Yesterday was my first day at SEEDs for Autism. Since I arrived fifteen minutes before classes started, I saw each student come through the door to see a new face. After a daily morning meeting with all of the students, Mary Ann LaRoche, my mentor, took me on a tour. I saw each station with its intricate tools and became almost intimidated; I could never figure out how to use a weaving loom or a welding machine.
As these thoughts ran through my head, Ms. LaRoche sat me down once again to tell me why she started a pilot program in her own backyard. A sister herself, she saw her brother growing up with an artistic talent and realized a need for a workplace for adults with autism. Her brother has now passed away and SEEDs was created in his memory.
I spent the day observing students in the ceramics department. In the morning class, both students were glazing clay sculptures. Simultaneously, the instructor directed a conversation about coping with change. Like most people with autism, change causes a great deal amount of stress and schedules act almost as a safe haven. However, life as we know it is a never-ending cycle of changes. Both students talked about different changes that had occurred in their lives in the past 12 months, each concluding that the change was for the better.
The afternoon consisted of a different group of students and the artistic dynamic between these three was very interesting. All three students were very high-functioning; however, two were very verbal and one was not. Each excelled in a different area of ceramics: cutting, detail work, glazing. As the instructor directed a similar conversation from the morning class, I saw each student’s multi-tasking skills. The nonverbal student had laser focus on his art project while the instructor asked him one-answer questions to simply have him say something.
The slow learning curve and the development of social skills is the driving force behind SEEDs. With the two, the integration of people with autism back into society can be achieved.
Talk to you guys soon!
Grace
Hi Grace! I really enjoyed reading your post this week. Do the students get to pick what type of art they work on, or is it different each week?
ReplyDeleteMary Ann tries to expose the students to all of the different departments, but you can tell the students have their favorites.
DeleteThis seems like a very fascinating place to be interning at! Do the students only do art or are there other areas (such as music)?
ReplyDeleteThey mostly focus on art, but there are other classes devoted to social and job skills.
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