ICE Sharing Day Conference: Ros Blackburn

I'm currently on a 1 day per week for 8 weeks placement where I attend every Wednesday.  This week I was lucky enough for that Wednesday to fall on the ICE Sharing Day conference.  ICE is Inclusive Communication Essex and is a library of AAC resources set up around the county in order to promote communication for all.  Parents, professionals and service users are able to access and trial AAC, get support and advice through the programme.  The sharing day was an example of how professionals parents and service users can come together and share experiences and knowledge in order to learn and grow. 

I was lucky enough to be invited along by my placement educator and so had not seen the agenda until the day.  Once I did see it however I was like a child at Christmas..

Ros Blackburn was presenting! So I skipped off as quickly as I could to squeeze in to the tiny lecture room she had been given. 

Now if you ever question your understanding of autism, or on the opposite scale, believe you know all there is about autism - I suggest you go see Ros Blackburn.  She gives an insightful account of life as a person with autism and really highlights the fact that beyond hand flapping and unusual vocalisations, the bare bones of autism is social communication disorder. 

She describes instances of having to communicate and be social as a form of torture and pain and that a reward is being left alone.  Consider how many people interact with children and adults with autism on a daily basis and you will come to realise that this is not at all how many carers and professionals work with individuals with autism.  We've all seen instances of a child with autism being coaxed to sit in close proximity to peers whilst bribing them with items that we perceive as "rewards" which may in fact be less rewarding than the notion of being alone to a child with autism.   

Ros also covered aspects that have been tentative in the media recently.  Much research and opinion pieces focus on the terms "cure" with "autism" and what I believe to become "functional" was reinforced by Ros.  She stated that she was more than capable of learning how to function and that the difference was was that she was unable to inference and learn from inferences.  Instead she was more likely to learn when explicitly told in a logical way, and with a logical reason for why this was a skill necessary to learn.  I believe that is why her famous quote "I can only know what I am told, taught and shown" has become such a well known phrase.  It really highlights that many individuals with autism appreciate and like rules, therefore social communication skills need to be viewed as a set of rules that require being explicit taught.  She states that these rules should always have a logic, a reason and an incentive behind them in order to be learnt, just as you would with anyone else.  However, she stresses that generalisation is a big issue and that anything that you teach in the classroom is not necessarily accessible knowledge when out in public.  Therefore its necessary to teach the skills you want the child or adult to learn in the place that you want them to use them in. 

Overall it was an insightful workshop and I would recommend that any professional or parent of a child with autism jump at the chance to see Ros Blackburn present.  She has the capability to voice what you may already know and give you the clarity you hadn't realised you had about the world of autism. 

Amongst the rest of the sharing day I was able to talk with service users and parents about their experiences with SLT, AAC and daily living and gained further insight into the LD and ASD community, of which was invaluable.  I was also able to learn more about how to develop and write my own sensory stories, and how social stories are written and why (from Dr Siobhan Timmins) and finished the day off with a Makaton sing and sign along session of "I can sing a rainbow".

I can certainly say that this is one placement day I will not forget. 

Ros Blackburn (Logically Illogical) - Leave a comment for Ros Blackburns details if you would like to contact her regarding talks.