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the whitney reynolds show is supported byreach out community center reach out and help one child at a time i and what you read on and today we'retalking about the top and controversy on topic about them your watching the whitney reynolds shellok what is on to them many people havedifferent beliefs and how it developed is there a cure and how to avoid it today julia breivikis going to expire disorder and what she's learnedfirst-hand and

film healy thank you so much for comingon and educating our on to them if the toptopic because there's a lot of controversy around it want them the controversy well at itscore the controversy is what is autism i'mused to very different schools of thought rightnow one of those is that autism is a genetic disorder that has always been apart of the human condition and that there's really not much thatyou can do for it other than accept it and and try to provide enough there beso that your child can

hopefully participate in society in somesort of meaningful way then there's a completely differentschool thought that flip that on its head and says thats absolutely wrong autism isactually an epidemic there's no such thing as a geneticepidemic there's something environmental it involved here and that ultimately this is a medicalcondition that can be treated can be prevented and actually can bereversed in a covered by insurance that is considered a medical

well currently it's not considered amedical disorder so that is part of the problem that allow parents are facing isthat their children are presenting withsignificant medical problems wetherbee gastrointestinal issues that they'rehaving toxicological issues that they're havingand so if you are able to treat those individually then itdepends on your insurance carrier but if you were to give it the broad category art isn't the answer is no and wheneveryou say parents faith you've actually think thispersonally you have it 12-year-old

daughter n you are when we were talking about youmeeting up to this interview we said that she'staken strides towards a recovery yes what does that look like well if youtake the position which was what i reality was was thatour daughter was actually very sec it's like recovering from an illnessyou know if you are treated any get to the root of what'sactually going on in you are are able to properly implement youknow different medications and therapies andso forth to

to help alleviate whatever was causingmore problems than eventually it looks like you're gettingyour child back autism does come in many differentshades some people have a form a bit that with their child the able to lead afairly normal life in there may be some social issues theyhave to encounter in some other things but ultimately they're having a normal life are thereare some families who are absolutely suffering and their children have no services they are severelyimpacted by their autism

and they have nowhere to go and wementioned earlier this isn't being covered by insurance inmany instances on schools are overwhelmed they don't necessarily knowwhat to do with this i mean they're getting better but youadd all that together all the stress all the heartbreak on and people aresnapping and and it's bound to happen again what canbe very expensive but there are some programs out there to help parents your sat with one on and give us a briefhammering okay well generation rescue i'm who isan organization that was formed in the

mid 2000's and its purpose primarily was to letparents know that much like my experience there were things that youcan do and so they have really paved the waythey've been doing a great job a fundraising and getting money backinto the hands of parents to put them on the path to recovery on your mom people like you like to ratematthew during the helping others yes thank youso much for coming on sharing your story thing now time for our social

that'll today we have a short videotitled what would like to have a brother went on to them but kompany i'm spencer today i'm 20 years old my big brother mitchellhas autism you know people eyes ask me spencer was light on system brother is a hardfrustrating different cal app crash times like now not really now i mean i guess differentin that has an older brother he doesn't really give me advice money

we can buy alcohol never got beat up bya mother and a child like most brotherly relationships but wedo have a roomie bon mike thomas and links he stilldefinite knowledge that he is a big brother never says spencer's mother shark or saying mitchell is a girl knows how to provoke a response from meis where toxic he pretends she me all the time thehallway annie is a vicious bear hug like norma siblings we can guaranteeothers nerves

we can always sort it out by having awrestling match is usually time her mom and dad in a minute because he is 0 resilienceto take on our relationship a special now oneperson understands and the way i do obama strong is most important person tome allies protect him and here's i'mbrother mitchell's a special human being i don't mean it because his artistic imean because he is one of a kind he never ceases to amaze me now i'm ontommy on mitchell's maybe eight or nine

attention told them i'm bullish stopsthere p because they believe he's never going through his speech its ability to interact he said he'dprobably reached max capacity he proved them wrong last summercuriouser for all by himself he sing a song is high school graduationis even a gold medalist in the special index on ask.com what do we do we do so-and-so him in the exact date like how october 7 1999 it's incredible you can jog cook

type saying surf dance you can prettymuch do it all but that's not the main reason why ithink he special now has ability to make everyone around them happy my family afriend who needs the people at the rec center he attendsas workplace and especially me makes me a betterperson his time in a fine enjoying a little things is tommy patients understanding andperspective although i play the big brother on by the way to care i do look up tom i learned from everyday

thing about this all the time and ican't wait for him to be the best man at my wedding when i have kids their favorite unclemitchell always be after watching disney movies playing pirates is a princess's withthem i'm so blessed to have my life museum mitchell thank you for being mybrother my best friend the new so many and the question had me ending there's like10 min 26 brother

when i get an answer it's incredible hi i'm laura adams and today show isabout autism and i'm joined by daniel sheridan who isthe artistic director up the devonport junior theatre thanksso much for taking some time to talk about a special program that you have herethat deals with autism tell me about it absolutely well juniorappears been around since 1951 but it was just a few years ago that we startedour

are you autism program there is anothertheater company here in town the curtain box theatre company that was hosting a program for a coupleyears and at that theater program geared towards you with autism and giving them the benefits love theater and their communicationskills that are built they came to us cuz they were doing some other things asa theatre company and to be loved free to continue thiswork and it was a no brainer for us because

our mission is to serve as many kids aspossible and this was a demographic we weren't serving fully and that now we feel like we arenow what's the age group of kids that can be involved in this program for the spec computer program we have a79-year-old 10 to 12 year-olds and 13 app: a lot of the kids on the autism spectrum6m below don't really start showing a lot ofsocial differences until they reach the age of seven say what babe

function very well in our mainstreamprogramming here junior theatre but then for those who have a little more advanced challenges withcommunication are spectrum program is a great opportunity for them what sort ofthings are the kids learning in the class and and you know do parents get a chance tosee how they how they're progressing oh yeahabsolutely well everything a junior theatre ends with the performance on our main stage it doesn't matter whatclass are taking their

the ability to take those skills and usethem in front of people is on you know the the ultimate the ultimate training ground to see ifthose things are coming together and so i in the the spec computerprogram we have a specific focus onsocialization with other kids in a classroom we not onlywant to teach in communication skills but that build a peer group by finding otherkids were in shin peter like them i'm just like a lot of other programmingto and van

the i back canada on the basic skillscome down to you i contact standing your ground beingempathetic and understanding one another person feels as a character and understand yourlip relationship two characters but the classes we use differentstrategies 11 session we might focus on improvisation as the tool for the class i we had oneclass where we designed a life-size puppets and twostudents had to work together to operate the puppets themselves

and so they had to learn how tocollaborate together while communicating and other characters ideas so we're always reinventing the classbecause our kids come back again and again and again and so we want to alwaysoffer them something more what sort of things are the parentstelling you about what their what that changes their thing in their childrenwhat they this story that comes to mind that isthat the most inspiring story that i've heard from a parent is that after 10 one of the classes they were ontheir way home in their child engage

them in a conversation about their class andit was the first time they'd ever been the one to engage in a conversationfirst an aide to pull the car over to the sideof the road and had a conversation with their child for the first time that sounds great thank you so much fortaking the time today daniel and if you'd like more information checkout their website it's right there on your screen and never going back tomorrow withwhitney in the studio how did that get

is another like union wgn radio the most work national teams we're not here with pattybathgate and your son has autism guess who dis tell us what that islamic i'm you know it's cuz you knoweverything at the net happened to you it's made my well a bigger place i saythat why do my shows and and it sounds cheesy and corny butmy son look at the world differently he wantsand see what thing sounds like what they feel like what they look like

it likely that he had tree he want tosee leaves you know from this thing a lot from this angle and it makes me slow down toward thebeach he watches the water you know whole way and when it comesrushing back giggles and you realize what you know what thatis amazing you know the kind i had a and change my world it's also you knowbeen a hard road because it's not what i expected it's not known plans for that and you never know what's coming nextand who take a ravine if he is able to live independently so

when did you find out he had not welldeccan was born on a row two weeks early and he had a lotof complications he wasn't able to breathe on his own and add a helper my life support andkeep them in a special care nursery when what we all know is the neck youarm for about 28 days and it wasn't until he was not meetinghis milestones that they really came in with specialist i thoughtthat maybe it was his medical fred fragile this was a resulthave pneumonia an aspirin amniotic fluid in a lower yeah i have first carry it isi mean it's scary

yeah but you know being able to havethis much distance and getting as far as we have because i found out later that that many thespecialist didn't expect to survive and now only to survive he's thrived but when he was about three years old thereand other tests any just a walking in three years really late for childishare walking i bear anatase and family was missing somefibers and his in the car the corpus callosum and theconnective fibers it attach the right side the left side yourbrain and neck communication between

those sides are necessary for cognitivedevelopment and unit for language development for grossmotor skills fine motor skills so basically we haveis a antarctica location for his autismwhich is a lot different for a lot of the family they were able to run attack yeah and day this had autism but this iswhy this is why exactly yeah because itsbehavior very artistic nature lot repetitive behaviors

you up complications when it comes tomaking social attachment but then but we don't know what he knowsbecause he doesn't speak he communicate in his own way i'm so no point in these pictures whyfamilies use picture exchange which is called packs on but and thething is like i never thought you know when you hear autism you havealways you know wide-ranging what you've seen what you've heard in uae sir thinking for me i was like whatif i never hear him say mommy i never have omg i thought he neverwants to hug me he loves to cuddle

i got that got that i got that anna &enemies 45 i realize what i needed to be able to kiss him and he wouldn't let me so i would and that was why things thati developed with my with a mommy kissing at lena's ford like this and you give me a cheek and just before thanksgiving last year hepulled me down i was doing some writing any pull me down to his level and wascoming at me like really close ally what we do in and gave me my first kiss on the lips soand nothing is with for my family a lot

of people who are dealing with autismlike you don't really know what what are they taking in from the world what is ityou know how the processing and that's that's the mystery of it where here today because you actuallyalso have a radio show on wgn you perform all the time have you beenable to combine comedy with am pending seeing a bright side itried as hard as hell yeah a when i saturday sep comedy i alwayswant to have a light i love the sensor realism that somecomics bring to the shows like richard prior to that you know

might very much his own story and i had'em on aunt i am bernie had beaten breast cancer and i decided i would start talkingabout women tell early in my career and that and saywould you go i don't know she's going with that but at a point where we talk aboutmammograms and stirrups unlike gonna be in the stirrups i'm bringin spurs you know is i thinki'm in control situation so i've always had that lakes likesummer those elements woven in words

a you know so can scary stuff so withdeclan i talk about having two boys it a littlebit about griffin and then i i segue into saying he's thebest big brother for his little brother declan who hasautism and i and my things i try to tell people as after show as people continue i'm sosorry but you're signed i get that i get the desire to want toshow empathy or compassion but for my family dead when is ourvictory not a tragedy typically we do man on the street buteveryone in here teachers that work with

students with autism we in the educational field where thepool of people students with autism i'm a high schoolspecial education teacher and he everyday i ask myself the samequestions arm water my students futures gonna look like what it would do thatwhat you see they have for themselves with their parish juice for that for their child i'm worktable worker they gonna get into and those are the questions and answersthat that really drive the education they need to provide forthem i'm the biggest thing is the

the independent skills and being able tofunction as an independent adult is is is is primary we work on the community life skills we work on thedaily living skills being able to clean around the house i'm we work and hating skills we work onthe functional and social communication the conversational skills understandingsocial rules and expressing wants and needs arm expanded beyond the vocab their vocational experiences in theirwork skills to sort so they can holder

a employment in the future um and one of the biggest areas is is thecoping skills being able to independently manage their behavioralcensoring its and not just in the classroom but beyondmy class from the in the home in the community when we goout and go to restaurants in the grocery store i'm at home with their parents sometimesour parents are you know looking for asean for answersand you know that's what we need to do is providethose answers for them i'm

and in work workers use think they canhave tantrums they can't i'm you know be aggressive at work datethey have to be able to independently manage themselvesin and implement the changes that they know how to use to calm themselves down and be able tocontinue their work my primary flat a fee when working with my students isestablishing a relationship with them i know throughout the course of the dayin through the year there were gonna be really tackling some tough behaviors and it's really important that they knowthat i care about and and that

that i'm gonna be there for them andnever have fun together i'm so that's my primary plots officialsto know that the to let them know that i care on in termsof my goals my primary goals are of course thesaddle she life skills they have to have so many skills to beable to become a productive adult when they're older i'm so it's michael to make sure thatduring the day that we're working on the skills so that they can accomplish those goalson my second thing that i really wanna

work out my students is to establish amotive communication about my students don't have verbalcommunication its compared it to me in my staff that we find a means for them to be ableto communicate their wants and needs and desires so if that means teaching more verballanguage in explaining their sentences or if that means having a device acommunication device to help them use a voice so they don't have or evenusing pictures to have functional communication

on if you don't have communication youcan share your wants and needs and if you don't have communication you canestablish a lot more negative behaviors on so my goal is to always allow them tohave a voice once they have their boyce that i'mgonna see a decrease in behavior which is going to be beneficial not onlyfor me in for their parents but also for them as well on in that's really mean philosophy andgoals for my students is a wonderful experience work with them i every day is something new you neverknow what you're gonna get

a on with working with them you meetwith the families meet as a team to really help them post 22 like whattheir life is gonna be like so we do is we look at their life andlook at what they're gonna be doing and then we figure out okay they'regonna be doing this let's work on this and high school on in really wanna my biggest things is working on change because soonsautism have trouble a change they everythingneeds to be in a routine for them well that's great but life is not alwaysso routine

so my job as a teacher is to be likelet's change it up today a little bit and given strategies weather with me asa teacher and then once again to the real worldthan they can handle it they can go 0 this is a change i can you xy and z. cell on it's working with families and helping them out its on working onthe social skills that they mean and that the mean it's incredibly rewardingi enjoy creating activities for students that allow them to participate to theirfull potential in their classroom as well as in might there be a s so inmy office

and might look like helping them buildpeer relationships sometimes programming devices for them to usereven switching up their sentence structures on when i'm in their classroom i help tomodify assignments give them directions visually makepicture cards give them a schedule so that they can followdirections and know what's expected and every day and the high school level the goals and see meaningful but they switch tocommunity-based instruction up

generating grocery list paying billsgetting a library card me things behind it all depends on what's needed for the individuals to fun achieve the ultimate goal is to makethem feel hunter mahan friday where credit is due summitmeeting friends and their success monuments sun and look feels like laundry this i store is a world-class trainingbetter for people with autism

open recently it is already having animpact across the kingdom going to jail thank you thank you nastyyou were with walgreens and tom here with have dreams tell ushow this partnership works out of the team first okay well about ayear ago have dreams approached walgreens withthe idea training young people for employmentskills and so over the course of this past year alot of really amazing developments haveoccurred in our facility is a result of our partnership with walgreens

one of those has been to establishingactual retail skills training center have dreams in evanstonhow did walgreens did you are you have a programfor people with disabilities before have dreams came into the picture we did in fact it was a continuationlove are disabilities initially from in adistribution centers which began as an idea in 2002 formallylaunched in 2007 and we decided that we need to extendthat model to our retail to our stores environmentsso

hamstring strain how many people wetrain small numbers that people at a time andsince our retail training center opened in march we've trained a dozen people and our young people are currently at different stages oftheir training summer still working in the retail center to build their independence killsand others have really moved on to the next phase which is actual in store experience youknow today's topic without

autism we've been talking from the mom'sperspective the sibling teachers that work with them in ourtraining i am to go out in the workplace what is that like for walgreens itaffects on several levels the fresh the impact it has on ourbusiness reforms particularly in our distributioncenters where a number of people employed in ghosthunters somewhere on the autism spectrum and no their approach to mining thestandardization that the need and seek in in most environments

man themselves well to employment anddistribution centers which are very time sensitive environments thesehave be executed had a very specific time and that's how a lot of people on theautism spectrum function so training people with disabilities can bedifficult because when you doing disabilities is just an overall cloudits it could be it could be multiple thingshow do you handle that you have work people with autism and otherdisabilities as well all have dreams is a not-for-profit thathas been around for about 17 years in

arms sole mission is around children andyoung adults with autism so one we develop the partnership withwalgreens it was really to be able to take thetraining and the initiative that they've already been working on and be able to adapt that for youngpeople with autism in our training center what are your favorite stories a someonecoming out this program going to work it was something that i saw firsthand at distribution center in winterconnecticut and

i was watching in essence someone had a disability receive their firstpaycheck there were 41 years old and the entire life they thought and sodid their parents that employment was nevergoing to be a possibility for them we all remember getting a first paychecksome way shape or form the independent gave you the autonomyfree make choices and yet we know an early age with anexperience that at some point while matching if you never thought it was possible andthen you realize that now that it is

so you watching the individual has itthat disability experience that and then you have a and completelydifferent reaction from the parent many parent who have children who had tosay we'll have a privately-held wishin and it is that they want to outlivetheir child you think about that for a minute that you want your child to go beforeyou do and they say that because their fear that no one will be around totake care of their son or daughter when you're watching them get theirfirst check in then wash in a parent realizeits okay now

they're gonna be okay now that lessmagical giving them some independent that that really is mad i think that'sthe right word i'm a nap have dreams before you teamed up withwalgreens what did it look like for this partnership happen or reallymuch of our service focus was really on younger children so early elementary and over thatseventeen year period that we've been in existence we've seen a lot of these young childrengrow up from the nineteen nineties in move all the way through the publicschool system and at some point

that yellow bus doesn't show up anymoreit's sort of like now i'm an adult and i'm moving towardwhatever it might take to be independent have a social life to have a job and tobe able to just live on my own without depending onadult that's an interesting concept sure tofollow up with that yet party was formed this partnership havebeen the floss for you we applied from thevery start which is that we wanted to havethe same job performed at the same level of performance withthe same pay and oftentimes when you

as a employer a bar size over 250,000people 9,000 locations and you say that you have a very activeeffort around one point people with disability they often think that this is acharitable endeavor and we've said although it certainly hasthat effect and we're proud to be associated with that affect we've also abided by that philosophy sothere wasn't a need to lower standards there was in the need to expect adifferent level of performance certainly the individual the disability doesn'twant that

need to do the parents that is the mainthing so they come and they get trained why does the training i can you just getting hands-on skills and that whilethe and the amazing thing about ourpartnership with walgreens is it they've helped us create an actual simulatedstore in our side at evanston and so on it's always i think i get a really bigkick out when we bring visitors to our center that they walkedthrough the doors at their training facility in a actually think

for a few moments or an actual realwalgreens dollar i probably looking for the mail sortinghere to his arm its stocked with dollar merchandise allthe departments you would find at a walgreens its smaller scale its simulated so inour environment what we focus on first is teaching those skills to anindependent level in a more stress-free environment sowhen someone's ready to move to the next level that's where we network with the storemanagers in our community

and they actually going apply for aninternship they do an interview with the store manager in if they are accepted for thatinternship than they actually start to get work experience in the realenvironment there's no cutoff time then you knowthis by a certain date it's really we individualize it so we follow on the retail employees training program from walgreens we've adapted for youngpeople with autism and we really individual a set but wetarget the same skills

in the walgreens training program weassess their progress along the way and when someone reaches the independentlevel to be able to go out in carry through with a lot of the worktests you know fluid automatic kinda way and they feel confident about that thenwe take them to the next level in the know if this is a great segment becausestephen i think you nailed on the head when you said your big company 250,000 workers work for walgreens and that youdon't want to be like a charity knitting that's when kinda walk people three daysthat

having autism and other disabilitiesreally time you can make it through it and there islight at the end of the tunnel thank you both for coming on welcome formore information on today's show or other health-related topics go to thewhitney rental show dot com the way derail show is supported byreach out community center