ANATOMY SOCIAL: Volume 3AWEtiszm: Happy Happy Joy Joy

Joy Becker RN BSN MPH©

JDB ASSOCIATES CONSULTING LTD.

joy@JDBassociates.ca

We cry for lots of reasons: sadness, pain, fear…and happiness. When

was the last time you shed tears of joy?

Scenario The client will be referred to as She or Her

• She joins the “Girl Talk” group after school for the fourth time.

• She knows the other three girls, they go to the same alternate school

• She is sixteen years old, Her neuro-typical peers are 14 years old with mild learning disabilities that hinder their learning.

Assessment

• She has autism. • She’s non-verbal, calm, cheerful, creative, and

fashionable.• She draws the most beautiful pictures and

enjoys comedy. • She laughs at appropriate times when things

are funny to others around Her.

Foundational Concepts

• As we move through the foundational concepts of emotions, public/private, CIRCLES, we stumble onto Session Four.

• I notice she likes to draw

• The characters have no faces. That part of her sketch is always blank.

Intuition

• Something in me says, “She doesn’t need to see my face, that’s just distracting her.”

• I come to Session Four with props for a puppet show - picked up from the local Dollarama and the education store.

Puppets

Puppets/Dolls

Visuals and Props

•I use the puppets and anatomically correct dolls to demonstrate some of the obvious female changes associated with puberty

Small Group/Peers

• Through the puppet theatre we are using finger puppets to exchange information with each other.

• I am behind the puppet theatre and the finger puppet is the character being manipulated by my voice.

• There are four girls in the audience.

Inclusion• I am reading the back of

the “Changes in You” teaching card which is totally covering my face

• I am interjecting questions from my puppet to the other puppets the girls are holding

• Participation is high• She is participating even

when She can’t find her words.

Connecting

• The next few pictures in the Changes in You: Puberty series talk about menstruation and feminine hygiene.

• My right hand puppet calls out Her name as I raise my right hand.

Puppet to Puppet

• I use the Changes in You teaching card to cover my face

• As I read the back of the teaching card my animated finger puppet keeps the teens engaged

• She looks up at the puppet on her right hand that is now raised.

Space to Communicate

• For so many times She has raised Her hand with the puppet pointed at my puppet and tried to say words………………………………………/

• I made sure we waited until She signaled us to let us know She had completed her turn to talk (with a nod) before we moved on

Delayed Processing Time

• Then one time my puppet asks Her puppet, “What is this?”

• My puppet picks up an unused, slender, applicator-free tampon

• There is silence. Her puppet and my puppet stare at each other as my puppet continues to hold on to the tampon.

First Words

• Then her puppet says, “A tampon.”

• My puppet says, “Where does it go?”Her puppet says, “In the vagina.”

• I stop in amazement and speechless.

Peer Support

• Her supportive peers cheer and clap to encourage her.

• “You spoke, you used your words. Way to go!!” they say with the ‘glee’ of teen girls

• I look at Her and Her peers with a big toothy grin. I notice a tear trickling down my face.

Expressing Emotions: Happy

• I’m so glad we talked about this emotion (Tears of Joy) in Session One

• Now I know She will not be confused by my tears and think something is wrong.

Connecting the Dots

• Its just that this is the first time I have ever seen Her put one or more words together and speak out loud in a crowd

• Here I am witnessing the moment when all the dots connect and She speaks the answers to the two questions, out loud, in a group setting, and on cue.

The Future

• I cry tears of Joy.• I share the moment

with Her grandma after the session

• The grandma responds with Tears of Joy also.

• A new future is ahead of us.

Contact Information

• Joy Becker RN BSN, JDB Associates Consulting Ltd.

• Website: www.JDBassociates.ca

• Blog: http://jdbassociates.ca/webinar/• Facebook:

www.facebook.com/joybecker.anatomysocial• Phone: 778.300.5647• Email: joy@jdbassociates.ca