CRC's 10Q, March 2010 (They're FUCKED!)

[Whooter]

Argh,  Dam,  I just hope they know what they are doing with these Aspie kids.  I know first hand that kids with Aspergers have a great deal of anxiety and difficulty being integrated into the average public school system.  But placing an Aspie in a regular program like ASR Aspen Ranch, MBA etc. would be a disaster and they would be eaten alive and I dont support that.  Placing Aspies together is a good idea I think, especially if they are not functioning well at home, becoming at risk and/or not responding to local services.  
The people who will be working with these children need specialized training to understand their anxieties and what makes them tick before they could ever have a chance at helping them.  I would really like to see the model they developed to help these kids.  Aspergers is not curable but may be treatable if they have the right support, environment and people around them.  Most of these kids are desperately trying to fit in socially but just don't know how and they fret about it 24/7.  
I am not a supporter of putting Aspies in programs, but am open to understanding their Talisman program.



...

[Dysfunction Junction]

This is the sme spin they used before: "continuity of care" just before they shut down two programs and literally put the kids out into the streets with no transfer, referral or warning.  To me it's confirmation they are going down, not refutation.

[Ursus]

This is the sme spin they used before: "continuity of care" just before they shut down two programs and literally put the kids out into the streets with no transfer, referral or warning.  To me it's confirmation they are going down, not refutation.

See also:

• Recent Aspen cutback and re-structure
  viewtopic.php?f=48&t=30538

[Ursus]

Argh,  Dam,  I just hope they know what they are doing with these Aspie kids.  I know first hand that kids with Aspergers have a great deal of anxiety and difficulty being integrated into the average public school system.  But placing an Aspie in a regular program like ASR Aspen Ranch, MBA etc. would be a disaster and they would be eaten alive and I dont support that.  Placing Aspies together is a good idea I think, especially if they are not functioning well at home, becoming at risk and/or not responding to local services.

Hey, I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment of the psychological fate of Aspies in a so-called standard program utilizing a "positive peer culture" environment, Whooter. Yet I also, personally, do think it's unwise forcing Aspies together into any kind of program 24/7.

Imo, these kids would benefit most from a social support network and social skills training in addition to their usual routine, thereby enabling them to integrate said knowledge into their lives in a realistic fashion, in situ so to speak.

Perhaps "progress" or "improved behavior" might come about at a slower pace than some might wish for. However, I tend to believe it will be healthier and more robust in the long run. Not to mention potentially leading to a far greater enhancement of self understanding than one could ever possibly acquire via the artificial constraints of an imposed therapeutic milieu. As well as avoiding the potential for abuse in program that, regrettably, seems to occur more often than is acknowledged.

The people who will be working with these children need specialized training to understand their anxieties and what makes them tick before they could ever have a chance at helping them.  I would really like to see the model they developed to help these kids.  Aspergers is not curable but may be treatable if they have the right support, environment and people around them.  Most of these kids are desperately trying to fit in socially but just don't know how and they fret about it 24/7.

Incidentally, fwiw and fyi, most Aspies these days really don't think that they need to be "cured" of anything. In some circles, it's considered to be simply a different way of thinking. It's negotiation with the rest of the world, namely, those who don't think like they do, that is a problem. Learning about how one thinks, as well as how others generally think, along with requisite adjustments in one's style of communication and/or behavior in order to reduce misunderstanding and miscommunication can be very valuable things to learn! Not sure that that necessitates popping them into a program, however...

I am not a supporter of putting Aspies in programs, but am open to understanding their Talisman program.

See also:

• Cedars Academy closes
  viewtopic.php?f=48&t=28485
• TALISMAN ACADEMY
  viewtopic.php?f=48&t=33591

[Oz girl]

the issues most people have with spectrum disorders are to do with not understanding the social conventions that the rest of us live by. I agree with Ursus that it can be about appreciating that there are benefits to the aspie/autistic lens of the world. One mother once told me that her autistic son was the only of her children that never would lie to her and that was never sarcastic as a teenager. He just did not know how to be.
Surely if we want aspies to learn to navigate the world an institution with just aspies actually prevents this. It also deprives other children of the company of a group of people not like them. All programs seem to talk about the idea that the kids they work with are more obsessed with being "cool" than being "genuine" and suggest that popular culture somehow makes them more shallow that adults. this is the excuse for taking away all personal effects. But Aspies are a group usually supremely unconcerned with what popular culture says is fashionable. They truly are just willing to be their own people. So surely teaching all the "normal" kids to interact in a genuine and compassionate manner is vital. Not locking them away like freaks and trying to force them to comprehend a world that they are not capable of.