The Autism Handbook

This is a repost of something I wrote last year at this time. I think this could be helpful to a lot of parents and teachers, so I'm going to post it again.



The Autism Handbook

Okay, I've been busy. I put together a "Nathan Handbook," to give his new teacher.

I got one of those 3 ring binders, a "view binder," which has a clear plastic window on the front where you can slip in a cover sheet (or in this case, a photograph). I put an 8 x 10 picture of Nathan on the cover, and put his name down the spline.

Inside, I put a letter to the teacher, telling her that I created this book to help her with working with my son. It has some personal info in the binder, because the more you know about Nathan, the easier it is to work with him. It has some things that we do to prevent meltdowns. It also has suggestions from autism sites for how to teach autistic kids.

I started with "6 Things a Teacher Should Know About Nathan." This is a quick list, stating things like how he has sensory issues, and has trouble with transitions. It also says we want to keep the lines of communication open.

Then I had a "Student Profile." This tells a lot of personal info about Nathan. Some good things about him, his strengths, his successes, our hopes for him, his weaknesses, etc. I'm sure the whole school is aware of Nathan's aggression; I wanted her to know some good stuff, too. And knowing, for example, that Nathan loves certain cartoon characters, could help them reach him when he gets uncommunicative, or if they want to get on his good side.

I included a whole chapter on "Avoiding Meltdowns." This is anything I know that sets off a meltdown, and anything I know of that helps to diffuse it or avoid a bad situation. At the end of this chapter, I included the behavior chart Nathan and I created for his iep. This shows what he looks like as he goes through the steps of getting aggitated, right up to full blown meltdown. It also lists what he might be feeling at each stage, and steps that can be taken to help de-escalate the situation. Hopefully, she already has this, but best to err on the side of caution, right? It wouldn't be the first time the school neglected to give information to his teacher.

I figure the information provided up to this point takes about 7 pages, in large print. Easy to read, and she can gain a ton of info in a short amount of time. Then I also added in printouts from the internet, such as Ten Things Your Student With Autism Wishes You Knew and Ten Things Every Kid With Autism Wishes You Knew. Perhaps a bit repetative, but hey, it's good info. I also printed out various articles from the net regarding teaching guidelines and suggestions for students with Asperger's or autism. Most were from the OASIS site. If she wants to read more in depth info, it's there in the back of the book.

For good measure, I tucked a couple of my business cards in there from the NW IL Autism Support Group, which has the website address, my email address, contact info for the group, and even this blog. (Nobody from the school has bothered to check any of it out yet, but ya never know).

Finally, I tucked the book Can I Tell You About Asperger's Syndrome? into the pocket of the ring binder. I love that book. It's easy to read, appropriate for Nathan's age group, adults can read it and get an overview of what it's like to live with Asperger's Syndrome, and it isn't full of medical jargon. I give this book to anybody who works with Nathan - especially the busy adults who don't have the time (or the interest?) to read anything else.

So now I have my handy dandy little Nathan Handbook. Or our personalized Autism Handbook, for exactly his specific spectral variation of autism. I hope his teacher and para will read it, or at least the first seven pages. Wouldn't it be amazing if we could prevent the majority of the meltdowns?

One can hope...

You can see further details about the handbook here, including sample pages: http://www.rockfordautism.com/Handbook.htm