Cariboo Behaviour Consultant

Join us for our 8th annual Autism Acceptance event. We look forward to seeing you all there and having some time to mingle, converse and answer any questions as best as we can. Most of all just stop by and take part in a fun, interactive community event. A beautiful way to show your support for all our amazing children and families.

Sincerely
Your Blue Sky's Team

We all need sensory breaks!!

There are many reasons why a child may behave a certain way. Take the time to check in with your children about their feelings!

Autistic or otherwise, we need to stop putting kids in distress and then punishing them for it.
Say it with me now: Let's change the environment!

Image reads: "When you think about it, it's pretty disgusting that there are actual professionals who see a dysregulated autistic child struggling terribly with their environment, behaving in accordance with the stress levels and anxiety they are experiencing... and these adults' first response is "quick! Let's change this child's behaviour!"
And when a stressed out screaming child becomes a stressed out quiet child, they think the work's done."
( - Chris Bonello, Autistic Not Weird)

"...but they have to learn!"

"They have to learn! They'll think it's okay if they just get away with it.

How will they learn that behaviour is not okay if there are no consequences?

You're certain they don't already know this is wrong?

Yes? --> It wouldn't be right to punish someone for something they didn't understand was wrong.

No? --> If they already know it's wrong, they don't need to be taught. They need support to resolve conflict more peacefully.

-

Punishments Don’t Teach Skills

Okay, maybe one: They teach people how to be better at avoiding punishment.

Even if we wanted to pretend that “behaviour therapies” were somehow helpful to disabled and autistic children (they’re not), aside from forcing compliance, what do they actually teach?

I have to perform x behaviour in order to receive y item/privilege/reward that I want.

That’s it.

All humans need to learn skills. We don’t learn skills through sticker charts, reward systems, having things withheld from us, or from being ignored. And we sure as hell don’t learn any skills from being punished.

A childhood full of behaviour modification and behaviourism-based approaches will likely lead in one of two ways:

a) the child becomes so compliant they are now at risk for being abused, manipulated, and mistreated by even more people because they’ve been taught to be people-pleasers and to do what they’re told.

b) the child rebels even harder against the confining, unfair expectations and mistreatment. The child may come to hate anyone involved with their behaviour “therapy.

Punishments do not teach skills. They use threat, intimidation, and manipulation to coerce children into doing what we want.

…And by "we", I usually mean adults, the ones with all the power in the situation, often using that power imbalance to force children into doing things our way.

Check out the comments for my full article :)

I tried to capture visually the difference that accommodations can make. When we go through our days, lots of niggly things that seem small can build up and mean that one more demand can result in overwhelm. With accommodations, things are still there in the background but supports are in place and so the same demand won't have the same impact.

This is highly simplified and of course on different days different factors can have more or less of an impact, but hopefully you find it useful.



--

Image description: a 3 panel comic with a brown background. The heading reads ‘Accommodations make a difference’, below the heading text says ‘The ability to do a task can be impacted by many factors. On any given day, the combination that results in overload can be different.
Simple accommodations can increase someone's enjoyment of, or capacity and ability to do, a task.’ The first panel has a scale from 0-100 with different coloured boxes from green at the bottom to red at the top, the boxes in ascending order are: tight clothes, bright lights, multiple noise sources, hunger, strong perfume, didn’t sleep well, need a break, don’t understand task, high pain levels. The top box sits on top about to fill up the scale to 100 – the box says ‘someone asks a question.’ Above this text says: One more task demand or something unexpected could result in overwhelm/ meltdown for this person. Middle panel: a bulleted list says ‘What if the same person has: Taken a break, Had a snack recently, Can wear comfy clothes to work, Has been given clear task demands, Colleagues don't wear strong perfume, Can wear noise cancelling headphones’. Below this are some of the coloured boxes from the first panel all smaller with a spiky circle that says ‘these factors now have less impact.’ Third panel: text at the top says ‘With accommodations in place, the same demand, 'someone asking a question', doesn't have the same impact.’ This is the difference simple accommodations can make. There is the 0-100 scale but now only 3 boxes (bright lights, didn’t sleep well, high pain levels) are filled in, a yellow box (someone asks a question) fits on top and doesn’t cause overwhelm – this is the difference simple accommodations can make.

> "After the period of silence I said, "you think that too many people are getting diagnosed as autistic or adhd...." ...
"yeah, it's just so trendy right now"
"Being Autistic or ADHD is trendy. Okay...so...how many people, or what percentage of people are you okay with being autistic or adhd? What do you think is the "accurate" amount for it to be believable and not trendy?"

Social Anxiety at School.

One of the hardest things for me at school was when the teacher said 'get into groups' or 'find a partner'.

I used to stand there frozen, anxiety flared, palms sweating, butterflies in my stomach. Looking around me, not knowing where to look, not knowing how to ask someone if I could be their partner. Just frozen!

Once paired (usually by the teacher), i always felt embarrassed because I was singled out. Having a big red face and bumbling my words in the group or go completely quiet.

This isn't because I didn't know how to do the task at hand. Many times the task was easy for me. It was not knowing how to interject to make suggestions. Feeling like an outsider into an already formed group.

Just one scenario of why I always felt so uncomfortable in the school setting.There are countless more examples.

AutisticAlly

Pride Week 2022 Kamloops Pride Week returns August 22-28, 2022! You won't want to miss this spectacular lineup of events. Event lineup: Monday August 22: Comedy Show Scavenger Hunt Starts Tuesday August 23: Family Art Night​ Wednesday August 24: Sexual Health Panel​ Thursday August 25: Headphone Disco​ Friday...

Programs at the library this summer!

The pathological medical model defines play as inappropriate, restricted, and repetitive with DEFICITS in imagination, imitation, symbolism and joint attention.

A paradigm that focuses on deficits rather than strengths.

In this context, playing "appropriately" means playing with toys exactly as a typical child would play with toys.

When an autistic child plays in an unusual way, it is considered "inappropriate play." In other words, "it's different, therefore it's bad."

It's not that autistic children don't know how to play. There is no correct way to play. Play is play.

Autistic children's exploration and interaction with the world is outside of society's understanding, and just because society doesn't understand the value of doing things a certain way, it doesn't mean it's wrong.

There is nothing wrong with lining up toys. 🦒🐖🧸

There is nothing wrong with spinning the wheels of a car. 🚙

There is nothing wrong with playing with nature. 🌱

There is nothing wrong with playing with a cardboard box. 📦

Autistic play is appropriate play.

Autistic children are not broken versions of neurotypical children. Same thing goes for autistic adults (we exist by the way 😉✌️). is a natural part of the spectrum of human diversity... and diversity is beautiful.

We learn, interact and play AUTISTICALLY.

-Autísticamente Marcela 🚙 🦖 ⚽🚂

Publicación en español:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=459514795536353&id=100044335094112

[Image description: an illustration of a child smiling and sitting on the floor while holding a stick with a leaf. The child is surrounded by a display of toys and other household items that have been lined up in a curved row (a piano, a cardboard box, a bucket & pale, a stuffed bunny, a wooden train, two plastic cups, four colored markers, a broom, a toy dinosaur, a hat, two Christmas tree ornaments, a vase with flowers, a toy bus, a potato head, a pop it, a spinner, a book, a boat, a panda bear, a rattle, a number block, a beach ball, a stacking toy and a Peppa Pig). A thinking bubble above the child has a smiley face.]

Mysterious mystery 😆

Natasha Ladouceur Toggle navigation Load unfinished survey You have completed 0% of this survey 0% Caution: JavaScript ex*****on is disabled in your browser or for this website. You may not be able to answer all questions in this survey. Please, verify your browser parameters. Hiring People with Diversabilities & The...

100 Mile House is having its first ever Pride event on June 5th!

PRIDE IN THE PARK - Centennial Park - 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM

If you are in the area, pop in and say hello :)

Check out this monthly group over at CFEC!

Parenting The Neurodivergent Child Support Group
Facilitated by our in house Keyworker, Candace Pigeon

A monthly group for parents and caregivers to questions, receive non-judgemental support, guidance and meet other families navigating life with a neurodivergent child.

The first Monday of each month from 1:30pm-3:00pm

For more information please contact 250-395-5155

Text reads:
"Students with disability are rarely acknowledged for the heavy burden of accommodations they make to cope at school, while it is others who believe they are making the accommodations."
@ InclusivePlan

Don't mistake "quiet and compliant" for "calm and well-regulated."

Text image: Autistic people are 3-6 times more likely to be gender diverse than neurotypical people.

@ the_queer_counselor

AUTISTIC PEOPLE ARE 3-6 TIMES MORE LIKELY TO BE GENDER DIVERSE THAN NEUROTYPICAL PEOPLE.