The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

Children with ASD are a vital part of the communities in which they live. However, because of their unique characteristics, integrating them into various community environments is often difficult and, thus, often avoided. This presentation will give parents, educators, and service providers a structure to guide them as they seek to identify and provide needed supports. Using the provided template as a framework, children with ASD can be successful with their family, peers and groups in various community settings. Families should enjoy activities together such as going out to a restaurant, going to the zoo or going on a car trip to a relative's house. A child with ASD, similar to any other child, should be able to attend a birthday party with his friends, have fun at the bowling alley, or hang our at the mall with peers. Children with ASD also need to encounter the community when visiting the doctor's office, going to the grocery store, or checking out a book at the library. All of these opportunities can often be limited due to the amount of supports that the child with ASD needs to successfully participate with others in the community.

This presentation will review a template process that highlights the areas where children with ASD most often need support. These include broad supports such as sensory, social, visual, communication, transition, and behavior, as well as specific supports such as a waiting plan, the hidden curriculum, and motivation. As the parent becomes more familiar with the specific areas of need and routinely uses the template to address those areas with the outlined supports, the process of identifying and implementing supports for participating in community settings will become second nature. Parents will become more confident and more comfortable implementing the supports that their child needs and integrating their child into community activities because they have a structure that creates parameters from which they build the support plan for their child.

The chosen supports highlighted on the template address areas of need most frequently observed in children with ASD according to current research (Olley, 2005; Bregman, Zager & Gerdtz, 2005; Myles & Adreon, 2001) For each broad and specific support area, this presentation will include a variety of examples that provide for the child's needs according to the community setting, the age of the child, and his diagnosis. The examples for each support area reflect current research in best practices in relation to children with ASD.

This presentation contributes to the advancement of professionals in the field of ASD because the use of the template and its process is not limited only to parents. By incorporating the template process into the classroom, educators and service providers contribute to the building of independent, well-adjusted children who will continue to participate in their community as they grow older.

The template can be created and implemented independently by just a family or just an educator, however, the child most benefits when the template is created and supported by the family, educators and services providers working collaboratively. For example, if the family is going out to dinner on Friday night, throughout week the child could practice ordering from the lunch menu at school. Or, if the school is taking a field trip to the zoo, the family can review the social narrative created by the educator each night before the child goes to bed.

Overall, this presentation will provide families, educators, and service provides with a framework that incorporates the supports needed by the child with ASD to be most successful when participating in the community. Those who attend this presentation will be able to identify various strategies within each support area, implement the strategies within the template process to achieve the desired outcome, and integrate children with ASD successfully into any community setting desired.

Bregman J.D., Zager, D. & Gerdtz, J. (2005) Behavioral Interventions. In F. Volkmar, R. Paul, A. Klin, & D. Cohen (Eds). Handbook of Autism and pervasive Developmental Disorders (Third Edition, p. 863-881). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Olley, J.G. (2005). Curriculum and Classroom Structure. In F. Volkmar, R. Paul, A. Klin, & D. Cohen (Eds). Handbook of Autism and pervasive Developmental Disorders (Third Edition, p. 863-881). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Myles, B & Adreon, D (2001). Asperger Syndrome and Adolescents. Autism Asperger Publishing Company: Shawnee Mission, Kansas.

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