I work with developmentally disabled adults. Many of them have physical, as well as developmental disabilities. It’s a very challenging job and the pay is not very good, but I love what I do.
The group home I manage has a new resident. He is autistic. While there has been an autistic man living there for many years, he is a high functioning guy.
Our new guy is lower functioning and has created a very big challenge for us, as we have 8 other people to care for at the house. My staff is wonderful and we’ve been reaching out anywhere that we can think of to help this man have a good quality of life.
Can anyone tell me of any experience with autism they may have had, what worked for them, what hasn’t, any tips?
That’s sort of a broad topic. There are entire books and messageboards dedicated to it. Can you narrow it down? What specific issues are you facing with him?
Well I can give you a lot of resources relating to autism. I can also let you know just like 2 “normal” folks are different so are any 2 autistic people. I’ve heard a lot and read alot since my daughter was diagnosed a few years back. But I do know one fundamental is treating them like a human because behind the inability to communicate the wants and needs, remains a loving caring individual.
I will have a load of links to autism resources tomorrow. I have personally read very little on the adult side for now but I do have a buttload of reading material devoted to that age category.
ETA: I would give them to you now, but my son is playing CoD4 on the computer all that is on. And another thing I wanted to add, thank you for caring enough to ask some questions. You residents are very lucky.
One of our greatest challenges is a lack of communication. He does speak, but is non-verbal, he repeats what is said to him, but does not appear to verbally express his own wants or needs. He will say things and if you attempt to give him what you think he asked for, he will push it away and say “no”.
There are times that he will try to run away, which we cannot allow him to do for safety reasons. It appears that noise, light and many other things are upsetting to him, but with so many other residents, it is nearly impossible to avoid those things.
We’ve been attempting to make some sort of communication board for him, but this seems to frustrate him. In all honesty, we really do not know what he does understand and cannot understand.
He is diagonosed with other problems also and there are times that I look at him and feel so bad that I don’t know how to help him. I cannot imagine what it is like to live in a world where you are unable to communicate your thoughts, feelings, needs or wants to anyone.
He sounds similar to my sister, who’s in her early 20s. She often has trouble putting into words what she wants. Our main form of communication with her, incidentally, is jokes. She loves to tell you something absurd and then wait for your response, then she laughs herself silly. One type of joke she likes is a sort of mocking of disciplinary commands she commonly receives, such as “You had a bad day” or “No screaming”. She’ll goad you into playfully disciplining her and then laugh hysterically. Another type of joke she likes is discussing things that are the opposite in real life or just absurd, like talking about how a skinny person is really fat, or how much hair a particular bald person has.
I tend to think that no matter how mentally disabled a person is, there’s always some sense of humor in there. Find out what makes him laugh and go with that.
We have a “Jaelyn” corner, where she goes when she is getting overstimulated and/or needs stimulation. Quiet and dark if she wants it, or she pulls a string which turns on a disco ball light. It has an exercise ball, a couple stuffed animals, weighted blankets and other items she drags in. This was built with a therapists input, and designed for her specific needs. She uses it a lot! When she needs to calm down she has started going there herself. And when she needs some stimuli she goes in there as well. She knows what she wants, sadly we don’t so our goal is trying to make it easier for her to accomplish her needs. It’s a cat and mouse game.
We are using ASL for communication, started on PECS and shortly will be receiving a DynaVox communication device since she just had her assessment recommending one.
Our daughter doesn’t have an aversion to most fabric, but many do. So pay attention to his blankets and things if you have to provide them. Touch is sometimes a big no no and other times it is okay, you will have to judge for yourself with this man. In my own case, I can actually “see” in my daughters eyes when she is with us, and when she is stuck inside herself. And judging those times is of importance in our case and maybe in yours.
Do adults qualify for state-funded therapy like the kids do? If so, maybe a sensory integration therapistwould have some helpful suggestions for making it less overwhelming for him. I know that sensory diets helped the boys I worked with, but I don’t know if it’s too late to make much of a difference with an adult.
Since he’s an adult, he must have been somewhere else before this. Is there any way to speak to his old caretakers to find out more about him?
I am an ABA therapist who works with autistic children. Unfortunately, I can’t really give too many suggestions without more information. It sounds like his communication difficulties need to be dealt with through some intensive training, which no one in your facility is equipped to provide. Just getting an autistic person to learn the use of “yes” and “no” can take months of one-on-one training in my experience.
Sorry to be so negative! I think the best thing for him would be a speech or ABA therapist (ABA would be my recommendation, heh), but if your group home is basically a holding pen for disabled adults, it doesn’t sound like that would be doable.
I’ve done a little bit of ABA, but it’s been years. I was under the impression that it more effective the earlier it was begun. Do you think it would be effective for an adult? I’ve never heard of adult ABA, but then I don’t work with adults either.
Also…big tip of my hat to you. ABA is freaking hard. I couldn’t do it. Heck, I fled psychiatry in general as soon as I could. I applaud you for being able to do that work.
Yes, I think like all forms of learning it is more effective the earlier it is begun. But like learning any other skill, it’s not impossible once you get older. I think it would be effective for an adult. It seems like that this gentleman, because of his age, has never had any sort of behavior therapy, so who knows how easily he might take to it?
The idea that it is more effective goes back to Lovas’s work. The ABA they were doing were very specific, and it had very specific goals, and his results showed a better, result given the particular training and goals, the sooner it started. It still works with lots of populations. Another source of confusion is that the autism community hs sort of coopted the term ABA, and those exposed to it within that context are often unaware that ABA is goes beyond autism treatment.
For an adult you’d have different treatment goals and might use different techniques, but it would probably “work,” at least in some cases.