Sunday, October 17, 2010
Coaching aspies4college: Netwroking,socializing, empowerment
Coaching aspies4college: Netwroking,socializing, empowerment: "You are invited to attend the first meeting of College Aspies MeetUp. Tuesday, October 19th, 7PM at Barnes and Nobles' cafe in the Metrople..."
Netwroking,socializing, empowerment
You are invited to attend the first meeting of College Aspies MeetUp. Tuesday, October 19th, 7PM at Barnes and Nobles' cafe in the Metroplex on Chemical Road in Plymouth meeting. Help us set the direction of the group. Be part of the driving force behind the group.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Asperger Center for Education and Training-A great resource for parents and students
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OUR MISSIONOur mission is to present evidence-based, practical, current information about Asperger Syndrome andrelated conditions and appropriate treatments and to develop and provide innovative services to the community of children and adults with Asperger Syndrome and their families. What's new at the Asperger Center for Education and Training?
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College CoachingWednesday, October 13, 2010
University of Alabama Program- college transition for Aspies
College Transition Programs Launched for Students with Autism
Newswise — Dr. Laura Klinger well remembers the first time she met an adorable preschool child with Asperger's syndrome soon after joining The University of Alabama in 1993 as a clinical psychologist.This child, said Klinger, was one of the first she evaluated in her role as the founder and director of a UA research clinic specializing in autism and related disorders. Since Klinger's arrival at UA some 15 years ago, the number of diagnosed cases of Autism Spectrum Disorders (which includes autism, Asperger's syndrome and pervasive developmental disorder) worldwide has exploded, the disorders have received widespread media attention, and Klinger has evaluated and provided therapy services to hundreds of children.
As for the child? Well, this child enrolled this fall as a freshman at The University of Alabama.
Klinger said she didn't initially envision the UA clinic expanding its services to adults, but as the child and the thousands of others, nationwide, with an autism spectrum disorder began reaching college age, she saw an unmet need.
Through a one-year grant awarded Klinger from the Alabama Council for Developmental Disabilities, UA developed and launched, this year, a college transition program, known as UA-ACTS, for students with an autism spectrum disorder, or ASD. Three freshmen are enrolled in the program. Klinger envisions the UA program becoming self-sustaining and eventually expanding to serve up to 16 students.
The grant enabled UA to hire Dr. Sarah O'Kelley, a postdoctoral clinician, in a half-time position to develop and lead the college transition program.
Difficulties in social interaction - including knowing how to make friends - poor conversation skills, and obsessive interests are characteristics of people with autism spectrum disorders. Individuals with an ASD have IQ scores from the range of mental retardation to giftedness. Those with average IQ's or higher have the academic skills necessary for success in college, Klinger says.
College life is, for many, the near ultimate social interaction challenge, and it's faced, for the first time, without parental supervision. For children with the disorder, it's particularly taxing.
"These students are given more independence than they have ever been given before," Klinger says. "They really want to be just like any other freshman on campus."
Students in the program, who must first be admitted into UA on their own merits, are assigned graduate level therapists/mentors to assist them in navigating the challenges of college life. During both individual and group sessions, the students are guided in such areas as improving interactions with instructors, building and managing relationships with college peers, including roommates, managing time and improving daily living skills. The students are also monitored for signs of high anxiety and depression, challenges faced by many with an autism spectrum disorder.
The UA-ACTS program coordinates services with UA's Office of Disability Services. UA instructors and Residential Life staff are educated on some of the challenges faced by people with ASD in the college environment.
The magnitude of students entering college world-wide with ASD is a testimony to the success of early intervention programs, Klinger says. In times past, college would not have even been considered an option for many similar students, she says. Others would have found the road rocky.
"For the most part, they don't do very well," Klinger said of previous generations of students attending college with ASD. Some, of course, overcame the obstacles. Klinger hopes the program can give current students a needed boost.
In addition to growing the program, an important goal is to raise scholarship funds to assist the families of future students in paying the program's $3,000 a semester fee.
Despite the growing demand, only a handful of such programs exist nationwide. One of O'Kelley's first tasks was to evaluate existing programs and attempt to incorporate some of the best elements from each into the UA program.
"We're getting calls from all over the country," Kli
Coaching aspies4college: What should I do in College? What should I do with...
Coaching aspies4college: What should I do in College? What should I do with...: "It's amazing but both Dr. Temple Grandin and Steve Jobs have the same advice: follow your dreams; go with your talent. Do what you love. You..."
What should I do in College? What should I do with my life?
It's amazing but both Dr. Temple Grandin and Steve Jobs have the same advice: follow your dreams; go with your talent. Do what you love. You may have to be innovative to be able to make a living from your dreams/talents but isn't it worth it to have a life you love? "Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.They somehow already know what you truly want to become." Steve Jobs.
"When planning for a career or job, do what you do best. You want to work from your strengths and work in fields that capitalize on those strengths." Dr. Temple Grandin
"When planning for a career or job, do what you do best. You want to work from your strengths and work in fields that capitalize on those strengths." Dr. Temple Grandin
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Words of wisdom as you "Dream about your future"
7 Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs
By Tom Kaneshige, CIO
In 1972, Steve Jobs left his Silicon Valley home and headed north to a small liberal arts school, Reed College, in Portland, Oregon, only to drop out after one semester. Like many teenagers, the 17-year-old Jobs lacked direction.
Artwork: Chip Taylor"I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out," Jobs said later. "Here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out okay."
The courage to leave school--to "follow your heart"--is the first of seven principles outlined by Carmine Gallo in his new book, "The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs" (McGraw-Hill, October 2010). Gallo, a communications pro, is the author of the best-seller "The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs." (See CIO.com's Q&A.)
Gallo's new book, however, takes him out of his core marketing expertise and into new ground where clichés help him define something as elusive as innovation. No doubt parents everywhere who fork out thousands for their kid's college education are shuddering over the first principle.
Gallo revels in the image of Jobs-as-superhero, which somewhat undermines serious analysis of the iconic man's ability to deliver not what people want but what they will want. Many of Gallo's other six principles are just as simplistic, such as "put a dent in the universe," "say no to 1,000 things," and "create insanely great experiences." (See below for the list of principles.)
It's not all bad. Gallo comes closest to his mission in his third principle, "kick-start your brain," which, like many chapters covering each principle, is riddled with quotes from Jobs: "Part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians, and poets, and artists, and zoologists, and historians who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world."
One of the recurring themes in "The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs" is the ability to think differently and openly and constantly question the status quo. In order to do this, one must have enough and varied life experiences--both good and bad--to draw from, according to Gallo.
In the chapter about kick-starting your brain, Gallo cites a Harvard study that found that creative thinking requires the ability to connect vastly different experiences in order to arrive at something wholly new. For instance, Jobs sat in on a calligraphy class at Reed College, and Gallo shows how Jobs would later connect this experience with technology design.
Among not-so-savory experiences that, um, kick-start your brain is Jobs' use of drugs. In John Markoff's book, "What the Doormouse Said," Jobs told Markoff that "taking LSD was one of the two or three most important things he had done in his life." Jobs intimated a connection that's eerily similar to the one with calligraphy: the trippy graphics combined with music in early iTunes players reminded him of his psychedelic experiences. (Tech visionaries have a long history with LSD, writes CIO.com editor Meridith Levinson.)
Here, Gallo writes in his chapter about kick-starting your brain that it's reasonable to assume Jobs meditated with the aid of some "herbs." But that's about as dark as Gallo is willing to go in his analysis of Jobs' ability to innovate.
More glaringly, Gallo ignores the culture of paranoia that engulfs Apple, as well as Jobs' fiery temper. Apparently, these aren't secrets to innovation. (On the other hand, maybe they are?)
Gallo does a fine job of researching and citing examples of innovation throughout history, not just at Apple or from Jobs or even in technology, in order to back up his innovation principles. From John F. Kennedy's march to the moon to the Renaissance period to Cold Stone Creamery's unique spin on ice cream, Gallo points out time and again that innovation often boils down to a simple, creative idea.
While Gallo contends that anyone can take advantage of these principles and find "breakthrough success" on a small scale, say, a college graduate in his first job interview or a 20-year veteran in an industry undergoing fundamental change, universe-denting innovation isn't for everyone.
In the book's last chapter, entitled One More Thing (a nod to Jobs' famous phrase used during major Apple events), Gallo says most individuals lack Jobs-ian courage. "Innovation sits in a lonely place because very, very few people have the courage to pitch radically new ideas and the self-confidence to stick to their convictions," Gallo writes, adding, "which is why so few can or will be able to innovate on a grand scale the way Steve Jobs does."
In other words, stay in school.
1. Do what You Love
2. Put a Dent in the Universe
3. Kick-Start Your Brain
4. Sell Dreams, Not Products
5. Say No to 1,000 Things
6. Create Insanely Great Experiences
7. Master the Message
Tom Kaneshige covers Apple and Networking for CIO.com. Follow Tom on Twitter @kaneshige. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline. Email Tom at tkaneshige@cio.
Artwork: Chip Taylor"I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out," Jobs said later. "Here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out okay."The courage to leave school--to "follow your heart"--is the first of seven principles outlined by Carmine Gallo in his new book, "The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs" (McGraw-Hill, October 2010). Gallo, a communications pro, is the author of the best-seller "The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs." (See CIO.com's Q&A.)
Gallo's new book, however, takes him out of his core marketing expertise and into new ground where clichés help him define something as elusive as innovation. No doubt parents everywhere who fork out thousands for their kid's college education are shuddering over the first principle.
Gallo revels in the image of Jobs-as-superhero, which somewhat undermines serious analysis of the iconic man's ability to deliver not what people want but what they will want. Many of Gallo's other six principles are just as simplistic, such as "put a dent in the universe," "say no to 1,000 things," and "create insanely great experiences." (See below for the list of principles.)
It's not all bad. Gallo comes closest to his mission in his third principle, "kick-start your brain," which, like many chapters covering each principle, is riddled with quotes from Jobs: "Part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians, and poets, and artists, and zoologists, and historians who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world."
One of the recurring themes in "The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs" is the ability to think differently and openly and constantly question the status quo. In order to do this, one must have enough and varied life experiences--both good and bad--to draw from, according to Gallo.
In the chapter about kick-starting your brain, Gallo cites a Harvard study that found that creative thinking requires the ability to connect vastly different experiences in order to arrive at something wholly new. For instance, Jobs sat in on a calligraphy class at Reed College, and Gallo shows how Jobs would later connect this experience with technology design.
Among not-so-savory experiences that, um, kick-start your brain is Jobs' use of drugs. In John Markoff's book, "What the Doormouse Said," Jobs told Markoff that "taking LSD was one of the two or three most important things he had done in his life." Jobs intimated a connection that's eerily similar to the one with calligraphy: the trippy graphics combined with music in early iTunes players reminded him of his psychedelic experiences. (Tech visionaries have a long history with LSD, writes CIO.com editor Meridith Levinson.)
Here, Gallo writes in his chapter about kick-starting your brain that it's reasonable to assume Jobs meditated with the aid of some "herbs." But that's about as dark as Gallo is willing to go in his analysis of Jobs' ability to innovate.
More glaringly, Gallo ignores the culture of paranoia that engulfs Apple, as well as Jobs' fiery temper. Apparently, these aren't secrets to innovation. (On the other hand, maybe they are?)
Gallo does a fine job of researching and citing examples of innovation throughout history, not just at Apple or from Jobs or even in technology, in order to back up his innovation principles. From John F. Kennedy's march to the moon to the Renaissance period to Cold Stone Creamery's unique spin on ice cream, Gallo points out time and again that innovation often boils down to a simple, creative idea.
While Gallo contends that anyone can take advantage of these principles and find "breakthrough success" on a small scale, say, a college graduate in his first job interview or a 20-year veteran in an industry undergoing fundamental change, universe-denting innovation isn't for everyone.
In the book's last chapter, entitled One More Thing (a nod to Jobs' famous phrase used during major Apple events), Gallo says most individuals lack Jobs-ian courage. "Innovation sits in a lonely place because very, very few people have the courage to pitch radically new ideas and the self-confidence to stick to their convictions," Gallo writes, adding, "which is why so few can or will be able to innovate on a grand scale the way Steve Jobs does."
In other words, stay in school.
Seven Principles of Innovation
1. Do what You Love
2. Put a Dent in the Universe
3. Kick-Start Your Brain
4. Sell Dreams, Not Products
5. Say No to 1,000 Things
6. Create Insanely Great Experiences
7. Master the Message
Tom Kaneshige covers Apple and Networking for CIO.com. Follow Tom on Twitter @kaneshige. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline. Email Tom at tkaneshige@cio.
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