Posts tagged autistic mind
Soup du Jour! Dad the Hero
Nov 30th
As a Chicken Soup co-author I’m always looking for your stories to share with everyone else. Not too long ago I did a “call out” to my members asking for heartwarming stories and was overwhelmed with over 2500 submissions. I know you will enjoy hearing from others so I am going to be sharing them with you on a weekly basis. Here is one from Dan Coulter!
Dad the Hero
(by Dan Coulter)
Dads, did you ever imagine yourself as a superhero? Sure you did. I have a mental picture of you as a little kid, in your underwear, with a towel tied around your neck for a cape. You’re jumping off the bed and running through the house pretending you’re superman. In your mind, you can fly. You save the day.
The circumstances change, but we all hold onto a bit of that hero dream.
We dads have another dream that starts when a child is born. What he’ll be like? How she’ll grow. What we’ll do together.
But when a child has Asperger Syndrome, that dream can veer off course.
It can be frustrating when he or she doesn’t follow the script in our heads, when he continues to do things after we tell him not to or when she can’t seem to understand things that seem obvious.
And let’s face it. Most moms are better at the unconditional acceptance thing than most dads.
Even if we love a child with Asperger Syndrome, we’re more likely to hang onto our expectations and occasionally be impatient as he grows older – sometimes more than occasionally.
That’s where the hero part comes back in.
On the real-world hero scale, being patient with a child is not the same as running into a burning building to save a life, but it’s still a challenge. It’s everyday heroism.
Everyday heroism strives to understand how a child with Asperger Syndrome feels when he tries his hardest and still gets teased or rejected by kids and criticized by adults. To accept that he can be doing the best he can –and still misunderstands what you want. To not just correct her when she’s wrong, but to help her practice doing things right, and praise her when she succeeds. To let go of old expectations, and help him live up to his capabilities.
The earlier we start the better, but it’s never too late to make a difference. To be the father he knows he can turn to. The father she knows she can trust.
Some dads are natural everyday heroes. The rest of us have to work at it. But natural or self-made, everyday hero dads often find their children succeeding in surprising ways. Sometimes in ways they never imagined possible.
If you’re not there yet, your family story is casting for a hero. And the part has your name written all over it. You can save the day.
Save the child.
Your child.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dan Coulter is the producer of the DVD, “Asperger Syndrome for Dad: Becoming an Even Better Father to Your Child with Asperger Syndrome.” You can find more articles on his website at www.coultervideo.com.
Copyright 2010 Dan Coulter All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission.
Soup du Jour! Parenthood Brings Autism into the Open
Nov 23rd
As a Chicken Soup co-author I’m always looking for your stories to share with everyone else. Not too long ago I did a “call out” to my members asking for heartwarming stories and was overwhelmed with over 2500 submissions. I know you will enjoy hearing from others so I am going to be sharing them with you on a weekly basis. Here is one from Jennifer Pedde!
Parenthood Brings Autism into the Open
(by Jennifer Pedde)
One of the main story lines in Parenthood, NBC’s popular television series about a large extended family, focuses on the issues facing parents Adam and Kristina Braverman. In addition to the usual problems experienced by parents of a teenage daughter, Adam and Kristina have had to adjust to their 8-year-old son Max being diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome.
Jason Katims, executive producer of the show, is the father of a teenage son with Asperger’s. Thanks to the involvement of Katim, as well as series consultants Sheila Wagner and Roy Q. Sanders, who are experts in autism spectrum disorder and Asperger’s syndrome, Parenthood is helping to educate viewers about what life is like for families who are affected by Asperger’s. Child actor Max Burkholder, who does not have Asperger’s, should also be credited for his sensitive portrayal of Max Braverman.
In early episodes of Parenthood, Max is depicted as being gifted in many areas but with limited social skills, few friends and a tendency to become obsessed with subjects that interest him. A teacher recommends that he be tested for autism following a classroom disruption, and he is subsequently diagnosed with Asperger’s. Adam and Kristina then begin a quest to find the best solutions for both Max and their family.
Kristina in particular, becomes frustrated when there are no easy answers for the problems Max encounters in school and at home. Emotionally, she feels the need to protect her son; intellectually, she knows that she must help him learn to be independent and survive on his own. Adam, on the other hand, must cope with feelings of loss that Max will never be the exact son he imagined.
Following Max’s diagnosis, the approaches tried by the Bravermans reflect approaches tried by many real families in the same situation: They move Max to a private school, receive funding to help with his care, set up an in-home therapy program, find and lose a caring in-home therapist, and then send Max back to a mainstream school so that he will be academically challenged. This is television, so Kristina and Adam are probably able to try new approaches much more fluidly than they would in the real world, but their journey effectively serves to illustrate the various strategies that can be employed to manage Asperger’s.
Now in its second season, Parenthood has expanded on the situations related to Max’s behavior and involved more members of the extended Braverman family. In one episode, 11-year-old Max gets into a fight at school with his younger cousin Jabbar and is told he must write a letter of apology. Max feels his actions were justified since Jabbar hit him first and refuses to comply. Kristina, who is learning to let go, asks Max’s older cousin Amber to help out. We see how Amber gets Max to write the letter and then coaches him on how to behave when he delivers it to Jabbar. Knowing that he needs to look someone in the eye when apologizing is not instinctive to Max, but he is beginning to learn how to behave in ways that are socially acceptable to everyone else.
For more insight into the issues faced by the Braverman family related to Max’s condition, you can read an analysis of each Parenthood episode by Sheila Wagner and Roy Sander in “The Experts Speak” section of the official Parenthood website.
Jenn Pedde is the community manager for the Online Masters Degree in Social Work program at the University of Southern California in the Virtual Academic Center, which offers a variety of classes in their mental health social work concentration. She’s also an avid traveler, and enjoys photography.
Soup Du Jour! Cookie-Cutter Mentality Needs to Go!
Sep 11th
As a Chicken Soup co-author I’m always looking for your stories to share with everyone else. Not too long ago I did a “call out” to my members asking for heartwarming stories and was overwhelmed with over 2500 submissions. I know you will enjoy hearing from others so I am going to be sharing them with you on a weekly basis. Here is the twelvth one from Holly McBain!
Cookie-Cutter Mentality Needs to Go
(by HollyMcBain)
Just now I was researching potty-training because my 6 year old son, who is diagnosed as High Functioning Autistic, still is not using the toilet. He turned 6 on July 29th and is in the 1st grade. Besides being HFA he also has a speech delay including cognition issues. When he was 3 years old he had a vocabulary of about 12 – 15 words. After trying a variety of private and semi-private therapies, we placed him in the PPCD program with the school district and he blossomed. Needless to say he and his brother (Asperger’s Syndrome) are the light of our lives.
Anyway, back to my point about cookie-cutter mentality needs to go: while researching potty-training for people with ASD I once again ran into the proverbial “brick wall” of just set up a routine and stick with it” approach. I really do not understand why that when dealing with a “spectrum” disorder, intelligent professionals want to place everyone in one category. Both of our boys are on the Autism Spectrum with both being extremely intelligent; but that is where their similarities end. From there, they are as different as night and day, so why would one process or plan work for both? It wouldn’t.
How I work with, discipline and deal with them is very different – not only because one is 6 and the other 8, but also because each one is an individual with their own characteristics, tastes, idiosyncrasies and issues. I realize that no one book is going to encompass the litany of possibilities to choose from when developing strategies for your child, however listing in one paragraph how to develop a potty-training routine using a cooking timer is just a wee bit simplified and seems almost condescending because essentially for me it is “been there, done that”.
I am looking for help to understand my child’s issues with potty-training and help him understand what I am trying to explain to him. Have you ever tried asking someone “are you getting the pee signal” who is autistic? God knows what he thinks I am asking – it could be anywhere from thinking a bell should ring to getting a phone call or some acute pain. I have no clue if he really understands because he cannot enunciate to me what is or is not happening just prior to soiling his diaper. So to offer advice like “oh just use a timer and set up a schedule” is useless information for me.
This is what I mean by cookie-cutter mentality – if every person on the Autism Spectrum is different in their issues, why aren’t there a greater variety of ways to help them? You know we are taught not to “pigeon-hole” neuro-typical children because everyone is their own individual entity. Maybe it is time this was extended in greater detail for ASD kids and adults.
Soup Du Jour! The Terrible 13′s
Aug 16th
As a Chicken Soup co-author I’m always looking for your stories to share with everyone else. Not too long ago I did a “call out” to my members asking for heartwarming stories and was overwhelmed with over 2500 submissions. I know you will enjoy hearing from others so I am going to be sharing them with you on a weekly basis. Here is the tenth one from Jeff Stimpson!
The Terrible 13′s
(By Jeff Stimpson)
My son Alex, who has autism, just turned 13. Hair is sprouting all over his body. He’s started using roll-on. His voice has deepened. Parts of him are suddenly stunningly large. Others don’t seem to be growing at all. “He must be getting very … wilful,” says his service coordinator, looking at him in our living room. He’s watching Elmo. I can see his first moustache from here. Yes.
It seems a blink ago that he was a premature baby in an isolette in a neonatal intensive care unit. It was 13 years ago. It was a blink ago – about 15 minutes, actually – that my wife Jill called to say: “We haven’t had a good outing. He’s lying down on the line for the registers and I’ve tried taking his ear and it didn’t work. People are staring. It’s going to take a special set of people for him, and we’re not them.”
“I didn’t like it when he was five and he drank out of puddles, but nobody laughed at him and nobody made fun of him,” Jill says. True. But in the past six months Alex has become more embarrassing than at any time in his life. People are starting to look at Alex, then look away, then look back, as if at a train wreck, says Jill. They never used to. He pitches forward and back on stiff legs. His voice is getting loud and embarrassing as he sprawls on the floor of a store and bellows “Banana!” Jill says that during their recent outing Alex had to use the bathroom. Jill can’t go in the bathroom with him anymore, of course. She says a boy about 13 came out while Alex was in there. “You could tell he didn’t want to be in there with Alex,” Jill says. “People are starting to react to him.” She also said her legs hurt when she returned with him.
His school – school, that bastion of sanity in Alex’s life – has reported that he needs a 1:1 para-professional to shadow and monitor him so he doesn’t bolt to the playground or barge into counselling sessions with students or into classrooms. “With hormones and puberty and everything going on, it’s becoming a little too much for him to focus,” said his head teacher. Indeed.
An adult recreation program I tried to get him into last month sure reacted to him. They found him in a pre-school room on the fourth floor, with its huge red rubber ball and Elmo books. We all watched him press the ball to his midsection and flip through Elmo books. “He’s obviously more comfortable in this environment and we’re not set up to deliver that,” says one staffer, speaking of the big ball and the Elmo books.
He grabs his crotch these days and purrs “Mooooommmmmmmyyyyy …” We tell him to do that in private, when he’s alone. He does it on the sidewalk, too, between bouts of running ahead of us, shouting, bobbing and weaving and biting his arm. “God it’s embarrassing,” says Jill.” I hate to say it, but it’s true.” He seems to prefer men as companions — I sure found females confusing at 13, too — and when out with a female sitter recently darted into a health club kids’ room and started pressing a big ball against his midsection.
Can the teachers, can anybody, help him understand that he shouldn’t leave our apartment and bust in on neighbours? Stop biting his arm when frustrated, stop unravelling and ripping his own T shirts? Can they help him understand the dangers of traffic? “I can’t have him run across the street when I have five kids back here on this corner,” his teacher says.
Busting in at home: There was the couple that we think was having sex. The young woman in the middle of her first brunch for friends in her newly renovated two-bedroom. There was the couple with the great cats. The family with all the expensive ship models in glass cases that I could picture Alex missing by a hair as he darted into their apartment. There was the surgeon. “Do you need any help?” he asked. He wasn’t smiling; neither was his wife. “He took my hand and tried to go right in,” Mrs. Surgeon said. Alex was sprawled on the carpet outside their door.
I bought three white plastic doorknob covers for babies (babies, for Christ’s Sake; Alex is shaving.). Aunt Julie suggests a combination lock. Ideal, but we checked into this back in 2006 when Alex first bolted. You want a what?, the locksmith asked. He figured, after some head-scratching, that a combo lock wouldn’t work that way – the bolt goes into the door jamb the wrong way– unless installed upside down.
I’ve sent notes to neighbours, and made Alex apologize in person. “I’m sorry,” he says; I stand there wondering if he knows what the syllables mean. Jill suggests that when he gets home from school, we take him out. “Take him floor to floor. Let him get it out of his system.” This sort of works for one night.
“Will he get over this?” they asked at a sexuality and autism workshop a year ago. This is the question I asked a prospective babysitter (…babies, for Christ’s Sake…) whom I interviewed this afternoon. You can expect more aggression, said the first. Sure it’s normal, said the second. Great, but once again in my son’s life I feel myself groping for what others find normal.
jeffslife.tripod.com/alextheboy
Twitter Name: Jeffslife
“Alex: The Fathering of a Preemie” (on Amazon and at academychicago.com) and “Alex the Boy: Episodes From A Family’s Life With Autism” (available at vervante.com and on Amazon)
Soup Du Jour! Judging a Book by its Cover!
Jul 26th
As a Chicken Soup co-author I’m always looking for your stories to share with everyone else. Not too long ago I did a “call out” to my members asking for heartwarming stories and was overwhelmed with over 2500 submissions. I know you will enjoy hearing from others so I am going to be sharing them with you on a weekly basis. Here is the eighth one from Caroline Washington!
Judging a Book by its Cover
(By Caroline Washington)
That saying was told to me as a child, but it’s a saying some of us have forgotten. When I go out with my son in public most people automatically assume that I am a bad mother because Uriah has tantrums in public. My son is a normal little boy in so many ways, but I know that my Child has Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Uriah was diagnosed with Autism in June of 2000. As a mother, I felt guilty because I thought it was caused by something I had done. Of course, now I realize that I couldn’t have done anything to control the Autism. Yet, that doesn’t stop the hurt that I feel. With Autism, I find myself struggling to keep my child’s life as normal and stress-free as possible.
Like many, I had never heard of this disorder before 2000. It took a neurological doctor to explain that it is a developmental disability. Uriah’s mind works like a two and half year olds. He has little or no speech, he tantrums a lot, which has led to a behavioral problem. As a mother, I want him to experience the same things other kids do, but I find it hard to do so. Not because the kids aren’t accepting of his Autism, but because of the adults. I guess they feel that if Uriah plays with their kids in the park, then their kids might become “special” too! Things like that have not stopped me from taking Uriah out, I just explain to them that Uriah’s brain works a little different from everybody else’s.
In December of 2000, I decided to leave my job to care for him full-time. It hasn’t been easy going from a two income household down to one. I guess, in my mind, there was going to be a system set up to help me financially. I quickly discovered there wasn’t. In the beginning, Uriah had qualified for SSI disability, but when my husband received a raise at work he was cut off.
My son is now in a public school program for special needs children and I keep being told he could use extra speech and occupational therapy, something my husband’s insurance does not cover. I find myself working with flash cards and the like at home, hoping this will help until his Autism Waiver is approved. (I have been told this can take up to seven years). I never regret that Uriah is here, because I realize that my son gives me a purpose.
My life’s joy is to help Uriah succeed in whatever he wants to do now and in the future, and to let other people know that when they see a child acting out in the store or whatever, don’t just assume it’s bad parenting. It just maybe a special child acting out…and they cannot help themselves. That’s why it’s not good to Judge a Book by its Cover.
Soup Du Jour! Patience Really is a Virtue!
Jul 19th
As a Chicken Soup co-author I’m always looking for your stories to share with everyone else. Not too long ago I did a “call out” to my members asking for heartwarming stories and was overwhelmed with over 2500 submissions. I know you will enjoy hearing from others so I am going to be sharing them with you on a weekly basis. Here is the seventh one from Matt McLain!
Patience Really is a Virtue
(By Matt McLain)
As parents of a special needs child, we hear the word, “patience” every day and sometimes even more. But, have you ever really stopped to focus on just what that word means when dealing with the day-to-day struggles of caring for your special needs child?
As a father of a child with Autism, it took me quite some time to really figure out the importance of exercising patience with my son.
Lately, I have noticed when my son goes into a tantrum or outburst, instead of becoming frustrated and going from 0-60 in mere seconds…exercising patience is really, as they say, a virtue. If I step back and count to ten and calmly ask him to show me what is wrong, or show me what he needs, he will calm down much quicker and proceed to communicate with me the best way he can. I have to remember, it is just as frustrating for him to not be able to communicate with me as it is for me to be able to understand his outbursts and communication struggles.
Exercising patience aids in opening up a communication doorway and, in my opinion, strengthens the bond between you and your special someone. I believe our children have a unique and intelligent understanding of the world around them, and we, as parents, just need to be more patient to further understand what they perceive as normal, every day.
So the next time you feel frustrated or hear someone say, “be patient,” really stop and give it a try; it just may be the key to unlocking some of the mysteries behind the communication barriers with special needs children…and maybe even relieve some of the stress you deal with every day.
Matt McLain
Owner – Ready, Set, Bloom, LLC.
www.myreadysetbloom.com
Soup Du Jour! Autism Is Definitely Not For Wimps!
Jul 5th
As a Chicken Soup co-author I’m always looking for your stories to share with everyone else. Not too long ago I did a “call out” to my members asking for heartwarming stories and was overwhelmed with over 2500 submissions. I know you will enjoy hearing from others so I am going to be sharing them with you on a weekly basis. Here is the fifth one from Nancy Bernotaitis!
Autism Is Definitely Not for Wimps
(By Nancy Bernotaitis)
I’ve heard it said that parenthood is not for wimps. If that’s true, then parenting a child with autism is definitely not for wimps.
With two fairly well-adjusted kids and a marriage intact, I thought I was pretty good at the mommy thing. Then God threw us a curveball. Remember everything you’ve learned about being a mom? Well, throw it out the window because it won’t work. Your special child will not care how his behavior affects anyone else, if “everyone in the store is looking” at him, or if he should be ashamed of himself. He’s not. Being the parent of a special needs child is going to challenge your imagination, creativity, and patience more than you ever thought possible. You will be forced to look at the world through his eyes and figure out how he thinks, how he sees the world, before you can begin to figure out why he does the things he does. Then you’ll have to adapt your way of doing things to accommodate that.
For instance, when we began toilet training our youngest, we would sit him on the toilet backwards, which required complete undressing from the waist down, to be sure his aim was on target. After a year of this, we decided it was time for him to stand up like all the other boys. Our older son had made this transition on his own so we figured it was just natural. Lesson #1, almost nothing comes natural to our special kids. When we tried to stand him in front of the toilet, he would scream bloody-murder until we gave in, mostly out of fear, and quickly placed him on the toilet backwards. So I analyzed the situation, looking at it from his point of view. He obviously did not understand what we were asking of him. I then took a piece of construction paper, traced around his feet, stuck it to the floor in front of the toilet with contact paper, and waited for nature to call. When it did, I walked him into the bathroom, stepped onto the outlines with my own feet, and then backed up. I, literally, saw the lightbulb go on over his head and heard an audible *ding*. He then stepped into the outline of his own feet and tinkled in the toilet. Problem solved! It was a miracle!
Nothing in my life before I had a special needs child prepared me for the life I have now. It’s stressful, chaotic, frustrating, and challenging beyond belief. When I was the mother of two typical kids, I was arrogant, I’ll admit it. I breezed through the day kissing boo-boos and packing lunches like Mary Poppins. Then I fell down the rabbit hole. It’s as if everything has been magnified. It’s 100 times harder than parenting a typical child but when joy comes, it’s overwhelming. I get sad when I realize that parents of typical kids just have the typical milestones to reach. Nothing spectacular, everyone does it eventually. They rarely get to feel that they’ve witnessed a miracle. With autism, there is no roadmap so everything is a surprise, everything is huge, everything is a gift. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed my typical children as they reached each and every milestone, but with this last one I get to witness a miracle every single day.
About the author: Nancy Bernotaitis is the mother of three children, two “typicals” and one diagnosed with autism. She provides in-home childcare specializing in special needs. Nancy currently volunteers as President of the Dayton Chapter of the Autism Society of America and sits on several committees including the Miami Valley Autism Coalition, the Ohio Autism Coalition, and the Parent Advisory Council. She lives in Dayton, Ohio with her husband of 20 years, her 3 kids, an autism service dog, and 3 cats.
Karen’s Blog: Sharing a Teen Idol with my Kids
Mar 9th
Last night my dream came true Although I love many different types of music from rock to jazz to blues to orchestra I got to see live in person my favorite musician in the whole wide world, Roger Hodgson of Supertramp! As a young pup, I would drive through the mountains of Seattle with the top down on my convertible and music blasting into the open air singing at the top of my lungs. I listened from one year to the next, like ALL THE TIME, maybe even stimmed, which means engaging in an extreme interest over and over and over again also known as perseverating, out a great deal on Rogers magnificent talent.
I didn’t stop playing their music, not even while my kids were growing up so they got to jam out with me in the car to Supertramp all their lives. My fifth son, Stephen was the one who alerted me to the fact that they were coming to Edmonton. The funny thing was, I didn’t even know the key musicians name until Stephen invited me. You see, I always knew him as Supertramp and never even thought about what his actual name was, didn’t really care, just I knew I loved loved loved Dreamer and Superstar! Who knows, maybe in the back of my mind part of our Autism Today Star logo came from that song.
My dream that came through was that my kids went with me and we got to enjoy the music together screaming, dancing and dreaming all in a state of exuberance. I almost missed out because I didn’t connect the dots of Roger to Supertramp so when Stephen asked if I was going I almost didn’t go. Sounds a little like autism eh? I guess as a parent I’m probably a little spectral in nature too, you know, the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.
Another special thing that happened (this is unheard of!) my teenage son Stephen came to the back of the venue where I was seated because I registered at the last minute and asked his friend to trade places with me because I was more fun! Wow!!! I wouldn’t have been caught dead with my parents at that age.
Heres a picture of Jonny, Kim and I having a blast at the concert. You can see by Jonny’s expression, I keep forgetting to call him Jon now that he’s older, he’s full of character! We ended up talking about the label of autism and how ridiculous he thought it was that people didn’t like the word autistic. He said its an incredible over use of words to have to say “person with autism” each and every time they talked about autism because some people thought it was bad to say autistic. He said its not derogatory in his mind. Hummmm interesting! Straight from the horses mouth, not that he’s a horse of course.
My daughter Kim also in the picture shared a story of when she went into a printers office, the kid came over and was stimming on an apple computer. He clearly had autism. The woman kept making apologies for his behavior and Kim’s attitude was “get over it woman” its okay, lighten up! You don’t need to be embarrassed about autism. It is what it is and so what. Look at the kid’s strengths and how intelligent he is and enjoy him for who he is. Wow, this was my true dream come true. Yes I want to change the world so that everyone has this message and “gets over it” that is, the embarrassment, the hiding in the closet, the covering up etc. I was thrilled to hear my own children “get it” because as a parent, you must know, its sometimes easier to get the whole world to see your point before your kids even do and finally they are getting it too!!!
When asked ‘why Autism Today‘ Jonny replies “”Parents and Professionals need to know what their child has so they can understand what they’re going through and how they can help to improve the quality of their life and all those that support them”
Sincerely, Kims, Matts, Christinas, Jonathans, Stephens and Alex’s crazy mom, Karen!
Temple Grandin on TED; Autism is a Continuum
Jul 16th
Temple Grandin is very specific about how she describes autism, how to foster success in the autistic child, why the world needs people on the autism spectrum.
Autism is a very big continuum, from severe (nonverbal) to brilliant to (scientists). The kids growing up now can be the next great inventors.
There is a fine line between nerd and someone with Asperger’s. Many times, these ‘nerdy’ types or kids that can’t get focused on their assigned lessons in school get pushed aside because teachers just don’t know how to deal with them. They don’t know what to do with them and they don’t have the resources to help them flourish. Temple’s deep concern is expressed “…one of the things that really worries me is where is the younger version of those kids going today? They’re not ending up in Silicon Valley, where they belong!” (Grandin, 2010).
The autistic mind is a ‘specialist’ mind. Some are visual, photo realistic thinkers and are poor at algebra, They see thoughts or words just like “google for pictures”. The autistic brain picks out the details, but the ‘normal’ brain ignores a lot of details. She says if a bridge designer ignores the details, it will crumble and fall!
There are pattern thinkers, who are good at math and often have problems with reading. There are verbal thinkers, which are poor at drawing, but know every fact about everything.
Temple learned very early that she had to sell her work, not herself. Social people sell themselves in a job interview, more so than their work. Temple showed her amazing drawings! She also learned the importance of manners at an early age, through intensive mentoring as a young child.
It’s important to show kids on the spectrum interesting stuff to get them excited about learning whatever their specialty is. A mind can be social or ‘geeky’. The autism mind is less social, to the severity of being non-verbal. To take art, drafting, music out of the schools is a critical mistake, as autistic kids need to have these programs to nurture their ‘fixation’. These kids are really smart, and teachers need to know how to direct these kids.
We need to get these kids ‘turned on’. Take notice on what they fixate. If they can’t get their mind off horses, then center the [math] lesson around horses. Maybe they should skip math altogether, if they aren’t pattern thinkers! Temple cannot emphasize enough the importance of a good mentor for helping a child develop his or her autism special talents
