'Agricultural specialisterne': rural employment revolution for those with Autism

[Visionary7903]

…Complicating matters is that frequently the social contract that Specialisterne maintains with their consultants goes beyond what would be normal in traditional tech-oriented companies. This arises from ideological and pragmatic reasons. As mentioned, many people with [Autism Spectrum Disorders] endure other complications in their private lives that result from their difficulties with social interaction. Often, the Specialisterne pedagogues will make extra efforts above and beyond normal duties in an effort to help their consultants resolve any complications in their private lives, and this often translates into additional stress for everyone. For example, we had one employee who suffered from depression and simply did not show up for work for a month. Instead of terminating the employee, we actively went in to help improve matters and encourage the employee to return to the job. Our social mission and values require that we do this…

(source: http://specialisterne.com/dk/wp-content/uploads/MIT-press-journal.pdf)

Why might people with Autism Spectrum Disorders be prone to more ‘off days’ (and even ‘off weeks’ as in the above quote) than the rest of the population?

One issue is that they are often highly sensitive. This could mean that they are extra-sensitive to loud noise, to certain textures, to bright lights and various other things such as sleep-related problems. Any one of these things may put them off track, resulting in ‘off days’ or just more time in a day when individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders are far from their best.

Lessening the number of ‘off days’ is probably possible for someone with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. However it is far from a perfect process and there are likely to always be ‘off’ days in a given period (more so than in the neurotypical population anyway).

A process of continuous improvement is likely to give the greatest results in terms of limiting (rather than completely eliminating) ‘off’ days. Ensuring interventions are journaled properly should also result in the more successful ones being utilised properly - see my post on the AutismTrack mobile journaling program for a useful tool in that regard.

16-year-old Ahskay understood the importance of trying to improve an approach he took that is already quite successful (in teaching an Autistic child to play tennis)…

…I think that in the future, the one thing I need to keep in mind is not to be as rigid with the schedule and techniques. Based on information that I accumulated, I thought that Asa would respond better to a rigid schedule and instructions. For the most part, that does seem to work (his mom thinks that this requires him to focus at the lesson, so that he is more focused when he returns home after the lesson). However, Asa has consistently reported that he does not like to use his left hand on top of his right to hit, and I have been insisting that he does, which sometimes causes a temper tantrum. I think that in order for him to continue getting benefit from tennis to change behaviors in the long term; I will have to be flexible.
Also, as he gets stronger, he may be more willing to use his left arm.

For the future, I would like to introduce more coordination and strength activities in Asa’s program. I also would like to expand the program to more children, to be able to assess if there is a change in interactive behavior with tennis lessons. I would also like to develop some more formal guidelines for
measurement of the outcomes of the program…

(source: http://www.epdtennis.com/pages/paepd/pdfs/Feature%20Story.pdf)