Did you know that April is Autism Awareness Month? This month, the team at Functional Living Skills would like to challenge you to not only spread awareness but also encourage acceptance. If you have checked out our website or you’ve been following along in our blogs, you know that our highest priority is to offer autism resources that help those with autism spectrum disorder to find a pathway to independence.
That’s why in today’s post, in honor of Autism Awareness Month, we’d like to share some facts that we think are important. We’ll also be highlighting the AFLS (Assessment of Functional Living Skills) and elaborating on what it can offer to parents of children with autism. Keep reading to learn more.
This Week’s Highlight: The Forgotten History of Autism
Chances are that you’ve heard of TED Talks. There are a number of them available on a wide variety of topics ranging from creativity to humor to technology to global issues. In other words, they cover pretty much everything. Thankfully, there are a handful of these talks that cover the subject of autism.
In one such TED Talk, Wired contributing editor Steve Silberman talks about the forgotten history of autism. Silberman discusses the rise of autism over the past two decades. In 1975, 1 in 5000 kids were diagnosed with autism. In 2009, that number rose to 1 in 110. He also highlights the fact that in the past twenty years, there has been a 600% increase in prevalence.
His talk covers a wide variety of topics, ranging from the debunked link between vaccines and autism as well as the 1944 study by Austrian doctor Hans Asperger. The conclusion of the latter? “Because [Asperger’s paper] was buried in time, autism has been shrouded in misunderstanding ever since.” Silberman goes on to tell the story of a family who was interested in learning more about the prevalence of autism in the general population. Their research led them to Asperger’s forgotten paper which proved to be much more helpful than another author’s paper that had gained prevalence despite its faulty and incomplete findings.
Silberman’s talk is wide-ranging and offers a lot of helpful insight into ASD. We highly recommend giving it a listen.
Other helpful Ted Talks: Autism — what we know (and what we don’t know yet), How autism freed me to be myself, A new way to diagnose autism, and To understand autism, don’t look away.
The Importance of Checklists
Functional Living Skills has developed a comprehensive program to navigate successful learning and teaching. With practical, easy-to-understand methods, you can help provide a pathway to independence for people with autism.
Our curriculum is broken down into a number of different protocols. These provide parents, educators, caregivers, and others with a way to measure progress in certain areas. Because everyone is different, some people will need help in one area, but be an expert in others. The Assessment of Functional Living Skills allows you to tailor an approach and keep track of the results. We believe that the checklists available in our protocols represent an ideal solution for identifying goals and objectives while addressing the learner’s unique needs.
About the AFLS Protocols
As we mentioned above, we have broken down the AFLS into six protocols covering the following skills: basic living skills, home skills, community participation skills, school skills, vocational skills, and independent living skills.
At the end of the day, the goal is to create a successful program that allows people with ASD to see positive results very quickly. A measurable, trackable protocol such as the ones mentioned above allows you to do just this. Each AFLS protocol is able to be customized and is perfect for children, adolescents, and adults alike. You can even share it with others in your life; for example, if you’re a parent and you purchase one of our protocols, you can pass it along to teachers or caregivers to ensure that everyone is on the same page.
You can use the AFLS any time, anywhere, and it is written in non-technical language, ensuring that anyone can gain the full benefits of using it without requiring any specific type of training. The AFLS Guide even provides step-by-step instructions with examples and methods, ensuring that the system is easy for everyone involved. Affordable and customizable, we believe that it’s one of the best autism resources currently available.
The authors of the AFLS spent years developing these protocols, narrowing down many different skills into six unique subsets. Once they cultivated many skills into six protocols, they set out to create the pathway for successful outcomes for learners from all backgrounds. Learn more about the authors and their research here.
Interested in learning more about the assessment protocols from Functional Living Skills? Click here to take a look at each protocol and then feel free to explore the rest of our website for information about our training and speaking seminars, success stories, and more.
Stay Tuned For More
Because April is Autism Awareness Month, we’ll be highlighting more helpful autism resources, answering frequently asked questions, sharing articles and videos that we find helpful, and delving deeper into the AFLS and what you can expect from each protocol. Regardless of who you are or what your connection to autism is, we hope that you’ll find these posts incredibly helpful.
Have questions about our autism resources? The Functional Living Skills team would love to hear from you, so don’t hesitate to contact us today.
