Autism: Helping Young Adults with Puberty

The program had a lot of special kits to help guide these kids with very detailed instructions and lots of pictures. Dr. McKinnon-Bermingham made sure to include very simple, conversational instructions for the parents and kids. The educational materials come with step-by-step pictures for things like taking a shower and putting on deodorant. These figures are especially helpful for less verbal children.

Both parents and kids loved these easy-to-follow guides. They suggested to the team to create more guides, especially to help parents explain to their kids some sensitive topics about puberty. Dr. McKinnon’s team then created simple and informative scripts for the parents. These were meant to help parents talk to their kids about puberty. One of the biggest challenges for a parent is to talk about the sensitive changes that happen to someone’s body as you reach adulthood. Some of these changes can be very hard to accept and understand as someone with autism. What was really cool about these scripts was that they had many helpful tips for parents too. For example, parents were advised to use more visual cues if their child was less communicative.