Autism with a Grain of Salt

I started this page while I was still living in Tecate with the intention of creating a support/social/vocational skills group for neurodivergent youth. Since then, much has changed and now I find myself in Arizona. This past year, I worked part time as a resource teacher at my local school and homeschooled my daughter and niece in the afternoon. It was a huge change from the moderate/severe high school I taught at in CA, which allowed me the freedom to teach in an out-of-the-box way. I have to admit that there is a learning curve to shedding a lifetime of being programmed to teach in a certain way. But as the year progressed I was able to embrace learning through experience, while capitalizing on natural opportunity and passion. Our year was one of many triumphs and of course much learning. Here are some of the highlights from the year:

-Harvested Rosemary and created essential oils and room sprays
-Sold our products at the Farmer's market
-Planted garlic, harvested, and used it in recipes
-planted cucumber!
-made soup on for the unsheltered, packaged, and delivered
-Recycled
-Wrote a letter to the Director of Heard Museum and got a personal tour to see a particular peace of art in the archive
-Earned Fun Friday's where we budgeted our money and went on adventures
-Lots of trips to the library, park, and trampoline park
-Bought a class fish! Learned about Bettas, budgeted, purchased, cared for.

Some of the skills we learned/topics we learned about:

-Hygiene routines! Learning to brush long hair was a HUGE accomplishment!
-Daily chores–we focused on one household chore per month, learned it systematically
-Composing an email
-Basic Recipes/independent meal prep
-Increasing our typing wpm
-Self advocacy
-Lots of money math! Coming up with a business plan for our Rosemary sales at the market opened the opportunity to learn many math skills in a functional way!
-Money from sales was used for our Fun Friday budget
-Money math and budgeting on every Fun Friday outing
-Plant science
-Body Systems
-Various animals
-Sketching
-Bracelet making
-Puberty!
-Grade level reading, writing, math
-So much ore I can’t think about.

Needless to say, I am very happy with how the year blossomed and excited for the next. I would like to expand our trio to include a few more and do more things in the community including volunteering and more time in the Farmer’s Market selling out items.
Stay tuned. More to come soon!

Over the past 19 years I have continually been surprised by how much non speaking individuals on the spectrum know. I would always arrogantly assume that I understood a student’s abilities only to be surprised time and time again. I finally learned to assume each student knew far more than what was initially apparent. As they say in the film, I leaned to “presume competence.”

The documentary, Spellers, is a complete game changer. It is a must see for all families, teachers, and providers, working in the Autism world (and Down Syndrome—while not referenced as much, the DS community is also represented in the documentary). It turns things upside down and is beyond exciting.

Spellers The Movie won best documentary at the Phoenix Film Festival and can be seen today at this link (it starts around the 5 minute mark and can only be seen at this link today). There is also a Q&A with the cast afterward that is a must see.

I plan on sharing more of my thoughts later. Today, just watch it!!

Watch Watch live here every Thursday at 11 PM PT (2 PM ET) and catch up on past episodes and episode segments.

Hola buenas tardes! Si su hijo va a asistir a la caminata mañana por favor mándame un mensaje o comenta aquí. Me gustaría saber cuantos personas esperar. Gracias!

Para jóvenes de 13 años y mayores este Sábado!! Si tienes preguntas manda inbox!!

Hola amigos de Tecate! Estoy planeando una salida para jóvenes con Autismo (también los amigos nerotipicos son bienvenidos) con el propósito de divertirnos y hacer nuevos amigos! El primer salida quiero hacer para jóvenes de 13 años y adelante. Estoy pensando en ir al Parque de Profesor para caminar y practicar “mindfulness” y después ir al cine. Si están interesados comenta aquí o manda un email a [email protected].

Hello and welcome to my new page! My intention is to be of service to the Autism community while eventually making a living for myself and family. I want to offer my knowledge and personalized flavor of interacting with the world of Autism. The past 18 years have taught me that you cannot put Autism in a box. It is indeed a SPECTRUM. This is a safe space for the entire community. I understand that there are many individuals on the spectrum who want to be fully accepted and find societal pressure to change offensive. I respect you, and I see you. I also respect the individuals and families who, at times, feel adversely affected by Autism. I am talking about regressive Autism. I am talking about the Autism that isn't portrayed on TV shows: the tantrums, the self-injurious behavior, the aggression, the diapers, the never ending medical issues. I respect you, and I see you. The ENTIRE spectrum is welcome here. However, I want to be clear from the get-go that I will not tolerate any judgement of another's journey based on your own experience. So please, no overarching generalizations; Autism is personal and unique.

This page is a work in progress as I am still feeling my way through it. The plan is to offer some community outings for teens on the spectrum. The primary goal is to have fun, make friends, and create an environment where learning will flow organically. I'm also open to teaching specific skills in a small group setting. We'll see where it takes us!

So, why 'Autism with a Grain of Salt'? My experience has taught me that everything we think we know about an individual on the spectrum--

Every expert's opinion

Every generalization

Every assumption regarding an Autistic individual's potential/understanding/level of intelligence

Every standardized and even diagnostic test

Every single attempt to place an individual with Autism in a box

--should be taken with a grain of salt.
Plus, I thought it sounded cool.

Stay tuned and please drop me a line if you have any ideas or need support in a particular area.

You can also reach me at [email protected].

Much love,
Tasia