Top of the Spectrum News
Dr. Temple Grandin asserts that manners are essential for developing social skills for those on the spectrum. Grandin shares her personal stories of her Mom teaching her manners while growing up.
After an extensive career broadcast marketing, Jennifer and her husband searched for answers when their oldest son hit the kinder years with great difficultly. After finally learning that their oldest son had Aspergers Syndrome, she left her career in television and became a full time mother to both of her sons. Jennifer elicited the participation of her sons and together they produced several independent programs including a children’s animated series titled Ameriquest Kids (now distributed by Landmark Media) as well as her documentary and book titled, Coping to Excelling: Solutions for school-age children diagnosed with High-Functioning Autism or Aspergers Syndrome.
The need for more information encouraged Jennifer to elicit a team of autism experts to provide weekly, original content to a website free to anyone seeking to live their best under the diagnosis of High-Functioning Autism/Aspergers Syndrome… appropriately titled: Aspergers101.com.
As a school counselor, I taught manners (in a day when they are often misinterpreted as subservient) as the grease for the wheel of communication in a traditionally mannerly southern US city. In fact, in the last 15 years, our city was voted most mannerly by a national publication – I think Forbes?
So, I taught students manners are the way we communicate respectfully. I told them some people did not have respect in their own homes and may not know how to communicate respectfully with others. As a person of character, it was our responsibility to model character for them. I did not accept one must be respected in order to behave respectfully – as this is a dead end – so many people treat others without common courtesy, much less respect. As always, Temple is right on the mark.