we know about disabilities is that | |
| 46:13 | people have the same wants , desires and goals that | |
| 46:16 | people who don't have disabilities have . But there are | |
| 46:19 | often isolated from the community which they live in . | |
| 46:22 | And so we want to make sure that people have | |
| 46:24 | the opportunity to develop those social skills that allow them | |
| 46:27 | to better , um , fit with the community that | |
| 46:29 | they're living with . Yeah . Mm hmm . Mhm | |
| 46:35 | . When Courtney was six , I joined the Autism | |
| 46:37 | Society of Iowa . We have really started to move | |
| 46:40 | from autism awareness to autism acceptance to , you know | |
| 46:44 | , accepting the employee with autism and giving them a | |
| 46:48 | chance at work . And , um , the classmate | |
| 46:51 | and the house in your neighborhood . That is a | |
| 46:54 | group home that is full of adults with autism who | |
| 46:58 | also lived their lives and then also always embracing the | |
| 47:01 | family . Who's raising a child with autism ? Yeah | |
| 47:10 | , it's very hard for people with autism to get | |
| 47:13 | jobs that use their skills in the first place . | |
| 47:18 | It's very hard to even apply for a job because | |
| 47:20 | if you go online and you have autism , it's | |
| 47:23 | probably very difficult to fill out an online job application | |
| 47:27 | . And so right from the get go , You're | |
| 47:29 | at a disadvantage . We know when people have the | |
| 47:32 | opportunity to work . They have healthier life in general | |
| 47:36 | because they're living with purpose . And I think employers | |
| 47:39 | want to work and want to bring individuals with disabilities | |
| 47:43 | into their workforce . But sometimes they're not sure how | |
| 47:46 | to do it . I think just for businesses to | |
| 47:49 | have a better understanding that in order to employ people | |
| 47:54 | with disabilities not just autism but other disabilities , they | |
| 47:57 | need to do recruitment . How do we assess them | |
| 48:02 | ? How do we interview them ? How do we | |
| 48:03 | get them in the door in the first place ? | |
| 48:06 | Yeah , I was in my forties and I was | |
| 48:13 | single . I basically wanted to find somebody before I | |
| 48:19 | died . You know , I didn't want to be | |
| 48:21 | , didn't want to die lonely . So I ran | |
| 48:23 | across this person named Margot Mouse , and we started | |
| 48:28 | emailing back and forth , and about 10 years ago | |
| 48:33 | this weekend , we had our first date , and | |
| 48:36 | I knew my life would be changed forever . My | |
| 48:40 | name is Mike Deardorff , and I am 54 years | |
| 48:43 | old , and I live in Grundy Center with my | |
| 48:46 | wife , Margo . She's an occupational therapist at Grundy | |
| 48:50 | County Memorial hospital and I have to step sons on | |
| 48:54 | the autism spectrum . One is 21 the other one | |
| 48:58 | will be 19 in July . And I am autistic | |
| 49:02 | . I was diagnosed at the age of four , | |
| 49:05 | and I couldn't go to school until I had to | |
| 49:09 | learn to talk . This was back in 1969 when | |
| 49:14 | the ratio was one in 10,000 . Hardly anybody knew | |
| 49:17 | what autism was , but I was one of those | |
| 49:20 | 10,000 , thankfully was able to start talking . And | |
| 49:23 | then I was able to go to kindergarten and I | |
| 49:26 | was just integrated , and I graduated on time , | |
| 49:29 | and here I am today . I did speech therapy | |
| 49:32 | at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics . So | |
| 49:34 | naturally , that's Hawkeye Country out there . First down | |
| 49:40 | , I always have been a fan , and I | |
| 49:41 | always will be . Yes , Hawkeye football is probably | |
| 49:45 | my favorite . I can't go to football games for | |
| 49:49 | that because it's just too overwhelming for me . So | |
| 49:52 | , um , just various situations , or if everybody's | |
| 49:56 | talking at one time , that kind of gets a | |
| 49:58 | little challenging to , and I may not react appropriately | |
| 50:02 | . I'm kind of a home body in that regard | |
| 50:05 | . Another thing , too , is sudden change . | |
| 50:08 | That's something I'm not real comfortable with . I'm getting | |
| 50:12 | better at handling it , but it's still something I'm | |
| 50:15 | not real comfortable with . Getting married was obviously a | |
| 50:21 | big achievement . I'm very proud to be married and | |
| 50:25 | love my wife a ton , something I think that | |
| 50:29 | helps in our relationship is that inherently ? I also | |
| 50:32 | know what it's going to stress him out . He | |
| 50:34 | likes the routines , and actually , it's kind of | |
| 50:37 | a calming force in our house home because I'm much | |
| 50:40 | more spontaneous . He's very steady in his demeanor . | |
| 50:45 | He and so that really works well with the boys | |
| 50:48 | because they know that they can depend upon him . | |
| 50:51 | They both know that he would go to the ends | |
| 50:53 | of the Earth for them . I would say the | |
| 50:56 | successes I've had his parents as a parent is I | |
| 50:59 | know what they're going through . Yeah , there's a | |
| 51:03 | couple of steps here , so be careful . Both | |
| 51:06 | boys or young men now are on the spectrum , | |
| 51:09 | Got are working . Yep , it ran about 10 | |
| 51:12 | minutes ago , so I should run again , Okay | |
| 51:15 | . It can be a challenge , but it's also | |
| 51:17 | very rewarding to see not only our relationship grow , | |
| 51:22 | but watching Alexandru grow more and more not only physically | |
| 51:27 | but socially and psychologically , and that it's just amazing | |
| 51:33 | just to watch them grow up live , then withdrew | |
| 51:38 | over half his life . Now I didn't think we | |
| 51:40 | would be really that tight when we first started . | |
| 51:43 | But boy were pretty tight . It's time for the | |
| 51:47 | alphabet show Bussi head away . The reason why we | |
| 51:54 | can't do this interview actually in our home is because | |
| 51:59 | if we were trying to do this at home , | |
| 52:02 | it would be intermingled withdrew , saying , No talk | |
| 52:05 | , no talk . No talk is over . It's | |
| 52:09 | done , it's closed . You can write on your | |
| 52:13 | board this That's one of your favorite things to draw | |
| 52:17 | . Oh , Nice . So withdrew . A lot | |
| 52:20 | of things get to be closed if they're not what | |
| 52:24 | he wants . What about cooking masters ? They had | |
| 52:29 | , uh , word . He will have tantrums , | |
| 52:34 | meltdowns , those types of things . That's not to | |
| 52:38 | say that there aren't wonderful celebrations of the things that | |
| 52:42 | he can do . Oh , that's good job . | |
| 52:55 | But I want to make sure that people understand that | |
| 53:00 | his world is markedly different from anybody else's and my | |
| 53:05 | world , and thus mix Alex's and Grandma's is totally | |
| 53:10 | different than anybody else's . You know , autism isn't | |
| 53:14 | just a diagnosis . It's not just this problem . | |
| 53:17 | It's not that problem . It really is . It | |
| 53:20 | totally overtakes your world in some ways . Good in | |
| 53:24 | some ways . Bad . Mhm . Alex , who's | |
| 53:28 | now 21 . He's a little bit higher functioning . | |
| 53:31 | So Alex , he's this work ethic with Mike . | |
| 53:34 | I have a job . I go every day . | |
| 53:37 | This is what we do , you know ? And | |
| 53:39 | it's worked out really well because he's been a really | |
| 53:42 | great role model . I commute to Cedar Falls every | |
| 53:47 | day . I work at a place called Talk to | |
| 53:49 | Me Technologies , and it's about a 30 mile commune | |
| 53:54 | about 35 40 minutes to get from home to work | |
| 53:58 | . Talk to me . Technologies is a mid sized | |
| 54:01 | company . What we do is provide speech devices for | |
| 54:06 | people with complex communication needs . Yeah , Mike has | |
| 54:11 | been here about a year and a half . Now | |
| 54:14 | Mike's position is manufacturing associate . His main key job | |
| 54:19 | responsibility is to disinfect the devices that we manufacture . | |
| 54:24 | I usually go through maybe between 10 and 15 a | |
| 54:28 | day , depending on our workload . I usually have | |
| 54:31 | enough work to do all day if they come in | |
| 54:34 | for a repair or if they come back from a | |
| 54:36 | trial or alone before they can go to the next | |
| 54:39 | person . He manufacturers different components for our devices and | |
| 54:43 | then also general office duties as well . Mike is | |
| 54:47 | incredibly detail oriented . He has a drive to do | |
| 54:51 | the best that he can and really helps us serve | |
| 54:54 | as many clients as we can just by being so | |
| 54:56 | meticulous in what he does . Really . The only | |
| 55:00 | accommodation that we have for him is he does have | |
| 55:03 | a door on his work area where he spends most | |
| 55:07 | of his time because sometimes the environment does get a | |
| 55:09 | little loud so he can choose day to day or | |
| 55:12 | hour to hour if he needs to shut that door | |
| 55:14 | and have a little more quiet . Mike came to | |
| 55:17 | the company with the goals set out . Trying to | |
| 55:21 | help other people with the same diagnosis that he has | |
| 55:23 | in the autism community makes me feel really good When | |
| 55:27 | I go home at night saying Hey , I helped | |
| 55:29 | another person gain their communication and it makes me feel | |
| 55:34 | proud to be here . I am an autism advocates | |
| 55:39 | here in the state of Iowa , and I've been | |
| 55:41 | doing this since 2013 , and my main goal right | |
| 55:44 | now is to talk to law enforcement people and safety | |
| 55:49 | people . If you hear a child a child with | |
| 55:52 | autism missing , I would check the water every single | |
| 55:56 | time . And for businesses , because hiring autistic people | |
| 56:01 | , I feel is a good idea and not enough | |
| 56:04 | autistic people are employed , and there's a lot of | |
| 56:08 | talent in our community that hasn't been tapped into , | |
| 56:11 | And what I do is I talked to businesses about | |
| 56:15 | why hiring a person on the spectrum would be a | |
| 56:17 | good fit for the company . I think a common | |
| 56:21 | misnomer that people think about autism is they're not very | |
| 56:25 | smart , and that is not true . People get | |
| 56:28 | that idea because of the way we do things , | |
| 56:33 | but we're not worse or better . We're just We | |
| 56:37 | just think differently . Autism is Mike a great dad | |
| 56:43 | . Working has a great job , goes to work | |
| 56:46 | every single day . Autism is my brother , who | |
| 56:49 | is beyond brilliant , however withdrew its grieving . The | |
| 56:55 | fact that he couldn't get his driver's license , that | |
| 56:58 | he's not going to get married , that he's not | |
| 57:01 | going to have kids , that is autism . Autism | |
| 57:05 | is anywhere in between so it really is a spectrum | |
| 57:10 | . If you've met one person with autism , you've | |
| 57:13 | met one person with autism because it's such a varying | |
| 57:17 | spectrum . And I kind of compare autism to snowflakes | |
| 57:20 | . No . Two people are exactly alike . Mhm | |
| 57:28 | , mhm . Gary does recognize that he has autism | |
| 57:34 | , and he says it makes him think differently . | |
| 57:37 | And we've talked about how that's not a bad thing | |
| 57:40 | in thinking differently . Can be seen as a good | |
| 57:43 | thing . Gary doesn't want to be seen as autism | |
| 57:48 | . He wants to be seen as Gary . Where | |
| 57:50 | is up here ? I'll show you . Yeah . | |
| 57:54 | Gary is 35 years old . He has a very | |
| 57:57 | hard worker himself . He is incredibly kind people person | |
| 58:02 | . He always wants to help . Gary does have | |
| 58:06 | family . His family are natural supports to him . | |
| 58:11 | Uh , lady named Katie , who is his guardian | |
| 58:16 | . So not blood family , But she definitely is | |
| 58:20 | family to Gary . I got family now . I | |
| 58:23 | got Katie as a family . I got all of | |
| 58:25 | it and I got I got I get to be | |
| 58:29 | Uncle Gary . To who ? To Katie's baby . | |
| 58:33 | Katie's baby . How old is Katie's baby ? He's | |
| 58:36 | about two months , two months old . You hold | |
| 58:40 | him Yeah , Yeah . Have you fed him yet | |
| 58:43 | ? Do you change a dirty diaper ? Nope . | |
| 58:46 | No . Well , the baby adores me . So | |
| 58:50 | and then I got pets too . Okay . He | |
| 58:53 | has dogs . Yep . Had three dogs . Wow | |
| 58:57 | . You know what ? Colin likes it . What | |
| 58:59 | I do , What she lays down her side and | |
| 59:02 | let's me , Robert Belly Gary recently moved into a | |
| 59:08 | brand new , beautiful home . He lives with three | |
| 59:10 | other roommates . What is your favorite part about your | |
| 59:13 | new home fishing Fishing ? Because you have a pawn | |
| 59:19 | in your backyard , right ? What kind of fish | |
| 59:22 | do you like catching ? Boo . Go And crop | |
| 59:24 | e and bags . Half fish . Okay , cool | |
| 59:29 | . Almost . What else do you like to do | |
| 59:33 | ? I like to cook . Yeah , My favorite | |
| 59:37 | thing every year is to go to is the Iowa | |
| 59:40 | game . Who's your favorite team ? The Hawkeyes . | |
| 59:44 | Mhm . They've been winning time A nine . Gary | |
| 59:55 | is a very curious learner . He is huge into | |
| 59:58 | people and loves making friends and having those relationships . | |
| 60:03 | Right . Thank you , Tom . We're gonna have | |
| 60:07 | a cookout this weekend at your house . Right ? | |
| 60:10 | Who's coming ? Having friends come over ? Yeah , | |
| 60:12 | I told I told James I would ask you today | |
| 60:15 | if he could come . Yeah , absolutely . And | |
| 60:19 | so we're gonna grill out , right ? What else | |
| 60:22 | are we gonna do ? Maybe fish , maybe do | |
| 60:26 | some fishing , maybe play some games ? Yep . | |
| 60:28 | Yeah , my shot lose on TV . Gary , | |
| 60:35 | Gary is interested in dating . We've recently talked about | |
| 60:41 | that , and , uh , he brings up girls | |
| 60:43 | and everything . He's interested in it , but he | |
| 60:46 | just not right now , which is completely fine . | |
| 60:50 | Gary , what are some ways that you are more | |
| 60:52 | independent , do my own laundry ? Okay . What | |
| 60:58 | else doing dishes ? Yeah . How are some ways | |
| 61:03 | that you've grown as a person ? No bad behaviors | |
| 61:08 | , no bad behaviors ? What does that mean to | |
| 61:09 | you ? Um no Russian . So you've worked on | |
| 61:17 | being angry ? Yeah , right . Mhm . You're | |
| 61:20 | pretty happy person now , aren't you ? Yep . | |
| 61:23 | Yeah , Yeah . Not too long ago . He | |
| 61:27 | always had overnight staff . Now he uses an overnight | |
| 61:30 | monitoring system so he doesn't require an overnight staff . | |
| 61:34 | If he wants to stay home alone , he can | |
| 61:37 | do that , which seems small . But for Gary | |
| 61:41 | , that's huge . This is done . Okay ? | |
| 61:45 | And now to be even able to go into the | |
| 61:47 | community by himself is massive . I got a good | |
| 61:52 | deal on a riding lawn more . Gary started working | |
| 61:57 | on the farm on October of 2017 . Gary works | |
| 62:02 | five days a week , Monday through Friday . We | |
| 62:06 | need mhm . Yes , Yes , yes , yes | |
| 62:13 | , yes . What parallel taking my mhm . Gary | |
| 62:22 | works care balance . Autism is a farmhand all year | |
| 62:25 | round , so there's a lot of variety of things | |
| 62:27 | that he does . He will seed . Um , | |
| 62:30 | anything that goes into our field . Is he unseated | |
| 62:33 | by individuals ? Autism , like this bear like this | |
| 62:38 | Better in the summer than winter . Gary came to | |
| 62:43 | us . Um , just needed a little fine tuning | |
| 62:47 | on his skills . He needed to follow directions , | |
| 62:50 | take feedback , and he's really progressed in that . | |
| 62:53 | Really ? Well , okay , that way doesn't tangled | |
| 62:56 | on my fingers . You want to try out some | |
| 63:00 | ? They go see when you get discouraged . Just | |
| 63:04 | take a deep breath . Good job using your coping | |
| 63:06 | skills . Scary . I'm very proud of you . | |
| 63:08 | That was awesome . So you made a black and | |
| 63:13 | gold Hawkeye flower basket ? Yeah , I bought that | |
| 63:18 | one . Yeah , I bought that one that you | |
| 63:20 | made , and I didn't know you made it . | |
| 63:22 | Uh , that's really cool . So when you walk | |
| 63:25 | by the tractor , what are you doing ? Making | |
| 63:28 | sure the halls will bring enough to plant plants . | |
| 63:30 | And Okay . Okay . So , like , in | |
| 63:33 | the summertime , we play . You plant . What | |
| 63:36 | kind of plants ? Um strawberries , tomatoes . Hope | |
| 63:43 | I just stopped . Do you eat any of the | |
| 63:45 | plants that you grow ? Yeah . What kinds ? | |
| 63:49 | Eggplant . Sweet potatoes . So why that ? What's | |
| 63:56 | your favorite vegetable ? Eggplant ? Because you can fry | |
| 64:00 | it and flour and bread it . Mhm . So | |
| 64:08 | Gary helps harvests all of the produce . Each piece | |
| 64:11 | of produces , hand cleaned , hand packaged . And | |
| 64:14 | then we deliver it to our community Supported agriculture members | |
| 64:18 | . At the end of the season , we tear | |
| 64:20 | apart the fields and we started on our fallen winter | |
| 64:22 | projects . That one . What have you been doing | |
| 64:26 | at work ? Poland . Plastic poem , Plastic . | |
| 64:31 | What does the plastic do ? Helps the plants . | |
| 64:34 | Girl helps the plants grow and keep the weeds out | |
| 64:41 | . Well , Gary , eventually we want them to | |
| 64:42 | work in the community . We're not sure exactly what | |
| 64:45 | that job would be like right now . He likes | |
| 64:48 | cleaning so he could get a job in the community | |
| 64:51 | cleaning someday when he wants to be out there and | |
| 64:54 | he wants to be independent and he wants to do | |
| 64:56 | a good job . When he first came here , | |
| 64:58 | he was very unsure of himself . Very argumentative and | |
| 65:02 | extremely attention . Ziggy , You know , now I | |
| 65:04 | can pretty much say , Hey , Gary , go | |
| 65:07 | work on this for me and he'll head that direction | |
| 65:09 | . But before it was , I can't . I | |
| 65:12 | can't . It doesn't work . And so instead of | |
| 65:14 | saying I can't , he will flat out be like | |
| 65:16 | I'm going to succeed at this . I think now | |
| 65:19 | he stands a little taller . All right . Things | |
| 65:23 | will be OK back there . Yep . I think | |
| 65:26 | that it's important that as individuals , we just relate | |
| 65:30 | to each other as you and I would or anyone | |
| 65:32 | , Um , as a friend , as a colleague | |
| 65:35 | , a co worker . Um , that's very important | |
| 65:38 | for these individuals that they are treated with respect and | |
| 65:41 | dignity of any adult . The biggest challenge , I | |
| 65:44 | think that is facing adults with autism right now are | |
| 65:48 | the same challenges that you and I face , right | |
| 65:50 | . It's becoming involved or of our communities . And | |
| 65:54 | then I would also say relationship skills , teaching them | |
| 65:57 | how to have , um , good friendships as well | |
| 66:01 | as intimate relationships . I think that working with people | |
| 66:04 | with autism has really helped me to see the potential | |
| 66:09 | that there can be for any person . Everybody can | |
| 66:14 | make progress . Everybody can move into greater independence , | |
| 66:19 | More socialization . It might be in a different way | |
| 66:23 | , but every single individual does have a potential for | |
| 66:26 | growth . When I walked barefoot , I take in | |
| 66:32 | the sensations of the earth like the grass , rocks | |
| 66:37 | and dirt , because when you walk barefoot , you | |
| 66:41 | actually receive positive energy from the ground , and it | |
| 66:46 | helps calm you down , and it relieves the stress | |
| 66:51 | of day to day life . Mhm . My name's | |
| 66:58 | Tyler Leach . I'm 26 years old , and what | |
| 67:03 | I want people to know about me is that even | |
| 67:05 | though I have autism , I enjoy being around people | |
| 67:09 | and making new friends . My autism is high functioning | |
| 67:13 | , and while there are sometimes where some things might | |
| 67:17 | be a little difficult , I think it makes me | |
| 67:21 | who I am . Tyler was diagnosed when he was | |
| 67:27 | 22 months old , and he was developing normally with | |
| 67:31 | his milestones , and all of a sudden I noticed | |
| 67:33 | that he wasn't talking anymore . Wasn't even saying Mama | |
| 67:38 | . I was devastated . He had occupational therapy . | |
| 67:42 | He had speech therapy . I just took advantage of | |
| 67:48 | what was out there and did a lot of networking | |
| 67:51 | , a lot of research , a lot of reading | |
| 67:54 | . Some of the challenges that I have faced were | |
| 67:59 | difficulty being in areas with loud noise . Yeah , | |
| 68:06 | and a bit of anxiety . It took some resources | |
| 68:12 | , a lot of patience and a lot of love | |
| 68:16 | because back then I was very impatient with a lot | |
| 68:24 | of things , and I think there were some times | |
| 68:27 | where my family was impatient with the way my autism | |
| 68:30 | was either . So I think by having the time | |
| 68:38 | to focus on what I needed and to learn from | |
| 68:43 | each other , I think it helped out a lot | |
| 68:48 | . I went to college at Des Moines area Community | |
| 68:51 | College or de Mac . I had a few doubts | |
| 68:55 | when some of my class has proved to be a | |
| 68:59 | little difficult . But I just put the time and | |
| 69:04 | effort into the studies and gave myself some pep talks | |
| 69:10 | so I can show myself that I can do it | |
| 69:15 | . I work at Wells Fargo in Des Moines , | |
| 69:19 | as in operations processors , so I look at merchant | |
| 69:25 | applications , enter their data into our computer system . | |
| 69:31 | Mhm . Tyler is a great asset to us . | |
| 69:35 | because the work can be repetitive and that's what he | |
| 69:38 | really likes . So we'll be able to give him | |
| 69:41 | more volume of work to do just because we know | |
| 69:45 | that he'll be able to get the work done on | |
| 69:47 | time and accurately as well . The diverse Abilities Team | |
| 69:50 | member network is one that supports our team members with | |
| 69:54 | disabilities . Tyler engages in our team member network as | |
| 69:58 | a member , and so we'll have him invited into | |
| 70:02 | colleges or into other speaking environments , and he might | |
| 70:06 | be scared to death to do it . And he | |
| 70:08 | always says yes to the opportunity to be able to | |
| 70:11 | learn and grow . I say I'm pretty independent . | |
| 70:19 | I cook meals and I do some clean on a | |
| 70:24 | regular basis . I am able to handle the laundry | |
| 70:30 | pretty well . I manage my budget . Seven 70 | |
| 70:39 | . Yeah , 27 for three . My grandfather and | |
| 70:42 | I , we've played cribbage for a long time . | |
| 70:45 | In fact , it was cribbage playing with him that | |
| 70:51 | I learned how to count . Gonna run a four | |
| 70:56 | . So these are the ribbons and medals that I've | |
| 71:00 | won for Special Olympics . Special Olympics really means a | |
| 71:07 | lot to me because I get to meet new friends | |
| 71:10 | to the program and also get active . I also | |
| 71:16 | drive to and from places every day , and I | |
| 71:20 | never thought I was gonna get my driver's license , | |
| 71:24 | let alone a permit . But I took the time | |
| 71:29 | and dedication into doing the drivers in class , and | |
| 71:33 | it got me to where I am now . Thank | |
| 71:35 | you . I'm a pretty social person . I enjoy | |
| 71:42 | going to church . I attend autism walks and events | |
| 71:50 | . I sometimes go to different sporting events on occasion | |
| 71:54 | . I hope to get my own place eventually , | |
| 71:58 | and I also want to try to get into the | |
| 72:02 | dating world . Though it is a little nerve racking | |
| 72:08 | , there is a fine line about apparent possibly having | |
| 72:13 | their own fear and holding their child back . I | |
| 72:19 | think everybody's different . I just knew that my son | |
| 72:23 | was going to have a life and the best life | |
| 72:27 | he could have and do as much as he could | |
| 72:30 | . And he is so passionate about being a role | |
| 72:33 | model and making a difference for other people with special | |
| 72:37 | needs . So I am very , very proud and | |
| 72:40 | he's found his purpose and it's just a beautiful thing | |
| 72:44 | . He looks at his autism as a gift and | |
| 72:47 | I guess so , do I ? But I didn't | |
| 72:49 | always look at it that way . My advice to | |
| 72:53 | people who have a loved one with autism is , | |
| 72:56 | too . Check out the resources that are available to | |
| 73:01 | you because they do help in the same way that | |
| 73:06 | they've helped me and just take the time to learn | |
| 73:12 | about your loved one and be patient with them because | |
| 73:18 | it's a big learning process . And when you take | |
| 73:23 | the time to learn about them , you might even | |
| 73:26 | learn something about yourself , then put a leave a | |
| 73:38 | little space and put a capital P for him because | |
| 73:43 | of the autism , there's just certain things in his | |
| 73:45 | life that kind of get in his way . There | |
| 73:48 | you go , but he's figured out ways to make | |
| 73:53 | it work now . He's not gonna be able to | |
| 73:56 | tell you that because he's nonverbal . I think one | |
| 73:59 | of the things that we have done is his parents | |
| 74:01 | is to help him to understand that he's got to | |
| 74:06 | also help himself . So our son , J . | |
| 74:12 | P . Is 38 . Here's a young man who | |
| 74:18 | exudes love for others , and people do really in | |
| 74:23 | turn share that with him were therefore last time we | |
| 74:27 | came . J P was born in April . So | |
| 74:32 | had him going to childcare at about five months , | |
| 74:35 | and that's when we began to have the medical issues | |
| 74:39 | , chronic upper respiratory infections , chronic ear infections . | |
| 74:44 | But even before then , one of the things that | |
| 74:48 | we noted was he wasn't lifting his head on his | |
| 74:53 | own and he wasn't trying to roll over . Now | |
| 74:58 | he's a year old and he's not walking . And | |
| 75:01 | he wasn't developing speech . The doctor referred to it | |
| 75:06 | as a proxy to totally new term for us because | |
| 75:11 | the muscles were not developing as they should , which | |
| 75:14 | would allow him to be able to form words . | |
| 75:20 | The other thing also was our pediatrician had us working | |
| 75:25 | with a child psychiatrist because he wanted to be able | |
| 75:30 | to get a full picture of what was going on | |
| 75:33 | with JP . Now , mind you , he's two | |
| 75:36 | years old . At this point , he's having the | |
| 75:38 | issues with digestion , and he's not forming words . | |
| 75:42 | He's not walking . He can't hear . He was | |
| 75:46 | finally healthy enough . At about age 2.5 . He | |
| 75:50 | was now making sounds , trying to express himself still | |
| 75:57 | using sign language . But we still don't know that | |
| 76:00 | he's autistic , but that developmental delay is still there | |
| 76:07 | . The other thing was he began to walk . | |
| 76:09 | Now pull himself up , crawl , pull himself up | |
| 76:16 | , walk Wow ! At 2.5 , he's now walking | |
| 76:26 | that that was a major step in his life and | |
| 76:30 | for us , the beginning of relief . And so | |
| 76:36 | we finally get a diagnosis . He's 4.5 and we're | |
| 76:41 | saying , Wow , we now we know what it | |
| 76:45 | is . Mhm . We all learn sign language because | |
| 76:50 | he had no language , but he picked up that | |
| 76:53 | sign language . Just like that , he's now able | |
| 76:56 | to communicate with us . One of the things that | |
| 77:03 | I learned at a very early stage with JP was | |
| 77:08 | we couldn't just focus all of our lives and our | |
| 77:11 | attention on just JP because we also had another son | |
| 77:14 | who had interests who wanted to be out in the | |
| 77:18 | world doing things . And then , of course , | |
| 77:19 | we had our own interests . We're cycling family . | |
| 77:27 | JP has refused to write any of the many bicycles | |
| 77:31 | that we've ever had . However , whenever we as | |
| 77:36 | a family take off , just ride bikes , he's | |
| 77:39 | always been with us . 1988 . I began racing | |
| 77:45 | BMX bikes . And so I never stopped racing bikes | |
| 77:51 | just because of JPs autism . And I think that's | |
| 77:56 | probably one of the healthiest things that I could do | |
| 77:59 | because I'm still going to be the mom of an | |
| 78:02 | autistic son . But I have that other side , | |
| 78:06 | that side that says you name it . You can | |
| 78:08 | get out there and continue to do it love in | |
| 78:10 | this sport . So yeah , love me . Some | |
| 78:14 | being next . Y'all . So , JP , what | |
| 78:17 | did you wind up doing today ? Okay , you | |
| 78:20 | wound up breaking up the leaves . And what do | |
| 78:23 | you like about the season before the fall ? Why | |
| 78:26 | ? Do you like the fall ? Well , what | |
| 78:29 | do you get to do ? Your Halloween And what | |
| 78:32 | ? And what did we put up for you ? | |
| 78:34 | Your dragon ? And what did you put on the | |
| 78:38 | windows ? You put the lights . What will we | |
| 78:42 | put up next ? After Halloween ? Turkey ? And | |
| 78:47 | what season will turkey be the blow up Turkey So | |
| 78:51 | well , so we'll put up the blow up turkey | |
| 78:54 | . It's way too early now . Yeah , I | |
| 78:56 | know that he loves going to the theater . He | |
| 79:00 | and I go to civic center performances . Let's see | |
| 79:05 | , Here we are . We have that one on | |
| 79:07 | your feet . I remember that one . That was | |
| 79:09 | a funny one . Doesn't ? Yeah . And you | |
| 79:12 | remember Waitress ? Yeah . Yeah , that was over | |
| 79:18 | with . He loves looking at the newspaper every morning | |
| 79:23 | . Yeah , I know . He's got to be | |
| 79:24 | reading , but he also looks for symbols and pictures | |
| 79:27 | . That's why he looks at the weather . Because | |
| 79:30 | you you have the symbols for the weather . He | |
| 79:34 | enjoys going around and being with other people . And | |
| 79:38 | that's not an issue for him anymore . This afternoon | |
| 79:45 | , where are you going to be going ? To | |
| 79:47 | the zoo . All right . And you're going to | |
| 79:49 | be going with your SCL worker . Carly , are | |
| 79:53 | you ready to go busy ? Yeah . Cute Easter | |
| 79:58 | seals hourly SCL program is supported community living . So | |
| 80:02 | kind of . Our goal is to get our clients | |
| 80:04 | who have disabilities out into the community to work on | |
| 80:07 | goals that they have set . So that could be | |
| 80:10 | working on their social skills . That could be money | |
| 80:13 | management , things like that . Forget the Flamingo . | |
| 80:19 | How do they stand on one leg ? Yeah . | |
| 80:23 | Okay . Those birds , Yes . Oh , those | |
| 80:35 | are the kind of birds I'm scared of . Their | |
| 80:36 | too big . Yes . Mhm . Yeah . These | |
| 80:41 | monkeys are so cute . Mhm . Have you been | |
| 80:46 | here when they've been sleeping ? Usually they swing from | |
| 80:48 | the top . J . P . Are you having | |
| 80:50 | fun at the zoo ? What's your favorite thing we've | |
| 80:52 | seen so far ? The giraffes . Would you like | |
| 80:55 | to have a draft as a pet ? No . | |
| 80:58 | Mhm . What are we on the way to go | |
| 81:00 | see nine . The Lions ? Yeah , yeah , | |
| 81:07 | there's one . There's another one . Where are the | |
| 81:13 | other two ? Usually they're always sleeping . One of | |
| 81:20 | the concerns we have always had is what would life | |
| 81:24 | be like for JP beyond us ? What we have | |
| 81:29 | to be able to do in our own mind , | |
| 81:33 | is to hope that we can put together a living | |
| 81:38 | situation that will enable him to continue to live the | |
| 81:46 | kind of lifestyle that he's grown accustomed to . That's | |
| 81:50 | that's a tough one . And so one of the | |
| 81:52 | things we're looking at is how do we make this | |
| 81:57 | home his forever home ? What is it that we | |
| 82:00 | need to do to ensure that that would happen where | |
| 82:03 | he could have some services that would come in for | |
| 82:06 | him ? Mhm . We want JP to know that | |
| 82:12 | that life will continue for him beyond us because that | |
| 82:18 | is what will probably happen . And so for him | |
| 82:22 | to know , I will still be able to continue | |
| 82:26 | to do the things I have been doing for the | |
| 82:28 | last 38 years . Why ? Why do you like | |
| 82:33 | to keep going to this ? Do you enjoy these | |
| 82:37 | ? Uh huh . For those who are using their | |
| 82:45 | behavior as their communication , what you may see is | |
| 82:49 | a is an increase in problematic behavior . That means | |
| 82:53 | that they're disruptive . Um , they their behavior may | |
| 82:57 | be such that the family really can't go to eat | |
| 83:01 | in public restaurants or attend church services . That , | |
| 83:06 | uh , this is the point where families are frequently | |
| 83:08 | saying my child has never been invited to a birthday | |
| 83:11 | party . Um doesn't seem to have an actual friend | |
| 83:16 | that they've chosen to be their friend . It's very | |
| 83:20 | common also with people with autism to have a set | |
| 83:23 | wrote conversation that they like to go back to . | |
| 83:27 | I am back . What self ? Something . But | |
| 83:32 | I mean , but it's and buffet and but they | |
| 83:43 | might ask you repetitive questions , ask you that same | |
| 83:46 | thing day in and day out . And I thought | |
| 83:50 | about that a lot . And I think if my | |
| 83:51 | social skills are awkward and it's difficult for me . | |
| 83:56 | I'm probably going to go back to those safe conversations | |
| 83:58 | , those safe topics over and over , because I | |
| 84:01 | can now have a connection and have a reciprocal conversation | |
| 84:04 | with you that feels good and feels safe for me | |
| 84:07 | . I think that people with autism often are looking | |
| 84:11 | at the world just a little bit differently than you | |
| 84:13 | and I , and so sometimes , just to try | |
| 84:15 | to put yourself in their place and see what it | |
| 84:18 | is that they find so interesting how they attempt a | |
| 84:22 | task that's different than the way you and I might | |
| 84:24 | do it . So I think just sort of seeing | |
| 84:27 | the world through their eyes is a good way to | |
| 84:29 | learn from them . What my husband says is that | |
| 84:32 | our son taught him patience . Ah , mhm . | |
| 84:39 | When I think about Lynn and where he came from | |
| 84:42 | in his lifetime , autism really didn't hit the maps | |
| 84:46 | before 1990 . A whole lot we didn't even hear | |
| 84:49 | about it . You hear that ? Early intervention is | |
| 84:52 | so important . I wonder how much Lynn had that | |
| 84:55 | opportunity for those early interventions in rural Iowa . Clear | |
| 84:59 | back in the forties and fifties , I think that's | |
| 85:01 | really important to think about and how he has progressed | |
| 85:04 | in his life and the challenges he has gone through | |
| 85:07 | going many , many years without even being known that | |
| 85:10 | what his diagnosis was . Mhm . You wanna put | |
| 85:14 | your light off ? Yeah , yeah , Yeah . | |
| 85:23 | Lynn is 72 years old . He is very , | |
| 85:26 | very sweet , laid back and easy going . And | |
| 85:29 | he's very affectionate . Mhm . Lynn loves everything . | |
| 85:37 | Farming from beans to combines . Two John Deere Green | |
| 85:41 | . He loves it all . Yeah , very good | |
| 85:45 | . Very good . He also loves his morning coffee | |
| 85:49 | and his afternoon coffee . Tell you Lynn communicates verbally | |
| 85:58 | . Typically , he will communicate using 1 to 2 | |
| 86:00 | word phrases , and it is very scripted . So | |
| 86:03 | it's things that he's heard in his past or things | |
| 86:05 | of interest to him . What about this guy ? | |
| 86:09 | Yeah . And what about this guy ? What's this | |
| 86:15 | ? Everything . What is that ? What is it | |
| 86:19 | ? The pig . Good job . He can make | |
| 86:25 | requests for things that he wants or needs Verbally . | |
| 86:27 | But typically , staff just kind of know what he | |
| 86:29 | wants and can help him out . Sometimes he'll point | |
| 86:32 | sometimes he'll lead staff to what he wants . Good | |
| 86:39 | job . Lin grew up around farms with his family | |
| 86:42 | , his father . Unfortunately , he passed away when | |
| 86:45 | he was young and his mother was no longer able | |
| 86:48 | to care for him because his aggression was too significant | |
| 86:51 | . At that time , she had moved him into | |
| 86:53 | a facility in Storey County where he continued to display | |
| 86:56 | some aggressive behaviors that were very challenging and the facility | |
| 86:59 | was not able to care for him the way that | |
| 87:01 | he needed right there . When Lin came to us | |
| 87:04 | in 1995 up until last year , he was able | |
| 87:09 | to be part of our vocational program on our farm | |
| 87:11 | . He really enjoyed that farm work being . He | |
| 87:14 | grew up in a farm background Last year he was | |
| 87:17 | working when he would like to when he chose to | |
| 87:21 | work . Then he retired . I don't think he | |
| 87:24 | fully understands the concept of retirement , but it is | |
| 87:28 | pretty exciting to think about someone with autism starting from | |
| 87:32 | having a lot of aggression and not being very successful | |
| 87:34 | in vocational setting to being independent and be able to | |
| 87:39 | retire as a neuro typical person would balance autism provides | |
| 87:45 | a lot of different living opportunities for adults with autism | |
| 87:49 | Lynn Transition from our I C . F I D | |
| 87:51 | program , which is our campus program . More intensive | |
| 87:53 | care to our home and community based services , which | |
| 87:56 | is in the community and less restrictive for him . | |
| 87:59 | Lynn was able to transition into that less restrictive environment | |
| 88:02 | because of the skills that he gained through living in | |
| 88:05 | our I C F facility . Um , he decreased | |
| 88:09 | his aggressions to virtually nothing . Um , and he's | |
| 88:13 | really just very independent . He does need a lot | |
| 88:16 | of cares with hygiene tasks and mobility because of his | |
| 88:21 | age , but other than that , he's very laid | |
| 88:23 | back and easy going . So he was able to | |
| 88:25 | live in an environment where he has more freedom of | |
| 88:27 | choice . The jacket . So tell me what you | |
| 88:30 | want to buy . You all buy milk , G | |
| 88:35 | . You said cheese . Yeah , that's good . | |
| 88:36 | You want us to buy milk ? Lynn has staffing | |
| 88:40 | 24 hours a day , seven days a week . | |
| 88:42 | Staff really tried to involve the individuals that we serve | |
| 88:44 | in every decision making process that we have in every | |
| 88:47 | choice that they would have with grocery shopping , he | |
| 88:50 | goes whenever he really wants . Typically , staff try | |
| 88:53 | to assist them with going grocery shopping once a week | |
| 88:55 | and then when they're at the store , they follow | |
| 88:58 | a grocery list based off of a menu or whatever | |
| 89:01 | meals Lynn wants to eat for that week . Therefore | |
| 89:06 | , he's good . Thank you . Thank you . | |
| 89:09 | You want to say thank you ? Thank you . | |
| 89:11 | You guys have a good day ? Okay . Guardianship | |
| 89:14 | is a challenge with lens age and the fact that | |
| 89:16 | he has autism . What happens if he needs nursing | |
| 89:19 | home care ? Where , what nursing home is he | |
| 89:21 | going to go to ? Who's going to provide that | |
| 89:23 | care for him ? Lynn is in his seventies . | |
| 89:26 | He has a guardian that's well in their eighties . | |
| 89:29 | This is not uncommon . It is so important that | |
| 89:32 | we have somebody set up as a successor for that | |
| 89:35 | guardianship in that if something was to happen , it's | |
| 89:39 | not a fun conversation . Nobody wants to have these | |
| 89:41 | . Something was to happen to your guardian . You | |
| 89:43 | have to have somebody lined up ready to go to | |
| 89:47 | support your loved one ? Yeah . Mhm . When | |
| 89:52 | you have someone with autism , you typically think we're | |
| 89:55 | going to work on these , um , intensive maybe | |
| 89:57 | behavioral strategies to shape their behavior or change their behavior | |
| 90:01 | and then also focusing on those communication skills and the | |
| 90:04 | social skills . A lot of people forget that there | |
| 90:07 | is actually a life being lived also , so that's | |
| 90:10 | really important to us that he is able to do | |
| 90:12 | those things . I think Lynn is an inspiration for | |
| 90:15 | anybody At 72 years old , he's still very humble | |
| 90:19 | and laid back , and he's grown so much with | |
| 90:22 | decreasing his aggression to nothing . My advice for family | |
| 90:26 | and friends who have a loved one with autism would | |
| 90:28 | be to help get that intervention that they need , | |
| 90:31 | help them grow their social skills , find a communication | |
| 90:35 | system that works for them and they're able to communicate | |
| 90:37 | their wants and needs . And also just most importantly | |
| 90:40 | , is help them live a fulfilling life . Obama | |
| 90:43 | . No , Yeah , yeah , but I'm staying | |
| 90:59 | home tonight . Where is the direction is on the | |
| 91:03 | way . He couldn't certainly become frustrated when she's not | |
| 91:11 | able to do something or if something doesn't go her | |
| 91:16 | way . And she has never been a person who | |
| 91:22 | mhm strikes out at others . She doesn't become aggressive | |
| 91:28 | toward other people , but she will turn that aggression | |
| 91:31 | on herself . Laney will develop a strong relationship . | |
| 91:42 | Usually it's reciprocal . Because of Laney . Laney is | |
| 91:46 | very likable and you have a birthday coming up ? | |
| 91:49 | Yeah , I'm gonna have a party . How old | |
| 91:52 | are you gonna be ? 47 . I'm gonna be | |
| 91:55 | 47 . Laney had kind of a rough start to | |
| 92:02 | life when she was five hours old . She had | |
| 92:05 | her first seizure , and I could hear the nurses | |
| 92:10 | or people running in the halls , and I didn't | |
| 92:12 | know what was going on , but I just had | |
| 92:14 | a sense that something was wrong with my baby . | |
| 92:18 | And then in the morning , they came in and | |
| 92:22 | said that they didn't think she would live . We | |
| 92:30 | were told she would probably never walk , never talk | |
| 92:35 | , maybe never roll over . And she did still | |
| 92:38 | have seizures . Um , but then they stopped and | |
| 92:44 | she did crawl . And she did stand up and | |
| 92:49 | she did walk at the normal time . But cognitively | |
| 92:54 | , we could see there was a delay when she | |
| 92:58 | was five . And using the term transitioning from preschool | |
| 93:05 | to a grade school is when she was diagnosed with | |
| 93:11 | autism . When Laney's sister went to college , my | |
| 93:17 | husband and I decided this might be the time to | |
| 93:21 | help Laney transition into a different setting . People would | |
| 93:26 | tell us when your son or daughter is in public | |
| 93:31 | school . You don't have a clue as to how | |
| 93:34 | good you've got it , because once you transition into | |
| 93:39 | adulthood and all of a sudden the services either are | |
| 93:44 | different , have fallen away . It's a shock when | |
| 93:49 | we decided that it would be , in our end | |
| 93:54 | , Laney's best interest to find a residential place for | |
| 93:58 | her to live . What sure as heck wasn't her | |
| 94:00 | idea ? It was challenging . You know you can't | |
| 94:03 | play trial and error because you're playing with her life | |
| 94:07 | . She lives on campus , and she has three | |
| 94:09 | roommates . Um , she gets along with them . | |
| 94:13 | She knows all their names , knows most of their | |
| 94:16 | parents' names on campus , will typically have two AM | |
| 94:21 | staff , two PM staff and overnight staff . So | |
| 94:24 | she's constantly getting that round the clock care . I've | |
| 94:28 | worked with Lenny now for eight years , and I've | |
| 94:31 | come to understand Lenny , and I don't see her | |
| 94:36 | as a person with disability . I treat her like | |
| 94:41 | any other person for Lenny , transitioning from one place | |
| 94:46 | to another . It may take her some time before | |
| 94:50 | it sinks in for her to transition , but once | |
| 94:54 | she gets to that point , she will go . | |
| 94:57 | You don't want to force her because found out , | |
| 95:02 | and she can't . We are just going to do | |
| 95:05 | some quick Well , we can't . We can't work | |
| 95:07 | . I can't work because I had . She wanted | |
| 95:09 | me to ask you a question . When when he | |
| 95:12 | goes to most of the time , she vacuums in | |
| 95:15 | the main office , he had balanced autism , and | |
| 95:19 | she also wipes down the windows . I feel like | |
| 95:23 | sometimes she maybe doesn't get enough credit like she's really | |
| 95:28 | smart and she knows what's going on around her at | |
| 95:31 | the end of day . She's a person to I | |
| 95:33 | feel like that gets lost sometimes like we have . | |
| 95:36 | Yeah , she has autism , But she is . | |
| 95:38 | This is personality . This very big personality . Sure | |
| 95:41 | , sure , we can do that . Together we | |
| 95:43 | could . Cooperating everywhere That sounds sounds sounds like a | |
| 95:46 | wonderful idea . Lady is very social . Once she | |
| 95:51 | gets to know you and trust you and has made | |
| 95:53 | a connection with you . She's very affectionate . She | |
| 95:56 | gives the best hugs in the world . I would | |
| 95:58 | say Laney has excellent social skills . Overall , she | |
| 96:01 | has lived in the same home for 24 years with | |
| 96:05 | a three other women . Those ladies are very involved | |
| 96:08 | in going to the movies out to eat . They | |
| 96:10 | have been volunteering at Blank Park Zoo and have enjoyed | |
| 96:14 | that , Yes , and she said she loved me | |
| 96:18 | . Family is super important . Delaney . She is | |
| 96:22 | constantly talking about them . She loves her sister Angie | |
| 96:27 | so much , and she is married and has two | |
| 96:31 | Children , and Laney loves her niece and her nephew | |
| 96:36 | and her brother in law . Angie and Chris can't | |
| 96:41 | not . How does it make you feel ? It | |
| 96:44 | makes me exciting . It makes me exciting to hurt | |
| 96:49 | . Laney's dad died more than 11 years ago , | |
| 96:56 | so that was very difficult for her not to have | |
| 97:03 | her dad in her life anymore . When she comes | |
| 97:16 | here and spends the day or even overnight , or | |
| 97:22 | when it's time to return to her home in the | |
| 97:27 | over 25 years , that she is no longer lived | |
| 97:31 | with me . Oh my goodness , it's never easy | |
| 97:36 | to another city , and it's another . It's another | |
| 97:38 | . It's another six . Can you tell her the | |
| 97:41 | one you found it ? It's the other one . | |
| 97:44 | The assignment , regardless of the transition from my car | |
| 97:51 | into where she lives , is extremely difficult . I | |
| 97:57 | know that once she's back in the routine , she's | |
| 98:03 | okay she likes where she is . It used to | |
| 98:09 | be something I totally dreaded . Was having to take | |
| 98:13 | her back and see her almost despair at leaving me | |
| 98:25 | . How you doing ? Well , I have to | |
| 98:26 | . I have to go visit it a cheap probably | |
| 98:29 | . And I don't like it here , lady . | |
| 98:31 | Well , my birthday . You tell him today . | |
| 98:35 | Today is today . What is I am not going | |
| 98:39 | to be here on this holiday . Actually is having | |
| 98:44 | I don't know . When I took my cell phone | |
| 98:48 | to record Laney going to the dentist , she really | |
| 98:53 | didn't pay any attention to me at all . You | |
| 98:56 | know , she was so focused on not not opening | |
| 99:00 | her mouth . You didn't care what I was doing | |
| 99:02 | . Can we see your teeth real quick ? We | |
| 99:04 | can't see him when your lips are closed . Having | |
| 99:07 | a health care professional , touch her , make her | |
| 99:15 | do things that she doesn't want to do . Probably | |
| 99:20 | will continue to be a struggle . Mother , you | |
| 99:23 | better the world and help . And that's where she | |
| 99:26 | Well , she has to say how , but because | |
| 99:31 | we see Dr Jacobson , who has the patients and | |
| 99:37 | genuine respect for Laney and Laney's inability to behave like | |
| 99:44 | any other patient . It makes that trip so much | |
| 99:51 | easier in her mid forties . Another thing that I | |
| 99:56 | think about is as a young woman is going through | |
| 99:59 | menopause . Hot flashes . Will that be an issue | |
| 100:03 | for Laney as she goes on into her fifties ? | |
| 100:09 | You know , her hair is graying , and Angie | |
| 100:14 | and I used to joke and say , Delaney is | |
| 100:16 | never going to be great . What comes in the | |
| 100:19 | sixties ? What comes when I'm not here , which | |
| 100:26 | is certainly something that I think your basket , you | |
| 100:29 | know , we all think about there . Yeah , | |
| 100:34 | and I started saying something to Laney about death . | |
| 100:48 | How will she incorporate that into her life when my | |
| 100:54 | red car that she still calls a Jeep , which | |
| 100:57 | is not doesn't come up the driveway anymore ? How | |
| 101:01 | will she figure that out ? And I'm not going | |
| 101:04 | to be there to help mhm with that . You | |
| 101:12 | want to show us what's inside your purse ? Sure | |
| 101:15 | , I could do that . I think it's important | |
| 101:20 | to help others feel comfortable talking with your child with | |
| 101:27 | a disability . The acceptance is something that is so | |
| 101:33 | important to all of us . Mhm Neurodivergent is the | |
| 101:43 | way of saying , How do I bring somebody that | |
| 101:44 | thinks about the world differently . That has a different | |
| 101:48 | operating system that processes information differently into their circle , | |
| 101:52 | so that as they have opportunities to learn and grow | |
| 101:55 | as a group , they have the benefit of having | |
| 101:57 | these folks with different perspectives . You know , 1990 | |
| 102:01 | we had the Americans With Disabilities Act , and we've | |
| 102:03 | gotten so good at understanding what accommodations are for people | |
| 102:07 | with physical challenges . We have curb cuts and handicapped | |
| 102:10 | parking spaces and ramps and hotel rooms with , um | |
| 102:14 | , lights for the fire alarm for people who are | |
| 102:17 | deaf . But now what ? Our accommodations for someone | |
| 102:20 | with a neurological challenge , what we can accommodate should | |
| 102:22 | be for someone with an autism spectrum disorder , as | |
| 102:25 | opposed to saying that they have to learn to act | |
| 102:27 | differently , which we wouldn't say if you had a | |
| 102:30 | physical disability , because we can see that . So | |
| 102:34 | I think that a lot of the education the public | |
| 102:39 | education needs to focus on how do we learn to | |
| 102:42 | accommodate people better so that they can achieve their higher | |
| 102:46 | goals as opposed to costly focus on them having to | |
| 102:49 | change their behavior ? Yeah , for me , I | |
| 102:55 | get asked , What's my identity being a college professor | |
| 102:58 | working in the cattle industry designing equipment . Autism is | |
| 103:02 | an important part of who I am . I wouldn't | |
| 103:04 | want to change it because I don't like the illogical | |
| 103:06 | way that most people think . But it's not my | |
| 103:09 | primary identity . Mhm , mhm . I looked really | |
| 103:16 | terrible when I was two years old . Kids can | |
| 103:18 | look really bad then , as you work with them | |
| 103:20 | , some kind of pull out of it . Others | |
| 103:22 | don't , but you don't know until you start to | |
| 103:24 | work with them . And that's why early intervention is | |
| 103:26 | so important . And what I'm seeing is a travel | |
| 103:29 | around the country is We're doing a better job on | |
| 103:31 | the early intervention , but where we're really falling down | |
| 103:34 | is with the older kids teaching job skills driving that's | |
| 103:38 | going to take longer because of the multitasking issue . | |
| 103:41 | I did 200 miles on dirt roads at my aunt's | |
| 103:44 | ranch , picking up the mail every day , which | |
| 103:46 | was three miles away before I did traffic a lot | |
| 103:50 | more practice in really safe places . When I was | |
| 103:55 | four years old , I was nonverbal , had all | |
| 103:58 | the symptoms of severe autism . I was fortunate to | |
| 104:01 | get into a really good early intervention program . Lots | |
| 104:04 | of turn taking games , teaching the language , teaching | |
| 104:08 | table manners . That was done in a much more | |
| 104:10 | structured way back in the fifties that I want to | |
| 104:14 | demonstrate . It's how you walk back by them to | |
| 104:17 | get them to come up in the shoot . If | |
| 104:19 | you've got three year olds that are not talking , | |
| 104:21 | the worst thing you can do is just to wait | |
| 104:23 | . You've got to start working with that kid now | |
| 104:27 | . I've seen too many situations where the diagnosis holding | |
| 104:30 | fully verbal kids back because there's a tendency to baby | |
| 104:34 | them and they're not learning how to drive . They're | |
| 104:36 | not learning working skills . And very often today I | |
| 104:41 | have grandparents come up to me , and they discovered | |
| 104:44 | there on the autism spectrum when the kids get diagnosed | |
| 104:47 | . But those grandparents had decent jobs because they had | |
| 104:50 | paper routes at age 11 , learn how to work | |
| 104:52 | social skills and are in my generation were taught in | |
| 104:56 | a much more structured way in the fifties . We | |
| 104:59 | had sit down meals , you were taught how to | |
| 105:02 | take turns in conversation , and that's one of the | |
| 105:05 | reasons why a lot of the older generation had jobs | |
| 105:08 | and kept their jobs you see a brain can be | |
| 105:11 | more thinking or break any more social emotional , and | |
| 105:15 | a certain amount of this is just a normal variation | |
| 105:18 | . And years ago I said , Who do you | |
| 105:20 | think made the first stone spear back in the caveman | |
| 105:22 | days ? It wasn't a yakety yaks around the campfire | |
| 105:26 | . It would have been somebody , probably on the | |
| 105:27 | autism spectrum , in the back of the cave chip | |
| 105:30 | that rock and tie it to a stick . What | |
| 105:35 | you got to do with kids on the spectrum to | |
| 105:37 | stretch them , stretch them just outside the comfort zone | |
| 105:40 | , but give them choices now , the way I | |
| 105:43 | got into the cattle industry as I was exposed to | |
| 105:46 | it when I was a teenager , I came from | |
| 105:48 | a non egg background , and when the opportunity came | |
| 105:52 | up to visit my aunt's ranch , mother gave me | |
| 105:54 | a choice . I could go for a week and | |
| 105:56 | come home if I hated it or stay all summer | |
| 105:59 | . Not going wasn't one of the choices , but | |
| 106:01 | giving some choices of stretching activities . The other thing | |
| 106:05 | we cannot let these kids do is become recluses in | |
| 106:08 | their room . They get so anxious they just don't | |
| 106:11 | want to come out of their room . Exercise will | |
| 106:13 | help on that . I do 100 sit ups every | |
| 106:15 | night , but you've got to get them out doing | |
| 106:18 | things . And I've had parents say , Oh , | |
| 106:20 | he got a job in a store and he's just | |
| 106:22 | blossoming . You see , a person on the spectrum | |
| 106:26 | has lots of memory , so let's compare the computer | |
| 106:29 | system . So you got the cloud computing memory back | |
| 106:32 | here , tons and tons of memory . But a | |
| 106:34 | really small chip working memory is a problem . And | |
| 106:38 | so anything that requires remembering a sequence of steps like | |
| 106:42 | maybe , uh , doing the ice cream machine at | |
| 106:44 | McDonald's pilot's checklist . And when I worked in the | |
| 106:48 | Dairy when I was a graduate student , they had | |
| 106:49 | checklist on the wall on how to set up the | |
| 106:52 | dairy equipment , the milking machine equipment , and I | |
| 106:54 | would have been a lot of trouble without that checklist | |
| 106:56 | . That's a real easy thing to do . Let's | |
| 107:00 | look at situations in the environment that can cause problems | |
| 107:03 | with people with autism , and that's lighting certain kinds | |
| 107:07 | of lighting flickers . I was just in a hotel | |
| 107:10 | room the other day that was completely horrible . It | |
| 107:13 | had Chevron black and white stripes on the floor and | |
| 107:18 | compact fluorescent lights , and I could see the pattern | |
| 107:22 | on the floor going like this . Now I tolerated | |
| 107:24 | it , okay , but there are certain people where | |
| 107:27 | this would be completely awful . I have some sound | |
| 107:30 | sensitivity problems . One of the ways to help get | |
| 107:32 | over sound sensitivity is let the kids control it . | |
| 107:35 | All right , let's say he's afraid of the vacuum | |
| 107:37 | cleaner , then let the kid turn it on and | |
| 107:39 | off . But the kid control that vacuum cleaner where | |
| 107:42 | they are controlling that Sam . And then they can | |
| 107:46 | sometimes learn to tolerate if they control . I get | |
| 107:51 | asked all the time to tell the kid they have | |
| 107:52 | autism having a great time . I wouldn't bother telling | |
| 107:55 | them , and I'm seeing too many kids where their | |
| 107:57 | whole identity is autism . And so I want to | |
| 108:01 | be an autism activist , and I explained them , | |
| 108:03 | You will be a better activist if you can go | |
| 108:06 | out and excel in a job , maybe an engineering | |
| 108:08 | job , an art job writing job or something like | |
| 108:11 | that . And then you do the activist stuff . | |
| 108:14 | I always emphasize all the things I've done at work | |
| 108:18 | , and what I learned is I learned to sell | |
| 108:20 | my work . People thought I was weird , but | |
| 108:22 | when I showed them my drawings and my pictures , | |
| 108:25 | they looked at that and go , Oh , you | |
| 108:27 | designed that . People on the spectrum usually are good | |
| 108:30 | at one thing , bad at something else . We | |
| 108:32 | need to be putting a lot more emphasis on building | |
| 108:34 | up the area of strength . Talking to the F | |
| 108:39 | F A in the four H students today , just | |
| 108:41 | about some basic things about animal behavior . And one | |
| 108:45 | of the things I learned from animals was learning how | |
| 108:47 | to work . I was not a good student in | |
| 108:50 | high school , but I learned how to work in | |
| 108:52 | my school's horse barn . Big problem I'm seeing today | |
| 108:57 | is not learning work skills because I'm afraid that some | |
| 109:01 | of those kids today is just ending up getting addicted | |
| 109:03 | to video games , and they're not going anywhere . | |
| 109:06 | They're not becoming video game designers . If they were | |
| 109:08 | becoming great video game designers , I wouldn't be criticizing | |
| 109:12 | it , but that's not where they're going . And | |
| 109:14 | I'm seeing a really big problem on not learning working | |
| 109:17 | skills . How about walking dogs ? How about church | |
| 109:20 | volunteer jobs ? Find things in the neighborhood that the | |
| 109:23 | kid can do . That's on a schedule outside the | |
| 109:26 | family . I was bullied in high school . I | |
| 109:30 | got bullied in school . It was awful . Fortunately | |
| 109:34 | , I was not bullied in elementary school because Mrs | |
| 109:38 | Teach , the third grade teacher , explained that I | |
| 109:40 | had a disability . But it wasn't a disability you | |
| 109:43 | could see , like having a wheelchair or crutches , | |
| 109:46 | and the other kids ought to be helping me . | |
| 109:48 | So high school was a disaster , complete disaster of | |
| 109:51 | bullying in elementary school . Other kids like to do | |
| 109:54 | craft projects . So I had friends who shared interest | |
| 109:58 | is a really important thing . Friends who shared interest | |
| 110:00 | , that when I was in high school and I | |
| 110:01 | was still getting bullied , the only place I was | |
| 110:04 | not bullied was horseback riding , model rockets and electronics | |
| 110:07 | . Again , that is , shared interests really important | |
| 110:11 | to get . Kids may be involved in band the | |
| 110:13 | school play . It could be lots of different things | |
| 110:18 | . Being a woman in the feed yard industry was | |
| 110:21 | much harder than main autistic . Wave harder . Well | |
| 110:25 | , I don't do the bar scene that's too socially | |
| 110:27 | complicated for me . Also , I can't here . | |
| 110:29 | I've got some auditory processing problems with background noise . | |
| 110:32 | I can't hear You know , I think what makes | |
| 110:34 | my life interesting and worthwhile as work . Also , | |
| 110:38 | if you quickly walk back by him like that before | |
| 110:42 | , I was very happy to have a lady come | |
| 110:44 | up to me and in the airport last night and | |
| 110:46 | tell me that she read my books and looked at | |
| 110:49 | some of my videos , and that really helped her | |
| 110:51 | daughter . That's something that that gives meaning to life | |
| 110:56 | . One of the things that we're excited about is | |
| 110:59 | how has the world changed in viewing autism , right | |
| 111:04 | ? Uh huh . 25 years ago , we were | |
| 111:07 | talking about awareness . What is autism ? We've moved | |
| 111:10 | from awareness to acceptance that that person in the grocery | |
| 111:15 | store is different than me . And I can accept | |
| 111:17 | that I can accept that he handles information differently than | |
| 111:21 | I do . I can accept that he communicates differently | |
| 111:24 | than I do . Maybe that next door neighbor has | |
| 111:27 | autism , and I can accept him in my world | |
| 111:31 | . Question now is , are we getting to appreciation | |
| 111:34 | ? Can we move from awareness to acceptance to appreciation | |
| 111:39 | ? What does this person with autism have that my | |
| 111:41 | life benefits from ? And there are things that they | |
| 111:44 | bring to the table They have a unique perspective . | |
| 111:47 | They have an ability to do certain things that I | |
| 111:49 | can't do . Right . So how do we tap | |
| 111:51 | into those strengths ? And that's one of the fun | |
| 111:54 | things to think about with our communities today . We | |
| 111:57 | don't want to just be in your community . We | |
| 112:00 | want as a person with autism to be a part | |
| 112:02 | of your community . Meaning we're not just visiting . | |
| 112:05 | We are your neighbors . We are your coworkers . | |
| 112:08 | Were your fellow churchgoers . We enjoy the same hobbies | |
| 112:12 | and interests . So how do we make opportunities for | |
| 112:16 | people to be fully accepted and appreciated ? All right | |
| 113:16 | . Yeah , you know . Mm . Yeah , | |
| 113:34 | but this program is part of the move to include | |
| 113:58 | initiative made possible with support from the Corporation for Public | |
| 114:02 | Broadcasting , a private corporation funded by the American people | |
| 114:09 | the Max and Helen Guernsey Charitable Foundation in support of | |
| 114:14 | educational programming on statewide Iowa PBS . Mhm . Mm | |
| 114:20 | . Yeah . Mhm . |
Summarizer
DESCRIPTION:
Iowans with autism illustrate the nuances of The Life Autistic in this two-hour broadcast special. We meet twelve people of different ages and backgrounds, along with their families and caregivers, to understand the daily lives and future prospects of people with autism. Their stories explore diagnosis, early intervention, family life, treatment, education, employment and independent living. Interviews with experts, educators and advocates -- including famed author and speaker Temple Grandin -- provide greater context and a better understanding of the many expressions of autism. Tyler Leech lends his unique perspective as a member of Iowaâs community of people with autism to the stories from the original Iowa PBS web series.
OVERVIEW:
The Life Autistic Documentary is a free educational video by Lumos Learning.
This page not only allows students and teachers view The Life Autistic Documentary videos but also find engaging Sample Questions, Apps, Pins, Worksheets, Books related to the following topics.
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