A Person-Centered Approach to High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder
The higher functioning (previously known as Asperger's Disorder) population of Autism Spectrum Disorders has recently received a great deal of attention. The new DSM-5 will no longer diagnose individuals as Asperger's Disorder or PDD-NOS but will refer to them in the broader Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) label. This presents significant changes to the way in which professionals diagnose and treat this population.
Timothy Kowalski, M.A., C.C.C.-SLP, will teach participants how to apply a person-centered approach to treating individuals on the higher end of the Autism Spectrum Disorder. Learn the typical deficits seen in the domain of social-interaction and obtain intervention techniques to address tact, proxemics, social rules, egocentricity, naiveté, and jocularity. Learn how to address obsessive interests, poor play skills, dislike of physical contact, and gullibility that are often associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Understand and improve your ability to treat social-communication deficits such as abuse of conversational rules, prosody, perseverative questioning, abstract reasoning, pedantic speech, and nonverbal communication skills. Learn how to improve emotional regulation with specific techniques designed to address stress, anxiety, self-esteem, change, ritualism, and sensory overload, and how to recognize emotional states in themselves and others. In addition, it will offer extensive strategies to enhance the academic needs of the ASD client by focusing on seven core academic issues: initiating work assignments, increasing motivation, decreasing distraction, compensating for gross and fine motor deficits, adapting the curriculum, academic modifications, and increasing cognitive processing. Attendees will leave this seminar feeling empowered and ready to employ these techniques, which can lead to improved outcomes and successful carryover into functional daily living.