what is there to fear?
April 30, 2009
I have been trying to put myself in the shoes of the schools, get in their mindset on this whole autism thing. So, for the sake of this discussion, I’m talking about high functioning kids on the spectrum only.
The schools seem to have so much reservation, concern, even fear when it comes to their willingness to open up and work with our kids. Not being from an educational background, I’ve been trying to really understand where this is coming from.
Let’s put funding aside for a moment, because I’ve found these fears to exist in private schools where they aren’t being asked to provide any funding. I know that issue exists in the public schools - if they have another child with ASD, they need to fund that child at a higher level than a general education student. I get that. They have budget constraints. And that is a real issue (and a discussion for another time).
But, also remember that these high functioning kids are supposed to be placed in mainstream classrooms with some special assistance. What I have found as the basis for their fear was actually surprising to me. Which is why I’m having such a hard time understanding it.
1) The fear of the unknown. Many of these schools and teachers have had high functioning kids on the spectrum in their classrooms and didn’t even know it. They thought these kids were kids with behavioral problems, bad parents, slow learners, whatever. There wasn’t a label. When you give a child an autism label, suddenly there is fear. What is autism? I can’t have autism in my classroom. I don’t know what it is or how to handle it. I couldn’t possibly teach a child with autism. All these questions and fears arise.
2) The fear of change. Many of these schools and teachers have done things a certain way for many years. As with any organization or individual, people typically don’t like change. Suddenly when autism enters the classroom, things will need to be done differently, at the very least for one child. Change takes a shift in mindset, more time, more energy, etc.
3) The fear of having another adult in your classroom. This one really nailed me. I guess it’s a big deal for teachers to have another person in the classroom with them. They have to be “on” the whole time, they must not make mistakes, they must not have a bad day, they might be judged, etc. And, they aren’t necessarily in control of that child, someone else might be there for that child who is equally responsible.
4) The fear of failure. I think the world of teachers. I really do. I think most teachers are in it for the right reasons - they truly want to see their students succeed. Well, kids with autism (as with any neurotypical kid too) don’t always have successful years. In fact, they can even have years where they have a lot of regression not progression. I mean, don’t get me wrong, this could be true for any child. But when it happens to a child with autism, it is their autism to blame. And teachers don’t like having a student leave their class at the end of the year not having progressed - in every area. This can feel like failure to a teacher. It can also feel like failure to a school. And, I have to say it, god forbid if a child brings down their test scores or lowers the reputation of the school.
There are probably numerous other reasons. I’m just trying to understand this so that I have a better shot at approaching schools and teachers.
the love of his teachers
April 29, 2009
I have to say that I am so thankful for the fact that my son loves his teachers, every one of them. Wow, how great is that! And, wow, it says something really great about the school and the wonderful nuturing environment he is in.
A couple of things that happened today.
My son is studying rocks in school. His homework over the weekend was to find a rock and bring it to school. He found two that he really liked and he brought those in. But then he also found a third rock at recess. He brought it with him at the end of the school day because his teachers said to bring it home. On our way out to the parking lot, he ran across one of the vice principals who also taught him computers (and he has been her special assistant on technical matters). He stopped her and asked her if she would take his rock and put it on his desk. Now this is a very busy lady. But she agreed. And sure enough, when he arrived the next morning, he went looking for his rock (he does not forget these things) and his rock was there on his desk.
We are going to Disneyland soon to make up for our missed trip over spring break. Two of my son’s teachers - his teaching assistant and his learning resource center teacher - both said they wanted him to pack them in his suitcase so they could go with him. You know, kids with asperger’s can take things very literally! He came home and got out the biggest suitcase we have and put his clothes on one side and said the other side was for his two teachers!
I just love these little things because I know how much they mean to him - I know how much these relationships give him confidence to go to school each day - and I am thankful.
I love Jim Carrey
April 28, 2009
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-carrey/the-judgment-on-vaccines_b_189777.html
We just need to continue asking the right questions and looking for answers.
google sketchup
April 27, 2009
People with autism tend to think in pictures. I have noticed this with my son and it is FASCINATING. He walks into a room and takes a snapshot and stores it in his mind. He will walk into that same room a year later and will notice if one small piece of furniture or decor is moved. And his pictures are so detailed! He also loves a computer game called CRAZY MACHINES which allows him to create electrical and mechanical machinery on the computer. So it is so wonderful to see what we’ll be able to do with the computer for people on the spectrum.
http://sketchup.google.com/spectrum.html
age of autism
April 26, 2009
I have enjoyed reading this e-paper over time. There was a posting on Friday from a person with autism. I always love hearing (reading in many cases) the thoughts from people with autism. People with autism have such difficulty expressing their thoughts, feelings, etc. and in many cases are completely non-verbal and have no ability to communicate whatsoever. Although even in the case of my son who is very verbal and communicative, he has difficulty expressing himself as well. So it is a real privilege to get to know what’s going on inside….
http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/04/what-risperdal-did-to-me-adult-with-autism-speaks.html#more
individual time
April 25, 2009
I notice that my son is very calm, more focused, and a joy to be around when you are one-on-one with him. But, when he’s around another child, like his sister or a friend, he tends to be much more loud, active, and pesty. This is something I need to learn much more about. I love spending the one-on-one time with him but it doesn’t happen enough and it isn’t as realistic as we might like. My kids do like being around each other or with their friends and I don’t want to deprive either of them of that. But sometimes it just gets to be too much.
play dates
April 24, 2009
Lately play dates aren’t going well. And I notice there are particular children that don’t mesh well with my son. I think it may be time to do some real work around this. I notice already that my son doesn’t play with some of the kids he used to play with at school or play dates. I am worried this is just going to continue to decline. I think this will be the main piece of work over the summer. I’ll work with our BCBA on a plan and I’ll continue to blog about it.
homework
April 23, 2009
Homework for a child with aspergers is worse than trying to pull teeth. It really is a nightmare. My son had two pages of spelling homework to complete today. It took him so long just to get seated and put a pencil in his hand that my daughter decided to do one page of his homework for him. See, I use an incentive system to try to get him to do his homework. I’m not the best at implementing these strategies, I admit. But, it does make it difficut when you have two children who could potentially benefit from one getting his work done. She benefits from this when it’s something like today - when he finishes his homework, we will make chocolate shakes in his favorite blender! See she realized that if she just got his homework done fast then she gets her favorite thing in the world - chocolate ice cream. I thought I was using the blender as an incentive for my son. But it turned out the chocolate ice cream was too big of an incentive for my daughter. So she decided to pick up the paper and start writing and she had it done before I realized what was going on.
My son finally did the front side of his homework and he did it beautifully. But then he decided he did not want to do the back side and so he drew a big cross through the whole page. Oh well.
14 studies
April 22, 2009
Everyone always asks me how I feel about vaccines and autism - the great debate. I don’t believe it should be a debate. There is definitely a relationship. Whether indirect or direct, there is a relationship.
The big issue back when was thought to be thimerosal. In fact, when my son was getting his vaccinations, we thought if you made sure you were using vaccines without thimerosal (and you would apparently know this by the manufacture date of the vaccine) that you were safe. Then it was the MMR vaccination. That seemed to be the culprit. And then you were supposed to not do that particular vaccination, or get it in separate doses. I don’t believe it’s that simple and neither does the autism community that is really looking at this issue. And, somehow, this message doesn’t seem to be getting out there because everyone keeps focusing on thimerosal and MMR. The issue is the amount of vaccinations given in such high doses at such young ages.
This website www.14studies.com is excellent. They do a great job outlining the great debate. Here is an excerpt that summarizes:
In April 2009, Generation Rescue issued a fascinating study, Vaccines and Autism around the World, with a stunning observation: “The United States has the highest number of mandated vaccines for children under 5 in the world (36, double the Western world average of 18), the highest autism rate in the world (1 in 150 children, 10 times or more the rate of some other Western countries), but only places 34th in the world for its children under 5 mortality rate. What’s going on?”
Amanda Peet - shame on you. One day you will regret the decision to become the spokesperson for big pharma on this issue. 1 in 150 children in the U.S. This is an epidemic. Wake up people!!! Stop fighting and start studying. You don’t have to be against vaccines to be concerned that something is wrong with our vaccination system. And you don’t have to rid the world of vaccinations to make this right.
ghosts and vampires
April 21, 2009
My daughter and her friend believe there is a vampire in the girls bathroom at school. My son believes there is a ghost in the boys bathroom at school. This was quite the interesting conversation in the car ride to school this morning. The vampire left a glob of green goop on the wall. The ghost left dirty underwear behind the toilet. Oh the things that go on in kids bathrooms!
My son apparently had a dream about all of this and the story got more and more interesting. He told his teachers all about the vampires in the girls bathroom when he was getting into the classroom. He was so into his stories that he got his whole morning routine all messed up. He first forgot to hang up his jacket and he had to go back to do that. He then forgot to bring his folders out of his backpack so he had to go back to do that. He is so funny when he gets preoccupied with something.
