NIU associate professor gives back through Autism Caregiver Group

DeKALB – Allison Gladfelter is a speech pathologist by trade, but has found a way at Northern Illinois University to take her skills and use them for more through the creation of an autism caregiver group.

Gladfelter, associate professor of speech-language pathology in the College of Health and Human Sciences at NIU, recently was recognized with the university’s 2021 excellence in undergraduate teaching award for her work with the group. It’s another way she puts her area of expertise to use helping children with autism learn languages and communicate, she said.

The autism caregiver group is a cohort of NIU faculty and student volunteers with interests in supporting families of those with autism spectrum disorder. The group’s missions is to provide helpful information, resources and a supportive environment while also providing families with opportunities to connect with community professionals and therapeutic or recreational activities.

It’s about community outreach, Gladfelter said.

“It is not for therapy, it’s not part of teaching,” Gladfelter said. “It’s homegrown.”

For Gladfelter, who spends much of her time teaching, the caregiver group exists to encourage growth outside of that sphere. Group members spend time grappling with diagnoses and in turn have a chance to engage in an inclusive community which offers support through Gladfelter’s leadership.

“[It’s] just getting to know them, getting to understand what the diagnosis means for families and how it impacts families,” she said. “The clinician in me always wants to make sure that we are supporting families and helping them access information that is accurate.”

Language development, autism and social communication disorders are just a few of the class topics that Gladfelter teaches at NIU. Through her work as an educator, she said, she became interested in finding additional ways to give her students hands-on experience interacting with children diagnosed with autism.

That immersive approach can offer insight into the compassion, empathy and skillset needed to engage with young people who might require different forms of communication.

“It is entirely volunteer, it is not for credit or required, it is purely voluntary, but they learn a lot,” Gladfelter said. “It’s an opportunity to take what they learn in the classroom and get to actually see it in action.”

The group holds monthly meetings at NIU’s speech, language and hearing clinic, where Gladfelter meets with families and invites them to share what they’d like to learn more about. Sometimes the conversations revolve around ways to address things such as picky eating or bullying.

Some of the meetings might involve a guest speaker, as Gladfelter tries to find speakers who might be able to better address or offer insight into what families might need. NIU undergraduate speech students also attend, offering crafts, games and activities for children who tag along to meetings.

The group’s back in person these days, which Gladfelter said is instrumental to help her students gain experience communicating with populations with a communication disorder.

“It was really important to me to start bringing families back to in-person events at the clinic,” she said. “Both for them to have some sort of services still and also for our students to get those interactions.”