Autism Services
Lila is an independent, thoughtful, affectionate, and creative middle school student in Spectrum School’s Autism Services. She is a multimedia artist, gravitating towards watercolor and chalk art. She excels at brush precision, as seen in her neatly scribed Mickey Mouse Clubhouse titles, like, “A Surprise for Minnie” or “Clarabelle’s Clubhouse Carnival”, which never drip or smear. When she’s not at school, Lila’s favorite place to be is Grandma’s house, where she makes her favorite treat for herself; strawberry milk.
Lila joined Spectrum with the goal of decreasing reliance on electronic devices and increasing her tolerance to socialization. To assist Lila in accomplishing these goals, her classroom staff integrated preferred tasks, such as art, with non-preferred tasks, like playing with peers. This allowed Lila to find joy in working with others, and she now regularly spends her time creating chalk art outside with her peers. Lila’s family tells us that she has been able to spend significantly more time in public on family outings, such as birthday parties and visiting Turtle Bay’s Garden of Lights.
Today, Spectrum staff are amazed at Lila’s progress. They continue to phase out her tablet use and structure her daily routine around social-emotional oriented tasks, such as practicing prolonged eye contact and use of pleasantries like, “thank you” and “you’re welcome”. On days where she struggles with transitions, staff bring out Lila’s Token Board to help her clearly visualize her goals and accomplishments. This has made a marked improvement in Lila’s resilience to non-preferred academic tasks, such as math. She can now complete multiplication problems on her own with a calculator! At her current rate of progress, staff are hopeful to see Lila transition out of Spectrum and back to a public education setting for high school.
