More of the Good: Autism Awareness in Libraries

Autism Awareness in the Library was presented by Julie Ashmun from UW and Jennifer Fenton from the WA State Library. Sponsored by CAYAS, it focused on autistic children. Julie's powerpoint is here: http://nwcentral.org/?q=node/1576

What I learned:
1 in 150 children (1 in 100 in some areas)is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Autism is more prevalent in boys than girls (4:1). No child with autism looks (or acts) the same.

To help your autistic customers:
(1) Make sure parents & caregivers know you’re available to offer special assistance and are willing to work with them. That means signage & verbage along the lines of: “If your child has special needs, please stop by the service desk to see how staff can better assist you.”

(2) Use lots & lots of picture clues. (Again, more signage. Admittedly, libraries are moving AWAY from this to make the library a more “welcoming” place, but your autistic customers NEED this.)

See do2learn.org’s picture cards for examples. These are all available free for the taking...






Stop and go (red light, green light) are also extremely effective…

Our JNF pathfinders (picture, word & dewey #) are perfect! Use them for the adult area, too!

Use return book buckets.

Use bright colors to draw attention.

Use carpet squares or shapes (find a frog) in storytime. Use tracks, shapes, etc. on the floor (or the wall a la Valley’s summer reading stairs) to direct children to the storytime area.

(3) Use cheat sheets with simple, numbered rules that can be given to each customer. (How to check out, no running, no yelling, etc.)

(4) Give warnings to allow for transition time—“You’ve got one more minute on the computer, then we need to leave.” “Storytime starts in 5 minutes. We’ll be heading to the story room.”

(5) Ignore most behavior unless it looks to be dangerous to the child or others.