According to the latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in the United States are rising—with about 1 in 36 children and 1 in 45 adults being diagnosed with ASD. As more individuals navigate their world with autism, it’s important that true acceptance—not simply awareness—is at the forefront of the conversation not just during Autism Acceptance Month, but throughout the year.
The following are three examples of how people, communities, and companies are promoting greater acceptance of individuals with ASD.
Training first responders
One in every 5 individuals with autism will interact with a police officer before they turn 21 years old. Adequately training emergency personnel to work with neurodiverse individuals is essential to creating protocols in a way that best support the needs of a person with autism.
Recent research from Australia demonstrates that many individuals with autism report negative experiences with law enforcement as well as limited understanding of the events surrounding those experiences.
The York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office in Virginia began a program last April to help its deputies to better interact with people who have autism. In addition to training their staff on ASD awareness, the department provides decals to drivers as well as a form they can fill out to inform first responders that someone in the house may have autism. This has led to more positive interactions and better understanding in the community.
Fighting misinformation online
Although more people are turning to social media for information on ASD, new research out of Drexel University delves into the accuracy of that information. Researchers found that 41% of the autism content found on Tik Tok was inaccurate. Moreover, there was no significant difference in engagement between accurate and inaccurate or overgeneralized videos, meaning misinformation and false content is being consumed and spread widely.
It’s important for providers and professionals to be aware of the autism-related content that is available and understand the amount of misinformation to better engage with people who may be getting much of their content from social media. By better understanding the questions that people are asking that lead them to Tik Tok for answers, clinicians can learn what information is needed and provide knowledgeable and research-based answers.
Creating autism-friendly workplaces
Companies are realizing the importance of creating spaces that are designed with individuals with autism in mind. Individuals with neurodiversity are important parts of the workforce and many organizations are realizing how critical it is to design office spaces that are sensory friendly. This may mean avoiding open-concept or cubicle setups or creating calm, quiet areas where employees can go when they feel overstimulated. Simple swaps—like using lamps instead of fluorescent lighting—are being made in many offices to create a more autism-friendly environment.
PAR understands how important early intervention and identification are when it comes to an ASD diagnosis. Learn more about the PDD Behavior Inventory™ (PDDBI™) family of products and how it can help screen, diagnose, monitor, and intervene throughout the life span.
Visit PAR Training for on-demand autism assessment information
Looking for training on autism assessments? PAR Training offers on-demand webinars and interactive courses on your schedule. Browse our library of autism content, including:
Learning is essential for human development. From kindergarten through college, students must learn and remember an incredible amount of knowledge and skills. Although learning extends beyond the school years, the amount and intensity of learning that children, adolescents, and young adults are exposed is never equaled later in life. Learning is critical to development.
Yet many children struggle with learning and memory problems. This can be a concern when a child is referred for an assessment of learning problems. Cognitive difficulties can frequently be found in children diagnosed with:
Despite the importance of memory and learning, many clinicians use only IQ and achievement tests to determine the causes of learning problems. Although many IQ tests address working memory, working memory focuses on briefly stored information. Very few IQ tests are designed to address longer-term retention, which is a critical component to classroom learning and academic success.
What can be done to address memory concerns in students?
Students who are not able to convert information from their working memory into long-term storage may be unable to learn in school and can have issues beyond the classroom— socially, occupationally, and behaviorally.
Pairing a memory test with achievement and IQ tests can help clinicians make more accurate diagnoses and create better recommendations and interventions. Memory assessment also can help to differentiate between conditions that are associated with memory problems (e.g., language impairment, learning disability, ASD) and those that are related to other domains, such as sustained attention or working memory (e.g., ADHD).
Memory testing also helps identify individual cognitive profiles in conditions where memory problems may coexist with other cognitive problems, such as in developmental disorders, or with neurological disorders such as traumatic brain injury.
Moreover, by identifying each child’s unique profile of learning strengths and weaknesses, memory assessment provides critical pathways for establishing compensatory strategies and creating appropriate accommodations in the classroom and at home. For example, by determining if a child is a better visual or verbal learner, clinicians obtain valuable information on strengths and weaknesses in that child’s learning.
Rethinking the role of memory
Though people tend to think about memory in relation to its ability for encoding and recollection, ultimately, its role is to help individuals to accurately predict future events and make sound decisions for the future based on stored knowledge. When you think about memory using this perspective, assessing a child’s current capacity for learning provides a way to measure future capacity for school and work performance. It is also an important way to identify areas where a student may benefit from remediation and support.
How to choose the best test of memory for your school-age clients
If you are considering adding a memory test to your battery, here are some things to consider.
A good memory test should:
(1) be able to assess a wide range of examinees referred for learning and academic problems, addressing the needs of school-aged children through young adults;
(2) be appropriate for use with both healthy examinees who may have minor learning delays as well as for those with multiple neurological and medical problems;
(3) offer portability and convenience for different settings;
(4) be suitable for both brief screenings and comprehensive psychoeducational and neuropsychological assessment;
(5) captivate the attention of distractible or very young examinees;
(6) offer relevancy to the daily lives of the children and young adults;
(7) include results that lead to recommendations across both home and school environments;
(8) accurately identify examinees whose low scores are due to behavioral, motivational, or emotional problems; and
(9) be usable with children who have motor or other impairments unrelated to memory.
A good test of memory can do all these things and more. Thinking about adding a memory test to your battery? Learn more about the Child and Adolescent Memory Profile (ChAMP).
Will you be heading to New Orleans for the 2024 American Counseling Association (ACA) Annual Conference? PAR will be exhibiting there for the first time ever. Be sure to stop by the booth and catch up with our clinical assessment advisors who can help personalize your assessment experience.
Whether you are looking for insight into the latest tests, learning more about taking your assessment process online, or seeking training opportunities, Melissa Milanak, PhD, and Sadiqa Cash, PhD, will be on site and are looking to connect with you in New Orleans.
While you are there, be sure to ask them about:
We are so excited to see you at ACA 2024—be sure to stop by the booth to learn how PAR can help you.
Learn more about the ACA Conference. Find out more about what PAR Healthcare can do to serve your assessment needs.