July 5 Thoughts

Autism is a world is a great movie!

I was quite impressed that Susie was able to spell words especially like spinich once she was given her communication device. She must have been absorbing every bit of information she was given and filing it away. On the video it was said that her mind began to wake up as she tyoed.

I feel the video did a great job of portryaing Susie and of allowing the viewer to see Susie as she sees herself as well as how others see her. They did a good job of showing that although she will always need supports for communicating, she has a lot of the same fears as any one else her age:fear of leaving the nest, peer acceptance, and college workload.

I am not sure she thought about being a mentor for others with communication difficulties, but she was a great inspiration and offered words of comfort and wisdom to those she spoke with.

It is interesting that Susie knows when her autistic behaviours are taking over. What a powerful thought for Susie to say to the doctor,"You don't have all the answers".

Just because a person is non verbal does not mean that they are not intelligent, not learning, not feeling and not able to communicate in other ways. Presuming competency is the most important message in this video. In order for students to feel success, they must feel that we believe they can.

In AT meets IPOD touch, what really resonated with me was that everyone on the team worked together, and that an integral part of using the IPOD touch was to train all the members of the team including parents, teachers, PST and EAs.

On one of the videos, Barbara Welsford says that the students using the IPOD touch looks like any other student. Looking back to Susie, this is so important. Susie liked going to the horse races because everyone looked at the horses and not at her.