Checklist Magic: Enhancing Environmental Awareness and Celebrating Fathers in Autism Care

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Ever wondered how a simple checklist could transform a child's experience of their environment? This episode promises practical strategies for enhancing the environmental awareness and organizational skills of children on the autism spectrum. We'll explore the unique challenges these children face in noticing their surroundings and how methods like scanning their environment and using visual aids can make daily life smoother. We also pay tribute to the often-overlooked role of fathers and caregivers, shining a light on their crucial contributions, especially on Father's Day.

Join me as I share a personal update about a joyful Father's Day weekend spent with my son and the excitement of my upcoming birthday. Despite the whirlwind of a busy schedule driven by an uptick in summer tutoring demand, the love and support from our listeners keep me motivated. We'll talk about managing this hustle and bustle while extending heartfelt wishes for a blessed week ahead. Tune in for insights, stories, and a dose of positivity that will leave you feeling inspired and connected.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everyone.
I hope you're having a greatweekend.
I know it's Father's Day, so Ijust want to take a moment to
kind of honor our fathers, ourgrandfathers, the uncles,
stepfathers, any of you that arebeing fathers, or even some
women that are both father andmother.
I hope you're having a goodweekend this weekend.
This weekend, today, we'regoing to talk about how a child

(00:28):
on the spectrum, or evensometimes ones that are not on
the spectrum, do not noticethings around them, and we are
going to look at why is thathappening.
Why do some children missthings around them?
Or maybe they go through a doorand don't see the people and
just kind of plow through thedoor.
Why does that happen, and whatcan we maybe do to help retrain

(00:52):
them to be more alert to theirenvironment?
And so we're going to talk alittle bit about that.
But before I do, what I wantyou to do is kind of stop this
podcast and I want you to go toYouTube and I want you to watch
a video it's just over a littlebit of a minute and then you can
come back and listen to therest of this podcast.

(01:13):
It's called Selective T-I-V-EAttention Test, and I want you
to watch that.
When you do watch it, I wantyou to count how many white
shirts are there in this littlevideo and then when you come
back, you'll just pick up whereyou left off and we'll talk

(01:35):
about that, okay, so go aheadand go on that.
So if you counted, how many ofyou counted 10, 12, or more?
And how many of you counted 10,12 or more, and how many of you
saw a gorilla?
So if some of you may say yes,I saw the gorilla, and some of
you may say what gorilla?

(01:56):
And that was me, I said whatgorilla?
And I actually I watched thistwice.
I watched it once a long, longtime ago and then again it's
been a lot of years and stuffand I had forgotten about it.
I was at a conference forautism and this lady showed it
and I had forgotten it.
Both times I did not see thegorilla and some people catch it

(02:21):
right away and see it and someof us, like me, didn't.
And that's the same way with ourautistic kids.
They don't always see what yousee.
They're so focused and that'swhat I was.
I was so focused on countingand trying to get those white
shirts correct that I missed it.

(02:41):
I missed the gorilla completely.
And that's what our kids on thespectrum do.
They get so focused onsomething that they don't see
the people around them.
Like if they're going throughthe doorway and somebody's kind
of stand there or going throughthe doorway too, they're just
focused, going from A to B andthey don't, and they just walk

(03:03):
through A to B and they don't,and they just walk through and,
and so we have to kind of trainthem to kind of look at their
environment a little bit.
I think that's a really goodtest to take and have other
people to see that too, thatwork with autistic kids, um, and
try to experience that andrealize that some people just
don't.
Because I was so focused, likeI said, on the white shirts that

(03:26):
I missed the gorilla.
Matter of fact, when they saidthere was a gorilla, and I
thought no, and I thought it wasa trick or something, and I
watched it again and I thoughtno, this is a different one, but
I guess it was the same one.
So, but I missed it completely.
And that's what our kids, whatcan we do?
What can we do to help them?
I think that we need to teachit for one thing.

(03:48):
So let's say that they'reworking around their desk or
whatever and they are going backand forth to school.
They have to pack theirbackpack and stuff like that,
maybe give them a checklist orlike, if they're going from one
situation to another, have themtake a minute and look around
and say, okay, did you get this,did you pick up this or did you

(04:11):
get that, whatever the case maybe, and have them training to
take that moment and kind oflook around and not just be
focused on A to B, and then theyhave to have that little time
to do that.
Now, if they are not cleaningthe room, let's say you tell
them to go in and clean the roomand they go in and they sweep

(04:33):
and they pick up.
And then you go in there and itdoesn't even look like
anybody's hardly swept or pickup the trash or whatever the
case may be.
And they don't necessarily seethe same thing that you're
seeing.
They feel, okay, I swapped,what comes comes, what don't,
don't, I guess.
But it may be that they don'tsee it the same.

(04:53):
So a suggestion that I can makeis um, help them clean their
room and then like, okay, like,let's say, make their bed.
So they make their bed and thentake a picture of it, or if
their dresser or their deskclean it for them or not clean
it for them, but help them cleanit.

(05:13):
It should be them doing it too.
Take out the trash, take apicture of it and then get those
pictures developed and then putthose pictures like on their
headboard or on the wall or bytheir desk and on the floor what
the floor should look like.
Then, when they go in to clean,you tell them listen, I want

(05:34):
you to make your bed and thebed's got to look like the
picture, or the dresser or deskneeds to look like this picture,
the floor needs to look likethis picture so they can see
what you're seeing, what youwant, what your goal is to,
maybe to really learn how toclean and what it should look

(05:55):
like and not what it shouldn'tlook like.
So sometimes pictures canreally help our students that
are on the spectrum.
If they have a certain area inthe house that they work on to
do their stuff also, take apicture of that you know and
have that hanging and say, okay,this is when you're done
working or done this activity ordoing this craft.

(06:16):
This is what it should looklike when it's cleaned up, and I
think those will really.
When I say to go, you have 20seconds or whatever, and maybe
set a little timer or a sandtimer or something like that.
I want you to clean up, I wantyou to make sure you got all
your stuff and make a list, havethem, have a little list.

(06:39):
Okay, I need my phone, I needmy water bottle, I need my
glasses or whatever the case maybe, and put them in my backpack
.
So, anyway, that was a littlebit of something.
I had been thinking about thisone for a while and I just
wanted to be able to share thatwith you, to give you some ideas

(06:59):
.
And that's what most of mypodcasts are.
They're just ideas from my workexperiences working with kids
and still working with kids,even though I'm supposed to be
retired, but I've been working alot this summer.
But anyway, I just wanted toshare some of that with you, to
go over to help you, because Iknow that's an issue with a lot

(07:19):
of our kids.
They just don't see what we see, and I even had to explain that
once to a parent.
She couldn't understand why.
He was one that just plowedthrough the door, didn't matter
who was there, and I says allhe's thinking about and all he's
seeing is A, I need to be fromA to B and I'm going through, I
don't care who's there, and soit's something that's skilled,

(07:42):
that we need to work on.
And he has a little troublewith balancing too.
So there's that kind of issuealso.
But you know, how many timeshave you said you know how can
you forget this?
Or you forgot your phone again,or you forgot your water bottle
again?
Well, we just need to trainthem that they take that minute
and kind of go through a list.
After a while they can get ridof the list, because they'll be

(08:04):
trained to stop before theyleave and then go through the
list.
What do they need?
Make sure it's checked off, andthen they go to the next
station or next event, whateverthey're doing.
So, anyway, that's just a shortone today.
At Sunday, I hope you guys had agreat weekend.

(08:25):
My birthday's coming up prettysoon, so on Father's Day I had
my son over, so it was really anice day and a nice weekend for
me, and I hope you all arehaving a wonderful, wonderful
week ahead of you.
I have a very busy week thisweek.
With summer, a lot of theparents want me to do extra

(08:47):
tutoring and stuff, so I've beenjust like working twice as hard
during this summer.
Anyway, I hope you have ablessed day.
Love you all.
Talk to you later.