I bet the title of this blog post caught your attention at this frenetic time of year!  I hope everyone is doing well with last-minute preparations for the Summer Library Program, and are ready to let it rip and have a great time.

The post is actually a nugget of information I gleaned from the Autism Conference I attended earlier this month.  The closing keynote presenter, Nicole Beurkens, talked about the importance of making adjustments when communicating with someone on the spectrum.  Making meaning of communication is a challenge, as processing information takes longer for many people on the spectrum.

• One person in the audience talked about one of his students, who has a 17 second delay between someone telling or asking him something, and when he is able to respond.  The teacher just counts to himself to keep from interrupting his student’s processing time.
• If you continue to repeat or rephrase the question or statement, this doesn’t help the person who is struggling to process the first thing you said, it just adds more that needs to be processed.
• Some strategies for communication include:
  • Stay Calm
  • Slow Down
  • Speak Less
  • Share More (decrease demands)
  • Simplify
  • Stop and Wait
• Dr. Beurkens shared a video clip from a television show called Brain Rush to demonstrate what it might be like for a person with sensory sensitivity to take in and make meaning of information.

This seems like a useful thing to remember:  Stop and wait!  Pause!