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Reimagining the Possible for Non-speaking Autistic People

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Reimagining the Possible for Non-speaking Autistic People

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UCSF 19th Annual Developmental Disabilities: March 5-6, 2020. Hear  from three, nonspeaking, autistic leaders about their experiences and recommendations. Discuss what we can do to raise our expectations and reimagine what is possible for nonspeaking or minimally or unreliably speaking autistic people.

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University of California Television (UCTV)

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Reimagining the Possible for Non-Speaking, Autistic People

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"People Games" for Joint Attention & Language

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"People Games" for Joint Attention & Language

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Blog post on Goal Writing for Autistic Students - by Rachel Dorsey who is an autistic SLP

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Blog post on Goal Writing for Autistic Students - by Rachel Dorsey who is an autistic SLP

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So, when I asked people what topics they wanted me to cover, mainly SLPs answered. They want to know about writing neurodiversity-affirming goals (second most asked is how to actually do neurodiversity-affirming "social skills" therapy). I am going to go over some major roadblocks in writing and executing neurodiversity-affirming goals and call for a major change in thinking about goals.

So, what is the purpose of a therapy goal for a child within a school?

From an educational institution perspective within the United States, goals need to align with Common Core Standards. They also need to address a "deficit" that is functionally impacting the student in an academic area.

Alright then. Does the kid have an articulation disorder? Then let's write a goal to clear up those /r/ and /l/ sounds and relate it to the Common Core Standard whatever about delivery of information in a clear and concise manner. Does the kid have a mixed language disorder? Then let's write goals about demonstrating and using knowledge of certain vocab and grammar, and that easily relates to many Common Core Standards. Is the kid Autistic and screams and headbangs and is really inconsistent in demonstrating mastery of skills? And, oh, god, the kid's evaluation results show that they can't even respond to their name, isn't pointing, averts eye contact, and didn't even orient to any test materials, just swatting away picture cards and trying to climb up shelves and tables, reaching towards a dinosaur figure. Per the report, retrieval of the dinosaur did not help, as they cried as soon as the therapist touched it. Upon being offered the dinosaur they took it and displayed rocking behaviors. Verbal directions (Come here, Give me), visual cues (pointing to the small chair and table), and physical redirection to the chair were unsuccessful, resulting in immediate plopping from the chair to the floor and melting down soon after. Per the report, their mother apologized and reported that sometimes they wave "hi" and largely communicate what they want by pulling her body. They said the word "cake" at a birthday party when they were 2, but no words since. They frequently vocalize a jumbled up combination of vowels, noises, and /g/ and /d/, but they don't appear to be connected to any particular meaning or intent. Their name is Andrew, and they are 3 years old. Obviously, the first 2 kids would be in a public school, but Andrew would be in a program or mainstreamed with a 1:1 aide. So...where to begin with goals....?

Andrew is very likely to be a disruption to the classroom once they enter preschool. But he is not the only disruption. So is the Autistic 6-year-old child who keeps blurting out answers in their mainstream first-grade class. So is the Autistic 15-year-old child who is so bluntly honest when answering any sort of conversational question. So is the non-speaking Autistic 7 year old child who keeps pushing a single button on their AAC device during class. So is the Autistic 10-year-old child who panics and cries when they see the first test question on their reading exam and have no idea what it means.

The educational system was not built to support kids like Andrew. I mean, I will be clear-having these Autistic kids out and about and, in theory, being able to access public education just like every other non-disabled child is significantly better than sending these children to facilities, like what happened prior to the IDEA. But the school system in America has limited funding and resources. Burnout rate for teachers and paraprofessionals is high. Salaries, if you are lucky enough to receive one, are often lower than is expected for a healthcare professional with a graduate degree. And now the school system has to somehow support children with extremely varied needs with brains that process the world differently and have them graduate in 12th grade with good-standing mental health.

What is the purpose, then, of a traditional therapy goal for an Autistic child within a school?

The purpose of a traditional therapy goal for an autistic child within a school is for this child to not be a disruption. Ouch.

About a year ago I was seeing an Autistic 4.5-year-old, Jaxon*, who was in a mainstream public school-based preschool classroom. Jaxon was very bright, talkative, and socially motivated. He would also become very upset if he was not called on during circle time or did not get his first choice when choosing activity tables. The inconsistencies of social communication with neurotypicals were very confusing for him. One day Jaxon got very upset at a friend (because in preschool, the teacher calls every student a "friend") when that friend was telling another student he did not like the color brown. Jaxon firmly jumped in and said, "You are NOT being a good friend." Because last week, Jaxon overheard one student telling another student that he did not like the other student's shirt, and the teacher told the first student that he was not being a good friend. A month into the school year I pulled his teacher aside for a moment to attempt to pick apart which of Jaxon's class behaviors make the teacher have to step away from her class of 15 students to be with Jaxon, 1:1, vs simply being quirky and a non-issue. She stared at me, baffled, and said "All of them." It dawned on me that anything Jaxon does that is perhaps a bit unusual or any time he gets upset but self-regulates cannot actually be observed by the teacher. She is teaching an entire preschool class, and so, by default, any time that specific attention is spent on Jaxon is because he has been disruptive for some reason. If he was agreeable and compliant, like the other kids usually were, her job would be significantly easier. Jaxon was smart and wanted to make everybody around him happy, so he tried his hardest to do exactly that.

And so to the teacher, it did not matter how or by which methods Jaxon became less disruptive because, at the parent-teacher conference, he was given praise upon praise for how much he has improved. Even if that means that every day, after school, he collected each of his superhero action figures and arranged them pleasingly, which he did, and arranged and rearranged them for hours, which he did, and emitted a heart-wrenching panicked shriek when his little brother took one to play with, which he did, and hit his brother violently until his brother released it, which he did, and put the superhero figure back in its correct spot and went back to staring at them, silently...which he did.

So the purpose of a traditional therapy goal for an Autistic child within the school system is less disruption. School rewards kids that behave like they are expected to behave, like neurotypicals are expected to behave. School prepares kids to be members of a neurotypically-based society. Society has expectations, and society expects you to contribute to it.

And if that child, like the first Autistic child mentioned, Andrew, behaves in a way that society deems unexpected (and will likely behave in a more socially unexpected way his entire life), then the therapy goals are going to be more behaviorally-based. Because those goals lead to less disruptions, and maybe even when that child grows up, they can contribute to society instead of being such a disruption.

Do you know childhood language milestones? If you are a speech therapist, I surely hope so.

Let's cotinue talking about Andrew, this Autistic preschool-aged child. Based on everything you've read from the evaluation report...do they understand cause and effect? Do they understand that pictures are symbolic? Do they know the power of words or gestures? It is not clear. They surely haven't demonstrated it in obvious ways. You pull out the Rossetti Infant-Toddler Language Scale, typically for children aged 0-36 months. Oh man, based on their evaluation report, they demonstrate scattered skills ranging from the 0 months to 12 months. This 3-year-old is at the birth to 12-month level, inconsistently. Ok, gotta start writing those goals now. Let's see what skills to expect next, based on the Rossetti. They aren't showing that they can identify body parts or simple objects, so maybe that. Maybe following simple directions like: Come here, Give me ____, Get the ____, etc.? Surely, joint attention skills like pointing and paying attention to another person, that's a given. Andrew's unwillingness to share that dinosaur certainly won't be good within the context of a classroom, even with a 1:1 aide, so maybe a goal about toy sharing? And then, the most obvious, communicating wants and needs, somehow. They can say some consonant sounds-perhaps they can be shaped into speech? Or, well, they certainly identified that dinosaur figure-maybe they could be taught an object exchange system? Andrew is inconsistently waving "hi", so then let's build off that and have them greet others consistently! Your purpose is to help walk Andrew through childhood developmental milestones they have missed and those that are to be expected next. I mean, in addition to reducing their disruption of class activities.

I used to think like this. I was taught this. Autistic kids for some reason miss some childhood language milestones but obtain others. And then I'd be stuck writing a report, a report that this child's parents are going to read, about how this 3, 4, 5-year-old kid displays scattered skills from the 0 to 18-month level. And I would picture the parents, reading this report about their child essentially having the development of an infant, and cringe. But goals were meant to fill in the gaps and expand. The child is using 2-3 word phrases? Then the next goal is 3-5 word phrases. The child follows 1 step directions consistently? Then let's do 2 step directions. Does the child engage in parallel play? Let's do associative and then cooperative play! The child uses their AAC device to greet and label objects and even request? Then let's get them commenting and turn-taking. And these types of goals can go on and on and on and on, even until autistic kids are teenagers. We've all seen autistic teenagers with goals relating to greeting others and labeling object and action words and following 1 step directions. Because if they can't do the basics, if they keep demonstrating scattered and inconsistent childhood language milestones, these kids are stuck with the same goals, year after year after year...

And then what the heck do I do when this child is speaking in scripted phrases, echolalia, and that type of language is not on any language milestone checklist? I mean, if we are going strictly by the number of words this child has and their initiation of language, they don't even qualify for services, despite not following directions at all. Or how about the kid that has so many words, an incredible number of words, and it is all labeling of objects? Great language testing scores, though-very impressive.

Something doesn't fit. Something is not right. These autistic kids demonstrate such a wide variety of skills, and they do not map neatly and nicely onto your childhood milestone checklist. Something is wrong. In fact, it is all wrong.

Because autistic children-autistic people-have their own trajectory of language skill mastery. And it contains many many factors.

And really, you know this. Because you know an autistic middle schooler who is forming several word sentences on their AAC device but averts all eye gaze and doesn't use any gestures. You know an autistic toddler who is speaking in intonational jibber-jabber with occasional "real" words inserted in there and can sort pictures of objects by color, shape, category, number, etc. You know an autistic school-aged kid who knows the entire history of the making of every Sonic the Hedgehog video game, comic, and movie, but still cannot answer wh- questions about a variety of topics. You know an autistic high schooler who smiles and flaps when you greet them and they hand you some piece of paper in their pocket and they laugh and jump, but when you say 'thank you' they meltdown, slamming their head against the locker.

Many current goals are setting up our autistic clients for failure. If they can mask it all up, they aren't disruptions at school. But please know that 10 years later it all comes unraveling down. By comparing autistic children's language development to neurotypical childhood language milestones, we are creating goals that are often unattainable or completely functionally inappropriate.

I am 28 years old, and I struggle to follow 3-step directions. I also have a 5-year-old autistic client whose parents and BCBA are really focusing in on 3-step directions. A lot of times I can't follow a point or another person's eye gaze intuitively and turn-taking in a conversation that has no relevance to myself is mind-numbingly boring. My 7-year-old autistic client can surely relate.

So, really, it comes down to this, and it is going to be hard to hear:
There is no way to slightly the traditional way of writing goals so they are more neurodiversity-affirming. You are going to have to chuck it. You are going to have to think in a completely different way. And it's hard. In fact, I would imagine it is probably harder for neurotypical people trying to understand the autistic way of processing things. Autistic people have been forced to do this our entire life-shift our natural way of processing to investigate the majority's way of processing, and it is still difficult.
You cannot create a neurodiversity-affirming goal by modifying "will demonstrate increased flexibility during classroom transitions" to "with classroom accommodations including visual schedule, timer, and frequent warnings, will demonstrate increased flexibility during classroom transitions." Underneath, you still have a child who feels stuck and confused and anxious, and so the goal of focusing on "flexibility" is missing it. That's a goal to make the child less of a disruption. You cannot modify "will engage in 3-4 conversational turns about a non-preferred topic with the clinician" to "will demonstrate an understanding of the clinician's perspective by engaging in 3-4 conversational turns about a topic of the clinician's choice." The goal is centered around the child's understanding of the clinician without any reciprocity, making the child essentially less of a disruption to the clinician. And you cannot modify "will consistently demonstrate comprehension of 15 object words" to "using multimodal communication including gesture, point, verbalization, or vocalization, will consistently demonstrate comprehension of 15 object words" because that is based on neurotypical childhood milestones, and the reality is that this child might never demonstrate comprehension in a way that a neurotypical SLP can recognize.

Alright, yes, I know. Another post about all the things currently wrong and no straightforward advice. That is because a blog post wouldn't really do this justice. To truly help your Autistic students, you need to know what Autistic traits are through the neurodiversity paradigm and know what constitutes a strengths-based goal. To truly shift how you think and process the Autistic perspective, you need to study the aims of the Autistic community who can look back and identify what would have truly helped us. You need to listen to Autistic clinicians and Autistic parents of Autistic children. You need to listen to Autistic children. Listen, not speak for or over, and amplify.

This is why I am super excited to announce I have created the course "Goal Writing for Autistic Students," available for ASHA and AOTA CEUs under Learn Play Thrive, LLC. In this comprehensive course, after learning the basics of the neurodiversity-paradigm, Autistic traits, and strengths-based goal writing, you will be provided 8 case studies, ranging from preschool to high school, all either fictional students or loosely based on students I've seen or colleagues have seen. Want to read more about it?

So, when I asked people what topics they wanted me to cover, mainly SLPs answered. They want to know about writing neurodiversity-affirming goals (second most asked is how to actually do neurodiversity-affirming "social skills" therapy). I am going to go over some major roadblocks in writing and executing neurodiversity-affirming goals and call for a major change in thinking about goals.

So, what is the purpose of a therapy goal for a child within a school?

From an educational institution perspective within the United States, goals need to align with Common Core Standards. They also need to address a "deficit" that is functionally impacting the student in an academic area.

Alright then. Does the kid have an articulation disorder? Then let's write a goal to clear up those /r/ and /l/ sounds and relate it to the Common Core Standard whatever about delivery of information in a clear and concise manner. Does the kid have a mixed language disorder? Then let's write goals about demonstrating and using knowledge of certain vocab and grammar, and that easily relates to many Common Core Standards. Is the kid Autistic and screams and headbangs and is really inconsistent in demonstrating mastery of skills? And, oh, god, the kid's evaluation results show that they can't even respond to their name, isn't pointing, averts eye contact, and didn't even orient to any test materials, just swatting away picture cards and trying to climb up shelves and tables, reaching towards a dinosaur figure. Per the report, retrieval of the dinosaur did not help, as they cried as soon as the therapist touched it. Upon being offered the dinosaur they took it and displayed rocking behaviors. Verbal directions (Come here, Give me), visual cues (pointing to the small chair and table), and physical redirection to the chair were unsuccessful, resulting in immediate plopping from the chair to the floor and melting down soon after. Per the report, their mother apologized and reported that sometimes they wave "hi" and largely communicate what they want by pulling her body. They said the word "cake" at a birthday party when they were 2, but no words since. They frequently vocalize a jumbled up combination of vowels, noises, and /g/ and /d/, but they don't appear to be connected to any particular meaning or intent. Their name is Andrew, and they are 3 years old. Obviously, the first 2 kids would be in a public school, but Andrew would be in a program or mainstreamed with a 1:1 aide. So...where to begin with goals....?

Andrew is very likely to be a disruption to the classroom once they enter preschool. But he is not the only disruption. So is the Autistic 6-year-old child who keeps blurting out answers in their mainstream first-grade class. So is the Autistic 15-year-old child who is so bluntly honest when answering any sort of conversational question. So is the non-speaking Autistic 7 year old child who keeps pushing a single button on their AAC device during class. So is the Autistic 10-year-old child who panics and cries when they see the first test question on their reading exam and have no idea what it means.

The educational system was not built to support kids like Andrew. I mean, I will be clear-having these Autistic kids out and about and, in theory, being able to access public education just like every other non-disabled child is significantly better than sending these children to facilities, like what happened prior to the IDEA. But the school system in America has limited funding and resources. Burnout rate for teachers and paraprofessionals is high. Salaries, if you are lucky enough to receive one, are often lower than is expected for a healthcare professional with a graduate degree. And now the school system has to somehow support children with extremely varied needs with brains that process the world differently and have them graduate in 12th grade with good-standing mental health.

What is the purpose, then, of a traditional therapy goal for an Autistic child within a school?

The purpose of a traditional therapy goal for an autistic child within a school is for this child to not be a disruption. Ouch.

About a year ago I was seeing an Autistic 4.5-year-old, Jaxon*, who was in a mainstream public school-based preschool classroom. Jaxon was very bright, talkative, and socially motivated. He would also become very upset if he was not called on during circle time or did not get his first choice when choosing activity tables. The inconsistencies of social communication with neurotypicals were very confusing for him. One day Jaxon got very upset at a friend (because in preschool, the teacher calls every student a "friend") when that friend was telling another student he did not like the color brown. Jaxon firmly jumped in and said, "You are NOT being a good friend." Because last week, Jaxon overheard one student telling another student that he did not like the other student's shirt, and the teacher told the first student that he was not being a good friend. A month into the school year I pulled his teacher aside for a moment to attempt to pick apart which of Jaxon's class behaviors make the teacher have to step away from her class of 15 students to be with Jaxon, 1:1, vs simply being quirky and a non-issue. She stared at me, baffled, and said "All of them." It dawned on me that anything Jaxon does that is perhaps a bit unusual or any time he gets upset but self-regulates cannot actually be observed by the teacher. She is teaching an entire preschool class, and so, by default, any time that specific attention is spent on Jaxon is because he has been disruptive for some reason. If he was agreeable and compliant, like the other kids usually were, her job would be significantly easier. Jaxon was smart and wanted to make everybody around him happy, so he tried his hardest to do exactly that.

And so to the teacher, it did not matter how or by which methods Jaxon became less disruptive because, at the parent-teacher conference, he was given praise upon praise for how much he has improved. Even if that means that every day, after school, he collected each of his superhero action figures and arranged them pleasingly, which he did, and arranged and rearranged them for hours, which he did, and emitted a heart-wrenching panicked shriek when his little brother took one to play with, which he did, and hit his brother violently until his brother released it, which he did, and put the superhero figure back in its correct spot and went back to staring at them, silently...which he did.

So the purpose of a traditional therapy goal for an Autistic child within the school system is less disruption. School rewards kids that behave like they are expected to behave, like neurotypicals are expected to behave. School prepares kids to be members of a neurotypically-based society. Society has expectations, and society expects you to contribute to it.

And if that child, like the first Autistic child mentioned, Andrew, behaves in a way that society deems unexpected (and will likely behave in a more socially unexpected way his entire life), then the therapy goals are going to be more behaviorally-based. Because those goals lead to less disruptions, and maybe even when that child grows up, they can contribute to society instead of being such a disruption.

Do you know childhood language milestones? If you are a speech therapist, I surely hope so.

Let's cotinue talking about Andrew, this Autistic preschool-aged child. Based on everything you've read from the evaluation report...do they understand cause and effect? Do they understand that pictures are symbolic? Do they know the power of words or gestures? It is not clear. They surely haven't demonstrated it in obvious ways. You pull out the Rossetti Infant-Toddler Language Scale, typically for children aged 0-36 months. Oh man, based on their evaluation report, they demonstrate scattered skills ranging from the 0 months to 12 months. This 3-year-old is at the birth to 12-month level, inconsistently. Ok, gotta start writing those goals now. Let's see what skills to expect next, based on the Rossetti. They aren't showing that they can identify body parts or simple objects, so maybe that. Maybe following simple directions like: Come here, Give me ____, Get the ____, etc.? Surely, joint attention skills like pointing and paying attention to another person, that's a given. Andrew's unwillingness to share that dinosaur certainly won't be good within the context of a classroom, even with a 1:1 aide, so maybe a goal about toy sharing? And then, the most obvious, communicating wants and needs, somehow. They can say some consonant sounds-perhaps they can be shaped into speech? Or, well, they certainly identified that dinosaur figure-maybe they could be taught an object exchange system? Andrew is inconsistently waving "hi", so then let's build off that and have them greet others consistently! Your purpose is to help walk Andrew through childhood developmental milestones they have missed and those that are to be expected next. I mean, in addition to reducing their disruption of class activities.

I used to think like this. I was taught this. Autistic kids for some reason miss some childhood language milestones but obtain others. And then I'd be stuck writing a report, a report that this child's parents are going to read, about how this 3, 4, 5-year-old kid displays scattered skills from the 0 to 18-month level. And I would picture the parents, reading this report about their child essentially having the development of an infant, and cringe. But goals were meant to fill in the gaps and expand. The child is using 2-3 word phrases? Then the next goal is 3-5 word phrases. The child follows 1 step directions consistently? Then let's do 2 step directions. Does the child engage in parallel play? Let's do associative and then cooperative play! The child uses their AAC device to greet and label objects and even request? Then let's get them commenting and turn-taking. And these types of goals can go on and on and on and on, even until autistic kids are teenagers. We've all seen autistic teenagers with goals relating to greeting others and labeling object and action words and following 1 step directions. Because if they can't do the basics, if they keep demonstrating scattered and inconsistent childhood language milestones, these kids are stuck with the same goals, year after year after year...

And then what the heck do I do when this child is speaking in scripted phrases, echolalia, and that type of language is not on any language milestone checklist? I mean, if we are going strictly by the number of words this child has and their initiation of language, they don't even qualify for services, despite not following directions at all. Or how about the kid that has so many words, an incredible number of words, and it is all labeling of objects? Great language testing scores, though-very impressive.

Something doesn't fit. Something is not right. These autistic kids demonstrate such a wide variety of skills, and they do not map neatly and nicely onto your childhood milestone checklist. Something is wrong. In fact, it is all wrong.

Because autistic children-autistic people-have their own trajectory of language skill mastery. And it contains many many factors.

And really, you know this. Because you know an autistic middle schooler who is forming several word sentences on their AAC device but averts all eye gaze and doesn't use any gestures. You know an autistic toddler who is speaking in intonational jibber-jabber with occasional "real" words inserted in there and can sort pictures of objects by color, shape, category, number, etc. You know an autistic school-aged kid who knows the entire history of the making of every Sonic the Hedgehog video game, comic, and movie, but still cannot answer wh- questions about a variety of topics. You know an autistic high schooler who smiles and flaps when you greet them and they hand you some piece of paper in their pocket and they laugh and jump, but when you say 'thank you' they meltdown, slamming their head against the locker.

Many current goals are setting up our autistic clients for failure. If they can mask it all up, they aren't disruptions at school. But please know that 10 years later it all comes unraveling down. By comparing autistic children's language development to neurotypical childhood language milestones, we are creating goals that are often unattainable or completely functionally inappropriate.

I am 28 years old, and I struggle to follow 3-step directions. I also have a 5-year-old autistic client whose parents and BCBA are really focusing in on 3-step directions. A lot of times I can't follow a point or another person's eye gaze intuitively and turn-taking in a conversation that has no relevance to myself is mind-numbingly boring. My 7-year-old autistic client can surely relate.

So, really, it comes down to this, and it is going to be hard to hear:
There is no way to slightly the traditional way of writing goals so they are more neurodiversity-affirming. You are going to have to chuck it. You are going to have to think in a completely different way. And it's hard. In fact, I would imagine it is probably harder for neurotypical people trying to understand the autistic way of processing things. Autistic people have been forced to do this our entire life-shift our natural way of processing to investigate the majority's way of processing, and it is still difficult.
You cannot create a neurodiversity-affirming goal by modifying "will demonstrate increased flexibility during classroom transitions" to "with classroom accommodations including visual schedule, timer, and frequent warnings, will demonstrate increased flexibility during classroom transitions." Underneath, you still have a child who feels stuck and confused and anxious, and so the goal of focusing on "flexibility" is missing it. That's a goal to make the child less of a disruption. You cannot modify "will engage in 3-4 conversational turns about a non-preferred topic with the clinician" to "will demonstrate an understanding of the clinician's perspective by engaging in 3-4 conversational turns about a topic of the clinician's choice." The goal is centered around the child's understanding of the clinician without any reciprocity, making the child essentially less of a disruption to the clinician. And you cannot modify "will consistently demonstrate comprehension of 15 object words" to "using multimodal communication including gesture, point, verbalization, or vocalization, will consistently demonstrate comprehension of 15 object words" because that is based on neurotypical childhood milestones, and the reality is that this child might never demonstrate comprehension in a way that a neurotypical SLP can recognize.

Alright, yes, I know. Another post about all the things currently wrong and no straightforward advice. That is because a blog post wouldn't really do this justice. To truly help your Autistic students, you need to know what Autistic traits are through the neurodiversity paradigm and know what constitutes a strengths-based goal. To truly shift how you think and process the Autistic perspective, you need to study the aims of the Autistic community who can look back and identify what would have truly helped us. You need to listen to Autistic clinicians and Autistic parents of Autistic children. You need to listen to Autistic children. Listen, not speak for or over, and amplify.

This is why I am super excited to announce I have created the course "Goal Writing for Autistic Students," available for ASHA and AOTA CEUs under Learn Play Thrive, LLC. In this comprehensive course, after learning the basics of the neurodiversity-paradigm, Autistic traits, and strengths-based goal writing, you will be provided 8 case studies, ranging from preschool to high school, all either fictional students or loosely based on students I've seen or colleagues have seen. Want to read more about it?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Goal Writing for Autistic Students - Rachel Dorsey: Autistic SLP, LLC

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Goal writing for autistic students is driven by a number of factors. Let's write goals using only those that truly matter.

# data[].attributes.headline
2-24-2023 Slides: Affirming Neurodiversity in Our Clinic

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2-24-2023 Slides: Affirming Neurodiversity in Our Clinic

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3-3-2023 Slides: Educating Children about Neurodiversity

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3-3-2023 Slides: Educating Children about Neurodiversity

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Young people explain autism | Ambitious about Autism

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Sesame Street: Meet Julia (Full Clip | 10 Min)

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Online courses, books, puppets and videos to 1) demystify autism and 2) to promote peer play & friendship

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Thanks for sharing this video, Ifan!

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Amazing Things Happen - by Alexander Amelines

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Empowering Pragmatic (Social) Language Goals for IEPs 

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Empowering Pragmatic (Social) Language Goals for IEPs 

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Empowering Pragmatic Language Goals for IEPs

Download free PDF copy here: https://slpndc.org/education/

#speechtherapy #EmpatheticTherapy #SLPs #AAC #SelfAdvocacy #SelfDetermination #therapygoals #SLPeeps

Perspective-taking:

After watching a video or listening to a passage with

visual support, student will:

a) Describe possible motives that a character has for certain actions and how student determined these.

b) State whether or not student would have made the same decision in that situation; and if not,

c)  State how student would have responded instead, and why.

Communication:

Student will communicate with a peer through the use of

AAC choices paired with words rather than physically touching a peer (Example: Will communicate "Sad" rather than touching a crying peer's face; “Angry” rather than pushing, “Happy” rather than grabbing).

Boundaries:

1) Student will list expected/unexpected topics(relating

to sex, money, other personal) to discuss with:

a) Family

b) Friends

c) People, including peers the student doesn’t know

d) Describe why/why not, and possible outcomes.

2) Student will describe what personal boundaries look like

when they do not conflict with their own boundaries or others: a) Student's own personal boundaries (physical and emotional) b) What other’s boundaries may look like.

Reflection:

Student will develop an understanding of the relationship between their verbalizations and their effect on others by:

a) Describing reasons for the verbalization.

b) Describing the person on the receiving end’s possible

perspectives of the student’s verbalizations.

c) Deciding whether or not she is satisfied with her

choice of communication (self-determined).

d) If she is not satisfied, describing other options she

has for communicating her feelings (including not engaging until she is self-regulated).

# data[].attributes.headline
3-10-2023 Slides: Speaking is great, but communication is better :)

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3-10-2023 Slides: Speaking is great, but communication is better :)

# data[].attributes.headline
3/17/2023 Slides: Supporting Children's Play

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3/17/2023 Slides: Supporting Children's Play

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Copy of Facilitating Children’s Play 3/17/2023