Intellectual Disabilities (or PWID

As I was searching for more helpful information I found a useful PowerPoint presentation from the AAIDD American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. It relays just how important social skills are and how we, as caretakers, can help them. It is a free webinar for registered users: Free webinar on individualized supports planning for students with intellectual disability. It is a great resource for helping someone who has Autism or Down syndrome with ID. You will find the connection on the list of national links on the left panel of this page.

In a nutshell it talks about 2 individuals who have disabilities, what their particular difficulties are and how we can help them. They speak of 3 levels of behavior: red, yellow, green, pretty self-explanatory. Red meaning very bad, yellow meaning uh oh and green meaning go for it. They give you scenarios for each social behavior, what the reactions could be and the consequence of each behavior. This is eye-opening.  My feeling is a lot of people don’t necessarily understand the importance of social behaviors and how it could make or break a work environment. Social interaction is probably the most important realm of the work environment.

All that to say this, ISP’s Individual Support Plans! What does your child (adult) need? Do they need to know the boundaries at work? What is the most effective plan? Do they need instructions and constant reviews from the job coach? What other support do they need, self-directed monitoring systems using help tools like cards? Or do they need their peers and environment setting up mentors at work. They, in this presentation, have examples of what are inappropriate behaviors, reactions, and consequences. They also give examples of what would be appropriate things to say.

What are the positive supports for the learning disabled? As mentioned before can we use things like notecards discreetly, in case support is needed?  The answer, of course, is yes. I know sometimes there is so much support out there that you don’t know where to turn. Who will help in these specifics? Research! That is one of the things we can do and hopefully there are systems in place that can work with us. I have been working for a while on flip charts and note pads for individual situations. I am thinking, after reading this article, that there may be more of a need for these than I recognized. If anyone is out there who would be interested in having something like this, please post a comment, and I will get back to you.