April marked Autism Awareness Month in the United States, and as the month closes, I've been reflecting on the topic. Autism is a hot topic in the news in recent months. I think that the media is often doing a great job in providing us with stories and information about Autism. However, many of these headlines focus on the gloom and doom of this "devastating" disorder. These stories play an important role in raising awareness, but there is another side to Autism. In the course of my work, I see my students successfully learning alongside their peers, pursuing unique interests and talents, showing their intelligence in interesting ways, and learning more than some thought would be possible.

As I've written in a previous post, Rudolf Dreikurs said, "Whoever alters a person's expectations changes his behavior." I believe that if we don't expect that individuals with autism can learn, have careers, or be successful in life, we are setting them up for failure. Temple Grandin, a college professor and author with autism, shares in her book, Developing Talents: Careers for Individuals with Asperger Syndrome and High-Functioning Autism, that we "sometimes focus on the deficits in students' lives, and not their abilities. This is a major mistake. Instead, [we] must focus on helping students build on their strengths and work toward goals that will help them become successful."