RE: Advice and a Question

[Guest guest]

Police training is something ASCC does on a regular basis.

One of the things you can do is reach out to your MHMR center and ask

them to send one of their MR experts to help you with this class.

having more than one person to answer questions and share experiences

is definitely a plus. So think about taking another parent with you

as well to form a panel.

Police officers are trained not to take any unnecessary risks, so

make sure you don't go against their training in your talk, rather

give them options to dealing with behaviors (for example we tell them

to try to lower their voices, not to assume a loud authorotarian tone

since many of these individuals with autism have sensory and hearing

sensitivity). We go over what autism is, what the autism spectrum

looks like, characteristics of autism etc....We ask the officers to

imagine their frustration if they can't talk, everything sounds like

thunder, lights are overstimulating. and so on. We give examples of

children we know their behaviors and what stops these behaviors, we

ask them to give high functioning individuals a harmless choice

rather than an ultimatum. Not to touch them unless they have to, give

them space and time to process verbal instructions, make them very

simple. We let them know to speak in short clear, very literal

sentences.

We try to not scare them, and chances are our kids are more

victimized than they are offenders. One of our greatest allies in

this training is you will always run across an officer or 2 who

either have a child with autism or a disability, or knows a

neighbor's son etc...

Dennis Debbaut has some wonderful tips you might want to look at his

website:

http://www.autismriskmanagement.com/

Nagla

>

> Good evening all! I need some advice from you wonderful Autism

> experts out there!

>

> I have been given the opportunity to sort of teach at the local

> police academy to the new recruits going through training about how

> to handle a child with special needs if ever called to the school

or

> any other place for that matter. And also how to handle situations

if

> a child with special needs goes missing. I was told if I could get

> together a lesson plan then I could probably present it at various

> times throughout the academy's training periods. I have a lot of

> thoughts running through my head and need to organize them. But I

> know there are probably a lot of areas I am forgetting. So I was

> wondering what would you want the police force to know about these

> situations? What specific info do you think I should include in

this?

> Any advice is appreciated!

>

> Also a question, might seem rather dumb. But I have not gone this

> route before. Someone has mentioned about Josh seeing a

> psychiatrist/psychologist. Does he need a referral from his regular

> doctor to do this? I imagined so, but am not sure. Like I said

we've

> never seen one or tried so I was wondering if that would be the

> proper route to go first?

>

> Thanks in advance to anyone who got this far and can point me in

the

> right direction!

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the info! That helps a lot. I know the perfect parent to

take along. Her husband is a current police officer and they have

twin boys with Autism so she would definitely know what else to throw

in there. I know for a fact, our officers get no training in this

area. Which is why the opportunity was presented to me. This will be

a great start! Thanks again!

> >

> > Good evening all! I need some advice from you wonderful Autism

> > experts out there!

> >

> > I have been given the opportunity to sort of teach at the local

> > police academy to the new recruits going through training about

how

> > to handle a child with special needs if ever called to the school

> or

> > any other place for that matter. And also how to handle

situations

> if

> > a child with special needs goes missing. I was told if I could

get

> > together a lesson plan then I could probably present it at

various

> > times throughout the academy's training periods. I have a lot of

> > thoughts running through my head and need to organize them. But I

> > know there are probably a lot of areas I am forgetting. So I was

> > wondering what would you want the police force to know about

these

> > situations? What specific info do you think I should include in

> this?

> > Any advice is appreciated!

> >

> > Also a question, might seem rather dumb. But I have not gone this

> > route before. Someone has mentioned about Josh seeing a

> > psychiatrist/psychologist. Does he need a referral from his

regular

> > doctor to do this? I imagined so, but am not sure. Like I said

> we've

> > never seen one or tried so I was wondering if that would be the

> > proper route to go first?

> >

> > Thanks in advance to anyone who got this far and can point me in

> the

> > right direction!

> >

> >

> >

>

[Guest guest]

www.leanonus.org is run by a mom of a child with an ASD who is also a police

officer. She could give you some good pointers. Another person to look up

is Dennis Debbaudt. His website also has information

http://www.policeandautism.cjb.net/ .

Tonya

From: Texas-Autism-Advocacy

[mailto:Texas-Autism-Advocacy ] On Behalf Of

Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2008 8:18 PM

To: Texas-Autism-Advocacy

Subject: Advice and a Question

Good evening all! I need some advice from you wonderful Autism

experts out there!

I have been given the opportunity to sort of teach at the local

police academy to the new recruits going through training about how

to handle a child with special needs if ever called to the school or

any other place for that matter. And also how to handle situations if

a child with special needs goes missing. I was told if I could get

together a lesson plan then I could probably present it at various

times throughout the academy's training periods. I have a lot of

thoughts running through my head and need to organize them. But I

know there are probably a lot of areas I am forgetting. So I was

wondering what would you want the police force to know about these

situations? What specific info do you think I should include in this?

Any advice is appreciated!

Also a question, might seem rather dumb. But I have not gone this

route before. Someone has mentioned about Josh seeing a

psychiatrist/psychologist. Does he need a referral from his regular

doctor to do this? I imagined so, but am not sure. Like I said we've

never seen one or tried so I was wondering if that would be the

proper route to go first?

Thanks in advance to anyone who got this far and can point me in the

right direction!