LAUNCHED: Campaign for New Film Project

We've been planning for this for a looooooooong time (just ask Good Friend co-founder Denise Schamens -- she'll tell you): the official start of our new elementary school film project!  It's hard to believe it's been three years since we started work on Choosing To Be a GFF for middle school, and that How Can I Be a Good Friend to Someone with Autism, our first film, was released nearly six years ago!

If you saw our award-winning middle school film, you know how much we grew as filmmakers between our first and second productions.  Can you imagine what our THIRD will be like?  We sure can.  And we have quite a crew assembled who will make it come to pass.

Want to be part of the action?  Check out and share our KICKSTARTER campaign!  We need people to catch the creative vision we have to make this film come to life.  We have less than 30 days (until the morning of July 17) to find $10,000 in pledges.  Here are a few things you should know about this platform and our specific project for We ALL Fit (the title of our upcoming film):

• Because Good Friend is a 501(c)(3) public charity, donations made through the campaign are tax-deductible as allowed by law.  However, if you receive a "Reward" through the campaign, the cash value of the reward is not considered tax-deductible.  Therefore, your acknowledgement from Good Friend will reflect the difference.
• If you pledge an amount other than those listed on our Rewards section, you may still be eligible for Rewards.  Email us for more info.
• Kickstarter uses Amazon Payments to collect pledges, but will not do so until after our campaign has ended (July 17) and ONLY IF we meet our $10,000 goal.  You do not need an Amazon account to make a pledge.
• Backers could be anywhere, and time is of the essence. Help us find them. Please spread the word via email and social media.

We would be negligent if we didn't offer shout-outs to some key players to date in this project ...

• Our creative team, including returning techies Dan Kallenberger and Tim Miller.  You two have been SO patient with us as budding filmmakers and incredibly supportive with our last two projects.  THANK YOU for being on board this time and bringing some fresh talent with you!
• Greg Marshall of Figureheads, Inc.  Our meeting was no accident, and this collabo is going to be EPIC!
• The participants of our May 2012 Community Conversation on Meaningful Inclusion in Elementary School. Your energy that night was inspiring, and made us realize there's NOTHING we can't accomplish when we as parents, therapists, educators, and administrators work together!  (And though I promised notes more than a year ago, they really ARE coming this week!)

Thanks to each of you for BACKING our mission!

Autism Awareness Activities in Elementary Schools

Last year, I was so impressed by the efforts of the Swanson Elementary community in Brookfield, Wis.  I was certain they were an anomaly in the education universe.  But I am glad to report I am WRONG!  There are other metro Milwaukee schools (and you likely know of one in your area) capitalizing on the opportunities Autism Awareness Month affords for the building of a culture of acceptance.

What's unique about Cushing Elementary in Delafield, Wis., is that the staff (namely, Occupational Therapist Teresa Wozniak) has an annual plan to address peer awareness throughout the school year.  To complement her work, which includes reading books and answering questions about students with diverse abilities, autism parents Mary Day and Karen Cain started planning additional activities for April way back in the fall.  Here's what they did this month:

• Displayed original posters throughout the school with helpful tips about autism, and draped a banner across the school's entrance.
• Decorated an informative bulletin board in the foyer showcasing famous people who have autism.
• Asked students to write letters of support to their classmates with autism to demonstrate how much they care.
• Organized a staff luncheon of appreciation.
• Had student leaders make blue puzzle piece pins for all school community members to wear. 
• Recommended all students wear blue on April 17th, following two days of Good Friend Peer Sensitivity Workshops by grade level.

This multi-modal, wrap-around model of autism awareness fosters acceptance and empathy, and moves autism from the shadows of understanding the the positive light of social relatedness.  Teachers at Cushing incorporated this concept into their curriculum, leading mini-lessons on the topic which could be tied back to learning standards.

Karen said, "I can't tell you how many times, while I have been at school, I have been stopped by staff to tell me how happy they are and love what we have done."  We were glad to be a part of it!  And we could tell by the insight of the peers and the thoughtfulness of their questions that they were learning invaluable social-emotional lessons.

What did your school do this month to promote autism acceptance?  What will you plan to do for the 2013-'14 school year?

A Spectrum of Friends

First, to honor the lives of the students and staff lost in the Sandy Hook community in Connecticut ...  There is no amount of explanation that will heal hearts, but we hope our prayers for the survivors and tears for the slain will resound across miles and time.

This week's topic was to be based on friendship in elementary school -- a follow-up to last week's thoughts regarding peer relationships in early childhood.  It seems now, with these budding first grade friendships forever frozen, a respectful tribute of sorts.

There are three main considerations of peer relationships in elementary school as they apply to students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).  First, that they are a necessary part of social-emotional development and mental health.  Second, that they will exist, but perhaps to a differing depth and breadth than their neurotypical (NT) peers will experience.  And finally, that they should be specifically developed and nurtured for mutual benefit.

As we look at the determinants of quality of life for adults living with autism, we notice that connections in the community are key.  Jobs, recreational opportunities, and social/familial relationships help us, whether we have typically-wired brains or not.  Learning to form and derive enjoyment from these connections starts in elementary school.  Tony Attwood, author of The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome and a world-renowned clinical psychologist specializing in the treatment of individuals with ASD, notes that the ages of 4 to 6 years are critical for motivating these early friendship skills.  While social impairment is a diagnostic criteria for an ASD diagnosis, it doesn't mean that relationships are less important to the development of someone with autism.  It helps to understand, however, that these relationships may look different than those between NT peers.

Many individuals with autism prefer to interact with people either younger or much older than they.  In the case of elementary school students, the 3rd grader may gravitate toward 1st graders on the playground; or the 2nd grader may bond with his speech-language pathologist versus his classmate.  In the case of the former, delayed social maturity may play a role, as well as a sense of competence around less-complicated unwritten social rules.  For the student who prefers to socialize with adults, contributing factors could include a penchant for specialized conversational topics (i.e., migratory patterns of birds or dinosaurs of the Mesozoic Era), an acceptance or level of patience not experienced among peers, or a gravitation to the familiar (in the instance of children receiving many hours per week of adult-driven therapies and interventions).

Whatever those early connections are, channel them into platforms for generalizing positive social behaviors.  Speech therapists can use the foundations of these friendships to seed new social skills, such as turn taking in conversation or noticing tone of voice and body language.  Since words only account for (at best) a third of our communication, "speech" skills are inextricably tied to these social nuances so elusive to our friends with autism.

So maybe elementary school-aged children with autism might not have the quantity of friends their NT classmates have, but the quality of their early friendships is immeasurable.  They are the building blocks of critical social development, eventually contributing toward peer acceptance and positive self-image.

And we should not ignore the benefit that students with typical brain development derive from these opportunities to learn, relate, and grow.  One of my son's very first friends was able to decrease his own school-related anxiety by focusing on the help he provided to my boy.  Studies on Peer-Mediated Instruction and Intervention programs have demonstrated that specifically-trained mentors achieve better academically and feel more fulfilled because of their engagement in these relationships.  They become less self-absorbed and more empathetic.  They develop leadership skills and flexibility -- traits which will eventually make them more employable, as well.

Ultimately, children with autism should have a spectrum of friends: ones they can share their special interests with, ones who help them be the best social being they can be by gently pushing development of new skills, ones they can feel competent with at their social-emotional level, and ones who accept them right where they're at, regardless of outward manifestations of their autism.  Are we as NTs any different in our need for a diverse friend base?

Social emotional matters

Don't worry.  I'm not going to make you lie on the couch of psychoanalysis for this blog posting.  But I do want you to reflect for a moment.  Depending on how old you are, I'm going to require you blow some dust off the box of memories in your brain and open up to the cards that hold your elementary school experiences.  What are you thinking about?  The smell of that new box of crayons?  The exultation of finally tying your shoes by yourself?  The way Tommy pulled that girl's hair at recess?  The time you forgot to zip your pants after returning from the bathroom and having a classmate point out your mistake in a not-so-discreet way?

I'm guessing not many of you went right to the math lesson card.  Or the correct sentence structure page.  Because the experiences that stick with us have some sensory and/or social-emotional basis.  I marvel at teachers and administrators who have such tunnel vision for academic learning that they deliberately carve away character-building curricular elements.  For these individuals, teaching to the tests is all-consuming.  There is no room for humanity.  This makes me sad.

If we don't teach social-emotional skills with the same fervor we teach academics, we risk releasing to the community young adults who can complete a task without regard for how to manage themselves in a sphere of reference to their environment.  If you need an evidence basis for the importance of social-emotional learning, check out CASEL.

Our students with autism are entitled to the same benefits of social-emotional learning.  Many prioritized lists by educational autism experts show the learning of new academic skills below elements like effective communication, self-regulation (from a sensory and emotional standpoint), and social understanding.  Building skills and practice of healthy social-emotional behaviors into an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) are important practices if we want good life-long outcomes.

At Good Friend, Inc., we believe that peer sensitivity training and peer mentors are crucial aspects of a classroom inclusive of a child with autism.  Give us an opportunity to show you why!