[nabs-l] Experience working with youth with high-functioning intellectual disabilities and autism and going on outings with them as a totally blind individual

[Kaiti Shelton]

Hi Amanda,

I'm seeing this probably after you've had your interview, but if you
got the job, here are some strategies I use in my work with kids,
mostly those who have Down Syndrome or are on the Autism spectrum.

Repetition, repetition, repetition.  I can't stress how important it
is for these kids to rehearse again and again how to do things until
they grasp the skill or are not confused anymore.  Acting out social
situations ahead of time is a great way to reinforce good habits.
Make up scenarios and have the kids play different roles, perhaps.
E.G, kids can take turns acting out a scene in a restaurant where one
kid orders food from a casheer, the casheer takes the order, etc.  You
can also provide prompts to the kids verbally in case they forget.  I
don't know the ages of the kids you might be working with, but asking
them "What do we say?," can sometimes jog the memory from the
repetitious rehearsals.  Changing that phrase slightly to make it age
appropriate might be in order if the kids are not really young like
the ones I'm currently working are, as you don't want to be
condescending to them or talking to a 12 year old like they're 5 of
course.

Another thing that could help is to rehearse using scenarios, but have
the other kids who aren't playing the customer and casheer, or any
other person involved watch and comment.  Then those who watched the
situation can give comments on what good things they saw, and what
they think could be improved.  It reinforces using all three learning
modalities because each child would be able to experience being in the
social situation as well as hear and see it when they are watching
others.

HTH.

On 3/29/17, Justin Williams via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Good luck on the interview.
> I sure hope you get that.
> How many children will you be responsible for?  Is this an internship, or a
> job?
> If it's an internship, they probably shouldn't have you out there on your
> own.  If it's too many people, they you should have some help.  You
> shouldn't have bu so many per person, clients to a professional anyways.
> I'm
> just giving you food for thought.
> Justin
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NABS-L [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Amanda Cape
> via
> NABS-L
> Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2017 9:39 PM
> To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> Cc: Amanda Cape <cape.amanda at gmail.com>
> Subject: [nabs-l] Experience working with youth with high-functioning
> intellectual disabilities and autism and going on outings with them as a
> totally blind individual
>
> Hi everyone,
> I am going for an interview tomorrow afternoon for a youth worker position
> for a social skills program for youth ages 12-17 to work on their social
> skills and improve their confidence. I believe that one of the activities
> done by the youth workers is to take the group on outings to practice their
> social skills. Has anyone done this before and what strategies did you use?
> I am concerned about this task and feel that the employer might want to
> know
> how I would manage this type of task. Any advice would be greatly
> appreciated.
> Thanks,
> Amanda
>
> Amanda
>
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-- 
Kaiti Shelton