The sun is hanging long in the western sky these days. Longer daylight hours are a good thing. With the school year coming to an end our family is rushing from one child’s teenage event to another. Sometimes you wonder when it will ever end. But I know that day will come too soon.
As I dash from one meeting to another I sometimes learn something. During the prior evening sandwiched somewhere between a Vito sub at Jimmy John’s and picking up the Moose from Elevation Hockey, Taking Your Game to the Next Level training I learned some facts about the Autism Spectrum that surprised me.
In the space between other events last night I went to a meeting with a local autism awareness group. The speaker was talking about a program designed to deal with and develop social skill strategies needed to maintain normal ritualized contact. The nuances of the handshake, the greetings, the negotiations of where to go to lunch that invariably come in the workplace are things this group tries to provide guidance and experience with.
According to the speaker only about 12 % of the people on the spectrum maintain full time employment. He cited his statistic source but I didn’t write it down. Other statistics about abuse physical and financial were even more disheartening. In the conversation about employment the speaker indicated the issue for a person like my son who has Aspergers was not the ability to perform the work. ASD people apparently work very well at job tasks.
The problems come up for people on the spectrum in transportation to/from work (and movement around the facility) and with dealing with the required social contacts in the workplace. Neurotypical people don’t deal very well with the manifestations of ASD such as the lack of initiation of eye and other social contact. Conversations can die on the vine with persons on the spectrum. Having an interaction just peter out frustrates “normal” people and they become dissuaded from attempting further contact even on important and meaningful issues. This inability of the general population to be adaptive may become a major problem as time goes on because the spectrum population is growing.
According to the speaker 1 in every 54 boys in America is now falling somewhere on the spectrum. I have seen a statistic that in South Korea the rate is approaching 2.6 % of the juvenile population. To quote from the New York Times, “Among the children with autism spectrum disorder in regular schools, only 16 percent were intellectually disabled, more than two-thirds had a milder form of autism, and the ratio of boys to girls was unusually low: 2.5 to 1. In addition, 12 percent of these children had a superior I.Q. — a higher proportion than found in the general population.” Wallis, Study in Korea Puts Autism’s Prevalence at 2.6%, Surprising Experts May 9, 2011.
What we need are not just programs for persons on the spectrum teaching them how to pass themselves off as “ok” in a neurotypical world. We also need programs for employers and managers in all size level of companies on how to adapt to and accommodate ASD workers. We need training for staff in the workplace about respecting the differences that ASD persons have in how they approach social contact and work performance. Just looking at a business perspective I don’t think we can ignore 2% of our potential workforce if we want to stay competitive. Especially given that the level of higher IQ in this group is greater than in the general population. We will be throwing away/wasting a great deal of talent for innovation if we don’t come to terms with this growing group.
[I have used the term neurotypical a number of times here. I also know I have used it in prior posts. Just to be clear this is what the words current usage seems to mean and I am quoting Wikipedia, “Neurotypical (or NT) is a term that was coined in the autistic community as a label for people who are not on the autism spectrum: specifically, neurotypical people have neurological development and states that are consistent with what most people would perceive as normal, particularly with respect to their ability to process linguistic information and social cues.]
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Monday, April 23, 2012
Monday morning
This is springtime as I remember it in Michigan. According to my trusty iPhone for temperature is 34 degrees on April 23. Clear crisp air fills my lungs and the road at my left as I walk west is busy.
Today will be a franticday. I took my files home over the weekend for review. My plan was to prepare for today's work. Somehow I took the wrong files. On the bright side I am so prepared for Thursday and Friday's work. I will need to rush at the start of this morning to prepare for today's work.
There'll be phone calls throughout the day. I have a school board meeting tonight and a number of large financial issues are on the table. The meeting when it convenience will be contentious. It would have been better to get some more sleep last night. C'est la vie.
Today will be a franticday. I took my files home over the weekend for review. My plan was to prepare for today's work. Somehow I took the wrong files. On the bright side I am so prepared for Thursday and Friday's work. I will need to rush at the start of this morning to prepare for today's work.
There'll be phone calls throughout the day. I have a school board meeting tonight and a number of large financial issues are on the table. The meeting when it convenience will be contentious. It would have been better to get some more sleep last night. C'est la vie.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
The smell of wood smoke clinging
In order to upgrade my health I have been walking about 40 minutes a day. Mostly I walk routes that I have to travel to get to or from the usual and ordinary events of my life. If I am not walking to work or to the library or to the school I have a set route back-and-forth up and down through my neighborhood.
I like the route that I walk, it is comfortable like an old well-worn coat. I tend to walk shortly after sunset. On a clear night like tonight there're pink wispy traces of clouds in lines across the sky. The streets tend to be empty and there is comfort in fact. There is a subtle joy walking for 30 or so minutes on the night like this.
Whether the walk does my body any physical good it definitely does my soul some spiritual good. It gives me a chance to set aside the thoughts that are picking and pulling at my energies. It gives me a chance to lose myself in a larger reality.
Tonight someone must be heating their home with a fire. The air smells of woodsmoke It reminds me of camping in the north woods along the lake shore. It reminds me of an Elton John song called Indian sunset. The smell of the woodsmoke is comforting and pleasant my senses.
Some joys are very simple like the memories come from smells in the evenings air.
.
I like the route that I walk, it is comfortable like an old well-worn coat. I tend to walk shortly after sunset. On a clear night like tonight there're pink wispy traces of clouds in lines across the sky. The streets tend to be empty and there is comfort in fact. There is a subtle joy walking for 30 or so minutes on the night like this.
Whether the walk does my body any physical good it definitely does my soul some spiritual good. It gives me a chance to set aside the thoughts that are picking and pulling at my energies. It gives me a chance to lose myself in a larger reality.
Tonight someone must be heating their home with a fire. The air smells of woodsmoke It reminds me of camping in the north woods along the lake shore. It reminds me of an Elton John song called Indian sunset. The smell of the woodsmoke is comforting and pleasant my senses.
Some joys are very simple like the memories come from smells in the evenings air.
.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Birthday tomorrow
Every year around this time I begin to make commitments. Tomorrow Friday, April 20 will be my birthday. Much like what happens at New Year's Eve I make promises to myself to change, to improve and to otherwise act in a more
appropriate manner. Alas I am as human as I always have been. Most of the change has never come to fruition.
Still I am an optimist. Maybe this year will be different. I need to lose a little weight. I am walking about an hour a day right now. This is good. It shows somewhat of a commitment toward real change. Every day can be a starting point. People do reinvent themselves. I don't see many of them that our successes in my line of work. Still on occasion there are people have changed and the change is for the better.
appropriate manner. Alas I am as human as I always have been. Most of the change has never come to fruition.
Still I am an optimist. Maybe this year will be different. I need to lose a little weight. I am walking about an hour a day right now. This is good. It shows somewhat of a commitment toward real change. Every day can be a starting point. People do reinvent themselves. I don't see many of them that our successes in my line of work. Still on occasion there are people have changed and the change is for the better.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Memo to self
Turn off the clicking sound on the iPhone camera.
As i was riding on the bus today I took a picture of the people behind me. It was an articulated bus and I was standing by the first of the two rear doors. When the click noise went off the woman holding the rail on the other side of the door turned around and gave me a dirty look. It seems she thought I was snapping a photo of her ass. Geez.
As i was riding on the bus today I took a picture of the people behind me. It was an articulated bus and I was standing by the first of the two rear doors. When the click noise went off the woman holding the rail on the other side of the door turned around and gave me a dirty look. It seems she thought I was snapping a photo of her ass. Geez.
Bus stop and we are sky blue hopeful
No matter how hard we try in life to be on time if seems that events conspire to slow us down. On Wednesday mornings Secundus has an advanced English course on the campus of Michigan State. this mean that to obtain full credit he must be there butt in seat by 8 AM. This requires a little preplanning. Plans are fallible.
This morning my lethargy combined with secundus's failure finish his paper last night slowed the entire process down. As a result I just sent mom and the lad off without having them drop me at my office.
It gave me the opportunity to walk with my older son for part way to his school. It was sort of like walking with Gary Cooper in an old Western movie. There was a cowboy hat and not a lot of dialogue. Still it was an opportunity I have not had since he had been in grade school. I savored the moment.
Years fly by so fast. It has been a long time since I have access to the sense of time infinite and unending and of potential unlimited. I have traded that for a belief in the expansive capacity of the heart. I may get discouraged. I may get cynical from time to time. But still I believe. A walk with a man in a cowboy hat who still has time for the happiness found in kicking rocks around on his way to school
remindsyou there is hope for the future.
This morning my lethargy combined with secundus's failure finish his paper last night slowed the entire process down. As a result I just sent mom and the lad off without having them drop me at my office.
It gave me the opportunity to walk with my older son for part way to his school. It was sort of like walking with Gary Cooper in an old Western movie. There was a cowboy hat and not a lot of dialogue. Still it was an opportunity I have not had since he had been in grade school. I savored the moment.
Years fly by so fast. It has been a long time since I have access to the sense of time infinite and unending and of potential unlimited. I have traded that for a belief in the expansive capacity of the heart. I may get discouraged. I may get cynical from time to time. But still I believe. A walk with a man in a cowboy hat who still has time for the happiness found in kicking rocks around on his way to school
remindsyou there is hope for the future.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Walking in Light
Over the past week I've been walking the last 10 minutes' distance to work. This has not come about by accident. My cardiologist mentioned that I had gained 10 pounds. He was not pleased. I told him that I have not been feeling well enough for extended walks. He responded by pointing out that it's a very nasty cycle. Do the exercise or lose the ability to do the exercise.
Off I went. I've been walking every day unless the rain is pouring.
Today as I am walking the air temperature is at 34°. That's relatively cold for April. I have my hands stuffed in my pockets. One hand is holding onto a coffee cup trying to make sure it does not spill in my down vest. At least that hand is warm.
As I am walking I am watching the light play off the trees, the bushes, the road surface and the tinted glass of the office building windows. Traveling by car you forget the little pockets of illumination that are hidden along a mile of roadway. You just flash by with no focus on what's around you. Walking the flow of light, the legacy of light is before you at every step.
It can be in a small puddle near a curb cut or it could be in the light playing around bushes at the edge of the property boundary that you see it. There is something of the divine to be captured in the morning's light.
Off I went. I've been walking every day unless the rain is pouring.
Today as I am walking the air temperature is at 34°. That's relatively cold for April. I have my hands stuffed in my pockets. One hand is holding onto a coffee cup trying to make sure it does not spill in my down vest. At least that hand is warm.
As I am walking I am watching the light play off the trees, the bushes, the road surface and the tinted glass of the office building windows. Traveling by car you forget the little pockets of illumination that are hidden along a mile of roadway. You just flash by with no focus on what's around you. Walking the flow of light, the legacy of light is before you at every step.
It can be in a small puddle near a curb cut or it could be in the light playing around bushes at the edge of the property boundary that you see it. There is something of the divine to be captured in the morning's light.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)