One of the early indicators of an Autism Spectrum Disorder is a lack of traditional response to sounds and language, such as a child not responding to his name being called or not attending when being spoken to. However, does that mean that children with Autism are not listening and understanding what we say? Many people hold this erroneous belief, even to the point where they speak negatively about children with Autism right in front of them.
I'm a little ashamed to admit this, but I have, at times in the past, questioned the benefit that some students with Autism receive from participating in activities such as listening to history lectures or stories read aloud in the regular school classroom. As a teacher who specializes in Autism, I thought that time could be better spent working on communication skills. I think that this is also an argument that some people have for removing children with Autism from regular classroom activities. I have seen many school members say things like, "If a student can't understand the stories in class, maybe we should pull him out for extra time with the special education resource teacher." This is not to say that special education resource programs don't have benefits, because they certainly can and do. However, I am constantly amazed at the ability of students with Autism to make meaning from things that it didn't seem like they were paying attention to. I hope this recent example from my school helps make this point.
A first grade class was listening to their teacher read one of Aesop's fables about a wolf and a goat. One of the students with Autism sat quietly in the group looking around the room and sometimes at the teacher. "Jason," said the teacher, "Did the wolf see a goat?" "Goat," repeated Jason. "Yes, the wolf saw a goat," said the teacher and asked a question about the story to another student. At first glance, it might seem that this student was not necessarily paying attention to the story, and was just echoing what the teacher said. I found myself wondering if this was the case.
I got my answer when the teacher told me what the student had done during their post-reading activity. They were to draw a picture from the story for their literature journal. The teacher had come over to Jason, who usually needed some help with this type of activity, and prompted him by saying, "Do you want to draw the goat or the fox?" Jason gave her a strange look, and said, "No. Wolf." The teacher realized that she had named the wrong animal in the story (there was no fox). Jason had been paying enough attention to the story to know that there was no fox, and there was a wolf. He proceeded to draw a picture of a wolf and a goat with no prompting from the teacher.
This story was a great reminder that, although they may not look like it at times, many children with Autism are paying very close attention to what others are saying and doing. I think that this is important to keep in mind when we are making instructional decisions for these students in school, as well as when we are speaking about them.
Nicole Caldwell, M.Ed.
http://www.PositivelyAutism.com/
