January 28, 2015 at 2:17 p.m.
Autism presentation at JWMS draws a crowd
Autism presentation at JWMS draws a crowd
By Kayla Thomason-
Presenter Glenis Benson said her goal was to get the audience to see the world through the eyes of an autistic person.
Benson has a doctorate in educational psychology and works as an autism spectrum disorder and behavior consultant.
"I want (people) to understand that persons with autism spectrum disorders struggle with understanding language," Benson said. "Oftentimes we paint children and individuals with autism spectrum disorders with a brush that they are non-compliant."
Benson argued that people with autism are the most compliant population as long as they understand what is being asked of them.
Autism often presents itself through difficulty with both receptive and expressive communication, she said.
"Lots of the people with autism spectrum disorders cannot well make requests and cannot well make protests and by protest I mean like a rejection: 'No. I don't want that,' 'I don't like that,' 'Please stop touching me' and we tend not to teach them how to protest in a conventional fashion," Benson said.
Individuals with autism protest by showing aggression, shutting down, or turning their back on a person or a situation.
"We need to acknowledge that 'Oh, that looks like a protest, that looks like he's trying to tell me 'I don't want that, I don't like that' so we have to acknowledge that and go 'That's OK for him to protest that,'" Benson said. "We just have to give him a better way to conduct that protest."
She said punishing people with autism, putting them in time out, taking things away, and holding them accountable is "wrong and it doesn't work."
"(The biggest misconception about autism is) primarily it's the non-compliance, that we have to break them of something. Whereas I think we have to treat people with autism spectrum disorders with compassion and kindness because you are going to get a lot further with that, I would argue," Benson said.
People with autism understand words differently than others.
"If they can't make a picture of a word that we use they will struggle to understand that word," Benson said.
For example, people with autism can picture an object when they hear the word phone or bottle, but abstract words such as later or wait cause confusion.
"So somebody with an autism spectrum disorder will struggle to understand those words," Benson said. "You have to understand that they are not understanding it the way that we think they are."
Benson also stressed that people with autism spectrum disorder are often incredibly literal.
She has worked with an individual who, when told to clean up, thinks he or she is being asked to clean the ceiling.
"We can say 'take a seat,' and they might go 'Where do you want me to take it?'" Benson said.
People with autism may have a large vocabulary, but they don't always know the meaning of the words they say.
Benson said a lot of individuals with autism speak very well, but they don't understand as well as they speak.
Approximately 80 percent of people with autism spectrum disorders present with echolalia - echoing back what you've heard, according to Benson.
Heidi Lehman, a mother of two children with autism, found the lecture very instructive.
"The bit about teaching my son how to ask to go to the bathroom, that was new, understanding that time is an abstract idea for kids," she said.
She is excited to implement the new techniques at home.
"When a behavior comes up with a child with autism their behavior is not purposeful, they're not trying to act out, they're not trying to ruin your day," Lehman said. "To reiterate what (Benson) said they would do better if they could but they simply just cannot."
John King attended the presentation to learn more about how to help his 3-year-old autistic son.
"(My son is) working with some of the teachers here and they recommended this (presentation)," King said. "It's very informative."
Some key points he took from the presentation were that there is widespread misunderstanding of what autism is and how to deal with it.
"It's good to get community awareness because (those with autism) are some of the most misunderstood people," he said.
King was happy to learn about some of the scenarios he may encounter in the future.
"It's really neat that we can have a speaker like this in Rhinelander," King said.
Maggie Peterson, director of pupil services with the school district, enjoyed listening to Benson again.
Peterson said she always learns something new when Benson speaks.
"I just think that she does such a nice job of creating a concrete basic understanding of autism and what that might look like and what might be going on in somebody's head, but it's hard for them to communicate what that is," Peterson said.
Through past interactions with Benson the school has taken steps to better provide for students on the spectrum.
"Being able to work with the day care providers or the school district and be on the same team (helps a lot) because we've got that common knowledge and we've learned some things that we can do to help make the kids' lives better and school more successful," she said.
Some of the changes the school has implemented include switching some of the classroom lighting to full-spectrum lighting, which has a different quality of light and doesn't make noise. Those with autism can see the flickering of certain lights and hear the humming.
The school also has a calming room which features several sensory activities. Light fixtures are covered with the traditional flat pannels that can be changed to blue with clouds, or fabric that has magnets on the ends and can be connected to the frame to filter the light.
"When we did our calming rooms we did some research in what's calming to just people in general, we weren't looking specifically for colors that were calming to people on the spectrum," Peterson said.
She said they chose light green, light blue and 'the color of melted ice cream.'
"I'm just very thankful that (Benson) is willing to be here and help us continue to learn more," she said.
Kayla Breese may be reached at [email protected].
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