ADHD and ASD as evolution of the human animal

I've recently been thinking about autism and ADHD and the related symptoms. And I mean this with some serious inquiry, but also with some brevity -- what if these different neuro-biological conditions are an evolutionary step?

What if my attention deficit slows an overwhelming world down in some aspects, for me to be able to process other aspects?

What of my hyperactivity, actually means hyperproductivity?

I suppose the question then becomes, how does this contribute to the actual promulgation of our species? And it may not... But in an increasingly intellectual (not hunting and gathering, or building skyscrapers) society, maybe the symptoms related to ASD and/or ADHD are meant to make us more fit to survive in a world where we don't need to hunt and gather. Where there is PeaPod to deliver your groceries (and I mean your... I can't afford to have groceries delivered). Where advantageous, industrial pursuits are all but unnecessary in an over-developed world that actually needs more natural, green spaces.

I wonder if this isn't why more and more individuals with ADHD or autism are engaged more in the realm of technology and creativity. We can sometimes already be closed off in our own world, so why bother leaving it when we can still contribute, enhance, and thrive? And holy crap, others like it, too, and maybe pay?... Now we are really primed for survival.

I know the basic premise of all this may sound asinine, but I think if you feel that way you A) Don't understand the challenges and gifts of having these diagnoses, and; B) may not really understand evolution. Funny thing is this, for whatever most understand about evolution -- selection by consequences and survival of the fittest (i.e., Darwinian evolution) -- evolution happens as quickly as it does slowly. In fact, when evolution really does occur, it's when the environment and other species compensates for newly selected traits (e.g. Google looking for individuals with Aspergers).

Crazy stuff... What do you think?

#DearPrivateEvents

Proposing a new hashtag, titled #DearPrivateEvents. It's like your personal diary of private events, that we can call as they are.

No thinking, no minds -- no thoughts, no consciousness.

#DearPrivateEvents, thank your environment.

Community Outings

At times, community outings can be daunting for both parent and child alike; however, shaping up success on community outings can help with family cohesion and become increasingly more enjoyable for all involved. Below is some helpful advice on how to make community outings fun and beneficial.

1)      Start small and simple. For example, if you want to go to the grocery store, and the store is typically difficult for your child, only go for a few things
2)      When running errands, bring a list. Don’t just walk around and peruse. Go with explicit purpose
3)      Have an exit plan. Know that if something goes awry, how you’re going to get yourself and child out of the store as easily as possible
4)      Know that if your child has some difficulty with hearing “No,” or “We need to wait,” to plan for those instances
5)      Remember that the goal is for the child to learn. Don’t rush around, make it a meaningful learning experience
6)      Be prepared for people to stare, and maybe even comment to you or your child about their beahavior. In this same instance, don’t be hyper-critical of yourself or the on-lookers. Keep focused on what needs to be learned
7)      Visit the same places often in the beginning. Don’t expect that a successful trip to the small, neighborhood grocery store means it’s time to tackle a large box store. Wait until you feel that they’ve acquired the ability to use their new skills in other environments
8)      Don’t bring other children or siblings in the beginning. Focus on yourself and the child.
9)      Use expectation and preview statements, and use them frequently. For instance, when you pull into the parking lot, stating “OK, we are going into the grocery store for bread, milk, and eggs. Remember to have an inside voice, not to run, and to keep your hands to yourself.”

I hope that this list of advice is helpful. Keeping these things in mind, and remaining calm and focused can make community outings fun, functional, and successful. Good luck!

New podcast on ABA

My most recent interview with special educator and national inclusion expert Tim Villegas (www.thinkinclusive.us) on applied behavior analysis, special education, and what does it all mean?

Enjoy!


http://www.thinkinclusive.us/think-inclusive-podcast-004-what-does-aba-really-mean-with-joshua-hyfler/

An Exercise in Stimming

I was just thinking about Autism Awareness Day/Month/Lifetime, my AD/HD, and what we have decidedly called typical. I think this may be an interesting exercise in not only understanding the potential functions of stimming (stereotypys) but also why they're not so atypical.

1) Sit down and define stimming
2) Remain seated and operationally define any stimming behavior that comes to mind (don't get too specific -- don't need to know "close fingers into a fist, extend arm to 180 degrees, lift arm upwards at 3 MPH, and pull arm down from the shoulder with 40 Newtons of force = fist pump)
3) Make a list of potential stimming behaviors you engage in
4) Take a frequency count of how many times in a day you engage in stimming behavior

Also, keep in mind stimming as it relates to automatic functions (feels awesome AND follows something really cool I did that others recognize and mediate socially), is maladaptive (e.g., I sometimes hum when ice pellets come barreling down onto my face during a Chicago winter, knowing full well this humming won't remove the aversive stimuli), and is also adaptive (forget about getting up and walking around after sitting for a long period of time. How often do you belt out the chorus of a song "out of the blue?").

Again, track all of this. Does this stuff really matter? How badly is it impacting your life? Are you a stim-o-holic!? If so, you don't need help. You need acceptance. But you can't provide acceptance if you are at the same time judgmental.

#GotStim?MeToo

Fostering Self-Advocacy

     Self-advocacy is the ability for an individual to make their needs and strengths known so that they can not only be accommodated, but be successful in getting supports across environments. Many times, children with needs are left out of the decision making process as it relates not only to their education, but to their lives in general. This, however, does not need to be the case. If we educate our children to be successful, empowered self-advocates, we can create resilient and successful adults.

     Self-advocacy begins with self-determination. Self-determination is the idea that, as a person, one can identify and achieve their goals. This is not something that can be taught in one sitting, or even multiple sittings. It develops over time as more choice and control over one’s life is afforded to them. Additionally, when speaking of choice, it is meant real, not forced, choice. It is not selecting from 2, adult provided options, it is of all of the things potentially available to you, which one do you really want? Involving students in their IEPs, 504, and transition planning can be a key to helping empower students to be self-determined. 

     In line with developing self-determination comes a set of prerequisite skills. We need to teach how to identify and set goals, and the necessary problem solving skills to attain that goal. We can’t just assume that we provide choice and the learner will automatically be able to identify the best choices that will lead to larger goals. Again, this development happens over time with mentoring and oversight. 

     Another key concept to fostering self-advocacy is in developing self-awareness. Self-awareness is the ability to identify and express strengths, needs, and preference. Teaching all children about various disabilities, different accommodations available, and how people with different skills still have many strengths can help breed self-aware and genuinely empathetic individuals.

     Self-advocacy also requires a certain amount of leadership prowess. Empowering all students to be aware that they can all assume leadership roles in their lives, homes, and schools is a very important consideration. When you always have those one or two strong leaders taking the reins, other students may feel less self-worth, that they don’t have a loud enough voice, or resentment.  The level of competitiveness (especially in today’s classrooms) is high. It is not uncommon for competition to be present, whether welcomed or not, in many of the day-to-day roles children may assume. Taking time to plan for all children to take charge and be leaders from time to time can go a long way towards developing self-advocacy. Additionally, having children learn to share leadership roles can help with relationship building.

One great tool for fostering leadership and self-advocacy is called I-PLAN. The acronym stands for:

1)      Inventory your strengths, areas to improve, goals, needed accommodations and choices for learning

2)      Provide your inventory information

3)      Listen and respond

4)      Ask questions

5)      Name your goals (Van Reusen & Bos, 1994).

     This is a great strategy for promoting participation (and leadership) in the various meetings and decision making processes that impact a child’s educational and day-to-day activities.

It probably goes without saying that self-esteem is going to be a key factor to developing self-advocacy. Even as adults, if our self-esteem is low, we are less likely to express our needs and wants that can help facilitate meeting our goals. This also ties into whether or not a child feels effective. If a child doesn’t think they have self-worth, and that they would be ineffective in expressing what they need, then the potential for them expressing it in an active and meaningful way is diminished. Providing small opportunities for success, and recognizing those successes, is the first step in promoting self-esteem. Of course we want self-esteem to develop naturally over time, but providing contrived situations at the start can help this natural development occur faster. Lastly, helping children identify WHY they are successful is going to promote their positive self-worth and positive attributions to their successes and identify what needs to be done differently next time if they are unsuccessful. 

     One last key strategy is providing appropriate, positive role models. Modeling is how all individuals learn a host of skills and abilities. For a very watered-down example, we aren’t born opening doors. We see someone do it, we try it, it works, and we keep opening doors thereafter. Providing positive mentors and role models who can take the time to help teach, demonstrate, and promote self-advocacy can go a long way in promoting the natural development of successful, empowered self-advocates. 

     As we’ve seen, self-advocacy is not only a key consideration for all people, but is made up of many other skill sets. Fostering these skills, ideas about self-worth and attribution, and allowing children to make choices that lead them to success is not going to happen overnight; however, the sooner we start teaching and promoting self-advocacy, the better quality of life we can ensure.

Reference

Van Reusen, A.K., Bos, C.S. (1994). Facilitating student participation in individualized education programs through motivation strategy instruction. Exceptional Children, 60, 466-475.

Reinforcement & Punishment for (not of) Parents

Of the many considerations that behavior analysts keep in mind, one important consideration is a schedule of reinforcement and punishment. While, generally, these concepts can seem overwhelming, we are going to break them down into manageable parts. A few notes to begin before we get into all of this is that we reinforce behavior, NOT people. And we do not know if something is reinforcing or punishing until we see an increase or decrease in the behavior.
Vocabulary:
Antecedent – what happens before the behavior
Behavior – anything observable that an individual does
Consequence – what follows the behavior
Reinforcement – process of increasing the rate of response (usually frequency and/or intensity)
Punishment – process of decreasing the rate of response (usually frequency and/or intensity)
Positive – The introduction of a stimulus
Negative – The removal of a stimulus
Here is a nice little visual to help keep the basic principles straight.  You can also download the visual by itself here.

Reinforcement	Increase in the probability of a behavior occurring again under similar conditions
Punishment	Decrease in the probability of a behavior occurring again under similar conditions
Positive                                    +	Introduction of a stimulus
Negative                                   –	Removal of a stimulus

Let’s take a look at an example of positive reinforcement. When James asks for a toy, you give him a toy. If that toy has a reinforcing property, he will ask for the toy again when he wants it. If that toy does not have a reinforcing quality, he will not ask for it again. To break it down, James wanting a toy is the antecedent.  James requesting a toy is his behavior (he moves his mouth, produces sounds that are a request for something), you giving him a toy is the consequence. Now, we cannot know for sure if we have reinforced his behavior, because we need to wait and see, if I take the toy, will he ask for it again. If so, we can safely say that we have positively (introducing the toy) reinforced (increased the probability of him requesting the toy again) his behavior.
Let’s take a look at another example. James is sitting at his desk and he throws his materials on the ground, he then is not required to complete the task. When you present the materials again, he again pushes them off the desk and is again not required to complete the task. Any thoughts on this? If you’re thinking negative reinforcement, you’ve got it! The antecedent is the presentation of a demand (to complete his work). The behavior is him pushing the materials off the desk, and the consequence is getting out of the task. When he does it again, we know that the consequence of getting out of the task is negatively (removal of the materials) reinforcing (increase in James pushing materials). Therefore, in the future, when James does not want to complete a task, he may throw the materials – he has learned that engaging in this behavior in the past has resulted in him not being required to finish.
Now, for some punishment! To keep it basic, you and I are having a conversation, and I want it to end, and I rudely turn away from you, and you stop talking. My behavior might punish (cause a decrease) in you wanting to speak to me again. So, our antecedent is a conversation I am not too thrilled with, my behavior is turning away, and the consequence is I get out of the conversation. By my behavior of turning away rudely, I have decreased the probability of you engaging in conversation with me again. Therefore, I have positively punished our conversing.
Negative punishment is a little easier to follow. If I remove James’ toys because he is throwing them, I am hoping that he will not throw them again in the future. Therefore, while the antecedent for throwing may be unclear, I am still taking his behavior of throwing and giving it a consequence, removal of the toys. If, in the future, he does not throw his toys again under similar conditions, I have negatively (removed) punished (decreased throwing) his throwing behavior.
In summary, understanding how behavior is reinforced or punished is going to tell us a great deal about how they may behave in the future under similar conditions. Behavior analysts look at what occurs before a behavior (the antecedent), but more emphasis is placed on what happens after a behavior (the consequence) as science has proven that schedules of reinforcement and punishment has a predictive value on future behavior.
We know that this can all be a little confusing, so take some time to think through some other examples as they come up.