He learned Adobe  Illustrator in about 10 minutes, while my other students are still  learning how to use it! This student loves to draw and color using the  computer, and he is very good at it.

His parents and I would really like  to see if he could make this a possible career, and what direction we need  to persuade him to go.

Can you help?

Thanks for your time.
 Scott

Does anyone out there have any information or ideas for Scott? Please leave them in the comments section.

He also sent a link to this video the student created – he’s very talented!

We are the only student written newspaper in the state of Wisconsin that the paper is written only by the students from the high school and some from the middle school too.

Here is my article; it took me 3-4 weeks of writing and editing and making it good. Hope you like it as much as I do.

Editor’s Note: While the “P-News Point of View” column usually features an opinion article written by a Pulaski News student, this issue, the column will feature a first-hand article about what it’s like to have autism and attend Pulaski High School.

My name is Jerrod Michael Zeitlin and I have a type of autism called Pervasive Development Disorder (PDD). No, you didn’t happen to just accidently wander into an autism anonymous meeting; this is my attempt to give you a glimpse into my world and the world of other students with autism. Everyday, my alarm goes off and around 6:15. I roll out of bed and begin preparing for school. I have to get dressed eat breakfast, take my medication, brush my teeth and put on my shoes.
While I’m on the bus, some of the kids try to bully me, but I refuse to fight them (I’m not that kind of person) so I just ignore them, the best I can, and wait until we get to school.
During first hour, I attend gym class. The biggest problem I have in gym is that I have trouble keeping up with my classmates. After recent foot surgeries, I am still limited by the pain and had to take a week off of gym. Even though I was able to rejoin my classmates a week later, I’ll still likely have to have more foot surgeries in the future.
Besides struggling because my surgeries, gym class is also hard because I don’t have any friends in this class and often I end up being paired with someone I don’t know to do activities like weight-lifting. For now, I just look at it as another obstacle I have to overcome. (Sometimes I feel that there’s an obstacle around every corner while I’m at school, but I just deal with it and keep going.)
After gym, I have business class. I like it, but it’s a bit fast-paced for me. I find the material interesting and enjoy the projects (one of our projects is to make our own business and I really like that) but sometimes I wish it was slower paced.
My next class is Pulaski News, and it’s my favorite class (and, no, I’m not just saying that because my article is in the paper) but I enjoy writing for a newspaper that is distributed throughout the public and enjoy the hands-on aspect of the class.
Passing time in-between classes is tough because there is a lot of noise and people hanging out and I wish I could join in their fun.
Fourth hour I have math class, however, I take math through an online program called Odyssey, which is nice because it reads the problems out loud. This is a big plus since sometimes reading more complicated material can be difficult for me.
I’m supposed to do my math work during fourth hour, but lately I’ve had to use that time to make up missed gym classes. I will have to be sure to catch up my math when my gym class is caught up. I worry about this a lot even though my teachers reassure me it will be okay.
During fifth hour, I have study hall, which is a nice chance to slow down and make sure I’m caught up on all of my work. At least that is how it is supposed to go. Sometimes it takes me a long time to catch up on my work so I don’t always finish my current work, so I often worry about completing everything on time.
Sixth hour I work in the school guidance office as part of my school’s work experience program. The program is designed to help students to prepare and develop skills that will help them once they’ve graduated from Pulaski High School. As part of my job description, I run passes to students and teachers, make copies and just generally help out in anyway I can.
The last hour of the day I have art class. I like the class and making the projects, but sometimes it’s a little difficult to keep up with my classmates who always seem to be a few steps ahead of me. I am trying to work through it the best I can. I know trying my best is all I can do, but it is hard to be okay with that.
Finally, at 2:48, the bell rings and I make my way to the buses to head home. I like to get on the bus first and get one of the back seats. I think I should get a back seat since I’m a senior. Sometimes the other students pick on me on the ride from school, but I just tough it out until I get home. A lot of time when I get home I need to rest and shoot hoops to help reduce stress from the school day.
While I know the education I am receiving as a student at PHS is important and necessary, I wish I had more of an opportunity to make more friends among my classmates. Often, other students are confused by my condition and do not know how to react to me.
This is especially difficult since PDD already makes it hard to meet new people and understand other people’s intentions. I think I have gotten better about it as I have gotten older, but it sometimes still bothers me.
While students with an ASD may require extra time and assistance in the classroom and a few other everyday situations, it’s important to remember that we still want to be treated normally, like everyone else; ask me about autism, I’m happy to talk about it. I want to help others understand ASD disorders.
My story is just one of the 730,000 individuals in America living with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). With no known cause, and so many variants of the disorder, it’s important to remember to treat those with ASD like “normal” people. As one of my favorite, famous individuals living with an ASD Temple Grandin says, “I am different, not less.”

With this in mind,  Autism Speaks  launched the Autism Speaks Transition Tool Kit, a unique guide and roadmap to help families on the journey from adolescence to adult life, in February 2011.

Autism Speaks gathered information and input from professionals and parents to develop the free Tool Kit.

According to the article on the Autism Speaks website (HERE), the kit “identifies opportunities and resources to develop these skills with the goal of enabling the adolescent or young adult to participate to the greatest extent possible in their own transition plan.”

Topics include:

• Transition Planning and the IEP process
• community life
• employment
• housing
• post secondary educational opportunities
• health
• internet safety
• issues surrounding sexuality
• a timeline and other organizational tools for the transition process

For more information, read the complete article here: http://www.autismspeaks.org/about-us/press-releases/autism-speaks-launches-transition-tool-kit-providing-practical-information-a

She says  ”I started writing about what it was like to raise a child with autism when it became clear to me that so few of my friends and even family understood my first born son’s behavior. In telling my story, I believe I have helped readers learn to tolerate the differences in others.”

About Matthew she says:

“Matthew now attends a day program that provides vocational training but is about to transition into a work program through Camphill California. Matthew loves garden work/ landscaping and has been doing it on a freelance basis for many years. He is GOOD at it and we are hoping a job coach can help him learn the practical work related stuff:

1) How to interact with employers

2) Following employers/customers instruction (and not just do what you are obsessed with!!)

3) Money management (and more stuff)”

Here’s an excerpt from A REGULAR GUY: GROWING UP WITH AUTISM…

My eighteen-year-old son told me urgently – we need to go to the hardware store. I took a deep breath. Another adventure with my autistic son was about to begin.

When we got to the store, Matthew rushed in and disappeared behind the shovels and the toilet seats. I followed, warily. Matthew reappeared with the orange extension cord he had in mind.

“Mom, give me the money and let me buy this–like I’m a regular man,” his forehead twisted with intensity.

I handed him a 20 and told him to meet me outside.

I stood behind Matthew in line, clutching a bottle of Elmer’s glue I had grabbed. He wanted me to look like a regular woman, anonymous to him, shopping at Ace Hardware. I watched as Matthew put the extension cord on the counter and handed the saleslady the 20-dollar bill.

She was Flo, an old timer, with a bouffant hairdo and eyebrows painted on. I saw the two of them having a little conversation, and could tell by the confused look on Flo’s face that she might need my help – but stood back to respect Matthew’s wishes.

After what seemed like an eternity, Matthew stepped outside and waited for me as I marched up to Flo, placing the glue on the counter.

“See that guy?” she whispered. I glanced outside and saw Matthew standing there with a self-satisfied look on his face. ” He’s got mental problems!”

Apparently he had asked her if rhododendrons were poisonous to goats.

When I told Flo that Matthew was my son, she looked mortified.

I explained to her that Matthew was autistic, and that he had instructed me to stand back so he could be like a regular guy at the store.

“I feel terrible!” she said, “But he must know he’s –different.” Knowing that Matthew’s hopes, dreams and lack of self-awareness would be too hard to explain, I shrugged and took my glue.

Flo didn’t know how many times I had said to Matthew, “If you want to be treated like a regular guy, you’ve got to act like a regular guy!” or “Regular guys don’t talk about poisonous plants all the time!” Unfortunately, social awkwardness is wired into Matthew’s brain, and no amount of instruction or reasoning was going to change that. I glanced at Matthew as we drove home, and could tell by the strange smile on his face that he had moved on from his “regular man” frame of mind to the absurd.

What would happen if Dad ate an oleander, he asked, and the lump that had been in my throat on and off since his birth returned. ***

To order a copy of A Regular Guy: Growing Up With Autism go here:

http://www.amazon.com/Regular-Guy-Growing-Autism/dp/098018360X/ref=pd_rhf_p_

Read more of Laura’s writings on autism at:

http://www.laurashumaker.com/ and http://blog.sfgate.com/lshumaker/

I have spent many years trying to anticipate the challenges that can stop them cold in their tracks. They are remarkably resilient and very determined. It does not help that no one believed that they had any issues while they were in elementary school or middle school. Each girl was able to act appropriately while in class. However, when they were released, they were unruly and abusive. We now know that they had been expending energy just to make it through the school day. It did not help that they were often correcting the factual errors that their teachers made during the day.

Their knowledge of history, mathematics, and English literature and grammar made it difficult for them to sit in class and hear their teachers make incorrect or inaccurate statements. AND, science class was even worse!

They are each currently enrolled in junior college. Each could probably teach several of the classes they have been forced to attend. However, their ability to use executive function skills has been a detriment in their advancement.

If you wanted to find a position that would use their talents, each child would be an asset for the companies that accepted them. They might need a mentor to assist them with the hidden curriculum of their environment.

I would love to talk more about the support group that we run in this area, and to find out what employment is available to those on the autism spectrum.

I could go on forever about this topic, but I wanted to be succinct right now.

thumbnail image from bundles of blossoms

Hello:  My son is 19 and is high functioning with PDD.  He is capable of doing work but needs help because of initial anxiety and sometimes needs instructions repeated several times. He can gradually learn but needs that extra help.

Is it possible for me to find a job coach through your website who specializes with people like this who can help me locally?  I live in Marin County in the Bay area in California.

I told Debbie about Barbara Bissonnette of Forward Motion Coaching, then discovered we had a previous request for job coach information in the San Francisco Bay Area (http://www.jobs4autism.com/job-coach-needed-in-san-francisco-bay-area-an-aspergers-request/) that had received two comments – one from Barbara Bissonnette and another from a man who says he works with people with autism and Asperger’s and left his phone number.

Does anyone out there have any other advice or information for Debbie or others in the Bay Area? Please share it here!

Thumbnail image from http://www.zazzle.com