As you may know I recently interviewed Dr. Stephen Shore – who is an incredibly knowledgeable guy on all things ASD.

He has the fairly unique perspective of being an adult on the autistic spectrum, an international advocate and speaker on ASD, published author, and Assistant Professor of Special Needs Education at Adelphi University in New York.

And as well as all of that he is a very engaging and entertaining guy to talk to.

In his interview he gave me tons of great tips for parents, and personal insights from being both a child and an adult on the autistic spectrum.

His own personal story is that at a very young age he was diagnosed with “Atypical development with strong autistic tendencies”.

At the time he was felt to be “too sick” to be living at home, and it was recommended that he would need to be placed in an institution.

However his parents put him through what he described as “an early intervention home treatment program” when such programs did not really exist. They just did what they thought was right at the time.

This helped Stephen to develop hugely, and then his parents persuaded the local school to take him on, but a year late. And so he then joined the education system.

He worked his way through the education system, culminating in the hugely impressive achievement of gaining a doctorate at Boston University.

And has been involved in advocacy, speaking, writing and education ever since.

One really great tip that he shared with me was a 4 step approach for explaining an Aspergers diagnosis to your child;

1.Becoming aware of strengths – This involves chatting with your child about his or her strengths. This sets up a positive slant to the whole process.

2.Identify strengths and challenges –  This step involves making a list of strengths and challenges. Where possible you need to find a strength to help accommodate for challenges (eg if a child struggles with hand writing, they may be able to type on a computer much quicker).

3.Non-judgmental comparison – In this section there is discussion about other people’s strengths and needs. These can include family members and a few famous people.  Stephen will often mention Bill Gates who it is rumoured to be on the autistic spectrum. However this is generally a quick mention and not discussed in huge depth – to avoid the person feeling that they have to live up to this hugely successful person.

4. Introducing the diagnosis of Aspergers – Steven will then go on to  talk about scientists and doctors who study peoples’ characteristics.  Then he will say that the name for a particular set of characteristics is Aspergers. And use this as a way to introduce the diagnosis to the individual.

I really like the way that Stephen puts this 4 step approach together, and the fact that it is underpinned by his own personal experiences, and that he has also used it with other people to tell them about their diagnosis.
 
This was just one little idea in many that Stephen passed to me, and I hope it is helpful to you.

The whole interview will become available (probably next month) for you to listen to; but listen out for more on that.

Stephen also has some great videos available on the internet and one where he discusses his 4 step approach in more detail can be seen at:

http://www.parentingaspergerscommunity.com/public/Aspergers_Video__Stephen_Shore__Should_you_tell_your_child_about_hisher_autism_diagnosis.cfm

Thanks for reading,

Dave Angel