Takeaways from ISHACON'19. 'Social Communication Interventions for Adults with Autism'


                       This year the 'Annual convention of Speech and Hearing professionals' was held on February 8th, 9th and 10th at NIMHANS Convention center Bengaluru. Experts from the field have shared the latest developments, current research findings, and contemporary intervention strategies. I must say it's a feast of knowledge. Couple of plenary sessions were very informative about the current trends and scope of practice in Speech Pathology. One among them was Skype session about 'The Social Communication Interventions for Adults with Autism in Post secondary Education and Employment settings presented by Dr. Shubha Kashinath, Associate professor and Interim Chair, Dept of Communicative Sciences & Disorders, CAL STATE university'.

                       In the session she had stated that current statistics  show that 1 in 59 children in the United States have been diagnosed with Autism. Over the next decade, an estimated 500,000 teens (50,000 each year) will enter adulthood and age out of school based autism services. More than half of young adults with autism remain unemployed and unenrolled in higher education in the two years after high school.This is a lower rate than that of young adults in other disability categories, including learning disability, intellectual or speech - language impairment.

                      
                       Social communication demands for adults with autism include development of maintenance of friendships, ability to solve social problems, positive growth and development, academic success, increased self-confidence, increased adaptability. Social communication challenges include challenges in pragmatics and non-verbal communication and relationships. She has also explained that many individual with ASD engage in repetitive behaviors or routines, may have obsessive interests or hobbies, challenges with sudden changes in routines or activities and it impacts socialization. Additional challenges include abstract thought, social anxiety, Organization and Self-advocacy.

                   From the individual's perspective feeling lost in large classrooms, face social isolation, desire to develop social awareness or of self, longing for intimacy and desire to contribute to one's community. Individual with Autism need to develop independent living skills like organization, time management, accountability, communication, schedule planning and public transportation. 

                 She added mentioning the role of Speech Pathologist that SLP's can assist individuals with autism develop "soft skills" like engaging in social experiences, technical/ subject competence, flexibility, problem solving and good communication skills in order to succeed in the workforce. Speaker had also listed assessment tools to assess higher order receptive and expressive language functions, social cognition and conversational skills, few tips on setting the therapy goals and evidence - based intervention strategies such as structured learning (Goldstien, 1997), Priming - ABA based strategy (Bellini & Peters, 2008) etc.

                The session concluded with key notes on future research in Social skill intervention in adults with Autism in areas like addressing motivation, self determination, self advocacy, collaborating across disciplines to address social identity and social anxiety, specialized job training and foster collaborations with community agencies to support employment after graduation. The assessments and interventions are under practice in United states and would wish to have a hands on training for Speech Pathologists in India to provide service to the afflicted population.

                                              With that note signing off and would meet you in my next blog...


Resource:
- Plenary session ISHACON'19 Bengaluru Chapter

Dated: 16/02/19

Posted by: 






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who is a 'Speech Language Pathologist/Therapist?' from the horse's mouth..

Image
Dated: 29/01/18 As ISHA (Indian Speech and Hearing Association) has completed it's 50th year the" Golden  Era of ISHA "in India, it's my responsibility as a member to spread awareness about the profession. My experience as a Speech Pathologist has been great till date as it gives personal satisfaction and I learn something new every single day. On the other side I have faced many situations where I had a tough time to explain about my profession.             The first question people ask me is "What is Speech Language Pathology/ Speech Therapy?". Many people are not aware of the field and the job description. Few people have a vague idea that it is something to do with voice in children. Few people have a misconception that it is a training program and anyone can give speech therapy. I have two experiences which has left me blank. In one instance, a babysitter has approached for the job of speech therapist saying "I have been observing ...
Read more

“Joint Attention” why is it important for language learning in children?

Image
“Joint Attention” why is it important for language learning in children? Written by: Ms. Sai Harika Boppana, BASLP                    Consultant Speech pathologist                    Dhara Speech Therapy Clinic, Hosur - TN                                 To learn about something, we need to pay attention to what is being said or written. When two people attend to the same object by shifting eye gaze between the partner and object during a conversation or an interaction, then that momentum is called “Joint attention”. Joint attention also includes pointing, use of gestures and body language. In children Joint attention plays an important role in language learning.  Joint attention is developed in children around first...
Read more

What happens to children with Autism when they become adults?

Image
When a child has been diagnosed with Autism the most worrying question a parent has is "what will happen to my child after me? Will he/she be able to survive independently?” As a Speech Pathologist, I have been asked this question many times. It's my responsibility to guide parents to help their child to live independently. Based on my knowledge it is possible to train children with Autism and other developmental disabilities to find their perfect job and live independently.  Organizations today have created an ecosystem where Autistic people can be employed in a conducive environment to build an independent living. The ecosystem is getting developed and we should see more autistic associates joining the work force, but is the skill development program tuned to meet the need? Let us briefly look into how parents and professionals can work together to build a better living. The first thing we should notice is if their child is visual thinker or non-visual thin...
Read more