Thanks for providing the perspective, Laura. I agree that changes in policies and practices are needed. I hope we can identify measures of increasing independence and competence that will allow us to assess whether any changes that we all (parents, educators, policy makers, etc.) make actually help "move the needle" in beneficial directions. How will we know if what we're doing is working?
Great question, John! We can assess progress in a lot of different ways: number of young people with autism in college and employed, number of students with autism in mainstream classrooms, decreased expenditures, surveys of parents and individuals, number of individuals living independently in safe conditions, and so much more. There are already tons of assessment tools for measuring independence and social skills. We don't need to change them, just use them more often.
Thanks for the observations about outcomes, Laura. Those you mentioned are good ones, especially for long-term effects. And though I know about assessment tools for social skills, for example, I'd also like to think about some metric (or combination of metrics) that we can use to measure progress along the way to employment, independent living, meaningful social interactions, and such. I think we need measures that we can collect repeatedly for years, plot on a graph, and analyze the curves to examine progress, and say, "Yay, things are going well" or "Uh-oh, things aren't so hot...we need to do something different."
Thanks for providing the perspective, Laura. I agree that changes in policies and practices are needed. I hope we can identify measures of increasing independence and competence that will allow us to assess whether any changes that we all (parents, educators, policy makers, etc.) make actually help "move the needle" in beneficial directions. How will we know if what we're doing is working?
Great question, John! We can assess progress in a lot of different ways: number of young people with autism in college and employed, number of students with autism in mainstream classrooms, decreased expenditures, surveys of parents and individuals, number of individuals living independently in safe conditions, and so much more. There are already tons of assessment tools for measuring independence and social skills. We don't need to change them, just use them more often.
Thanks for the observations about outcomes, Laura. Those you mentioned are good ones, especially for long-term effects. And though I know about assessment tools for social skills, for example, I'd also like to think about some metric (or combination of metrics) that we can use to measure progress along the way to employment, independent living, meaningful social interactions, and such. I think we need measures that we can collect repeatedly for years, plot on a graph, and analyze the curves to examine progress, and say, "Yay, things are going well" or "Uh-oh, things aren't so hot...we need to do something different."