All right.
Well, welcome back everyone.
I appreciate your your brevity with your lunch break today and certainly feel free to grab anything.
You might need during this afternoon's presentations as well.
It's nice to see everyone dropping back into the room here.
We're in homestretch the last couple of sessions, but I was leave The Best For Last and there are last couple of sessions.
I know are going to be so informative valuable to you.
I was joking with the group here before everyone started to come in that I had to arm wrestle my aie committee to be able to introduce our next presenter and fortunately I won probably would not have been the case if I actually had arm wrestled them.
They're pretty tough.
But anyway it is it's an absolute pleasure for me and a highlight to be able to introduce our next presenter.
You all have Shane's bio from the information that was sent out so I'm actually not going to read that to you, but I am just going to share a little bit of information with you about the Shane that I know I had the privilege.
Of meeting Shane and his family when Shane was in grade three.
So this is a day or two ago and certainly dating me and I was thinking about Dr. LeBlanc's quote from this morning when I was thinking head to this session this afternoon, and she said that we have the privilege to work for some period of time with the children and families we support and it was certainly my privilege to have the opportunity to spend time with Shane at his school on and off in my various roles for the better part is six years.
And those of you who know me have probably heard me say over time that I have learned so much more from the Learners and the families that I've supported over the years, then they have ever will learn from me or will ever learn from me and that certainly applies to Shane and his family hundred times over when I think about my, you know, my career and professional practice over the last number of years, probably since 2005 when I met Shane, I don't think there's been more than a handful of days that I haven't.
About and used something that Shane and his family taught me and for that I am eternally grateful.
Now I'm gonna go out on a bit of a limb and predict that Shane will probably highlight that we didn't always get it right as a school when we were supporting him back when he was in elementary and at middle school and high school and in spite of his best efforts.
I still have not learned Java or C++, but I've made my peace with that, but I am absolutely humbled and thrilled to be able to continue to learn from Shane today and it is my utmost pleasure to be able to present to you Shane Pelletier.
So Shane you're on.
Thank you.
Shelly.
It was a very great introduction.
I honestly wasn't expecting that long of an introduction, but I appreciate it.
Just let me share my screen right quick and get set up.
Okay.
So hi.
I'm autism.
If there's one thing I hope you take away from this whole presentation.
It's that I don't represent every person with autism.
I am just one person with one experience.
And I hope that sharing that experience can help other people like me and help Educators help other people like me.
So with that brief disclaimer out of the way.
Hi, I'm Shane.
And this is my autism.
I'd like to start by talking a little bit about the me and the present or the near present and then I will talk about the media in the past.
So I graduated with honors from high school in 2015.
I graduated with a bachelor's peer science.
Just this may I started a job with canonical the makers of the most popular desktop Linux distribution.
on September 12th where I am working on what sort of a app store for Linux so like Google play or the IOS app store, but for Linux I'm actually traveling internationally for business later in October to Prague, which I'm Kind of nervous about but I believe I'll do fine.
And I just like to make a quick little note before we get started that the opinions expressed in this presentation are my own and they don't reflect necessarily the views and opinions of my employer.
So brief history of me.
I was born in May 2nd 1997.
I started showing symptoms.
Around six months old.
It's kind of hard to tell exactly when I first started showing symptoms, but My parents noticed it around six months old.
I didn't like to be rocked.
I was happy to be put down in.
my crib apparently I prefer to hold my bottle myself and I would apparently lay on my blanket and just kind of spin around with my feet which spinning is actually something that I sort of continued up until I was like 12, I would go into these things called spin mode when I would get overwhelmed.
So I don't know if I was just continuation of what I did when I was younger or what but I just kind of thought it was interesting that I apparently used to spin when I was six months old.
I had limited interaction with my parents.
and almost never cried which you know in a way is good.
I'm sure my parents were in a way happy that I never cried because you know crying babies can be annoying.
But at the same time it meant that like my parents couldn't know when something was wrong because I wouldn't Express that something was wrong.
Um, and I started school in 2002.
So getting a diagnosis was actually like this long journey.
You would hope that it wasn't you would hope Daniel diagnosis would be oh you just go to one doctor and they say yep.
Yep, you have autism but At least in my case.
That was that that was not what happened.
It took quite a few years to finally get a diagnosis.
So it started in kindergarten where my behaviors at school and home didn't match.
So My thinking there are thinking is kind of that kindergarten was just super overwhelming for me and you know, everything was brand new and it was hard to adjust to it.
Some behaviors for example were rolling under a table or yelling or hiding and I I was like, I was a very good kid.
So the fact that I was throwing these tantrums essentially in kindergarten was just unbelievable.
My mother did not actually believe that that was my behaviors.
At school and my teachers couldn't believe that my behaviors at home were so different.
So a teacher actually recommended diagnosis for access to support because without a diagnosis, there's unfortunately at least back then I don't really know how it works now to be fair but back then without diagnosis there was essentially no support you were on your own.
So I received two different diagnoses before my final diagnosis.
Because autism has a tendency to look like different things to different specialists.
That's just kind of the nature of the Beast so to speak.
so I had an occupational therapist and she saw sensory integration disorder, which sort of makes sense.
I mean if you looked up the definition of sensory integration disorder, I definitely fits.
Fit the bill.
However, it didn't explain everything.
So my mother.
Pushed and pushed for me to get a diagnosis.
They explained everything.
so I saw a neuropsychologist and he saw nonverbal learning disorder which again it describes a lot of my issues.
But not everything.
So he pushed again.
and we had lots and lots of doctors appointments throughout the whole process with multiple specialists.
So throughout the whole time it seemingly every time I saw a doctor they would want to do a balance test where like I would have to stand on one leg and hop or I had my reflexes tested.
Seemingly a hundred times.
I'm sure it was less than that, but every appointment my doctor wanted to test my reflexes.
I guess just in case things changed.
There are also just many many forms to fill out now.
Thankfully, I don't remember feeling that this worse because I was so young.
I didn't have to probably but Just so many forms just to rule out everything.
And speaking of ruling out everything sometime in 2004.
I was had to do blood tests.
I had to do a hearing test.
Had a CAT scan in July 12th.
Basically everything they could do to rule out anything else except like a purely neurological disorder.
Um So this one's kind of a funny story.
I can laugh about it now, but back then of course it kind of sucked on August 19th.
I had an EEG in Quebec now.
That whole story involves going to Quebec waiting.
Getting the test and then waiting.
Three or four hours for the doctor to get back from supper to tell me his official diagnosis.
I had an appointment so I don't know why this doctor just decided.
Okay, I'll just leave the patient way in the waiting room for a few hours after his test, but he did.
I was told I had a self-esteem issue.
All he did was he made me run down the hall and back just a little Sprint.
And I think he probably tested my reflexes because they all did.
and then just I had a self-esteem issue which honestly was probably accurate but it's not one.
It's on an actual diagnosis and two.
It doesn't explain basically anything.
So we were not happy with that, especially because Quebec was like six hours away from my home.
So finally August 16th 2005.
I was officially diagnosed by a neuropediatrician with aspers syndrome.
now I know I've titled the my talk my presentation autism and that's because while my official diagnosis is as first syndrome since the beginning, I've always kind of just used autism and aspers interchangeably and especially now that the DSM-5 just kind of merged aspers into the rest of the Autism Spectrum, which there's still a lot about debate about that but Now that it's been merged.
I'm okay with just saying it's autism.
It's it's honestly easier.
um so I'd like to start my actual like meat and potatoes and presentation with listening some difficulties that I had.
in in school and I think these are probably difficult things that most people would have but I should say most people with Autism would have but again, this might only apply to me.
So I had issues with organizing and planning assignments.
I would lose papers just all over the place I would.
um completely forget that I had to do some homework and I would leave my textbooks at school when I needed them at home for homework and just it was a mess.
So just lots of issues with organization.
Another thing was an inconsistent application of rules.
Where for example, there's one time where we were allowed to play in the kind of the parking lot because the playground was soaking wet or something because it had snowed and we couldn't access the parking the playground.
So there's a little mountain of snow in the parking lot and we were instructed.
We were not allowed to climb on it.
Well, of course some people started climbing on it because we were kids.
I think we were like 10 years old or so.
So well just the fact that people were climbing on it and the teachers weren't even.
You know yelling at the kids telling them to stop just that very fact confused me enough that I had probably a full-blown meltdown like I couldn't comprehend why that would happen.
so just not applying the rules consistently or as another example if someone Tells if you're needed a hall pass go to the room to the bathroom, but then some teachers don't care about the hall passes and some do that would confuse me.
So music Jim and art kind of the more creative less structured classes.
We're very difficult.
Um art I don't particularly remember as being difficult music and gyms, especially Jim was very difficult.
It's because of the lack of structure the there being lots of movement and sensory overload, especially in music because we were in elementary school and we were taught how to play the recorder and if you've ever heard a recorder played badly.
you know how bad it sounds that loud high-pitched squeak and just everyone playing a different note seemingly and It was just too much to handle.
speaking of Jim the transition from elementary to middle school was also difficult because in elementary school all I remember from Jim is we had simple drills like here's how you dribble a ball or you know jog around the gym a few times burn off some energy or you know, maybe practice passing a soccer ball back and forth.
but in middle school all of a sudden we were full on playing sports.
It's like, okay today.
We're playing soccer today.
We're playing baseball now, there was no explanation of the rules.
And I'm someone who needs to know the rules or at least really likes to know the rules before I get started.
So without any explanation of the rules if it's just absolute chaos, I had no idea what to do.
who to pass the ball to like You know, I had a basic idea like okay, you don't use your hands in soccer, but that was it.
So it was just very overwhelming especially in team sports where everyone is yelling for you to pass in the ball and you have no idea one you barely even know how to do that and two you can't figure out who passed the ball to so I guess my first little bit of advice in this entire presentation is don't expect everyone to know exactly how every sport is played because some people like me.
Don't watch sports on TV.
Like I never did when I was younger.
I barely do now so I had no idea what was going on.
Another problem was confusing instructions.
So that could be the written instructions differing from the verbal that could be different sources having different instructions.
For example, there was one exercise where we had to learn how to write checks in like health class or something.
And the teacher told us to use an and between the dollars and cents, but the workbook told us to use a line.
and that threw me off so much.
I apparently broke down crying that night because I couldn't understand.
One what I was supposed to do and two which source was wrong.
So something as simple as an and instead of a line.
Completely wrecked like my entire day and when I'm overloaded with information and when I'm having I believe I used to call it brain overload or basically when I'm having a meltdown.
I can't learn anything more.
So, you know, we've just ruined an entire days worth of learning because of one word.
Also a lack of information and communication within the school was difficult.
For example, there was one time when my mother had to try and appeal a decision that was made by the school district regarding I believe it was regarding me getting a teaching assistant in class to help me out.
and as part of the appeal process we were supposed to well ask the school basically how to appeal and the school had no idea.
So we were told to ask the school for help, but the school couldn't help us because they had no information.
Also oftentimes the school wouldn't communicate effectively with my mother now.
My mom would do everything in her power to help me when I was growing up.
so she was constantly communicating with the school, but it was kind of almost a one-way street because they rarely would communicate with her or they would communicate with me and asked me how I felt about something rather than communicating with her and it's like I'm eight.
Like I feel bad about this.
I can't give you much more information than that.
Ask my mother.
So with the sort of negative things out of the way, there were some things that helped.
a safe place to go if I started to feel overwhelmed was probably The biggest thing that helped although I will say that.
It did have some of its some issues because the specific place.
our my school had chosen was the resource and methods room and the problem with that is that everyone pretty much at any time could go in there and ask me all sorts of questions.
Like why am I there and you know, what's wrong and When I'm there when I'm in the state where I'm like trying to avoid a meltdown.
I can't answer those questions.
I don't know the answers half the time and even if I do just trying to verbalize them.
As extra stress to me and I'm there to try and calm down or avoid wait for the situation in the classroom to calm down.
And yet somebody is asking me a question, which makes me less calm.
So it's kind of counterproductive.
Something that could have worked better was something like a just a room with partitions in it with the understanding.
that only people who need a quiet place a safe quiet place to go and calm down could use it and the adults in the room weren't allowed to ask questions about why those people are there because again those questions at least for me those questions stressed me out because I couldn't answer them.
and another thing and we had actually suggested it was even a small closet like the Janitor's Closet would have been fine for me.
The only requirement is that safe it's quiet and it's called.
And often it would only take five or ten minutes to calm myself down enough if I wasn't interrupted.
And you know in five or ten minutes the situation in the classroom is probably calm down enough.
So I would just go back to the classroom and I would be fine.
I wouldn't always stay in the classroom again, sometimes, you know, the situation gets overwhelming again and I have to leave but the reality is I'm I only missed you know, ideally I would only miss 10 minutes at the absolute maximum from single class.
Allowing my mom to participate in field trips and events and basically allowing any parent to do this of a autistic child, I think.
is extremely helpful because I had someone there that I knew I could trust and I could turn to for help and that knew me enough that they could you know.
step in and prevent me from getting to a meltdown point um, so just having that presence there was so calming and so helpful because Basically, my mom was my rock I go to her for nice stable calming presence whenever I needed to you during field trip, which is important because field trips are hectic.
letting me go to school a day early and by that I mean At the end of summer vacation.
So starting a new grade going into school a day early is really helpful because it lets me see my room.
See where my desk is see how the room is decorated.
Um, and that helps prepare me a lot for my transition to a new year.
And especially when I switch to grade six and I didn't remember this until I went back and was looking at like what health what didn't for this presentation?
I was allowed to go up to where the Middle School classrooms were because my school was a combined K through 12.
And the elementary school students were in one area of the school middle schoolers and another and high schoolers and another so not only did.
I have a new classroom.
I had a whole different area of school to go to so I'm being allowed to go and see just the whole environment where I would be learning Um really helped and then I was also allowed to go a day early.
starting grade six just to reinforce where everything was and you know how it would be.
A place to leave things in each class things like textbooks worksheets agendas.
Whatever is super helpful because organizations.
My organization was not great to put it lightly.
I would just lose papers left and right.
If I didn't write something down, I would immediately forget it if I had something that had to be done for certain day.
I'd often I'd even finish it for that day.
And then just forget it in my book bag or forgetting in my desk because my organization was such a mess.
So being able to leave things that I need for class in the class means that the things that I needed were where I needed them when I needed them and I didn't have to scramble to look for them.
explaining schedule changes and reminding me about them is also helpful because change change is probably the most difficult thing.
For me at least and I'd say for a lot of people with Autism that as far as I'm aware change might be the most difficult thing.
Changes is scary.
It's confusing and you know, you can't necessarily expect change and There's no real rule to follow for change.
so explaining schedule changes as early as possible and then reminding me about them because I would often forget halfway through the day that there's a schedule change.
It's just super helpful.
An extra set of text at home again.
It's about having what I need when I need it where I need it because otherwise I would often just forget a textbook at school and then I couldn't do my homework.
and you know, my teachers would be like, oh, why didn't he do his homework and it was like I forgot it at school.
So just having an extra set of texts at home completely eliminated a whole failure mode of doing over.
And allowing my mom to come and give presentations to classmates my classmates about my differences.
So every year my mom would do two things.
She would write a letter to my teachers explaining my differences and my strengths and my weaknesses.
And a little bit about help.
So my teachers would learn about me and my differences.
And my mom would prepare presentation and I well committed.
Of course.
She didn't do this against my will I I loved when she did this because she would prepare a presentation and coming to the class and explain to the classmates about my differences.
which really I think it enabled at least some of them to Step up and be like be my friend essentially knowing that yeah, I'm a little weird so to speak and I might not understand social cues perfectly, but I'm still a great person.
And I want to be your friend.
So those two things really helped.
more things that helped allowing me to show my skills strengths and interests now this wasn't done.
That consistently and it's kind of a shame.
It wasn't.
but for example in like I don't know third fourth grade.
I was allowed to come in and I had been learning Kung Fu and I was allowed to come in and perform a Kung Fu form just to kind of I guess show off to the class that hey.
Look I'm capable of thing.
Another time when something happened, I was just able to solve the Rubik's Cube in front of the class.
So things like that that take you know a few minutes.
Of the class time really helped me feel more confident and feel more respected and liked by my classmates because again, they realize that I had things to offer.
I wasn't just the quiet kid in the back with absolutely no interest completely boring.
Whoever want to talk to him.
I was me.
I was interesting.
um and office workbook now, this is a bit specific to me I'm sure but This is something that Shelley actually helped create for me.
And it was something where I would receive memos telling me about upcoming changes to the schedule or like certain behaviors.
We were working on like one of the memos might have been something like so today your ta and you are going to leave the class leave math class for 15 minutes to organize your binder or something.
And so that helped me because one I had the instructions in writing.
for some reason I was oddly attracted to office work and my assumption now is that it was because it's rigid it has specific rules that office work is done by or at least that's how I interpreted it back then.
And the rigidity made me comfortable.
So having this office workbook kind of added some virginity to my my school routine and made me comfortable.
So using my particular interests and or you know a student's particular interests.
and creating a tool using those interests I think is just incredibly helpful and you know, it can be difficult because sometimes you have to think and and wonder like how can I use these interests?
to help the students, but I think it's just so important to do so.
We had certain cards or songs.
I don't remember the exact system because I think it varied depending on the year, but I could use these cards or the sign when I need to leave the room.
um and communicate with my teachers how I was feeling.
So for example, if I was starring to feel a little bit overwhelmed before I even got to the point of leaving the classroom.
I could.
Hold up a card while the teacher was talking like a yellow card.
Let's say and that would mean like I might need to leave soon just as a heads up.
and then when I actually left So that I didn't interrupt their teaching and so that I didn't have to go through.
Honestly this sort of embarrassment of raising my hand and be like teacher.
I'm overwhelmed.
Can I please leave I could just get up from my seat go to near the door and there was a sign hanging there that I could flip over that said.
I don't know if it was colored if it had a word like gone or something and that sign allowed my t-shirt to know one I was safe to where I was and three a little bit why I was there because if I had just thought enough and left the T-shirt would be like, where are you?
Why are you there?
So I think that really helped as a communication tool between me and the teachers.
a private washroom also really helped because I don't think anybody likes public washrooms.
But especially when I was younger.
and especially at school of public washrooms are terrible because sometimes the doors don't lock like the individual stalls or students would climb up the partitions or under the partitions while you were trying to use the washroom, which is Bizarre, I have no idea why they did that it still boggles my mind, but it was a thing.
And you know, there's there's nothing you can do when?
You're in the middle of using washroom and all of a sudden some kids had pop.
So pops up over the partition and you're like hello.
so a private washroom and ideally with quiet flushing and fans because loud noises suck as person with autism.
I would usually have to Get my mom to go in to bathroom first when we were like visiting us.
We were at a store or a doctor's appointment and she would have to turn off the fan for me to be able to go in and sometimes I'm pretty sure she had to flush the toilet for me because it was too loud.
so a washroom with quiet flushing and a fan and a lockable door, and that's just perfect.
It doesn't have to be fancy just a place I can go and not be disturbed.
Clearly communicating the schedule in advance.
I know I sort of talked about this already, but it is just very important.
The clear part is in almost as important as the advanced part.
Um saying something like oh the schedule is gonna be a bit different today is not helpful in the slightest.
I think if anything that's probably worse.
But that may worse.
I don't know that could be worse than saying nothing.
So clear communication is important and we in particular we use the office workbook and the associate memos for this.
But again just clear communication.
and preparing for changes and routine if you know that a teacher is Going to be out the next day and we're going to have substitute teacher.
knowing that in advance is extremely helpful.
So unfortunately we tried.
but something just just didn't help.
For example, there was a computer that I was assigned to use called the alpha smart.
Which is essentially just a digital typewriter and that's all I could do.
It allows typing your notes and assignments and That's basically it.
It might have included a dictionary.
I don't fully remember.
But that's that's it.
So no internet connection, which is probably a good thing and a tiny like Two or three lines screen of text at one time like an old school else LED screen, like it's kind of ridiculous.
Now.
I do consider kind of a mixed bag because at times it was nice just being able to type my assignments because I can type much faster than I can hand, right?
And also, you know everything is in one place.
But at the same time I don't remember being that useful for me.
I couldn't even say why it wasn't it just wasn't now.
I'm sure this would be useful for someone.
So just because I say it doesn't help me.
doesn't mean that it won't help someone else and you know, especially that computer might be something to try and I know a lot of districts now have A netbooks that they give to all their students my district started doing that that 1.
2.
So You know, I could be something to look into if if your District doesn't do that.
Um, so at one point my mother and I were fighting hard for me to do enriched work because I was and this is I'm gonna brag a bit here.
I was extremely smart.
So I would often already know.
For example, especially in math class.
I would already know how to do algebra before we even started doing it because I was interested in it and when I'm interested in something I learned about it and I learned about it quickly and I learned about it.
fairly in depth so I would be born out of my mind in class because we're doing like how to divide two numbers and I'm like, all right, I'm gonna multiply these two polynomials together.
So we really want to enriched work.
unfortunately um My school's idea of enriched work was basically I shouldn't say basically it was exactly doing the same work, but more of it.
Which isn't really enriched it's just more work and I can't think of a single child.
I sure didn't who wants to do more work.
Than their peers I wanted to do harder work than my peers.
Not the same work that they were doing.
and more Um, so actually with a lot of these things that didn't help it's they could help but in my case, they just didn't and enrich work was one of the things because it wasn't really enriched work, unfortunately.
another thing that it's hard to say because she was helpful to me sometimes but my ta wasn't as helpful as she could have been.
Because the point was to have someone who knew aspers and would recognize my anxiety levels Rising.
So that they could help me.
Well one understand what was causing me to be anxious and recognize when I get anxious, but more importantly they could help me calm down right in the classroom without me having to leave.
And also the TA should have been someone who would help me stay organized.
Um And help me understand I make sure that help me understand my assignments and you know, possibly break down large assignments of smaller ones because that was something else that I had difficulty with.
I don't get overwhelmed with large assignments.
So that's what the TA was supposed to do.
but unfortunately my ta sometimes they would just leave the room go with another group of students for some reason.
we also had to fight for many years for ta even though my doctor from my diagnosis recommended that I have a ta So that was written in the doctor's report it took I think three two or three years before we even had something resembling a TA in my room my classroom.
So yeah the TA.
For me the TA didn't help and it should have and that's kind of the the sad thing about it.
Is that It could have and probably would have helped if it was implemented properly, but it just was not.
so yes, that's another takeaway from this is that we can start with good intentions, but we need to follow through with those good intentions if we want to have any sort of impact on.
How anyone learns but especially on an autistic students learning?
And there's something that we did called the path.
Which was like intended to provide me with the idea of what my goals were and like how I would achieve them in the future.
So we gather a few people some I had never even met up until this point together in the resource room after school one day and wrote.
and Drew on a large sheet of paper sort of my goals and then breaking down, you know.
in 10 years I want to I I probably at that point says something like graduate from University.
Okay, so what do I have to do?
Tomorrow to do that.
What do I have to do a year from now to get to University?
Which is helpful, except in my particular case, I already knew.
from the moment I think from 11 years old, maybe 10 or 11.
I knew I wanted to go to university to get a computer science degree.
I knew.
I wanted to have a relationship.
I knew I wanted to eventually have I don't even remember half the stuff that's on the path, but Something like I wanted a car or I wanted a house.
I knew all that and I already knew how to get it.
So.
Writing out what I wanted and how to get it was.
kind of pointless and a waste of time and the worst part is Not only was it a waste of time but I would often feel that I wasn't accomplishing the things on the path fast enough or If I had planned to do something by a year, and I hadn't done it I would just be myself up about it because I plan to do it in a year and I failed.
But again, that's it's probably something that can't help some people.
It just didn't help me.
and we have some things that could have helped.
peer support and mentoring So this would involve people.
The peer support specifically would involve people with Autism or other disabilities coming together to support each other.
so my school Didn't have this and I don't know if they have it now.
And part of that.
Yes is because my school had like 60 students in a class at most so there just wasn't many students with autism in my school.
But I think part of it is just we didn't.
We didn't do it.
So for example at University, we had a group called UB friends where people with any disability both visible and invisible.
Could gather once a week with a facilitator from the University.
to sort of Basically, just hanging out.
We would play card games or board games or just talk about how we were doing.
And I found that really helpful, unfortunately.
And I know this this presentation is about my school and on University, but I have to rant a bit.
My University apparently ran out of funding for you be friends, so they're not doing that anymore.
go figure um So we also had something called autism peer support group which started in the last bit of my last year of University.
I actually was co-facilitator for it.
and that was people only with autism getting together without any intervention from the University because that was another problem was that occasionally the university Mentor or facilitator would want us to do certain things that We didn't necessarily want to do or even care about.
So by getting together with just the students we were able to go places and do things.
All all on our own and whatever we wanted to do.
And so I think that type of peer support group in the school or even between schools.
Would be very helpful.
and then for mentoring This was something that we sort of did unofficially where I was paired.
I was actually the mentor.
for a younger students with autism in my school and we would meet every Week or every couple weeks and we would just talk.
We were just talk about what we were doing and how things were going and what we were interested in.
and we received feedback and I say we because it was mostly my mother who talked to this student's mother.
that just knowing essentially just those few meetings and knowing that there's somebody else.
like the student really helped the student and I feel like it would have helped me a lot now and my school.
I was honestly a little bit of a Trailblazer because most of my school had never even heard of autism before I joined.
But these days especially where it's much more prevalent and much more known that it exists.
I feel like setting up some sort of mentoring program.
Where an older more mature student can help a younger student would be just extremely helpful.
both for the person being mentored but also as a mentor it gives it gave me sort of a sense of purpose like There was a reason I went to school there was a reason that I was doing.
Good.
At school.
There's a reason I put in the effort.
It's because I wanted to help the student.
I want to let the student know that you know, you can do good.
Even something just like allowing the students or well allowing any students help other students with academic work.
For me that would have been amazing because it would have given me.
Well one it would have given me a chance to possibly learn something more or getting more practical.
We were learning.
but most importantly it would help me build my social skills and social standing within the classroom because You know.
people like being helped essentially and knowing that I'm the person to turn to to receive help.
I feel like would have raised my social standing a bit.
A place to wait for the initial lunch rush to die down.
Would have been very helpful and this could be the same room that I could have went to when I was overwhelmed.
Uh, because lunch is an especially challenging time because there's just lots of movement lots of noise.
Lots of sense even and tastes once you eventually eat but before that there's there's noise.
There's since there's sense.
There's sensory overload Um, especially the first few minutes so allowing me to go to a quiet room for the first 15 minutes of the lunch break.
Would have been extremely helpful.
Clear precise racing instructions for completing assignments and due dates.
This was something that was sort of done but often the instructions weren't that clear?
Like should I use 12 point font or 11 points?
Should I use aerial or Times New Roman?
Do you want double space or single space every time I received an assignment?
That didn't have those instructions.
I would panic I would have no idea how to do the assignment and I would spend more time probably stressing about exactly the exact formatting that this teacher wanted.
Then I would actually doing the assignment.
because I just couldn't start the assignments until I knew the answers to those questions.
So clear precise and written for me.
Um, I just do much better when I have something written down so that I can look back at it later because otherwise I will forget.
Help with organization again.
This is something that the TA really should have helped me with and the school occasionally would there was another person who would occasionally take me out of class to help me organize my stuff, but it wasn't it wasn't consistent and they would have helped to not only get help with organization itself.
But help learning how to be organized like learning a system for keeping everything in a certain place or Something like that would have helped a lot.
For the enriched work and just in general something like module-based system for learning or online courses.
is excellent just as an example.
I did an online course in Fine Arts because I needed an Arts create graduate from University from high school.
and I ended up receiving.
I don't remember exactly was I think it was it was in the high 90s for sure.
Um and part of that was just because it was online and I could complete it at my own pace and I was a board on my mind.
and the same thing with University happened when covid hit and my University switched to online learning that might have been the best thing that happened for me.
Um, because it meant that I no longer had a stress about going to class which of course is different for online learning for high school.
But it also meant that I could work on things on my own pace or if I misheard what the teacher said I could rewind the video or I would have all the instructions written out, you know in front of me.
so online courses have benefited me.
however, almost too late the only reason I even did those online courses in high school were because my school didn't offer a fine arts curriculum.
in the classroom and then by the time University came around, I mean, I'm already done school.
So like high school, so that's kind of Not very helpful for me as a student in high schools kind of too late.
another possibility is if I was allowed to read ahead in the textbook and then do the test once I finish the chapter.
Or even do the test before the chapter so it could test out of doing certain chapters.
that would have helped me a lot probably because again, it's the problem of I learned quickly.
So I was just absolutely bored on my mind.
I spent a large portion of especially math class, but most classes with.
My head on my desk.
Simply because I was born.
So by allowing me to read forward in the textbook and then ideally once I've done the textbook providing a more advanced textbook.
um would have stopped me from getting nearly as bored as I was and I would have actually learned more that way.
Than you know sitting in class not paying attention the entire time.
so some main takeaways for from this presentation everyone everyone even people without autism everyone's different.
Which implies that every person with autism is different.
so what worked for me may not work for someone else?
it might and I would love it if it does.
But I can't guarantee that it would so the most important thing to remember always is communicate with the students and their family and find out what works for them.
Because again what works for one person might not work for another.
and generally The students family probably has a decent idea of what will work for them.
Because simply because the students family spend so much time with the student.
So by actively communicating and really listening and really trying to implement what is recommended to you.
You can make a world of difference to any student Especially a student with autism.
And with that I have pretty much finished my presentation.
I thank you for the opportunity to explain some of the challenges faced by autistic students and how to help them over overcome those challenges.
If you're interested, I have sent Shelley MacLean a copy of a letter that my mom wrote help my teachers understand my knees and abilities the letter I mentioned earlier.
I I think it's a useful reference.
Yeah actually covers a lot of what was talking about in these slides.
So useful for teachers autistic students and anyone who works with an autistic student really and feel free to modify that.
as needed neither my mom nor I have any concerns whatsoever with you modifying it and distributing it as far and as wide as you feel fit, we we encourage it actually.
um is we do think that is a very helpful resource and Please feel free at any time for whatever reason to email me any questions or comments.
And hello at Shane Pelletier dot m e and thank you.
Thank you Shane so much and I think you have made a world of difference this afternoon.
There are two follow-up questions one is about having lunch in the lunchroom versus in a quieter area.
So one of the participants is wondering your thoughts about a student who experiences challenges in the lunchroom and finds it overwhelming but some folks think that it might be most beneficial for that learner to learn to stay in the lunchroom and just wondering if you have any thoughts on that.
Sure, um.
so I'd say that's a complicated question because You know, I think looking back I would have preferred to have a room some days, especially where I could have just gone and had my lunch.
Um, but I do see the value in encouraging a student to have lunch in the lunchroom because it is a social time.
It's a social environment and it's a time to Gain, you know social skills.
Um So I'd say it probably depends on the individual student.
I personally I don't think I would enjoy it during the moment being encouraged to go and eats in the lunchroom after the lunch rush died down but looking back on it.
I am glad that I had those moments with my friends in the lunchroom where I could communicate and just sort of hang out.
So it really depends on the student.
But yeah.
Thank you so much for that.
And then the other question was about using signs and visual supports at what point did you?
Not use those did you continue to use those into University as far as you know exit cards and things like that or where did those end for you?
Sure.
For me that ended pretty much.
Sometime in high school.
I think I would still leave the classroom occasionally, but we sort of just stop using the whole exit card and exit signed systems.
I'm not entirely sure why we stopped but Eventually, I guess I was leaving the class less frequently and the teachers realized that when I left it wasn't just because I felt like leaving it was because I had to leave so we just didn't really need the system as much I believe.
But it's not something that I continued through University.
Awesome.
Thank you so much.
I'm going to turn it over to Ryan Adams.
Thank you Shane for your presentation this afternoon and appreciate your reminder of being an individual and that you know, you are these things we're helpful for you or not helpful for you, but may not be for all keep individuals with autism.
It's obviously you've worked incredibly hard and you should be very proud canonicals very lucky to have you and I think you're gonna continue to be a trailbraiser just like you said you were a trade Trailblazer and I think you still are so thank you for sharing your information with us the comments.
I can tell everybody is felt it was a really inspiring presentation and helps us remind us what's really important as we go about our work and supporting individuals with autism and it's the individual first.
Good luck on your trip and thank you again for being with us.
Thanks for having me.