BMV Revisited: A Driving Desire to Drive

Son Fickle Fan just flunked the written driver's ed test. And he's okay with that. So are we. 

For months, FF and I have been wending our way through the Indiana Rules of the Road manual in preparation for the Bureau of Motor Vehicle's multiple choice test. We'd go through a chapter or a few pages whenever I had a day off work that wasn't otherwise crammed with appointments. So he's been prepping for this for awhile, but he also knew from the get-go that:

• he might not pass the test on the first try.
• he can take it again.
• passing the test does not necessarily mean he will ultimately get his driver's license.

For those of you newbies, who've just joined us, FF already has his state ID card from the BMV. You can read about that experience here. 

The fact that he was just fine with not passing the test today is in itself a victory. No meltdown. No outrage. No extreme disappointment. We actually went out for lunch afterward to celebrate the fact that he'd taken the test. It's that level of maturity that gives me a lot of hope. 

Let's detour here a little, though. Am I shocking a few of my readers out there? Are you turning blue at the thought of someone on the autism spectrum driving through the streets of your town? First of all, you shouldn't be. More and more Aspie adults (including Daughter Dearest) are on the roads. See this recent NY Times article on the subject.  Moreover, a study from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia indicates that adolescent drivers on the spectrum actually have fewer accidents than their neurotypical peers,  possibly because many of them are very cautious and are sticklers for rules, and many tend to drive short distances, avoiding highways or traffic congested areas. 

Secondly, having a driver's license can make a huge difference in the ability of a person to live an independent life--go to college, live in an apartment, run to Target and "do the Dew" whenever they want, and (most importantly) get a job where they don't have to be dependent on public transportation. You would be amazed at the number of people with disabilities who have to get up in the wee hours of the morning to catch a 6 a.m. bus so that they can transfer and bus hop across town to work at their jobs. You probably wouldn't be as surprised to learn that a lack of flexible transportation is one of the primary obstacles to getting and keeping a good job. 

So, yes, we support FF in his dream to get a driver's license. But do we worry about that? Have ya read this blog before!?! Of course I'm worrying! It's what I do.

He actually squeaked by and passed the rules section of the test today but had too many wrong answers on the road signs section. But, knowing FF, he will pass the test. He now knows what he needs to study and he'll get it done. Plus he admitted to lots of stomach churning this time. He was nervous. Now that he knows the routine, he'll be much more at ease next time out. 

Then what? Oddly, the Indiana public school system no longer requires or even offers driver's ed. Not sure when or why that went away--budget cuts, liability, beats me. So Hoosier teens can either pay to take driver's ed with a private instructor or company, or they can just take the written test on their own and then obtain their required 50 hours of driving practice with white-knuckled parents or another responsible, eligible grown-up.  

I would've preferred group training instruction for FF combined with simulator driving before he ever has a set of keys placed into his hands. Neither of the private instructors in town offers simulator training. But Easter Seals Crossroads in Indianapolis does and last time I checked (admittedly it was awhile ago) so did a hospital located about an hour from us. Both have programs specificaly designed to teach people with disabilities how to drive. From what I had heard, individuals who've passed the written test can appy for a slot in the training program, but there may be a long wait until they're admitted to the program. I also know that this is another service we'll be paying for out of pocket. 

But one of the most important reasons to use the instructors at Crossroads is that they'll make the ultimate call as to whether or not FF should get a license at all. They're in a better position to assess his level of judgement, focus, abilty to make quick decisions, and all the other components of good driving that could be challenging for him. No matter how many hours of training and drive time someone logs in, he/she may not, ultimately, be able to be a safe driver. Having that decision come from a trained third party is extremely important. 

Meanwhile, we're still trying to log in some bus-riding practice.   

Dragon, Dysgraphia and Dictated Discourse

This is a little like walking when you're used to flying. Yikes. Today, I'm dictating this post with Dragon NaturallySpeaking, the speech-to-text software that doctors and lawyers use and that more people with disabilities probably could use. I can already tell this is going to take me awhile. [Period.] It's a very cool tool, and I can see the potential, but yikes. What comes naturally to me with fingers on the keyboard is a very halting process with Dragon. At least so far. Old dog. New tricks.

[Period. New paragraph. Select "could." Italicize.]

So why bother? I'm attempting to become more proficient in Dragon so that I can support son Fickle Fan as he learns to use dictation this semester. FF is taking a pre-writing course at Ivy Tech. (He got an A in his fall semester pre-reading course, by the way!) Trouble is, FF has a pretty severe case of "dysgraphia," which is a frustrating combination of indecipherable handwriting, atrocious spelling, frequently omitted words, and organizational challenges all wrapped up into a nasty little package that affects many of our children on the autism spectrum. 

We are working with Easter Seals Crossroads to help FF with assistive technologies that might enable him to become a more independent writer. That includes training in the use of:

• Dragon, version 12; 
• a LiveScribe "smartpen," that could be useful for recording notes in the classroom;
• and special software designed for writers who have dysgraphia/dyslexia. 

He'll need a few different arrows in his writing quiver. Dragon, for instance, might be great for doing homework, but talking aloud into a headset mic doesn't work so well in a classroom. So far, FF has begun his training with Dragon and he's doing well, but it will take some time for him to become comfortable with using it and the other tech gadgets. Having all the tech toys isn't enough. Training is essential. 

[Okay, I'm doing lots of keyboard cheating in order to correct misheard words, insert new text, and navigate on the page. Ugh. It's great, though, that Dragon allows for a combination of speech-to-text and keyboarding. Makes things faster.]

When the representative from Crossroads initially came to evaluate FF, he asked FF to tell him in his own words about a movie he'd seen. FF launched into an accurate synopsis and analysis of Blood Diamond, complete with commentary about director Edward Zwick's work and Leonardo DiCaprio's performance as a South African diamond smuggler. When asked to turn around and type that up on the laptop, FF got about five words down before giving up in frustration. You get the point. It's all upstairs; he just can't get it to translate to his fingertips. When he first sat down with FF, by the way, the Crossroads rep asked FF to write something on paper. FF obligingly scrawled, "I hate writeing!" and handed it back with one of those "and-now-you-know-how-I-feel-about-it" smiles. 

[Now, watch as I stand, death defyingly, on a soapbox mounted on a Dragon...so to speak.]

Dysgraphia is holding our children back. We need our scientists to look at 1) how dysgraphia occurs neurologically and 2) effective prevention and treatment. That means lots more research. As it is, dysgraphia seems to be a poor stepchild in the autism research world, and yet it's probably Public Enemy #2, right behind communication, as the Most Frustrating Manifestation of autism. 

Maybe we could start with an agreed-upon definition. Here's Wikipedia's explanation for your perusal. It's often misunderstood--many people think of it as just poor handwriting or a form of dyslexia--and bring out the lined paper to practice handwriting. I'm no expert but I'm betting that in the majority of cases, practicing big B, little b is not helping and is a waste of valuable OT time. Some teachers are still attributing dysgraphia in students on the spectrum to laziness. And in many cases, it isn't identified at all until middle or high school because teachers and parents dismiss it as just a part of his autism. I think we're probably guilty there. 

Having dysgraphia does not mean you are intellectually impaired. In fact, one of the most insidious things about dysgraphia is that it--just like a lack of communications--often makes our children appear more cognitively impaired than they really are. Thus there's this gap between what a student is capable of learning and what he's capable of producing or regurgitating in the classroom (at least in traditional pen-and-paper ways). 

Moreover, I'll bet if you did the data collection, you would find that dysgraphia is probably one of the most common triggers of meltdowns, rages, and low self-esteem in school-age ASD children. Effective treatment would benefit not just our children, but also teachers and entire families who must deal with the seismic repercussions every time little Johnny is assigned a 5-paragraph essay. And those reprecussions include suspensions, loss of work for parents, depression, and dropping out of school.

And you won't find this in the Wikipedia article, or maybe anywhere else, but I have one of those niggling ASD parent suspicions that dysgraphia is also associated with or even the cause of the math problems many of our kids begin exhibiting in about the 3rd or 4th grades--despite what seemed like a natural knack for math concepts before that age. We need more research.

Some of our ASD kids are capable writers and, with the right supports, make it through high school and even college. Sadly, they're the very few exceptions to the rule. I believe that if our children could find ways to prevent/overcome or at least sidestep their dysgraphia issues, many of them could not only go a lot farther in school, but eventually they'd have a much broader choice of employment opportunities. (More on that, next post.)

[Buggers. I've slipped back into using the keyboard.]

Meanwhile, FF struggles to get his thoughts from brain to paper. Despite years of occupational therapy, he continues to have problems with the scale of his letters, mixing upper and lowercase, spelling, word omission, sentence structure, and a cargo-load of emotional baggage and pressure that comes with the writing territory. In fact, FF has 11 of the 14 symptoms listed in that Wikipedia article on dysgraphia. It doesn't look good in a college writing class.

We have work to do. In this age of common standards and strict requirements, has anyone else found ways of conquering the dysgraphia monster in a college setting, particularly in courses where extensive papers or daily journals are required?

[Question mark. New paragraph. Exit Word 2010. Thank you, Dragon.]