Monthly Archives: November 2015

Trying to figure out how to join a Twitter chat but don’t know where to start? Let this blog post be a primer for you, so afterward you’ll feel less intimidated about joining a Twitter chat next time you’re invited.

First of all, don’t feel intimidated. The reason why Twitter chats are popular is because they’re fun with not much of a learning curve.

Learning how to join a Twitter chat is even easier when you factor in the free, web-based tools out there designed specifically for participating in Twitter chats. We’ll get into those tools more later on.

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s start with the basics.

Basics of How to Join a Twitter Chat

Hashtags
We’re going into this post assuming you have at least a moderate understanding of how to use Twitter. Know how to find and follow a hashtag? Perfect! That’s where it all starts.

Every Twitter chat is based on a hashtag. For example, you can look up #AutismChat to see how hashtags are used in these conversations.

Schedules
The term “Twitter chat” sounds like a casual conversation, which for the most part it is, but it’s run more like a structured meeting.

By that, we mean there are dates and times for all Twitter chats — they don’t just occur at random. This requires all participants to set aside the same block of time in their day to meet up on Twitter for a town-hall-style discussion.

This kind of regimented scheduling helps ensure that there’s consistency and routine to the discussion, and it also helps attract people who are truly serious about participating.

Topics
Many Twitter chats have pre-set topics for each chat. You might want to ask the Twitter chat owner what the topic is if they don’t let you know ahead of time.

Make sure you’re following the creator/facilitator of the Twitter chat to stay informed of the next topics of discussion. Or if you want to be completely spontaneous, you can do that as well — it is up to you.

Action
Now it’s time to put all of this into action. You know the hashtag of the Twitter chat, you’ve got the date and time marked in your calendar, and you have the discussion questions ready.

What’s next?

Navigate to TweetChat.com when you’re ready for it to start. Enter the hashtag of the Twitter chat and hit “Go”. You will be prompted to log in with your Twitter account in order to participate. From there you will be presented with a stream of tweets from the chat updated in real time.

Right within TweetChat.com you can reply, retweet or send your own tweets to add to the discussion. The beauty of TweetChat.com is that anything you tweet out will be automatically appended with the hashtag you specified when you landed on the site.

Or, visit this this page for our #AutismChat live stream.

If you have any other questions about how to join a Twitter chat, we’re always happy to help.

Careers for people with autism should be chosen based on the strengths generally shared by people with autism and autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

As an example, a person may have poor short-term working memory while having above-average long-term memory. With that knowledge, you may want to rule out jobs or careers that rely on short-term memory when considering careers options.

However, that’s not to say that all of the recommended careers for people are suitable for everyone.

Some individuals with autism might gravitate more towards careers where they have to use their visual memory. Some may be more suited for careers where they have to work with numbers. Some may need to have a career where they work outdoors, and so on.

With that said, there are some general rules of thumb when it comes to choosing careers for people with autism. We’ll go over a few of them in this post.

How to Find Careers for People With Autism

When it comes to finding the right careers for people with autism, there are a few thing you need to keep in mind.

The general goal of the career should be well-defined. A veterinarian helps animals, a plumber fixes pipes, an architect designs buildings, and so on.

The need for structure is important in careers for people with autism, as is the need to maintain an intense focus on a particular interest.

That’s the key to finding successful careers for people with autism — career choices need to suit their special interests. It’s incredibly common for people with autism for focus on a very narrow field of interest. If they can find a career in that field it’s likely they will end up doing very well.

It’s difficult to recommend specific careers without knowing your child, because there is no one-size-fits-all. The autism spectrum includes individuals with a wide variety of skills and aptitudes.

Those with higher functioning levels of autism tend to have more career options available to them than people with severe ASD, but people on all levels of spectrum are very employable. It’s just a matter of finding the right career for them.

There are a couple of great ways to identify suitable careers for your individual child. One of the ways is with a RIASEC test. A RIASEC test is designed to help children discover which careers are most suitable for them according to their unique abilities, interests, skills, and traits.  

The results of a RIASEC test can be used to help kids and teens develop a plan for courses to take in high school and college that are most conducive to achieving one of the careers they were determined to be a match for.

Another way to identify your child’s skills and abilities are with our games. When a player starts one of our games, they are shown two different images of jobs and/or activities. They are then asked to select which one is more desirable. Based on the player’s choices, our analytics engine generates the RIASEC profile.

The best part about this method is our games are always free for gamers! Sign your child up today for free today and start gaining new insight into which career choices may be right for them.