We’re all spending lots of time at home during COVID. Most of us are cooking more than ever and eating most of our meals at home. This is a great opportunity to teach your loved one with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HF-ASD) a few kitchen skills.
Most individuals with HF-ASD are on a regular diploma track in school. However, just because they graduate from high school with a regular diploma or attend college or graduate school, does NOT mean that he/she will have learned sufficient independent living skills.
Independent living skills, typically, are not taught to individuals with ‘normal’ IQs. For example, these skills may include making phone calls; carrying your ID, a debit card, or cash when leaving the house; knowing when physical symptoms are significant enough to see a doctor or call 911. Neurotypicals, individuals NOT on the autism spectrum, do not necessarily need explicit instruction and practice to develop these skills because they tend to learn by observing others and asking questions. However, individuals with ASD often need explicit instruction to learn these skills.
The home environment is the natural environment for teaching these skills. This list includes 12 household chores to work on with your loved one in the kitchen:
- Set the table
- Empty the trash
- Insert a new trash bag
- Clear the table
- Put food items away and identify the amount of food worth saving
- Pick a container and transfer food to that container
- Determine whether items go in the refrigerator or pantry
- Do the dishes, which also includes the below tasks:
- Handle dishes with care
- Handle knives carefully
- Rinse items sufficiently
- Identify what goes in the dishwasher and where to place them
- Wipe off counters
- Place sponges, wet dish rags, and towels in the correct place
- Sanitize a sponge
- Unload the dishwasher
Individuals with ASD tend to have problems with over-generalizing or under-generalizing skills or concepts. For example, one woman with ASD got in trouble for graffiti; however, she thought that they meant that she should not put graffiti on that ONE wall. Many years ago, I was teaching my young son with HF-ASD to empty trash. I usually bought the trash bags that have a drawstring; however, this time I bought the cheaper ones where the ends needed to be tied together. He had no idea what to do. A similar problem occurred when I asked him to clean our glass table with Windex. Apparently, I bought a generic glass cleaner, so he didn’t didn’t put it together that Windex is also a glass cleaner, so he could use it to clean the table. Individuals with ASD can find it challenging to learn these skills when there is a slight change in the materials or instructions. However, we often overlook how these challenges affect learning all types of tasks. .
I was recently at a party with several children with ASD. Nine-year-old Mark, was asked to help return items to the refrigerator. He walked into the kitchen, looked at the refrigerator and asked, “Is this the refrigerator?” His mother immediately understood that he was confused because their refrigerator at home has the freezer compartment on top, and this was a side-by-side refrigerator.
One of the families I work with was recently relaying a story to me about their daughter, Lisette. Lisette was helping clear the table and put the food away. They had spaghetti for dinner and Lisette had four strands of spaghetti on her plate. She asked her mother whether she was supposed to (a) find a container and save it, or (b) throw it away.
Sometimes I have to remind myself of how hard our loved ones on the spectrum work on understanding what we want them to do. Remembering this, helps me plan teachable moments; however ONLY when I am in a “patient” state of mind. That would be my advice to you, as well.
Here are 7 teaching tips to remember:
- Always evaluate whether this is a good time for an instructional moment.
- Make NUMEROUS positive statements for every ONE correctional statement.
- Use very few correctional statements.
- Look and listen carefully! People on the spectrum get stuck in all kinds of ways.
- The whole lesson may take less than one minute.
- Be realistic! You can only work on a limited number of skills at a time.
- Try to end on a positive note!
We know this time is unsettling, and downright scary. Let’s be honest, it’s even harder for families who have a loved one with ASD. Please know that we are here to support you and help you through this challenging time, and give you the tools you need to keep moving forward. We offer free 30-minute consultations and virtual consulting.
Dr. Diane Adreon is an internationally recognized autism expert, award-winning author, and public speaker. For more information on her consulting services, contact her at 929.249.1960.