OfficialKolainuMagazineFinalSpreads(with Bleeds)

Shema Kolainu | Interview with Dr. Shore
Interviewing
Dr. Stephen Shore
After his latest monthly workshop with Shema Kolainu, on
Bullying Prevention, Dr. Stephen Shore shared with SK-
HOV the insider’s story. He told us he has autism and was
diagnosed when he was very young. He stated “after 18
months of typical development, I was hit with what I like
to call the autism bomb, otherwise known as aggressive
autism.” He started to lose the function of communication
entirely and would have frequent meltdowns. This was 52
years ago. Now, he has written 5 books, is a professor of
Special Education at Adelphi University with a focus on
Autism, and he gives frequent workshops and lectures all
over the world.
At the time, when Dr. Shore was diagnosed so little was
known about autism. It took an entire year for his parents
to find a place for diagnosis and when they did, the doctors
said they’d never seen a child so sick and recommended
institutionalization. You would never believe it seeing
him now.
His parents of course wouldn’t accept this and they convinced
a nearby school to take him after they’d had a year
to prepare him. During that year, his parents implemented
what we now know as an intensive home-based early intervention
program, emphasizing music, movement, sensory
integration, narration, and imitation. However, at the
time, they were forging new grounds on their own.
His father, a liquor store owner, and his mother, who’d
studied business and was then a stay-at-home mom tried to
figure out any way that they could reach their child. They
used instinctive ideas to develop a program for him and
one of their tactics involved imitation. When he refused
to imitate them, they opted to imitate him. The interesting
thing is, all of it worked. His parents especially relied on
music and would play music all the time around his home.
Dr. Shore told us that people with autism develop very
specific interests on various subjects that doctors or researchers
will often refer to as “restricted interests”. Dr.
Shore however, likes to refer to these as highly focused
interests, and he stated that music became one of those
interests which he took with him and ended up studying
professionally in school all the way to a doctorate degree
in music education. He still teaches music lessons to children
on the autism spectrum.
It’s been 5 years since Dr. Shore first started with ICare4Autism
and he is now on the advisory board of ICARE. He
focuses on employment for individuals with autism as it’s
become a great frontier to be conquered. A whopping
88% of people on the autism spectrum are under- or unemployed
as declared by National Autistic Society in England
which means that only 12% are working to their full
capacity. He said that people with autism “favor routine
and predictability and when that’s translated to showing
up to work every day, employers would want that.” He
also states that Group Homes are another important area
to address as they could be very helpful for many individuals
on the spectrum in adulthood having varying needs
for support.
Just as important as support for adults with autism is early
diagnosis of children with autism. It is important to start
working with the children when the brain is most “plastic”
or spongelike and malleable. “The longer one remains
non-speaking, there is less of a chance that person will be
able to use the skill of speech,” he told us. He stated that
once a child is diagnosed they can begin accessing strategies
that would be of great use to them and focusing on
motivating communication. He says it is a complete myth
that anyone with autism who is taught other ways of communication
would become too lazy to speak at all because
they have found other means. On the contrary, learning
sign language and using technology and vision boards
help to compel speech in young children who had previously
been non-verbal. He also stated that once people
with autism know that they are on the spectrum, school
and other endeavors will be more navigable because they
will understand that they need different strategies and possibly
additional time to learn. He reflected that growing up
he knew he was different than all the other children, yet it
explained why things were different for him. His parents
used the word “autism” like any other word so this overall
understanding helped him overcome a lot of challenges.
So what about the hat?
Many people may notice that Dr. Shore can frequently be
seen sporting an Adelphi baseball cap and when we asked
him whether his hat was just a favorite fashion statement,
he chuckled and said yes but that was only the secondary
use. The truth is that the hat is an accommodation as he
tends to be more sensitive to lights. His hat is just one of
the many examples of the ways he’s learned to adapt and
to interact with his environment in a way that worked with
his individual characteristics and challenges.
His last remarks were that this was important for everyone
to remember and that the abilities of someone with autism
can be unlimited, just as with anyone else. We have to
find a way to access that potential by finding the strengths
of the individual that will lead to their success in employment,
education, relationships, and adult life in general.
His sixth book is currently in development and explores
social experiences and relationships of individuals with
disabilities following grade school. We certainly can’t wait
to read it!
20 | INTERVIEW WITH DR. STEVEN SHORE INTERVIEW WITH DR. STEVEN SHORE | 21