Five Types of Habilitation Goals for Autism

Residential habilitation can help your autistic family member to develop a wide range of skills and abilities that will make life easier for her. When determining what kinds of goals to set, these might be some of the most important ones to consider, depending on your family member’s current skill set.

Expressing Frustration in Ways that Are Productive

Frustration is just one type of over-stimulation that your autistic family member might experience. It can be enough to send your family member straight into a meltdown unless she learns ways to express that frustration that are beneficial and productive for her and for the people around her. RHS can help to explore the solutions that work for her.

Learning to Understand Social Cues

Social cues can be incredibly frustrating for some autistic people. If your family member has trouble with social cues, participating in community events and even being out in public can be stressful and may contribute to frustration. As your family member learns more and experiencing more positive social interactions, that all helps to build a library of social cues.

Practicing Conversational Skills

The other part of socializing that can be difficult for autistic people is developing conversational skills. Initiating conversations can be incredibly difficult, even when those conversations are necessary. Your family member may need to learn and to practice carrying on conversations with a variety of people.

Shopping for Necessary Items

Being out in public can be difficult for some autistic people. So difficult, in fact, that some of the daily activities that other people take for granted, like shopping in a grocery store, might be skills that your family member hasn’t mastered yet. Mastering those skills, even in a more controlled setting, is a great goal to set.

Tackling Household Skills Necessary for Self-care

Being able to do a load of laundry and make a simple meal are another set of household skills that your autistic family member needs to practice. These types of self-care tasks could be the key to your family member being able to live more independently in the future, if that’s what she wants to do. Managing a budget, cleaning, and other skills could also be part of the goal.

Residential habilitation can also help you to find additional autism resources to help you and your family member to manage all kinds of other concerns, too. Having as many resources as possible can help you to feel more comfortable meeting your family member’s needs.

If you are considering residential habilitation in Broad Ripple, IN, please call the caring staff at RSI Cares. Serving Greater Indianapolis Area. Call for Immediate Info & Assistance: 317-471-0750.

Etelka Froymovich