Autistic Students Respond to Building Wings!

Hello, my name is Dr. Mary Spence. I am a School Psychologist in Ann Arbor, Michigan and a Board Member of the Asperger Society. For many years, I have been impressed with Don Johnston’s company and have seen many students benefit greatly from the use of his programs.

As a school psychologist, I have watched students who really struggled with academic skills make significant gains, once a comprehensive assistive technology process was in place. When this process identifies specific types of difficulties, Don’s products were often the “key to the puzzle” to support students’ learning challenges. Don’s company is responsive to customers’ needs and for incorporating information into the future development of his cutting-edge products. His leadership and product philosophy represent a quintessential approach to applying neurodevelopmental models into his products and professional services.

In these questioning times of whether technology works to improve student outcomes, I continue to be impressed with Don’s mission of incorporating the latest research and feedback from school personnel, students and their families, and experts in the fields of literacy, neuroscience, and technology. Don’s company strives to remain receptive to feedback in a way that keeps them attentive to details. This makes his products go from good to great to empower struggling learners to try new strategies if initial attempts aren’t effective.

In 2007, my colleague, Dr. Richard Howlin and I conducted a 6 week, Saturday workshop for middle school boys with Aspergers or high functioning Autism on the issues surrounding transition. For the curriculum, we used a comprehensive schema for transition, which included 4 growth processes, each broken down into 3 sub-skills. At this same time, Don had just released his auto-biography, Building Wings. This book is part of the highly successful Start to Finish collection of audio, computer and paperback books for struggling readers. After reading the book, we thought, “What a great addition to the curriculum to help our students develop some of the critical skills that the schema focuses on, including Self-Launching, Evaluative Thinking, Productive Thinking and Communication.” Little did we know that Don would personally autograph each book we purchased. This definitely made a noticeable impression on the most reserved boys in our class! Don also agreed to do a live conference call with us to discuss thoughts about Building Wings. This was a BIG highlight of the group’s work together and clearly was a hit with my students and enhanced their optimism, courage and support!

We believe that Don Johnston and his company are significant contributors to building a base of resilience for all kinds of struggling learners needs and that their constant vigilance to feedback from customers and attentiveness to both the field of neuroscience and advancements in technology make them a true leader in intervention for all kids. Thank you, Don, for making a real difference in the lives of struggling learners!