At Functional Living Skills, our goal is to foster a pathway to independence for people with ASD. We created the Assessment of Functional Living Skills (also known as the AFLS) to help learners gain the skills and confidence they need to push forward in their daily lives. Our Assessment Protocols offer a number of autism life skills along with checklists to measure progress, and the goal is to foster independent outcomes.
Because April is Autism Awareness Month, we thought it would be appropriate to share a few great TED Talks that offer their own unique takes on what life is like for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. We’ll be breaking them down below, so keep reading to learn more!
Be Sure to Check Out These Great TED Talks
If you’re not familiar with TED Talks, they’re absolutely worth looking into. Their website notes that they are “a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks” that are 18 minutes long, or less. They also mention that it is their goal to “welcome people from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper understanding of the world,” and that’s an idea that we can get behind! So without further ado, here are a few of our favorite TED Talks about autism.
How autism freed me to be myself, by Rosie King
Rosie’s talk is wonderful because it shares some unique insight into what it’s like to be autistic. She discusses the type of judgments that people tend to pass on those with autism as well as the differences between different people who have autism. For example, she mentions that her siblings are also autistic, but they’re non-speaking. Rosie, on the other hand, has a very vivid imagination and absolutely loves talking.
To end her talk, Rosie poses a great question: “If we can’t get inside the person’s mind, no matter if they’re autistic or not, instead of punishing anything that strays from normal, why not celebrate uniqueness and cheer every time someone unleashes their imagination?”
Autism — what we know (and what we don’t know yet), by Wendy Chung
In Wendy’s TED Talk, she highlights an important fact that often gets overlooks: that although we have made a number of wonderful discoveries and come to some important realizations about autism, we are still learning more about it every day. She continues by noting the rise in instances of autism over the past couple of decades and shares some insight into whether or not the rates are rising or whether we’ve just gotten better at diagnosing autism.
A talk that’s perfect for offering some unique insight into the science behind autism, Wendy concludes that “Individuals with autism, some of them are wired a little bit differently [and] learn in a different way. They absorb their surroundings in a different way, and we need to be able to educate them in a way that serves them best.”
What I’ve learned from my autistic brothers, by Faith Jegede Cole
Faith’s discussion is a great one. She starts by introducing her brothers, sharing a bit about who they are and what makes them unique; she also notes that although she thinks they’re the greatest people in the world, they are often misunderstood by those around them. Faith had a realization: “But what lifted my heart and strengthened my soul was that even though this was the case, although they were not seen as ordinary, this could only mean one thing: that they were extraordinary — autistic and extraordinary.”
It’s a thoughtful and personal discussion that we think our readers will appreciate. Her final takeaway is one we wholeheartedly agree with — that “the pursuit of normality is the ultimate sacrifice of potential.”
The AFLS Provides Comprehensive Autism Life Skills
The Autism Society has a goal for Autism Awareness Month: to embrace a new perspective. That is something that we can get behind, and that we believe the videos we shared above seek to do. After all, realigning your perspective from time to time is both healthy and helpful.
If you’re a parent, caregiver, or teacher to a person with autism, we believe that the Assessment of Functional Living Skills is the perfect way to identify the functional skills that are present in everyday life. With Assessment Protocols including Basic Living Skills, Home Skills, Community Participation Skills, School Skills, Vocational Skills, and Independent Living Skills, the AFLS covers every area of a learner’s daily life.
The AFLS Guide brings it all together, offering the ability to analyze, assess, and offer prompts in each of the Protocols, allowing you to tailor an approach that suits your specific needs. You can utilize the AFLS any time, anywhere, ensuring that your learner has all of the tools necessary to become independent. Learn more about Functional Living Skills, and feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.
