#autismfriendlycommunity

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The Barboa Authors

People are asking,"Who are those Barboa Authors?"

Dr. Linda and Kyleigh Barboa! Dr. Linda Barboa’s journey as an author began 7 years ago after a long career as a Speech Language Pathologist. Kyleigh became an author by sharing an office with Grandma Linda. From the age of three, Kyleigh wanted a desk next to grandma’s computer. She loved to get a big piece of paper and “write stories” in red crayon, while grandma worked on her books. During that time Dr. Barboa wrote over 30 books including several on autism and many children’s books. When Kyleigh was in first grade, she decided she finally had the skills and imagination needed to write a real book. When asked what she wanted to write about she said “I want to tell people how to be good parents. I have good parents and I want all kids to have parents as good as mine.” Two books later and one in process, she is still sitting by Grandma’s desk as they both continue the Barboa tradition of writing books.

Honors and awards

The pair of authors have each been honored with awards for their writing. Along with having received some “5 STAR reviews” from numerous global book review groups, Kyleigh recently received an award from the Greater St. Louis Police, known as the Do the Right Thing! Award. Dr. Barboa has been honored with the Jefferson Award for Public Service, and the State of Missouri’s Innovation Award for a program she authored to create Autism Friendly Cities in Missouri. Both authors currently live in Southwest Missouri. Read the full article

[kristinapfennig]

The Barboa Authors

People are asking,"Who are those Barboa Authors?"

Dr. Linda and Kyleigh Barboa! Dr. Linda Barboa’s journey as an author began 7 years ago after a long career as a Speech Language Pathologist. Kyleigh became an author by sharing an office with Grandma Linda. From the age of three, Kyleigh wanted a desk next to grandma’s computer. She loved to get a big piece of paper and “write stories” in red crayon, while grandma worked on her books. During that time Dr. Barboa wrote over 30 books including several on autism and many children’s books. When Kyleigh was in first grade, she decided she finally had the skills and imagination needed to write a real book. When asked what she wanted to write about she said “I want to tell people how to be good parents. I have good parents and I want all kids to have parents as good as mine.” Two books later and one in process, she is still sitting by Grandma’s desk as they both continue the Barboa tradition of writing books.

Honors and awards

The pair of authors have each been honored with awards for their writing. Along with having received some “5 STAR reviews” from numerous global book review groups, Kyleigh recently received an award from the Greater St. Louis Police, known as the Do the Right Thing! Award. Dr. Barboa has been honored with the Jefferson Award for Public Service, and the State of Missouri’s Innovation Award for a program she authored to create Autism Friendly Cities in Missouri. Both authors currently live in Southwest Missouri. Read the full article

[kristinapfennig]

The Barboa Authors

People are asking,"Who are those Barboa Authors?"

Dr. Linda and Kyleigh Barboa! Dr. Linda Barboa’s journey as an author began 7 years ago after a long career as a Speech Language Pathologist. Kyleigh became an author by sharing an office with Grandma Linda. From the age of three, Kyleigh wanted a desk next to grandma’s computer. She loved to get a big piece of paper and “write stories” in red crayon, while grandma worked on her books. During that time Dr. Barboa wrote over 30 books including several on autism and many children’s books. When Kyleigh was in first grade, she decided she finally had the skills and imagination needed to write a real book. When asked what she wanted to write about she said “I want to tell people how to be good parents. I have good parents and I want all kids to have parents as good as mine.” Two books later and one in process, she is still sitting by Grandma’s desk as they both continue the Barboa tradition of writing books.

Honors and awards

The pair of authors have each been honored with awards for their writing. Along with having received some “5 STAR reviews” from numerous global book review groups, Kyleigh recently received an award from the Greater St. Louis Police, known as the Do the Right Thing! Award. Dr. Barboa has been honored with the Jefferson Award for Public Service, and the State of Missouri’s Innovation Award for a program she authored to create Autism Friendly Cities in Missouri. Both authors currently live in Southwest Missouri. Read the full article

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Helping Grandparents Understand Autism

Helping Grandparents Understand Autism

Sometimes the grandparent is the first to recognize that there is something different about this child. At times the parent is resistant to the suggestion that the child may need to be seen by a specialist. Time is your friend when it comes to parental realization, but the earlier the child is identified, the more help can be provided to them. If you are the grandparent of a child who may have autism, you are to be congratulated on searching for information. Arming yourself with good solid information is the best thing you can do to understand this grandchild and how you can best fit into his life. Becoming a grandparent is one of life’s greatest joys, and this joy should not be diminished by individual differences.  As a grandparent faces any physical disability or developmental disability, it is natural to wonder what lies ahead. A million questions may flood over you. In the new book, Helping Grandparents Understand Autism, you may find answers to many of your questions. Dr. Linda Barboa and Jan Luck, the authors, provide clear, concise information to get you on the right path in your search for answers. Autism is a sensory perception disorder As we all go through our everyday lives, our brains continually collect information about the world around us through our senses (including vision, hearing, smell, touch and taste). In autism, the senses may be over or under processing the incoming stimuli. People with autism are not able to make sense of the incoming sensory information. The issues may vary throughout a person’s lifetime, or even day to day. Helping Grandparents Understand Autism focuses on the areas of communication, the senses, social interactions and behaviors which are the characteristics that are common in children with autism. Distorted sensory perception is a major part of autism. The way a person with autism perceives the world around him is different from the way that others get information from the environment. One or more of the senses may be affected. Appropriate social interactions are important for a happy and productive life. Forging friendships and having good relationships with others is dependent on successful social interactions. People on the autism spectrum may exhibit some or all of these social difficulties. Behavior is an attempt to communicate. A person’s behaviors are his way of communicating his needs, his sensory overloads and his frustrations. Helping Grandparents Understand Autism explores each of these topics in depth, giving examples to help grandparents identify these needs in their grandchild.  Specific strategies are given to help grandparents build a relationship that they will treasure forever.   Read the full article

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Autism Friendly Training for All

AutPlay Therapy with STARS for Autism now offers Autism Friendly Training for anyone, no matter where you are! What is an Autism-Friendly Training?

The award winning Autism-Friendly training were created by the nonprofit group Stars for Autism. The basic Autism-Friendly training is a full-day training which allows attendees to understand what autism is and how to interact with those on the autism spectrum. This training promotes awareness of the social, sensory, and environmental barriers which affect individuals who have autism. Educators, therapists, government employees, and professionals across a variety of settings, gain valuable information for working with, serving, and interacting with individuals with autism. This training provides a valuable resource for anyone in any setting to better understand and interact with those with autism spectrum disorder. Who Should Complete an Autism-Friendly Training? Cities like Battlefield and Bolivar, MO have completed the Blueprint for an Autism-Friendly City Training and many organizations and professionals such as police offices, first responders, church staff, educators, and bus drivers have completed Autism-Friendly training. If you are an individual, group, business, or organization who works with, serves, or has contact with individuals with autism, this training is designed for you! How to Receive Training We have three ways for you to get trained! Choose the option that best meets your needs. 1) Host us, and we will come to you and facilitate a training. 2) Attend our yearly summer training in July. 3) Complete the online training. We Will Come to You! Contact us if you would like to host an Autism Friendly training. You can tailor the one-day training to address the specific needs of your business, group, or organization. View the Autism-Friendly Training Information sheet for all the details on hosting a training. Attend our Yearly Two-Day Summer Training! Each year in July we host an AutPlay Summer Training in Branson, MO. This includes two days of Autism Friendly Training. Day one presents the Autism Friendly training and Day Two presents the Train the Presenter Training. Come join us or send a representative from your business, group, or organization. View information about our AutPlay Summer Training Info, Schedule, and Registration Complete our Autism-Friendly Online Training!  Can’t attend an in-person training – complete our online training. This training covers all the Autism-Friendly training in an online/home study format. This option is perfect for those who cannot travel to a training or prefer an online format. Register for the Autism Friendly Online Training here!        Read the full article

[kristinapfennig]

Autism Friendly Training for All

AutPlay Therapy with STARS for Autism now offers Autism Friendly Training for anyone, no matter where you are! What is an Autism-Friendly Training?

The award winning Autism-Friendly training were created by the nonprofit group Stars for Autism. The basic Autism-Friendly training is a full-day training which allows attendees to understand what autism is and how to interact with those on the autism spectrum. This training promotes awareness of the social, sensory, and environmental barriers which affect individuals who have autism. Educators, therapists, government employees, and professionals across a variety of settings, gain valuable information for working with, serving, and interacting with individuals with autism. This training provides a valuable resource for anyone in any setting to better understand and interact with those with autism spectrum disorder. Who Should Complete an Autism-Friendly Training? Cities like Battlefield and Bolivar, MO have completed the Blueprint for an Autism-Friendly City Training and many organizations and professionals such as police offices, first responders, church staff, educators, and bus drivers have completed Autism-Friendly training. If you are an individual, group, business, or organization who works with, serves, or has contact with individuals with autism, this training is designed for you! How to Receive Training We have three ways for you to get trained! Choose the option that best meets your needs. 1) Host us, and we will come to you and facilitate a training. 2) Attend our yearly summer training in July. 3) Complete the online training. We Will Come to You! Contact us if you would like to host an Autism Friendly training. You can tailor the one-day training to address the specific needs of your business, group, or organization. View the Autism-Friendly Training Information sheet for all the details on hosting a training. Attend our Yearly Two-Day Summer Training! Each year in July we host an AutPlay Summer Training in Branson, MO. This includes two days of Autism Friendly Training. Day one presents the Autism Friendly training and Day Two presents the Train the Presenter Training. Come join us or send a representative from your business, group, or organization. View information about our AutPlay Summer Training Info, Schedule, and Registration Complete our Autism-Friendly Online Training!  Can’t attend an in-person training – complete our online training. This training covers all the Autism-Friendly training in an online/home study format. This option is perfect for those who cannot travel to a training or prefer an online format. Register for the Autism Friendly Online Training here!        Read the full article

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Making It Through the Holidays--Part 3

The following is an excerpt from Stars in Her eyes: Navigating the Maze of Childhood Autism. By Dr. Linda Barboa and Elizabeth Obrey.  Contribution by Shelli Allen Making it Through the Holidays- Part 3   Christmas is a big deal to me, and I really like to make it wonderful for our children. We stay at home for Christmas Day. We wear our PJs, and we eat breakfast when the kids are ready. We open gifts when the kids are ready. We don’t open them all at once. If my kids want to just play with the boxes instead of the toys, that is okay. If my house gets trashed its okay too. We have pillow fights and read books and laugh together. My family can come to us if they want, but I’m in charge at my house, so I have more control. This seems to work for us. You will know what will work for you. Plan ahead. Prepare. Through the holidays, make picture schedules to help your kids know what is next. My kids like predictability, and I can control that more when we are in our own home. When we go to places where people don’t have kids like ours, they don’t grasp the extreme importance of knowing what comes next. Staying home takes a lot of the stress out of the holidays. Holiday decorations can be a challenge. First of all, our kids don’t like change, so they don’t really want the decorations put up at all. Christmas season smells different, looks different, and sounds different than the rest of the year. It even tastes different, with Christmas foods appearing on the table. And the music, no thanks. So we either start really early in the season, get sneaky, and put up a tiny bit at a time, hoping they don’t notice, or we do it all very quickly right at the last minute, like ripping off a Band-Aid. Just enjoy your time in the way that is best for your own family. Read the full article

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Making It Through the Holidays--Part 2

The following is an excerpt from Stars in Her eyes: Navigating the Maze of Childhood Autism. By Dr. Linda Barboa and Elizabeth Obrey.  Contribution by Shelli Allen Making It Through the Holidays--Part 2 During the Christmas holidays, car rides have been our favorite tradition with the kids. We drive around to various neighborhoods and look at the Christmas lights. Our kids love it. We pack peppermint sticks and drinks in the car. Since the whole activity takes place in the car, there is no chance of a child running off or getting into something that they should not. I can relax in that knowledge. It is fun for all of us. They are buckled in and restrained, yet there is enough stimulation to keep them satisfied. I think it makes them happy that it is our just our family, and there are no strangers to approach them. It is the perfect activity for children like mine. Opening gifts is so much fun. It can get crazy with paper everywhere, family laughing, and crowded spaces. Keep in mind that it can all get overwhelming for someone on the spectrum. My advice is to take it slowly. If you are away from home, ask the host if there is a room you can retreat to if a break is needed. Bring a book or some paper and crayons that your kids can take with them to the quiet area. If they need to work out their jitters ask about a trampoline or a swing set. Bundle up and go outside for a moment. Let your kids be themselves. Think ahead. Control the environment as much as you can. If you and your children become stressed, say your good-byes. You can always open gifts later. You could take pictures or video the children opening the gifts and send it to the giver along with a thank-you note. This is better than everyone being stressed. If your host is not flexible with you or not willing to accommodate your child’s needs, just mark them off the list of places to visit on the holidays for now. I know that we all worry about hurting peoples’ feelings, especially during the holidays, but we have to look at what is best for our family. If they want you to be a part of the celebration, they will make adjustments. Read the full article

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Making It Through the Holidays-- Part 1

The following is an excerpt from Stars in Her eyes: Navigating the Maze of Childhood Autism. By Dr. Linda Barboa and Elizabeth Obrey.  Contribution by Shelli Allen Making it Through the Holidays- Part 1 Making it through the challenges of day-to-day family life gets even more complicated when a holiday rolls around. Extra responsibilities are felt by the parent. Holiday preparations and celebrations require time and disrupt the routines you have worked so hard to establish. Holidays are characterized by a lot of hustle and bustle, of which I have never been a fan. To me, chaos can steal the joy from the holidays. Crowds, thousands of lights, Christmas trees, family gatherings, all become overwhelming. My husband and I have done our best over the last couple of years to create happy memories for our kids during the holidays. My advice for Christmas shopping is to try to pick one day to do all the shopping. Find a sitter and leave the kids out of the crazy shopping experiences at all cost. Lines are usually longer during the holidays. This waiting is too much for a lot of kids on the spectrum. Keep it calm. Keep it happy. When our children were small, we would make an effort to please everyone in the extended family. We would go to Thanksgiving dinners and Christmas celebrations with every branch of our relatives. We would visit his grandparents, my grandparents (both sides), his mom and dad, my mom and dad, and then celebrate at our own house. This would mean that on holidays, we were on the go all day or weekend long. Each place would have different expectations for the kids. This was not fun for the kids or for us as parents. Now on Thanksgiving, if the family dinner is not being hosted at our house, then we only go to one place. We stay as long as the kids can handle it, and then we leave. We don’t try to push the kids. Read the full article

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Autism: What Schools Are Missing--Voices to a New Path

We are fortunate to have an extremely dedicated, caring cadre of educators filling many roles in our schools today. The prevalence and diversity of students with autism now demand that we arm them with the tools needed to serve all students. Whether the reader is a legislator, parent, educator, or caring community member, each has a role and responsibility to demand change, as outlined in this book. The problems contributing to the crisis are many, and the actions must reflect that. As a society we have a choice to ignore the growing numbers of students with special needs or to design programs to guide those students to be happy, productive, valued members of society. We can continue to make promises to adequately fund our schools, followed by funding shortages, or we can keep promises made for generations.  We can cross-train general education teachers, special education teachers, and therapists, or we can allow teachers to be less than prepared for the classroom experience, resulting in further exodus of specialty teachers. We can encourage regulations that honor the teachers’ time, or we can allow them to feel less and less job satisfaction and increased frustration. We can give teachers the tools to improve academic instruction to those who think differently, and those who struggle with social skills, or we can produce an increasing number of socially frustrated citizens. We can begin teaching to the students’ interest and skills, or risk more children disconnecting from education.   Dr. Linda Barboa Excerpt from Autism: What Schools are Missing- Voices to a new Path, Amphorae Publishing, 2019   Read the full article

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The Elderly and Autism: Prevalence and Misconceptions.

Reuben Stotler, who goes by Reuben No Nickname as he points out "it is his given name", is a retired insurance actuary, and is exactly 72 years and 4 months old.  He was "born a bachelor, and will die a bachelor" and spent the last 42 years in the same house, on the same street, in the same town.  He goes to bed at the same time every night, and gets up at the same time every day.  He drinks exactly 88 oz of water a day as measured by a 4 cup measuring cup as "instructed by his doctor."  Reuben was content with his life until the day he stumbled and broke his hip on his daily 8am two mile walk and his life was thrown into chaos. Following surgery for a hip replacement, Reuben was admitted to a skilled nursing facility for rehabilitation.  He was in a strange location, was unable to walk, had people coming and going about in his room intermittently throughout the day, and he was given medications to take without knowing what the medicine was for.  His anxiety increased, his poor communication skills became worse, and his social skills deteriorated.  He became "combative", "aggressive", stopped eating and refused medications.  Due to these behaviors, Reuben was discharged from therapy and remained in long term care, using a wheelchair instead of walking. Reuben Stotler represents one of the several thousand elderly adults who are on the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) but are not diagnosed or are misdiagnosed.  Autism was not officially described in diagnostic literature until 1980, with the term ASD appearing in 1998. In 1980 Reuben was 33 years old and well into a successful career and in 1989 Reuben was 51 and building up for retirement.  Medical intervention and diagnosis at that time was not even considered. Currently it is estimated 1% of adults have an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with this number expected to represent 700,000 U.S. seniors by 2030. Despite this, children and autism is the focus of research, intervention, diagnostics, in public media, and in the curriculum and experience of healthcare providers.  This leads to a misconception that ASD is only present in children, during childhood. If you have blue eyes as a kid, you will have blue eyes as an adult.  It doesn't go away when you turn 18. Support and intervention systems are in place for the most part in early education and school systems, but once a person is no longer in school, the support systems for those age 20 or older with autism drops significantly.    According to the Autism Society 35 percent of young adults (ages 19-23) with autism have not had a job or received postgraduate education after leaving high school. (Shattuck et al., 2012) It is reported adults with ASD might also have other medical issues impacting their care and quality of life including diabetes, heart disease, and mental health issues such as depression.  Adults with autism are three times as likely to be depressed and five times as likely to attempt suicide as other adults. So what can do about this? It starts with the community.  STARS for AUTISM and Dr. Linda Barboa paved the way for towns and cities to be "Autism Friendly" with Blueprint for an Autism Friendly City. These same communities also trained their police force, firefighters, first responders, retail establishments, and anyone who works with the public, with STARS for Autism's education material.  Additionally, education for companies and co-workers is available with the Autism Friendly Workplace. Education of healthcare providers on ASD with the elderly with a referral to Speech Therapy for evaluation is crucial when admitted to a hospital or nursing home for staff education, environmental modifications, and identification of the person's communication skills and needs.  Kristina Heth has several resources for staff and caregiver education as well as speech therapy worksheets and printables here. A path of a thousand miles begins with one step.  Be the first to take that step. Advocate-Motivate-Educate Read the full article