Temple Grandin

[Tes]

I watched breakfast TV this morning and saw the interview with a woman and her son who has Aspergers. (The article was about a bill going through parliament ... not sure of the exact details.) The son spoke a little of his experience but to look at him he could be any teenage boy. Tonight I have watched the film Temple Grandin. It was given to me by the parent of a child with autism and she wrote me the most beautiful letter offering me help in any way but also spoke of her daughter and the fact that she sees things "differently not less". I thought the film was great. Perhaps it was a "Holywood sanitisation" of the subject but it gave me some insight into the way people with autism may see things. Does anyone think there is a benefit to be had from the media having an "ASD awareness week" or something of the sort to inform the general public about some of the different facets of the syndrome? I know that many on this forum have so much knowledge and understanding but I also think that, even now in this day and age of information overload, there are many parents and teachers out there who are struggling in the dark and know nothing of the subject matter. I personally think there is a huge advantage to be had.

[bid]

Well, there's World Autism Day every year, and we've definitely had things like Autism week, etc, by the NAS before although not sure if every year.

 

Bid

[Sally44]

As Bid says, I think there already is that.

The problem is that only the 'interested' people are going to find out the information. And they would do that if there was an awareness day or not.

Most people lead busy lives with vast amount of paperwork. To try to get them to sit through another 'learning' session or 'read about' another topic is really flogging a dead horse.

ASD is so individual to each person too, so even when my son's previous school had a 'whole school session' with the outreach teacher, the Head said to me afterwards "well that has helped us understand what ASD is in general terms, but not how it affects xxxxx individually." That is the difference.

Even in SEN settings this can still be true. There is still a 'one size fits all' approach, when that is not what those on the spectrum are.

[Sally44]

However, I do think that all teachers should receive ASD training as part of their studies before becoming qualified.

Our LEA also holds 'ASD awareness and training days' and all schools can send in staff to attend these. Most schools don't because it means they are short of staff on those days. For the Head it always came down to the benefit of the 'majority' rather than meeting the needs of the few. I really do understand that. But if that is the policy, then our children cannot really be included. I am not a big fan of inclusion.

I would like SEN schools that are along mainstream lines, with specific ASD approaches, professionals within schools and specialist teachers and for all the pupils to have the conditions and disorders that tend to be associated with eachother eg. ASD (including Aspergers), dyspraxia, dyslexia etc. That would make all the pupils feel that they belonged within the school peer group and would concentrate expertise instead of watering it down by spreading these pupils between all the schools.

[Tally]

The BBC this year had a series of programmes about autism, but it was only people who were already interested who would have chosen to watch them.

 

Just recently there was a short series on the BBC news about disability and work. I did not see all of it, but from what I did see it looked like quite a positive message and good for raising awareness. A short feature on autism within something like the news could be a good way to raise awareness about autism.

[baddad]

There's another inherent problem with awareness weeks too...

As has already been pointed out, those who are interested will find the information anyway, but the more awareness raising that is done the more 'casual association' crops up. Take something like Rainman, which was considered in its day as raising awareness, in the end all it did was add fuel to the already problematic 'savant' fire. To the vast majority of those who have only casual knowledge the idea that 'they all have special skills, don't they?' still holds true. Ditto 'the curious incident of the dog in the night time' - where even the author's denial that the book is about or representative or autism is completely disregarded by those who hold it up as an appropriate and accurate model. Then, of course, there's all that geek-chic stuff that enables anyone who wants to believe themselves 'arty' (with the caveat that such an artistic temperament excuses them from the usual expectations of social interaction like consideration for others) to label themselves borderline Aspergers and carry on regardless. And it goes without saying, of course, that any 'borderline auties' who subsequently distance themselves from that acquired label add weight to the arguments of those making false claims that autism can be 'cured' by this, that or whatever intervention or strategy they happen to be pedalling (Very much, sadly, a feature of 'Autism Awareness Week' these days )...

Which is not to say, of course, that raising awareness is inherently wrong; just that it is one hell of a double edged sword and needs weilding carefully. For every good 'awareness raising initiative' or documentary I've seen there's been at least a couple of bad ones. Sadly, the bad ones have usually been more entertaining, and therefore better received by the casual viewer, than the good ones and have done more to reinforce rather than challenge the existing stereotypes and misconceptions.

 

L&P

 

BD

Edited December 18, 2010 by baddad

[coolblue]

However, I do think that all teachers should receive ASD training as part of their studies before becoming qualified.

Our LEA also holds 'ASD awareness and training days' and all schools can send in staff to attend these. Most schools don't because it means they are short of staff on those days. For the Head it always came down to the benefit of the 'majority' rather than meeting the needs of the few. I really do understand that. But if that is the policy, then our children cannot really be included. I am not a big fan of inclusion.

I would like SEN schools that are along mainstream lines, with specific ASD approaches, professionals within schools and specialist teachers and for all the pupils to have the conditions and disorders that tend to be associated with eachother eg. ASD (including Aspergers), dyspraxia, dyslexia etc. That would make all the pupils feel that they belonged within the school peer group and would concentrate expertise instead of watering it down by spreading these pupils between all the schools.

 

I suspect there is an underlying assumption in the education system that because legal and social equality are seen as aims, children are seen as educationally equal too. While we have an education system that 'delivers the curriculum' instead of one that educates children, children who are not in the 'normal range' are going to keep encountering obstacles at school. How children with so-called SEN are expected to be taught in mainstream schools, when teachers haven't been trained to support learning difficulties is beyond me.

 

Because there is so much overlap between 'conditions' and so much overlap between 'conditions' and neurotypical children, teachers don't need to be experts in each different condition. But they do need to be experts on learning difficulties, because that, rightly or wrongly is part of their job.

 

cb

[Tes]

I have no doubt there is such a thing as World Autism Day and that there will have been attempts at raising public awareness. As has been mentioned, there is no one model fits all and the spectrum and all it contains whilst being specific is still huge. And yes, I agree there is most certainly a need for it in ITE as well as all other issues that may bring barriers to children's learning ... and that's a lot to take on board but I accept it as my professional responsibility to ensure all the needs of all the children in front of me are met, which I believe I do to the best of my understanding and ability. When I don't know what to do I call for help.

 

But all that aside, I didn't know about Aspergers when it was obviously what my daughter had and neither did the teachers, or anyone else involved in her young life back then, pick up on it either. My daughter's life was hell on earth. She was exceedingly bright and never acted out, in fact she was a model pupil and daughter but she couldn't make friends, she was "a wee bit odd". She didn't understand people and she suffered greatly for that, and was bullied during the last couple of years at primary to the first few years at secondary. On one occasion she had actually placed herself in harms way by following a group of boys and girls, who had been involved in previous incidents of teasing, to a swing park and sat a short distance away from them. She had actually been friends with a couple of the girls in the crowd and she was clinging on to that even though the girls had made it obvious they didn't want to know her anymore. But being herself, she just wanted to be included and was unaware of what might happen. They turned on her and taunted her mercilessly to the point she ran in front of busy traffic to get away from them. It was awful.

 

Her guidance teacher divulged he hadn't met anyone like her and his offer of help was to move her to a different school ... nothing about investigating why she might be the way she was. In all fairness though, I didn't push for it either. Alarm bells should have been ringing but when you don't know, you simply don't know. It wasn't because I lacked interest, it was simply because I didn't know something such as Aspergers existed. I knew of autism from "Rainman" and whilst that can be criticised for all the reasons mentioned above, there was very little else going on out there. I had this very bright child who was achieving academically but not socially.

 

I have now 'happened' upon Aspergers because my daughter tried to make sense of herself. She was the one who did the research and found out about Aspergers. I should add that she is an amazing young woman and whilst she was definitely "odd" I have always been very proud of her quirkiness and her achievements. (By the way, she has an interview for medicine at Dundee Uni in January ... woo hoo! ) I should also add that as a teenager and prior to her understanding of what she had, she did suffer depression and did self harm for a period of time, all of which I was unaware of because she lived in Glasgow at the time. However, with the information she now has, she understands everything so much more as we all do and whilst it's no cure it's made us reflect on how we interact as a family. It hasn't been an easy time for us and we're certainly benefiting from learning all we can about it, but we are very much at the beginning of the journey.

 

My point, if I had known about Aspergers my daughter would have been identified as vulnerable and been spared the bullying. As for achieving her academic potential, that was never an issue in our case, she had a love of learning and still does. It's just in her nature. We are now fortunate that we have become aware and therefore our interest will lead us to find out as much as we can because it affects us.

 

This knowledge also benefits those children in front of me because I'm aware, but I find it a worrying scenario when it's your pot luck if there's someone around who might know something of the spectrum as to whether or not you get the help you need because in my experience, that continues to be the case at this present time.

 

For these reasons I would like to see more awareness raising, something that just might ignite another persons interest or make a teacher or parent realise they recognise that person and perhaps save a child from what our daughter experienced.

 

I'm not sure of the best way forward but I do think something needs to be done. When we are talking of 1 in a 100 people then that's a lot of people.

 

Tes

[trekster]

As a speaker on the spectrum in various settings I think autism awareness is a great idea.

It prevents people (who can so easily forget)from realising the struggles parents and spectrumies

face on a day to day basis.