Last spring, the Autism Community Center piloted some fabulous activity groups which were designed for people on the autism spectrum. A lot of people had a great time attending cooking, music, theater, art and hiking groups, but, unfortunately, the center closed due to financial challenges. See a video from our old writing and illustrating group!

This fall, Empower Autism is partnering with Dragonfly Forest to bring those activity groups back! We will run groups for 6 week sessions, starting mid-September, under the name ‘The Spectrum’. We have added exciting new clubs like Urban Outings, and are bringing back old favorites like Video Gamers Club, and Hiking Group. Groups and Clubs are generally about 1 hour long, and meet once per week. People will be able to register fully online if they wish, and sign up for more than one group.

Stay tuned for more details on this exciting new partnership!

Both sessions for campers with autism were a huge success this summer! Dragonfly Forest is a free camp for kids with autism, and this year we had two sessions, each with about 70 campers. I’m always happy when the campers enjoy themselves, try new activities like the ropes course and archery, and overcome their anxiety about staying overnight–but this year I was especially proud that our program hired adults with autism to be counselors.

Attempting to recruit adults on the spectrum in a city that I don’t live in was challenging, but I got in touch with a few people, and 4 of them agreed to work at camp. Being a camp counselor is not an easy job–it involves a high level of flexibility, and the culture here at camp is extremely social. There is very little alone time, and the schedule is constantly changing. I was really excited that any adult on the spectrum wanted to be part of it.

Our staff is fairly diverse. We have counselors from different backgrounds, and we spend quite a bit of our training time addressing diversity and encouraging our staff to honestly acknowledge differences, and appreciate them. Having counselors and campers with autism meant that we were also encouraging an appreciation of neurodiversity. Everyone is always receptive to the idea of diversity appreciation, but sometimes the reality of it is more difficult. I’ll be posting more about our experience with this in the next few weeks–stay tuned.

Over the course of my career, I’ve worked with almost 100 families with autism. Each of those families has been really different, but some common themes exist in all of them: the capacity for hard work, a broader definition of what it means to be human, and a hard-won sense of the ridiculous. : )

One of the most rewarding parts of my job at the Autism Society of North Carolina was creating home-programs that included organized systems for addressing difficult parts of the day, social needs, developing maturing interests, and exploring employment possibilities. In these difficult financial times, many people are losing services like those the Autism Society provides, and there are not a lot of private options.

I’ve assembled a team of people at my business, Empower Autism, INC., who are well-versed in autism and family dynamics, and we are designing home-programs privately for family with autism. If you have something that just isn’t quite working in your family or your home, we can design a system or plan to help you address it. I believe that a REAL plan uses the strengths of a family, and fits naturally into the current pattern of the family.

We design creative, appreciative, plans that fit a family’s lifestyle, and we make it affordable.

Give us a call, or send us an email to find out more.
(828) 919-0313. Sylvia@empowerautism.com

TIME magazine is running a photo essay by Mike Belleme about the autism program at Dragonfly Forest in Philly! I had the privilege of creating this program, and I’m SO proud of it. There is a hilarious picture of me getting mobbed by a bunch of campers on there too. It’s funny what gets immortalized huh?

Check out the photo story!

Mike is a really talented photographer–and he freelances–so you better hire him quick, before he hits the big time!

Today I just want to say that I’ve had a great time this week in the Autism Community Center activity groups. It was really fun to record videos of kids having fun in the gym, and to hear people talk about their work in writing & illustrating. As you can see from the pictures, I’m not the only one having fun!

Today we started our writing and illustrating group for the Autism Community Center of Asheville! This was taken at the end of class, when people were explaining their art or writing. You can see more videos from the Activity Groups on the Autism Community Center website.

I had so much at this group today. It was the first day, so everyone was a little anxious, but once we got going it was awesome.

As you may know, I work for Dragonfly Forest, a free camp for kids who have autism. This year, we are presenting at several conferences about campers with autism, and making a typical camp setting more accessible for kids with autism. Here is one of my main points about the difference between a camper with autism and a neurotypical campers.

Self Referencing vs Social Referencing

You and I and other neurotypical people are constantly social-referencing. That means we are using other people’s behavior to guide our own behavior. In a group, we look at other people to see what they are doing. If everyone heads over to look out the window, we sort of want to do that too.

We study each other’s tone of voice and facial expressions closely, and use that information as a social cue for own behavior. In fact, we even mirror other peoples facial expressions when they speak to us (imagine a friend telling you they got some sad news, your mouth will turn down, and your eyes get soft, almost as if you had received the sad news yourself). We ‘instinctively’ know when a class or meeting is almost over because everyone starts rustling their papers and gathering their bags. In contrast, people with autism are often self-referencing, which means they are checking in on themselves, and using their own feelings to guide their behavior instead of using others behavior to guide them.

Examples of social cues (things that you know how to interpret even though no one ever explained them to you):

Self-referencing (and missing social cues) can lead a camper with autism to

You can help a camper who is self-referencing by:

I have resigned from my position at the Autism Society of NC. Honestly, I really loved my job there, even though it was stressful and frustrating at times. I really appreciated getting to work closely with families, and see so many different way of raising a child with autism. There really is no one way to do it, just like there is no one way to raise any other kid.

Anyway, I have no regrets about resigning from a job I loved because I get to do THIS instead! I am going to run activity groups and parent seminars for the new Autism Community Center of Asheville!

I’ve been complaining for years that there are no recreation/leisure activities for people on the spectrum to participate in. I mean, people on the spectrum who can access the same activities as neurotypicals are doing that, of course, but some people do not enjoy those activities, or need more structure and explanation than many of those groups offer. I decided that I should just stop complaining, and use my summer camp director experience to create some great activity groups that are high-interest, low-anxiety and focus on having fun. Enter the new Autism Community Center, which will be located at Westwood Baptist Church in west Asheville.

We are going to begin by running activity groups (read more about them) and a monthly Parent’s Night Out. Eventually, the Autism Community Center will have an afterschool program, counseling services, academic tutors, and parent workshops. Check out the website, and tell us what you think!

photo by Mike Belleme

I can’t really believe that the year has gone by this fast, but apparently everyone was right, and adulthood, or, in my case, “adulthood”, is flying by. This is third year that Dragonfly Forest will have an overnight camp for kids with autism! It seems like it was just yesterday that I was agonizing over the details of the program design, and explaining why the schedule had to be both rigid and flexible at the same time.

Anyway, enough reminiscing.

The application for Autism Camp at Dragonfly Forest is officially open for 2010!

This year, campers can apply for an overnight session or a day camp session (see the website for session dates). We hire adults (18 plus) with autism to work as counselors or program staff, and we have a counselor-in-training program for teens on the spectrum.

I think I’ve said this before, but camp is the most fun I’ve ever had. Come check us out and see why I’m as excited as a cat in a mouse store!

Read more about Dragonfly Forest
Visit the Website for session dates, and the application
See a video of me talking about camp

Reason #333 that Dragonfly Forest is the best: They let me design a free overnight autism camp program for them outside of Philadelphia! This video is me (slightly awkwardly) talking about the program. You can read more about Dragonfly Forest, and why I designed it the way I did here.