MICC partners with the Autism Society of Minnesota annually, and sponsors the MN Autism Conference as part of our ongoing collaboration. Many MICC staff attended the conference and our admissions department hosted an exhibit table, sharing information about our programs with other conference attendees.
On Thursday, April 17, MICC staff Lauren Gunhus (ILS & Wellness Manager) and Nicole Ogren (Lead ILS & Wellness Instructor) led a breakout session on Independent Living Skills for conference attendees.
Lauren and Nicole’s presentation was entitled “Strategies for Supporting Independence in Daily Living” and featured some of their expertise working with MICC’s participants to achieve independent living goals. They began with a detailed background on what types of challenges neurodivergent individuals may have in cooking, cleaning, and wellness.
Nicole shared our “prompting scale” describing the different levels of prompting an individual may need, from physical hand-over-hand guidance through a task to verbal prompting, to no prompting at all.
Two volunteers participated in a demonstration of how to prompt an individual through the process of making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Both volunteers instructed Lauren, who displayed various ways that details need to be clearer. For example: “Put the peanut butter on the bread” can be misinterpreted in several ways. A clearer description is “Open the peanut butter jar, put down the lid, use the knife to collect a small amount of peanut butter, put down the jar, and spread the peanut butter on one side of the bread, then place it peanut butter side up on the plate.”
After the presentation, audience members asked questions about how to inspire motivation to complete tasks and Nicole shared the importance of explaining “why” we complete various household chores and self-care to help individuals understand the purpose behind them.
Congratulations to Lauren and Nicole on an excellent presentation of their skill set and thank you to everyone who attended their session! An additional thank you to the Autism Society of Minnesota for another incredible conference this year.
Want to check out the presentation for yourself? MICC is offering an online version of Lauren and Nicole’s presentation on Tuesday, April 29th at 12:00pm! Sign up here (no cost, registration required).
