In the same ABA session that explained and defined House Rules, James' Team also covered Community Rules, or CRs. The CRs are to address safety issues, such as not walking into the street, keeping his seat belt buckled when riding in a car, and using Friendly Language.
Yesterday James and I used these CRs on the drive to get hair cuts, the hair cut appointments, and the drive back down home. They were in use again when we drove to our in-person ABA Social Group and home again. It wasn't a complete reversal of the negative behaviours and scripting that we've been struggling with recently, but it did make things much smoother and calmer.
As James heads to adulthood, it's more important than ever that I do what I can to help set him up for success, which I see as living as independent a life as possible, enjoying the activities he likes with a productive routine and a good support group.
I am so grateful there is a young adult peer group that he can join. In general I feel this is crucial for teens, people on the spectrum even more, and James in particular, as he is a social and curious guy. In the past, I have seen great benefits to James from social modeling that comes from in inclusion. I think being able to participate in regular summer day camps, swim lessons, and classrooms really helped him understand and and develop not only language, but turn taking, chore performance, and the ability to play with others. I feel all this has enriched his life.
Even though he is almost an adult, he is still testing the limits, and these rules are a good transition between unspoken rules in younger/smaller settings to more adult classrooms and work environments, where rules have to be spelled out and adults are expected to follow them.
Autism Speaks has a nice page that discusses Social Skills and Autism in easy-to-understand detail and also provides resources.
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