saigeofservice-blog

[saigeofservice-blog]

Autism: the way of love

Before my orientation day, I used one of my favorite resources, Gaia, to learn more about the unique persepective of autism. What are they like? I was definitely nervous, being someone who doesn’t fully understand autism, so I wanted to feel as prepared as I could. The woman who was speaking in this particular video, was telling us about how she chooses to work closely with autistic children because they are so technologically advanced. The technology being through the heart. She feels that they hear messages from angels and other dimensions, which is why they are so distracted on this earth. They have a harder time abiding by their brains, or someone elses. It’s their heart that they truly follow. I didn’t realize I could be so inspired by a group of people. Some time ago, with little understanding, I might have felt that a group like this is lesser than me because they can’t do “as much” as I am capable of. Going in with the understanding that these people are so much more than what meets the eye has forever changed my perception. I feel inspired to follow my heart more than ever. A huge thank you to Islands of Brilliance to opening my heart to new possibilities!

[saigeofservice-blog]

More answers

I’ve been finding it hard to specify what exactly autism is in the brain. When I was younger, I had understood it to be a chromosomal issue. Some sources say it can be a genetic issue. I’ve found competing sources, as well as many sources saying that the cause of autism is actually quite unknown today. It seems evident that autism comes because of problems in the brain. Our environment and our chemicals could also be a cause of autism as well. There might even be links in the products that we use and consume. Another interesting thing to note is that autism is more common in males rather than females. I think this is something I’d like to do a bit more research on. 

[saigeofservice-blog]

Why are autism rates sky rocketing?

[saigeofservice-blog]

Difficulty with joint attention

I’ve been looking into what makes autistic children learn differently from others, why their eye contact is so scarce, and why they have to be TOLD to say thank you or good bye or any other common courtesy. Typically this is because a child who is diagnosed with autism finds it hard to see things from a perspective other than their own. Learning new things can be very difficult, especially if it’s not something they’re particularly interested in. What I’ve seen, is that when they are interested in something, they seem to know all there is to know on the topic, because of their own attention (opposed to joint attention).

[saigeofservice-blog]

Final Workshop

As soon as I got in, I walked into Ryan handing my a hand written thank you card. He drew a picture of him and I along with Margaret and Mark, which was really sweet. His final class, I was able to see a lot of his hard work pay off. He was getting better and better at placing shapes, drawing things with the brush tool, and locating where to do all of those things in the tool bar. It was amazing to see him becoming self sufficient, and I could see he felt proud of his progress too. With Ben, it was a little bit harder of a day. I’ve been pushing him to use the blob brush tool and I gave it another attempt on Sunday. I mirrored him with my screen, as I worked with the blob brush. I pushed him to go back into his completed drawing with the brush. He went into one of the shoes and lightly outlined the outline that was already on the shoe, simply making it a bit thicker. I asked him to do more and he quickly got angry, so I let him be done for the day. I’m thinking this will be something other mentors will be working with him on in his next workshops. 

All in all, it was an exciting last day! The people who volunteer with me are so talkative and accepting. Overall, this has been such a fun experience not only to watch my students grow, but watch everyone else in the class grow, and be surrounded by so much love and kindness!

[saigeofservice-blog]

My service today

It’s been fun working with both Ben and Ryan. With Ryan I have been working to get him to focus on one thing at a time. We keep generating 2-3 projects per class. I’d like to get his focus on one project, a larger idea, and more flexibility in design choices. With Ben, I’m working on teaching him the blob brush tool. When I first mentioned it, I didn’t get a response from him. He prefered to keep working with what he knew. However, today I got him to use not only the brush tool but the gradient tool! It was really exciting to see his growth. I’m looking forward to working with both of them again!

[saigeofservice-blog]

A chat with Mark and Margaret

I asked Mark and Margaret about their foundation today. Mark began to tell me about their child Harry, who was diagnosed on the autistic spectrum. Mark and Margaret were told that their child would never be able to take on a college degree with this disability. Mark, being a designer, began to show Harry how to opperate some of the Adobe programs he was working in at a young age. Harry was able to play around and begin using tools Mark hadn’t even tought him yet. Margaret was back in school recieving a degree in special education. Together, they utilized both of their strengths to create Islands of Brilliance. They began in 2012 with a class at Discovery World. From there, they began to recieve funding, promote fundraisers, and started enrolling students into more lengthy programs. Their funding comes from about 1/3 of each of these components. It’s pretty phenomenal. My favorite part of the story is that Harry is now in his junior year in the Graphic Design Department at UWM. I think it really shows the need for such a specialized, creative program. It allows students to adapt to the world growing around them, while honing in on their strengths.

[saigeofservice-blog]

As it is beginning to be understood, Autistic children typically lean toward one type of learning style. Normally, we are capable of using both visual and auditory learning. This generally is not the case here, as one style of learning may be terribly hard. This is something I am experiencing with Ben in particular. He seems to be a strong visual learner. When I speak to him, it is rare he responds or obtains the information correctly. When I write it, I generate an appropriate response from him. According to my research this is completely normal. In my case, both Ben and Ryan are visual learners. I will be looking in more detail as to how I can accommodate this. Resources suggest to start gathering pictures, to demonstrate how to do things and what you need the child to do. 

Another question

From working with Ryan, Ben and talking to Amy, I’ve been noticing that many students seem to be visual learners. With autistic students listening and word processing skills being so low, is writing one of the best forms to get them to understand information? I will be looking into best practices when it comes to communicating and sharing new skills with autistic children. I will also be attempting to set up a picture tutorial to teach Ben the brush tool in Illustrator. Through practice and research I will find the answer!

[saigeofservice-blog]

Islands of Brilliance: where did you come from?

My curiosity lies in the agency. Who started this? Was it Mark and Margaret? How did it come into existence? Where did they get their funding? Where did they begin to acquire all of their connections?

I have some hunches about the agency and its’ roots in getting to know Mark and Margaret. Mark is a designer, and Margaret specializes in working with and communicating with autistic children. But I need to ask to know where Islands of Brilliance came from!

[saigeofservice-blog]

Another question

From working with Ryan, Ben and talking to Amy, I’ve been noticing that many students seem to be visual learners. With autistic students listening and word processing skills being so low, is writing one of the best forms to get them to understand information? I will be looking into best practices when it comes to communicating and sharing new skills with autistic children. I will also be attempting to set up a picture tutorial to teach Ben the brush tool in Illustrator. Through practice and research I will find the answer!

[saigeofservice-blog]

Third times the charm

On Sunday, it was the second session of the spring workshop. I worked with Ryan again, who was full of ideas but low on execution. My goal for the next session is to get him more involved with the controls in Illustrator. He keeps getting frustrated and asks me to do it. But I know HE can! Working with Ben was a little more interesting. He is being considered for Digital Academy: a design program for the more developed students. It involves lots of collobration, communication, and independent skills. I started running the assessment papers that allow him entry. So I’m working on getting him to colloborate and communicate better with me, as he has a language processing disorder. Words are very hard for him, but I’ve found writing him notes is more helpful. I’ll be working more on this in the next workshop!

[saigeofservice-blog]

Day Two!

My second time mentoring at Islands of Brilliance was yesterday. I did both sessions again, so I was paired up with Ryan from my last session, and an older student (new to me) named Ben. It was Ryan’s second time again as well, and I was excited to find out that I’ll be paired with him through the remainder of the Spring Workshops. I’m pretty excited about that. His attention span can be short, but when he gets going on the prompts, the things he can do are amazing. He’s only 9! But when he’s bored of developing design, he enjoys playing around with me. Today he switched our name tags. So I guess his name is actually Saige now. I’m Ryan. In the second session, I had Ben. Ben has been working on a series of human “Thomas and Friends”. He’s pretty comfortable with the pen tool in Illustrator. The only help he required from me was to help set up and find his old documents. It was exciting to see him create!

So from now on I will have Ryan to mentor. In the second sessions, it will be Ben. To polar opposite experiences. I’m excited to see what they have to teach me!

[saigeofservice-blog]

Day One!

I went to Islands of Brilliance for my first two-session design mentor experience. I had a 17 year old boy named Ashani in my first workshop. He was a very independent workshop and seemed pretty fluent in Photoshop. It was fun to help him as he created a cool collage he came up with himself! My second workshop was with a 9 year old boy named Ryan. He was quite distracted from the actual design process and getting him to concentrate or make and decision on something was incredibly hard. However, we were able to come up with something he felt incredibly happy with, so we ended up playing I spy for the last 30 minutes. I’m looking forward to seeing the different personalities on these children that I work with as I move forward. I’m getting more and more curious about their structure of their chromosomes, so I will be doing some research in the mean time! I watched a very spiritual video on Gaia.com before leaving. The video was on a woman who was doing full blown intention studies on the autistic child. She firmly believes that they are accessing higher good than we can, and they are fully utilizing the technology of love and passion that we as humans could always use more of. More to know soon!

[saigeofservice-blog]

I have a Question

Upon my WTKBYG, I have a question that I might find out through experience tomorrow, but also may take some research as well. What exactly makes children and adults on the autism spectrum learn so differently? I will be experiencing the difference in learning tomorrow, but I would also like to dig deeper as to why they get stuck at certain points in the learning process.

[saigeofservice-blog]

WTKBYG

Islands of Brilliance calls their orientation WYKBYG (What to Know Before You Go). I went to my WTKBYG today. I’m feeling nervous but also incredibly excited. I was given a profile of the two students that I will be mentoring tomorrow. One is a 17 year old boy who has been doing these workshops for about 5 years now. Apparently he’s incredibly talented! I look forward to seeing his artistic abilities. The other is brand new and quite shy. So it looks like I’ll be having two very different experiences with my students as the day goes. The experiences are soon to come!

[saigeofservice-blog]

Islands of Brilliance Mission Statement

Islands of Brilliance mission statement reads that the goal is to help students on the autism spectrum learn to enhance their abilities through technology and creative expression to increase their likelihood of being independent adults. This can help them pave the way to higher education and amazing opportunities. I truly feel this lines up with my own mission statement in the creative aspect. Creativity is learning more about yourself, thus allowing you to be more independent and confident in your own capabilities. Creativity grows honest thinkers. My mission statement is to help others find their own individuality while I find my own. The thought of being able to help ambitious young students do exactly the same as I am doing is very exciting. I want nothing more than to be able to light the way for them!

[saigeofservice-blog]

My Mission Statement

My mission is to take the lead in helping others find bliss as I find my own through creative expression. I enjoy leading by example. Oneness is something I value greatly in others just as I do in myself. I will always make it my mission to surround myself with my own truth and surround myself with others who vow to live by theirs, we so we can collectively serve a greater good.