Posted By Janet Lawson, MFT on April 27, 2011

By Janet Lawson, Liz McDonough, and Dan Swearingen

We are coming up on the 3rd anniversary of Autistry Studios (once known as The Barn Project). We are looking back at our journey in amazement and we are looking to our future with renewed passion. As Autistry Studios continues to grow, so does our vision. Autistry has truly become a center for learning and we are humbled by how much we are educated by our students with each workshop. We are using this knowledge to further develop our model and refine our approach. In this first of a series of mini-articles we would like to share some of these insights and what they mean for the future of Autistry.

Perhaps the biggest change in the Core Workshops over the last three years has been increasing the age range and verbal range of students in the program. Initially we focused only on high verbal high-school age students, convinced that lower verbal and older individuals would not benefit from our programs.

When we were approached by families with older children and some with children with lower verbal ability we decided to see if our program would work for them. We quickly experienced for ourselves the simple truth: regardless of one’s age the mind continues to learn. This revelation gave us so much hope – that learning does occur across the life-span. It doesn’t stop at 20. For any individual student this means long term goals can be ambitious, it is just a question of appropriate intermediate steps and time. This holds for the low verbal students as well. Over time they continue to learn, therefore over a long enough time span of appropriate challenges they too can reach impressive goals.

The second lesson we learned is that building a solid relationship with each student is essential. Each student needs to be seen and to feel heard. They need to experience themselves reflected back in a positive light. Many students come to Autistry having experienced negative social interaction at school or in recreational programs. They often do not understand why they have difficulty making friends or sustaining friendships. During the initial relationship building phase we take the time to get to know the student. In this process, we also share ourselves. It is not a one-sided interaction, but a lively and dynamic exchange. It takes time to understand someone and even longer to learn to trust them. But when we achieve mutual respect and trust the learning can really begin. That is when, as one student put it, “They really get me.” This is the very foundation of our work.

Once we build the relationship, we find that students are more likely to reveal their personal challenges without defensiveness. Our workshops teach skills but our instructors also model problem-solving, exploration, making mistakes and bouncing back from them. Each new project represents a leap into the unknown and our role is to serve as the guide to this unfamiliar territory. It is our belief that each project fosters a developmental leap, which in turn points the way to the next challenge.

We have found that it is imperative to assess the developmental level of each student, because it helps us understand how they are seeing the world and what challenges they are attempting to navigate. Chronological age and developmental age are often quite different. As parents and as service providers we often forget that a basic issue of autism is developmental delay. And it is not a global delay because another fundamental issue of ASD is uneven development; different aspects of the individual mature at different rates. One may be academically advanced yet emotionally behind. One may be physically mature yet intellectually unsophisticated. We believe that in order for a student to advance we must embrace all their different strengths and weaknesses.

Autistry has become far more than a 4-hour workshop; it is a model to support ASD teens and adults in transition. Membership in our Core Workshop Program includes the following services:

1. One on one student check-ins with licensed MFT during course of workshop
2. Developmental Assessment – a written report of our observations of the students’ skill level and emotional maturity (presented at end of semester)
3. One family meeting per semester to address transitional planning and clinical issues
4. Monthly parent support group
5. College homework support

We also offer additional counseling support to individuals, groups and families. We are available for 1:1 mentoring sessions, tutoring and consultation.

Our mission is to support teens and adults with ASD in making the transition from their current situation to secondary schooling and/or meaningful vocation. For some, this may be a shorter path, but for most of our students it is a bumpy road filled with twists and unexpected turns. And though we pride ourselves on helping our students improve executive functioning, the ability to have meaningful relationships and gain valuable vocational skills, we strive most of all to instill a sense of resiliency. It is this quality that will allow them to fall off the horse and get right back on it. It is resiliency that will keep them receptive to learning and open to taking risks despite the obstacles along the way. At Autistry, we hold the conviction that individuals, be they in their teens, 20’s, 30’s or 40’s can and will progress if they are simultaneously supported and challenged.

Our next installment will be Liz’s thoughts on a new Drama Theater Workshop program.

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This entry was posted by Janet Lawson, MFT on Wednesday, April 27th, 2011 at 8:49 am and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.