Meaningful Programming for Adults with Autism: Session 279 with Peter Gerhardt and Shanna Bahry

The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria

Drs. Peter Gerhardt and Shanna Bahry join me to talk about a range of topics centering around supporting adults with ASD and related disabilities. They are the authors of the new book, Make it Meaningful: Creating Programs that Matter into Adulthood for Learners with Autism Spectrum and Related Disorders.

In this conversation, we talk about how ABA services are skewed towards younger populations, how programming for younger learners might look different if practitioners knew more about the unique needs of adult service recipients, risk aversion and other barriers to promoting independence, their 'wishlist' of skills that they'd like to see all adults with disabilities learn, having difficult conversations with parents, and lots more.

Of course we discuss their book, the resources their book provides, and how these resources relate to other functional skills curricula that are out there... such as Essential for Living.

You're also going to want to stay tuned for the entire conversation, because we close with some fantastic advice for just about everyone in this field.

Here are links to some of the resources discussed in this episode:

• Where to get more info on the book, Make it Meaningful.
• Meaningful Hope ABA.
• The Epic School.
• Dr. Bahry on LinkedIn.
• Dr. Gerhardt on LinkedIn.
• Essential for Living.
• Bannerman et al. (1990). Balancing the right to habilitation with the right to personal liberties: The rights of people with Developmental Disabilities to eat too many doughnuts and take a nap.
• Rubin (2018). The Happiness Project, Tenth Anniversary Edition: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun.

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