Flipping the Script: Understanding your Autistic Peers
A Gold Award Project and Evaluation from 5/30/24 to 8/17/24 by Meghana G. from Girl Scout Troop 60640
Interviewing Hurley Alderman & Chrissy Polton of Hurley’s Heroes on Working with Autistic Adults
Project Introduction
Flipping the Script Introduction Presentation.pdfABSTRACT
According to the Therapist Neurodiversity Collective, it has been shown that Social Skills Training, a practice that has been put in place for many years to assist autistic people in effectively communicating with their allistic peers, is harmful and based on outdated science on ASD.
Instead of focusing on how autistic people need to integrate themselves into society, I focused on how we in the allistic community have a responsibility to understand our autistic peers effectively. While it is great that autistic people can communicate effectively with one another and feel comfortable around each other, it is also important for that sentiment to be the same for communication between autistic and allistic people. I took a two-phased approach to make an impact on this issue.
In the first phase, I created a program in which autistic adolescents worked with their neurotypical peers in a setting where they worked through the process of printing designs on shirts. I chose printing and sublimation specifically because Chinmaya Ramdoot already has a program for autistic individuals in which they receive job training.
Allistic volunteers were partnered with an autistic peer, and the two worked together on the projects assigned. The allistic partner in particular was observed on how they effectively collaborated with their autistic partner after learning how important it is to identify their biases towards intellectual disabilities.
I observed the interactions, and in the second phase, I presented these observations to the public in a video in which I interviewed a select few people who have shown their expertise in these areas.
INTRODUCTION
According to a study published by Autism in Adulthood, "Implicit and Explicit Attitudes Toward Autistic Adults", attitudes towards autistic adults differ significantly from attitudes towards autistic children, which is why I wanted to mainly focus on this demographic.
This study surveyed 94 neurotypical adults in the US and their views on both autistic children and autistic adults, and reviewed the differences in these two areas. This study was done to help explain why autistic adults feel discriminated by their peers, and where this discrimination stems from. Both explicit and implicit attitudes American adults have towards autistic individuals are equally as important, and negative attitudes in both ways can lead to microaggressions and even harsh discrimination.
Positive explicit attitudes but negative implicit attitudes were reported in regards to autistic adults, which is my main focus. If autistic people have allistic peers who are being educated on how to be more empathetic toward people who are different from them, this stigma will lessen significantly.
Through interactions with my autistic peers as well as connections with the online autistic community, it has been expressed to me that they feel like there are little to no places autistic adolescents and adults can call their home because people refuse to understand them, saying that it’s “too hard” or they’re “asking too much of them” when learning to understand autistic people is a choice you can make, but having autism is not.
Many autistic people have reported that they have been refused services, jobs, help, and understanding due to their disability, and autistic adults are the main victims of this.
To help to create a more accepting world, I "flipped the script" by having allistic people learn how to work with autistic people and have them understand how autistic adults deserve the same respect as neurotypical adults, and that their problems must be taken seriously. My goal was to have individuals gain more understanding of why support for autistic adults is so important and how to support them. Developmental disabilities are something that cannot be cured or changed about someone, but the attitudes people have regarding interacting with autistic individuals can be changed and taught. This includes helping teach autistic individuals what they need to work on as well, in the way that they learn best.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Our first session began with an introduction to the program, giving an informative presentation with an explanation of the nature of this project as well as our plan for the next five weeks.
I had the allistic volunteers fill out a survey to test their knowledge on Autism Spectrum Disorder and used these results to curate the lessons I taught throughout the sessions.
Additionally, we had everyone participate in a short icebreaker game in which people would move from one side of the room to another depending on their opinions on a subject. The goal of this was to warm the volunteers up to one another and help them get to know one another a bit better before partnering up.
After the first session, which was an introduction to the equipment and usage for the next four sessions, I began taking notes on a spreadsheet on each and every one of the volunteers, as well as indicating which volunteers were partnered up.
My observations covered a number of metrics: comfort level, understanding level, collaboration level, pressuring, engaging, ignoring, presuming competence, infantalizing, and equal work. Many of these metrics were more "positive" behaviors while others are "negative". I measured each volunteer's experiences from 1-5 as well as Yes, Somewhat, and No answers for the non-"level" observational metrics.
After the middle three sessions, the last session began with a more thorough presentation for the allistic volunteers, indicating things I had noticed throughout the sessions as well as steps to become a better ally and speak out against discrimination.
RESULTS
During the first session, everyone's comfort, understanding, and collaboration levels varied from 1-4, with an average of 3.5/5 in each area combined. By the last session, everyone averaged out to 4/5.
I found that, as the project progressed, most volunteers did not pressure their autistic partners, and most were engaging them in the project. I found that most were not ignoring their partners, but I also saw that there was a bit of a lack of presuming competence. This may have been because many of our autistic volunteers were non-verbal, and the allistic volunteers had less experience working with non-verbal individuals. I found that there was very little infantalization, however, it was an issue with one of the allistic volunteers. Lastly, I observed great equal work being distributed between partners. These metrics in particular showed to be stagnant throughout the project, with only small changes throughout the weeks.
DISCUSSION
This project was not complete without its obstacles.
A lack of consistency with attendance caused many of my observations to be that participants started from zero each session. Participants had to partner up with different people than their original partners, making the results look more stagnant, as everyone seemed to be just as new to one another as they were in the beginning. There were exceptions to this, namely one group between an autistic adult who was verbal and his partner, who was very understanding and collaborative.
My partner for the project, whom I had assigned to take notes in the opposite room so that I could spend my time watching certain groups more closely, was unable to attend a few sessions, causing inaccuracies in my results. I was able to really focus on certain groups during our fourth session, which made me realize that my notes from the previous sessions may have been inaccurate.
Many issues with collaboration or teamwork could have been due to the clashing personalities of certain group members, namely a shyer allistic volunteer unable to direct their autistic partner to help them. It is important to note that very little of these issues stemmed from the autistic volunteers' behaviors. Most seemed very comfortable with the work at hand, so this was more of an issue with comfort between volunteers and willingness to speak up.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the allistic volunteers gained a better understanding of their autistic peers and how to effectively work alongside them through exposure and hands-on training. They were also given a better understanding of what they may need to work on in order to bring their allyship to a higher level, by identifying their implicit biases and learning the skill of presuming competence - the idea that anyone, no matter their disabilities, has the ability to do any type of work, but may need their own accommodations in order to do so.
However, I found that due to the allistic volunteers not having any previous exposure, these five sessions may not have been enough to acclimate them along with their autistic peers to this new environment. While a few groups showed great growth, others may benefit from additional sessions.
Project Conclusion
Flipping the Script Conclusion Presentation.pdfRESOURCES FOR AUTISTIC ADULTS
*Division of Developmental Disabilities
REFERENCES AND CITATIONS
“Social Skills Training.” Therapist Neurodiversity Collective, 17 Jan. 2024, therapistndc.org/therapy/social-skills-training/.
Dickter, Cheryl L et al. “Implicit and Explicit Attitudes Toward Autistic Adults.” Autism in adulthood : challenges and management vol. 2,2 (2020): 144-151. doi:10.1089/aut.2019.0023
Thank you to Chinmaya Ramdoot in Branchburg, NJ for the facilities and resources needed in order to put this project in motion.
This study and report were made possible thanks to the Girl Scout GoGold Gold Award Project Committee.