Yesterday, both myself and some fellow MScSLT peers attended The Autism Show in London's Excel. It was both inspiring and eye-opening! I was able to attend several talks from a range of professionals, parents and individuals with autism and was exposed to new insights into communication and sensory issues as related to autism. I also saw 2 SLTs from the Hesley Group talk on the topic "Dysphagia and Autism" - As we have yet to cover dysphagia or anatomy in the course (yes, I bet you are shocked that 10 months in we have yet to cover this!) I found this a wonderful insight into the "normal" swallow and also some red flag indicators that are commonly seen in individuals with autism at eating and feeding times. The sensory issues that accompany foods are essential to take note of - many individuals with autism have heightened or reduced sensory impacts compared with "typical" individuals and as such new tastes and textures will be unpleasant to them. This can cause negative associations with mealtimes and can lead to poor nutrition. Another factor that may be cause for concern that is often common in autism is Pica. This is the eating of non-food substances and can affect both nutrition and diet but can have an impact on internal systems such as the oesophagous and stomach. So, a very interesting talk to attend and fascinating to meet new SLTs and discuss ASD with them.
The highlight of my day has to be the wide variety of AAC devices available to both experience hands-on but also to purchase. Both low and high tech devices were on show and a range of different companies promoting both symbol, written and picture based devices. As I have seen a range both working in playschemes with children with autism, but also as an SLT Student in placement it was fascinating to talk to the creators and directors of these companies to get their view on AAC. One sales rep (for the AAC company Dynavox) even remarked that he was not there as a sales rep and was not concerned with how many sales he made, his goal was to make sure people had the opportunity to experience different AAC types hands on. He stated that it is more important to be aware and familiar with the AAC devices that we may one day be recommending. He even offered to do a one day talk at University! So I look forward to him demonstrating and allowing us to experience a range of low and high tec devices that his company recommends.
I was then able to get my hands (or should I say eyes?!) on trialing a piece of eye gaze software. Now, before this opportunity I had heard of eye gaze AAC devices and seen pictures of these, but never had I seen a service user with one nor attempted to use one myself. So straight away I burst up to an unsuspecting rep and said "please can I try it?" whilst trying to explain I was a SLT student currently with a BIG interest in ASD. He agreed and set me up with a programme that made pretty dots dance around the screen as a result of where your eyes pointed. Now I strongly recommend that anyone who is from an SLT, to an OT to a health care professional, to a carer, anyone working with a client with an AAC device, should try out the device and experience it for themselves. There is no better way to learn how another person copes with life than by stepping into their shoes. So this is what I did. And my gosh was it hard! We may take for granted sometimes that if a client has access to a AAC device that that must mean its working for them. This may not be true at all! I found that using the eye gaze softward took a lot of concentration, a lot of patience and a lot of staring very still for a long time. And I'd be as bold as to say I have good eye co-ordination! So you can imagine for many AAC users out there that a co-morbity of diagnosis' may occur and eye co-ordination may not be a strength of theirs, or even those with fantastic eye co-ordination but have un-patient personalities.
So what this really taught me was that AAC devices can talk the talk and claim to be the best, but the only way a particular device can be the best is individually and unless a certain individual works well with an AAC device and states a preference for one over another, the companies cannot claim that one is more beneficial than another! We, as SLTs, need to ensure that the AAC device that is given to a client is one that is well suited to both their speech, language and communication needs, but also their personalities!
Though it is stated frequently that Autism is a spectrum, therefore the nature of each diagnosis is individual and just like snowflakes no two people with autism will present the same - it takes a day like this to prove just how true that statement is!
The Autism Show was definitely a thoroughly interesting and eye opening (and eye gazing!) day out that I recommend to anyone with an interest in the field of Autism! I am only disappointed that I could only attend one day out of the two days that this show was held for!
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