While every college is required to provide basic support for students with disabilities and/or ADHD, there are some colleges with programs for students with learning disabilities that go above and beyond to create an inclusive and supportive environment for their neurodivergent students. Colleges with programs for students with learning disabilities have better engagement and graduation rates.

We believe this is because colleges with a culture of inclusion have a culture where students are encouraged to thrive, rather than just survive. When you’re sensitive to the needs of your students and provide them with many ways to learn and succeed, you’re not only helping students with learning disabilities, but also the entire student body.

So, before you start applying for college, check out this list of college programs for students with learning disabilities. Get the support you need to be successful and thrive.

Best College Programs for Students with Learning Disabilities

The schools on this list were added because they scored high in one or more areas, including smaller class sizes, accessibility, coaching and tutoring programs, and individualized learning plans.

Many other colleges offer similar services that did not make it to this list. So make sure you check in with your favorite colleges before you decide whether to apply. Every college should offer information on accessibility, ADA compliance, and special needs programs.

1. Landmark College – Putney, VT

Landmark College is different and notable because it is a school designed especially for students with learning disabilities. The school motto is “We Learn Differently”, and they seem to adhere to that dogma in every area of their curriculum.

They believe that people who learn differently are inherently capable of innovation. Their website states their mission is to ‘identify and assess ambitious opportunities and innovations that could provide future growth and institutional transformation.”

They offer traditional on-campus classes, online courses, and summer pre-college programs for students with learning disabilities. The school conducts and publishes groundbreaking research on autism, ADHD, and learning disabilities.

2. University of Arizona – Tucson, AZ

The University of Arizona offers an exceptional educational experience for students with disabilities. The college's Strategic Alternative Learning Techniques Center helps every student create their own individual educational plan that boosts each student’s chances of success.

Another resource is the Access vs. Inclusion workshops, which help clubs and organizations educate themselves about inclusivity and accessibility issues within their organization or club memberships.

Dyslexic Advantage, Dealing with Different, Friendship Circle, The Atlantic, and College Magazine all endorse the school for its accessible approach to college life.

3. Mitchell College – New London, CT

Mitchell offers the Bentsen Learning Center Program (BLCP) for students who need extra help. There are different levels of support available through all its two- and four-year programs. A freshman meets with a learning specialist three times a week to discuss and practice learning and writing skills, as well as learning about potential career paths and professionalism.

If you are concerned about your child struggling with the transition to college from high school, Mitchell also offers the Thames Academy. This is a gap year program that offers college credit in a highly structured academic environment. It is designed specifically for students with learning and thinking disabilities.

4. Curry College – Milton, MA

The Curry’s Program for Advancement of Learning (PAL) program at Curry College works with students individually and in small classes. The focus of this program is to work on students’ reading, listening, writing, and organizational skills. Students who enroll in the program will take a credited course every semester.

You can also enroll your child in the PAL summer program. This program is designed to help children with disabilities transition more smoothly from high school to college. This course is a separate expense and is not covered by tuition.

5. West Virginia Wesleyan College – Buckhannon, WV

Wesleyan College has a program called Mentor Advantage Program (MAP) for students with learning disabilities. This program allows students to meet with tutors for several hours each week and work on their organizational skills, as well as strategies for success in specific courses.

Resources on note-taking, active listening, and study schedules are just a fraction of the resources available for students. Freshmen in the MAP program would attend an orientation course designed to help facilitate the transition from high school to college.

If you’re willing to pay an extra fee, you can also access MAP’s daytime check-in options. This gives students extra help with studying, organization, and test review.

6. Beacon College – Leesburg, FL

Beacon College is another college specifically geared towards students with learning disabilities or who are neurodiverse in some way. The focus is on creating as customized an approach to learning as possible.

They achieve this through small class sizes—no more than 15—which allows each student to receive the attention and support they need to succeed.

Their approach seems to be working. According to recent numbers, Beacon’s students have a 70% on-time graduation rate, and over 80% of them secure employment or graduate school placement post-graduation. That’s well above the national average.

7. University of the Ozarks – Clarksville, AR

The University of the Ozarks has developed the Jones Learning Center (JLC) to assist students with their academic and organizational skills. Unlike many similar programs, there is no limit to how often you can meet with tutors or how many hours you spend in the program.

JLC has specialized services for students with ASD. There are also note-taking and peer tutoring services available.

Looking for Support with College Programs and Applications?

Easterseals Arkansas offers several programs designed to help students with disabilities achieve their academic goals. Check out our Academics, Community, Career Development, and Employment Program (ACCE) through the UA Little Rock campus.

Contact us for more information about support for students with disabilities—both in Arkansas and across the country.

The post 7 Best College Programs for Neurodivergent Students appeared first on Easterseals Arkansas Blog.

In the early years of life, children are still learning how to interact with others and absorb information from their surroundings. This is why choosing the right preschool is key to appropriate development.

Preschool helps children develop important social and emotional skills, such as sharing, cooperating, and communicating with others. Preschool can also help children develop important cognitive skills, such as problem-solving and following directions.

For a child with disabilities, this early development is even more vital. Ensuring that they are able to develop the tools they need to navigate childhood sets them up for success later in life.

Luckily, there are many resources and special education services for preschoolers with disabilities. Read on to learn more about how a preschool for children with learning disabilities could benefit your child’s development.

Developmental Benefits of Early Childhood Education Programs

Children absorb more in the first six years of their life than in any other time period that follows, according to multiple studies. This is an important developmental adaptation because to survive, children must learn to walk, talk, process information, and interact with the world around them as quickly and thoroughly as possible.

This is also the time in which many children with Specific Learning Disabilities are identified as being developmentally disabled. In fact, 8% of all young children are identified as having a Specific Learning Disability by the age of six.

In response to this information, Congress passed the Part C Infant/Toddler Program and the Preschool Special Education Program as part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). These programs are designed to develop and address the Individual Education Plans (IEPs) of preschool children with developmental or learning disabilities.

When you are looking at preschool programs (regardless of your child’s ability), you should be looking for intentional dedication to these developmental areas:

Physical Development

In preschool, children are learning to walk and talk and are developing basic motor functions. These skills develop quickly in the early years, and by the time children are in preschool they are usually quite agile and have good foundational movement (large motor skills).

There should be many physical activities that are part of the preschool curriculum. Activities like drawing, painting, and assembling toys and puzzles (fine motor skills), as well as running, dancing, and jumping (large motor skills), encourage the development of coordination and a sense of physical space.

Social And Emotional Development

Another significant part of preschool is learning how to interact with others and develop friendships. Play is an important part of this because it encourages children to learn how to collaborate and share.

Preschool programs should also include activities that help children learn how to regulate their emotions and set and achieve goals.

For example, pretend play allows children to act out different scenarios, such as a doctor’s office or a grocery store. What are they trying to accomplish? What are the steps to accomplish their goals?

This sort of play encourages both conceptual thinking and empathy as they interact with others and work together to accomplish the goal. Through play, children learn how to wait their turn, share, and care for others as the “doctor” sees their “patients,” or the “clerk” checks out the “grocery store customers.”

In addition to social skills, preschool helps children develop important self-esteem skills. Research has shown that children with low self-esteem are more likely to act out and experience anxiety. Learning how to positively self-assess and build self-esteem helps children deal with frustration and setbacks while helping them to persevere in situations where they don’t feel good.

If your child has a developmental disability and they are an only child, this kind of early exposure to social caring and cues is especially invaluable. It teaches them what to expect in social situations and how to self-regulate in a safe and controlled environment.

Language Skills

Children use words to communicate and learn. In preschool, they also learn the meanings of more complex words, as well as how to use and interpret these words by talking, listening, reading, and writing. These skills are all connected and should be practiced in tandem with one another.

Preschools are often run on a curriculum that encourages cross-vocational learning based on a theme. For instance, if you’re learning about the seasons you might listen to a song about the seasons, draw a picture of your favorite season, learn to spell the seasons, and have a show-and-tell where you talk about your favorite season. This is an engagement of all the major types of learning to cement an understanding of the concept of “the seasons.”

Problem-Solving and Following Directions

Special education services for preschoolers with disabilities should encourage children to think creatively and use both sides of their brains. In this age group, children learn how to identify and name objects, as well as how to link words and concepts to solve problems.

Preschool helps children strengthen their cognitive skills. For example, in the “What Do You Do with a Straw?” activity, children are encouraged to think about different objects and use words to determine what activities can be performed with them (drinking, blowing bubbles, stacking them like sticks, etc.).

This type of activity helps prepare children for later in life when they encounter problems that require critical thinking and the use of logic. Good programs foster connections between the creative and logical sides of the brain because critical thinking skills require both.

Arts and Creative Skills

From an early age, children love to experiment with art, architecture, and design. Throughout preschool, they are developing their artistic and creative skills and experimenting with new materials and techniques. It may look like a playdough lump with straws in it to you—but for your child, it’s “Art” with a capital A.

Involving kids in activities that allow them to create gives them a way to express themselves and show others how they see the world. It’s an excellent way to develop empathy and an understanding of the people around them who create and operate in completely different ways. It also prepares them for future school classes, where they may learn how to draw, paint, and create.

Make the First Five Count

Here at Easterseals Arkansas, we know that the first five years of a child’s life are full of memorable milestones in addition to laying the foundation for long-term well-being and overall success. That’s why we have created the Make the First Five Count Program.

In this program, we help parents understand the five key growth areas during the critical period of development before their child starts kindergarten. The five key growth areas are:

• Relationships
• Exploring and Learning
• Communication
• Playing
• Moving

We know during this time, a child’s brain develops connections that serve as the basis for language, reasoning, problem-solving, social skills, and emotional well-being. That’s why we are making it our mission to partner with all parents to help them in understanding their child’s wellness, supporting their growth and happiness through life’s earliest developmental milestones.

Click here for more information about our Make the First Five Count Program or to Take a Screening.

Contact Easterseals Arkansas

If you need special education services for preschoolers with disabilities, contact Easterseals Arkansas today. We have two inclusive developmental preschools designed to serve children with and without developmental disabilities.

The post The Importance of Starting Early | How Preschool Aids in Your Child’s Development appeared first on Easterseals Arkansas Blog.

The transition from pre-teen to teen years is difficult for all of us. Social hierarchies change, hormones are raging, and schedules change. Suddenly, your grades and school activities matter even more, as college and adulthood loom closer. It’s a time of transition, change, and chaos. However, creating a middle school to high school transition plan can make a huge difference.

This transition from middle school to high school can be especially difficult for a child with disabilities. People with developmental disabilities often struggle with routine, major life changes, and new hierarchies of structure and procedure. People with autism, ADHD, or anxiety disorders may become especially frustrated by new and overwhelming input.

Luckily, there are many steps you can take as a primary caregiver to smooth the path from middle school to high school. In this article, we’ll cover the different types of changes to expect. Additionally, how to start planning for them well in advance.

Remember that even with the perfect middle school to high school transition plan, there will likely be a few bumps in the road. Just be patient with yourself and your child. Importantly, keep communication open and transparent, and you’ll both make it through this fine!

Types of Changes to Expect–And How to Address Them

Academic Changes

One of the most obvious and immediate changes as your child transitions into high school will be the academic expectations. In middle school, while children often travel from class to class, they still work from a guided learning model, while high school operates on an independent learning model.

In other words, middle school still has several elements of primary school about it. While there is more independence, teachers still communicate directly with parents about big events and projects. Homework assignments are usually drills, memory work, and physical projects. Teachers and parents are “guiding” children through their education.

In high school, children are expected to take more responsibility for their own education. Teachers communicate directly with students about their assignments, projects, and school events. The level of work is higher in both quality and quantity. Your child will have to write papers, apply critical thinking skills, and show a grasp of abstracts more often.

This can be especially difficult for children with disabilities because the highly structured system in which they operated is now looser and more abstract. There’s more freedom, but with that comes responsibility and the need to problem solve on their own.

Solutions for Their Middle School to High School Transition Plan

The first thing you can do to address academic changes is to ensure that the IEP transition from middle school to high school goes smoothly. Make sure the school and all your child’s teachers have copies of their IEP and understand their individual needs.

Stay as involved as possible. Your child deserves (and needs) independence, but they also need support–especially in the first year of their transition to high school. This means open and frequent communication with both the school and your child

Schedule regular meetings with your child to check in and offer accountability on completing assignments. During middle school, check in daily. As your child enters high school, scale these meetings back to once per week. This gives your child a tangible representation of their growth in both independence and trust, while also keeping you in the loop and ensuring that they’re not becoming overwhelmed.

You should also try to ensure your child gets the appropriate amount of sleep each night. The National Sleep Foundation says teenagers need between 8 – 10 hours per night to focus and perform well in school.

Procedural Changes

For some children with developmental disabilities, this will be the largest hurdle to overcome. The routine and schedule changes that come with entering high school can be alarming. For example, finding classrooms, riding the bus, following a bell schedule, lunch line procedures, how to open and lock a locker, etc. are all completely new experiences.

Solutions for Their Middle School to High School Transition Plan

To avoid anxiety and confusion, practice and preparation are a major part of your middle school to high school transition plan.

For instance, after you get a copy of the class schedule, ask the school if you can take a tour to find those classrooms and walk the halls. If not (and some schools may not allow this for safety reasons), ask for a map that you can study with your child.

Practice opening lockers with combinations–just make sure that you’re using the same locks in the high school! Play recordings of the bell so that your child knows what to listen for. Go over the student handbook to ensure they understand the new rules and regulations. Do whatever you can to equip them with knowledge and understanding. This will greatly reduce anxiety and reduce the chance of a first-day meltdown.

Social Changes

The third–and most challenging–of the changes that come with the middle school to high school transition are social changes. Some children with disabilities have no trouble with the social aspects of school, but many struggles to pick up on certain cues and behaviors.

Suddenly, your child has to worry about keeping old middle school friends who may be in different classes, making new friends, and meeting new teachers. That’s a lot to sort through and prioritize, even for typically-abled children.

Solutions for Their Middle School to High School Transition Plan

Unfortunately, this is the least easily addressed part of your middle school to high school transition plan. There are too many unknown variables. You cannot, for instance, control how other children react to or interact with your child. But there are certainly steps you can take to prepare them for these changes and to let them know that they have your love and support to fall back on.

If you have older children with friends in high school, or you know children from this high school through camp or church, or some other activity, ask them to form a panel so your child can ask questions about high school friends and life. Look through extracurriculars with your child and see if they have a special interest in any activities that could foster healthy relationships. Ask the school if they have any mentorship programs or buddy systems.

If you’re having trouble, consider reaching out to disability-specific organizations with middle school to high school transition programs. You’ll find so many resources and peer activities that can help prepare your child for a successful and fulfilling high school career.

Contact Easterseals

Easterseals Arkansas offers many programs designed to help children with disabilities succeed and transition successfully into their adult lives. Contact us for more information about the programs available for you and your child!

The post How to Create a Middle School to High School Transition Plan appeared first on Easterseals Arkansas Blog.

Easterseals Arkansas Ambassador Aaron Likens is a notable presenter and author of Finding Kansas. He took two years off from writing following some personal inner struggles but is back after landing his dream job in 2020 as one of the starter/flagmen for the NTT INDYCAR Series.

He explains in a blog post, “I have walked through the shadows and have to make peace with it. It was years and years but I’m back! My brain finally worked out that the sum of my being is not dictated by a single person. I now understand the evidence that people always pointed out when I attempted to say I wasn’t okay.

“I have a newfound understanding of the challenges we on the autism spectrum face and endure daily. So often professionals would say, ‘Aaron, what makes your content and presentation so unique is that you aren’t a clinician talking about data or third person observations but instead you’re a participant.’”

Aaron is blogging nearly daily now and is working hard to raise the level of autism awareness. We are happy to partner with him on this journey.

Below are excerpts from recent blog posts. You can read more at http://lifeontheothersideofthewall.blogspot.com/.

The Story of the Can

In Finding Kansas, I told the story of the soda can. I’ll retell it now as I’ve got a story that’s only relevant if you know the story.

The year was 1995 and I had a friend over. I didn’t have many friends and this kid stayed with his dad, who lived behind me, on the weekends. We both enjoyed the same type of videogames, and we must’ve done at least 100 World Series on the Ken Griffey Jr. baseball game. Over the course of one of the weekend visits, he placed a finished Minute Maid orange soda drink on my dresser, and it stayed there for a bit.

It wasn’t until I started presenting in 2010 that I realized this was a thing as the PowerPoint I used for my police presentations stated that, “those on the autism spectrum may have an inappropriate attachment to objects”. I knew I had this, although I will argue that it isn’t inappropriate at all but was unaware so many share in this trait.

So that soda can stayed there for a while. A few days turned into a few weeks turned into a few years. Well, five years later when I went to the Derek Daly Academy racing school in Las Vegas my mom thought she would do me a favor and she cleaned my room. The room? Yes, it was a mess and perhaps borderline disaster area if the EPA were involved, but what I couldn’t verbalize back then was what everything represented.

I have a tremendous memory, except when it comes to people. It’s like an undercover news show where faces are blurred out. Because of this, I have to remember people through other means and the number one way I recall people is through items. This soda can was my connection to my friend. I could almost see him in my memories through this can.

When I returned home from that most glorious week of driving race cars I was shattered when I walked into my nice, sparkling clean room. That can, in all of its 90’s artwork glory, was gone. I tried to keep my emotions afloat, but I sank fast. I cried more over the loss of that soda can than I did over the loss of my two cats and dog, but they weren’t a person, and with the loss of that can it was as if my memories of having a friend vanished into the air like a fine mist dissipates.

It wasn’t until 2010 and seeing the line about objects in the PowerPoint that I realized this struggle wasn’t just my own. I did feel a bit ridiculous having such a reaction to an inanimate object, but as I spoke to more and more people, I learned this is a major thing people need to understand whether you’re teacher, parent, or police officer; when entering the environment where a person on the autism spectrum lives or has items you must be aware of this. What may be an irrelevant trinket to you may mean the world to them.

Why I Wrote Finding Kansas

Over the weekend I celebrated 10 years since I received my first copy of my book. I now live by the motto, “Understanding is the foundation for hope.” It wasn’t always that way though…

Being diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome at the age of 20 was confusing. I mean, I had this diagnosis but didn’t know what it meant and sadly, neither did my doctor. I was left to find out what it meant by myself so I did an internet search and the first thing I read, the very first thing I read said, “People with Asperger Syndrome will NEVER have a job, NEVER have friends and NEVER be happy.”

After reading those lines it was as if my life ended.

I stayed this way for almost 15 months. I was bitter, hopeless, and angry at everything. Sometimes my dad would say, “I understand.” but how could he? Then, 15 months after being diagnosed, I had had enough. I don’t know what fuse blew in my mind, but I had to tell my dad who I was and why I was. Of course, I couldn’t speak it, but I went to my computer and I started to write it.

There’s a line in my book that says, “All I want is for someone to understand and maybe, just maybe, I will be free.” That was the motivation for me to write and I never intended on it being a book that got published. All I wanted was for one person to understand who I was. I also didn’t intend on creating a new vocabulary to describe the ways of the autism spectrum as I just wanted to describe to my dad in the best way possible the reasons why I do what I do.

My book is a journey through my thoughts and is at times sad, at times funny, at times hopeful, and most times emotional. As I was writing, I heard a speaker say that “People on the autism spectrum don’t have emotions,” and that too was a big motivator for me to continue to write because I knew that I had never heard a bigger lie in my life.

As I said, when I was writing Finding Kansas I never thought it would be something that would bring hope and understanding. From where I am now, I believe that we can have the highest autism awareness level possible and that still won’t be enough because without understanding how can society know what it is? Without understanding how can parents make the right choices? This was the sole reason why I wrote. Nobody understood me and I couldn’t speak what I thought or what I needed so I wrote to be understood and words can’t express what it means to be when I hear from parents that, “through your book I now understand my son.”

Speeding and Tornadoes

When I was five, I was a stickler on rules. If my dad floated a stop sign, I would let him know. If he changed lanes without using a turn signal, I would let him know (I still do!). As minor as those where I was very concrete on speed limits. I was almost obsessed with speed limits, why they were in use, and why the limit on I-465 in Indianapolis was 55 and the speed in our neighborhood was 15.

As I learned about the safety aspect, I began to believe 55 meant 55 no matter what. Then I had a thought that would plague me for months, “What would happen if a tornado was chasing us?”

With that question, I combined my greatest fear with my greatest belief in rules.

What would happen if the watch turned into the warning and a tornado developed behind us? Our safety is important, but the speed limit is 55. What if the tornado was a fast mover? Let’s say it was doing 70, 55 would not be enough to outrun it.

Provisions to rules are difficult to teach. Being a five-year-old deathly afraid of breaking any rules I thought that a person had to always follow the speed limit. If the tornado got you then so be it, but at least the rules weren’t being broken.

Slowly I came to the conclusion that it was okay to speed if one were to outrun a tornado, but it was not okay to speed if there was just hail or a severe thunderstorm. Through my provisions, I became confident that I had solved this conundrum. Doing this allowed me to understand that in all of life there are provisions to rules, and this was a milestone as, if I had not worked this out, I might have always been 100% concrete in that the rule is the rule and that is final.

In my police presentations I use this example: There was a teenager with autism lost in a large park. The police located the person and asked him what his name was. The person froze and did not comply with or answer any commands or questions. The officers knew this was the right person and had to bring the parents to the person because they were getting no help or compliance on anything they asked of him. When the parents go there, they asked, “Why didn’t you help the officers? They were trying to help you. The teenager responded, quite flatly, “Why are you mad? You told me that I should ‘not talk to strangers’ and these people were strangers.”

Concrete thinking is common for those on the spectrum and each person has a different degree of this. Some people can be flexible, others cannot (I am not flexible when playing games. We either play by the rules or we don’t play at all. House rules or you need to go to someone else’s house!).

I came up with nothing short of 15,000 possible reasons to break the rules, but with each situation, I worked through I developed a better sense of, well, common sense. I had to work through these to get to this point and had my “what if” situations had fallen on deaf ears I may be super concrete in all rules. I’m glad I’m not because my goal now is to talk to as many groups of people as possible about the autism spectrum and these groups are typically strangers to me and I was also told that I shouldn’t “talk to strangers”.

The Anxiety of Next

What’s next? This is a question my brain is constantly thinking and analyzing. However, I want you to expand your thinking on this and not think about what’s next as in what are you doing after you read this blog. I mean, you should think about going to Amazon and buying the book called Finding Kansas, however that’s not what I mean. Instead, think about next and every possible interaction that could come in the next five minutes. Think of every phone call you may receive and think about all of your potential responses. Then, keep going with an infinite list of possibilities and maybe you’ll get in the ballpark of what my brain does to me in almost every circumstance. To put it lightly it is indeed exhausting. A couple of weeks ago I talked about autism burnout and this, for me, is one of the things that’ll get me there quickly.

I haven’t found an off switch for this and when I am out with people all day long, I become emotionally fatigued in a way that’s almost shameful to admit.

On the flip side of that I also can’t explain my strength. Strength? What am I talking about considering I just mentioned I get rather fatigued simply be existing? While it is true that I get a bit overwhelmed at the end of the day the thing is I did, in fact, make it through to the end of the day. I can get hung up on the “weakness” at times and totally lose the fact that it takes an inner strength that is hard to describe to get the nerve to leave the front door in the morning and take on all the anxieties I know I have. I know my brain is going to overprocess and try to calculate the oblivion of next, and yet I will.

For anyone you may know on the autism spectrum I implore you to keep this in mind. While it’s easy to focus on the weakness, and we live in a society that so often just focuses on the bad, try and think about how much strength it takes to simply get through the day living life on the autism spectrum whether one can’t tune out any bit of sensory input, or to those that overprocess everything. Whatever it may be the dedication, passion, and inner strength it takes to simply attempt to leave the house, or pursue a dream, takes more strength than my vocabulary will ever allow me to attempt to describe.

The Wall

I’ve worked with many of you for many years, and others have seen me at the track for many years. It’s no secret I have Asperger’s and on track I can assure you it is a great advantage for me. I can’t recall the amount of time I’ve heard “Aaron, how did you see that from half a track away?” I love it! The speed, the challenge, the reflexes required but at the same time there’s one aspect that weighs heavy on my heart and it’s been an albatross for as long as I can remember.

My wall is high. I do my job and put every ounce of my soul into it but one thing I avoid is either before or after the day and that’s the social aspect. Sure, everyone puts up walls, everyone is a little guarded, but when I have the energy to go out with the crew at the end of the day it seems to be a cause for celebration, and I’m always confused at this; is it excitement that I’m going along or more that I’m not hiding away?

It’s an isolating experience. There’s a part of me that does want to know everyone; to be a true part of the crew instead of a mysterious lonesome figure that is either 100% on or invisible. I may come across as cold, uncaring, or maybe downright rude and I have no intention of that. What’s going on in my brain I can only describe as a tempest mixed with a hurricane mixed with a GPS system that doesn’t know North from space zebras that are wearing funny hats.

Today I’m feeling down as I look back on the people I could’ve known, people that I do know but simply see, and while I should challenge myself to be more my limitations are great. Maybe in previous jobs this led to resentment. I’m not sure, but if I work with you now do know that even though I may seem emotionless or aloof I’m very grateful you are there.

I may prefer to be alone at the end of the day but I’m beginning to realize I’m not fully alone because there’s a peace that comes with others knowing this about me and not expecting me to be something I’m not. Perhaps all the work we’ve done in awareness and understanding of Asperger’s is evident right here in my life because I haven’t heard a cross word and others understand my need to recharge. The desire is still there to be a part of the team socially, but while writing this I got sad thinking about the chasm between but I’m smiling greatly in the realization I get to work with such awesome people that understand me. I hope the future will have this be commonplace for those on the spectrum to where it isn’t even thought of for a second that it should be any other way.

The Contradictory Nature of Asperger’s

Racing season is here! I head to my second race of the year tomorrow. However, as excited as I am, today’s blog is going to use the most traditional of all things in motorsport, the checkered flag, as a concept to describe Asperger’s. The thing about the checkered flag is that it’s so contradictory. In the top corner is one color and if you go just far enough, you’ll reach another, but then keep going and you’ll be back to where you started and so on and so forth. What does this mean? My experience in having Asperger’s is one of stark contrasts and it gets tiring. Here’s what I mean…

I want to be part of the social world but the social world tires me.

I want to be part of a team, but I often can’t see the concept of teamwork.

I have extremely good senses, especially when it comes to hearing, but I often wish I could turn it off.

I want to be alone but being alone is extremely isolating.

I need to be perfect in the things that I do but there is no satisfaction at achieving perfection.

I can give some incredibly witty remarks but often miss out on when someone is being witty.

I want to make sense of the world but often the more I know about things the scarier the world is.

Being in my Kansas is awesome but I often wonder what life is like out there.

I yearn to be normal but normal seems so boring.

I can do some things great and many things not so great.

Hard things come easy and what is easy to most comes at a high degree of difficulty to myself.

I want to care about others but allowing myself to feel is overwhelming.

I want to tell others what they mean to me but expressions of any kind are paralyzing.

Do you get the idea by now? It’s a constant struggle to be wanting both sides of the coin; to want something but to know if I had it the results would be just as difficult as living without it. This is why I stand by the title of this post in that living with Asperger’s, at least for me, is living a life full of contradictions.

The post Race for Understanding – Recent Wisdom from Autism Ambassador Aaron Likens appeared first on Easterseals Arkansas Blog.

Easterseals Arkansas Ambassador Aaron Likens is a notable presenter and author of Finding Kansas. He took two years off from writing following some personal inner struggles but is back after landing his dream job in 2020 as one of the starter/flagmen for the NTT INDYCAR Series.

Aaron is blogging nearly daily now and looks forward to raising the level of autism awareness. We are happy to partner with him on this journey.

Fear and Game Night

One of the main concepts later on in my book Finding Kansas is the concept of "Alias". In my presentation, I compare this concept to the movie/book Catch Me if You Can in that I've noticed I can be comfortable in playing a role because it isn't directly socializing. At presentations, I'm the author/presenter guy that seems to know what he's talking about and at racetracks I have the alias of an official. Since the beginning of the pandemic, I haven't had many excursions into a realm that I am out of my aliases, and I have to admit I sort of forgot what it felt like. That is, until Saturday.

My girlfriend invited me to a game night that took place in the day. I agreed to go but as the hours drew near, I began to panic. Meeting her friends was something I knew would take place at some point in time but as we got in the car and headed towards her friend's residence I began to panic.

Why the panic? It was twofold. The first was I hadn't met anyone new in an excessively long amount of time. Secondly, my girlfriend I think had yet to see me in a fully socially paralyzed state. What would she think? My fears about what she would think were without merit, but when you've lived your entire life and others become confused as to why one minute all is well and I can have the whole room's attention and then with just one change the ability to reply with one-word answers becomes confusing is, well, it's difficult to be aware of this even if I know those around me will understand.

We neared the place, and my pulse rate was up. My girlfriend tried to prepare me and described who would be there, but I hadn't heard any of the words. My adrenaline was spiking, and each step I took to the front door felt like long, strenuous miles. I had the thought of, "Isn't this grand? Talking in front of 1,500 people is easy, meeting five other people is as daunting as climbing a 1,000-foot-high brick wall without ropes." Overdramatic? Maybe, and as we knocked on the front door and several seconds went by, I almost sarcastically said, "Well, looks like game night is canceled so we best head home."

The front door swung open, and the next few minutes are all a blur. Greetings, however, were said and then a flurry of drink and snack offerings were offered to which I declined all and then I stood in place. Oh, if you could've seen this scene! I was standing on the exact spot I had stopped as I ascended the stairs and I stood… and stood… and stood some more. I was over-encumbered in anxiety which was amplified by the fact I realized that this shouldn't have been this drastic of an emotion. It's difficult when frustration over being frustrated adds fuel to the situation.

After an unknown number of seconds or perhaps minutes, my girlfriend suggested we go and sit on the couch. I looked to my left at the placement of it and knew this was her way of saying she understood. You see, this couch was on the end of the room which eliminates some of the processing that goes on. Another concept I speak of a lot is "positional warfare" which essentially states that I have a difficult time understanding what I should be doing in the space I'm in and standing out in the open leaves a lot of processing as to which way one should be facing and what posture to have and where the arms and hands should be. Being on a couch on the end of a rectangular room? This offered a positional advantage.

As soon as I sat down there was relief. I had already forgotten the names of the people that I had been introduced to when I was standing awkwardly in the open of the room as my brain had no ability to retain information at that point, but slowly the adrenaline ebbed and the constant self-talk of, "hands?! What to do with the hands? Um, left, no right, no cross the arms! Wait, crossing the arms is an aggressive stance! Wait, no, only if there's a forward slant."

Conversation began and I was able to partake in it now that the internal storm was over. It wasn't long before it was suggested we do what we came for; it was time for games! My heart instantly was at peace because within a game all is known even if the game is unknown such as Throw Throw Avocado. Nothing breaks the ice such as throwing a foam avocado at another person's face whom I had just met.

A couple more people arrived as we got to the end of the avocado game and all the internal drama I had was gone. It was as if the first stage of this day had not happened at all. Through the shared activity I felt right at home and was at ease in the space I was in.

Trying new things and meeting new people has always been a challenge for me and it probably always will, but it's amazing how much easier it can be if there's understanding of those around. My girlfriend was awesome and at the end of the games, I didn't care that she saw me at my most awkward and ineffective state. Everyone has his or her own challenges and mine just happens to be overtly obvious when thrust into an open social environment. She knew this, and I survived it. Looking back on it I don't know why it was such a challenge to begin with. I say that, but odds are next time I'm in a new situation that I don't have an alias to go by there will be a blog post that goes along with it, and with the understanding of those around I'll get through it and then fully enjoy myself once the storm of adrenaline has passed.

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