Parents Grateful For “Friday Knights”

By KATE Pierce
News Editor

While Albertus Hall typically hosts Saint Rose students attending classes, some Friday nights passerby may find a young girl running underneath the railing of the ramp leading up to the building.

Thirteen-year-old Maddie Armstrong often hurries to the building on these nights to trade Pokemon cards and spend time with friends, accompanied by her mother and sister.

The family comes for Friday Knights, a program that offers recreation and socialization opportunities for children with autism spectrum disorders, while their parents are provided an opportunity to share their joys and challenges in raising a child with an ASD.

“I love that here Maddie’s accepted for every quirky thing she does,” said Amy Armstrong, Maddie’s mother. “All the parents get it. I don’t feel like I have to apologize for Maddie’s behavior.”

Armstrong, a Guilderland resident, and her two daughters, Madeline and Camilla, have been attending Friday Knights for the past eight years. Camilla comes as a positive peer model – students who participate in the program who are typically siblings of students with autism spectrum disorders.

Maddie was diagnosed with autism three years ago, after the director of the program, Dr. Susan DeLuke, suggested the possibility to Armstrong when she was a graduate student participating in the Social Learning program.

While her daughters are having fun, Armstrong has the chance to attend a program specifically organized for parents like her. She believes that the parent program is one of the strongest aspects of Friday Knights. The group brings parents together and provides a place where they can communicate with people who understand what they are going through.

Michelle Tubis-Corrales, a mother and nurse at the Albany Medical Center, expressed similar sentiments in explaining how the program has been very helpful for her and her daughter Heather.

“This program helped me to find resources, and know what to expect, and that I’m not alone,” said Tubis-Corrales.

Heather was first diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome in 2008 when she was 3 and a half years old. At first Tubis-Corrales was unsure of how to help her daughter. Tubis-Corrales and her husband immigrated 13 years ago from the Philippines, a place where she said autism is not understood as well as it is in the United States.

“Since her diagnosis I have been recommended to put her on Xanax, but when I buy it I just let it expire because I don’t have the heart to give it to her,” said Tubis-Corrales. She felt like medications like Xanax were a heavy reaction to her daughter’s condition, and sought a different avenue to provide coping skills.

Parents like Tubis-Corrales and Armstrong are the kind of people who helped inspire the Friday Knights program. DeLuke, an associate professor of education at the college, started formulating the idea for the program while she was on sabbatical in 2003 researching the needs of children with Asperger’s Syndrome.

The premise of the program is to provide children who may need extra support with opportunities to use the skills they have learned in social skills groups.

College students serve as volunteers and are the group and one-on-one counselors as well as activity leaders. Education faculty from Saint Rose are also onsite to provide activities, guidance and supervision. Children are matched by age in groups of various sizes, and possible activities include board games, dance, drama, yoga, history, science, music and arts and crafts.

While the children are participating in recreation, parents can meet in a group to discuss strategies and experiences of parenting a child or children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.

“Many families were getting the diagnosis for the first time and while attending a meeting of parents in the community, I heard them talking about how they had this diagnosis and a recommendation to get their children into social programs, but there was nothing in the community at that time,” said DeLuke.

Friday Knights officially began in 2004 with 30 students and 30 volunteers. Initially the parent group was informally structured, but it began to take shape and evolve into the staple it is today after the program received a grant through the Autism Society of the Capital Region. Funds allowed the program to hire Jan Campito to direct the parent program, who has continued in this role since.

“At the start of every year I do a parent survey to see what the current group of parents is interested in, and I’ll list 25 topics for them to choose from,” said Campito. “I’ll design my programs based on what the parents are interested in, so that if a parent goes to the meeting they’ll walk away with something meaningful for them in their day-to-day lives.”

Campito, the mother of two young men on the autism spectrum, was a college professor, and is the author of “Supportive Parenting: Becoming an Advocate for Your Child With Special Needs.” She incorporates all of these experiences into the parent sessions, combined with research that she spends around 30 hours a week compiling based on topic requests from the parents. As an example, she might spend this time gathering research on toilet training that is not bare in terms of content, or too academic, so that it can be understood by the majority of parents attending the sessions.

“Jan is very skilled at keeping the conversations focused on parents taking a proactive role in advocating for their children and dealing with the challenges of their day-to-day lives,” said DeLuke. “Through a combination of speakers, information on community resources, parent-to-parent sharing of experiences and knowledge, and her own instructional sessions she provides families with an opportunity to support one another and develop their own knowledge and skills.”
While she is there as a resource and provides insights, Campito said that she strives to facilitate parents helping other parents—to have parents talk with other parents who are experiencing very similar circumstances at the same time.

“Jan does a great job keeping the parent discussions on track,” said Armstrong. “It’s very meaningful to go to parent sessions.”
Currently, there are around 200 children involved in the program. However, not every parent attends the program during Friday Knights—typically between 70 to 80 parents attend regularly.

“Some just need a free evening as a couple to go have dinner together out at a nice restaurant or to go to the mall without their child,” said DeLuke. “In many cases Friday Knights is a ‘night off’ and well-deserved break for a family where for a few hours they know their child is safe, happy and engaged socially.”
Friday Knights is run at very low cost, with some grant money received from the Office of Persons with Developmental Disabilities and the Greater Capital Region Autism Society. Any family who cannot afford to pay attends for free and otherwise Friday Knights only charges to cover the cost of materials.

Tubis-Corrales and her daughter have been attending the program for the past five years, after seeing a flyer advertising Friday Knights and hearing a recommendation from a friend.

“It’s helping her with strategies to cope with herself and understand why she has certain reactions, because she is aware that she is different and she reacts differently than others,” said Tubis-Corrales.

“The volunteers develop their knowledge and skills for working with individuals with autism—even those who will not necessarily go into teaching or a professional role will be better friends, neighbors, and employers of individuals with autism as a result of this experience,” said DeLuke. “It is a win-win for everyone involved.”