Out and About: Preparing Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders to Participate in Their Communities

Along with coauthor Amy Bixler, Jill Hudson has developed another of her trademark short, to-the-point resources that will be used again and again by parents and educators. This time the focus is on the every day, how to enable and support individuals on the autism spectrum to participate, to the maximum extent possible, in the community around them. In this simple book, the authors provide a framework for identifying the areas where an individual with ASD may need support to participate more fully and successfully in community activities. The framework, created as a Blueprint to be filled in, depending on the child and the outing being planned, lists 10 areas identified in best practice as effective types of support for children with ASD. Areas include waiting plan, communication, social, visual, hidden curriculum, sensory, motivation, behavior, transition, and siblings or other students. For each area on the Blueprint, parents, teachers, coaches, family members anybody who lives or works with the child fills in ahead of time the support that best matches the child's needs for a given event. The hope is that the specially designed Blueprint will become second nature to its users as they become more familiar with the areas of support the child needs in various situations.