The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

Being a teenager is not easy. This is especially true for adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder. This session identifies some key social, educational, psychological and sensory needs that may surface during the adolescent years and some of the behavioral challenges that are caused by difficulty in communicating and meeting these needs. Participants gain information on visual supports using Boardmaker Software Family that will enable them to provide adolescents with ASD the tools they need to be successful. User stories included. Adolescence typically brings a variety of diverse new challenges and experiences for all children. The unique needs of children with Autism also change in conjunction with these typical challenges.  Research shows that adolescents with ASD may also face an array of new psychological, sensory, educational, and social needs that are unique to their population.
Numerous studies show that using visual supports with children with ASD to concretely define and explain their needs, and to provide them with appropriate ways of addressing these needs, can reduce the inappropriate behaviors that sometimes stem from their misunderstandings. They also give individuals with Autism the ability to generalize coping skills by giving them the ability to pair concrete visual supports with abstract ideas. In other words, it enables them to define the abstract in concrete terms. Therefore, visual supports give adolescents with ASD the tools they need to understand, communicate, and independently meet their needs which in turn enable them to become more involved with their peers, family, and community.
As in any adolescent’s life, this is the time when self-identity is formed.  During this time  the social gap widens, new and confusing physiological changes develop , school settings become more complex , and the educational emphasis of academics begins to share the spotlight with new functional post high-school transitional skills. Adolescents with ASD struggle with the anxiety that change and abstract demands cause them. More importantly they struggle to understand how to communicate their feelings about these changes. Consequentially, this can bring about inappropriate behaviors that may be unusual for them and can become a source of disappointment, frustration, and confusion for the adolescent and his or her family, peers, and service providers. The longer these frustrations are experienced, the more likely the self esteem of the child is negatively affected and the risk of regression grows. If the adolescent can understand what is happening the how to appropriately meet the expectations of the changes, then this risk is reduced.  Through user stories and research studies, the first half of the presentation will give participants an overview of the needs and challenges educators, direct service providers, and caregivers face with adolescents with ASD.
The second half of the presentation proceeds to identify strategies using visual supports that address these key needs and challenges. These visual supports provide the concrete tools these children need to understand the abstract social, psychological, sensory and educational demands they face. The Boardmaker Software Family is used as an authoring tool for these visual supports as it embodies one of the mostly recognized symbol sets, Picture Communication Symbol (PCS.)  The program has the ability to integrate other symbol sets, digital pictures, sounds, animations, videos, and symbol supported text to provide the individualized visual supports that are the most effective for the individual with ASD. Add-ons that can be used with the Boardmaker Software Family provide the visual supports for the researched based interventions of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) communication boards, social stories, schedules, behavior charts, direct instruction charts, and other proven visual strategies. In addition, additional visually supported materials are recommended. Participants will learn how to identify the need, define it in concrete terms, and use visual supports to help the adolescent with ASD understand and learn how to communicate and meet his or her needs. A user story illustrates the effectiveness of these strategies.
Adolescence is a time in a child’s life that is full of change in every aspect of their world; socially, educationally, emotionally and physiologically. As part of their disorder, individuals with ASD have difficulty with unpredictable and abstract change and transition. In order to communicate and deal with the changes, sometimes inappropriate behaviors manifest and if sustained for a long period of time can injure and cause regression in an individual with ASD. Research shows that using visual supports with individuals with ASD enhances and enables their ability to make sense of the world around them and cope with life’s complexities.
As adolescence is an important time in the development of an individual’s self-identify and self esteem, it is in the best interest of the individual, his or her family and the support providers, to use visually supported strategies.  This type of support gives adolescents with ASD the tools they need to understand, communicate, and independently meet their changing needs. Participants will leave with information that will enable them to provide their adolescent with Autism Spectrum Disorder with the tools they need to be successful in their world.

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