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How does degree of autism affect education?

longman

This seems an excellent forum for gauging the experiences of young people on the spectrum, and their parents, where the impact of the autism is much more manageable.

Some people don't get diagnosed until late teens or early 20s. They get through a lot of bullying, segregation on academic or behavioural grounds but still emerge to be diagnosed with autism or aspergers. Some children are diagnosed as very mild early on but their school experience isn't necessarily a doddle.

The autistic spectrum is often portrayed as a continuum, but this isn't strictly accurate. The presence of different symtoms and manifestations varies widely in its effects on individuals. Someone can be deemed mild, when some aspects of their autism are still severe, but the majority are sufficiently mild to enable them to cope better.

In strategies to help children in education, is it always certain that the measures we adopt to help do not prevent environmental factors which, even if uncomfortable, go some way to modifying the overall experience.

Can we learn something from people on the spectrum deemed milder or manageable in terms of their experience of education?

It would be useful perhaps to hear from parents with children designated mildly affected whether the educational experience was comparably mild, or whether there were real hardships that "mild" didn't prepare them for?

Parents

  • Hi Fish,

    My refuge was in between school and home, as my parents were spending a lot of time talking it out of me. I was persuaded to feel it was all my fault. After all no one else was apparently doing anything wrong. So evidently it must have been something I was doing, and it was down to me to put it right.

    So I filled the time between home and school with 'shortcuts' that were really massive perambulations that led to getting home late. I spent a lot of time making dens for one, or walking on my own. That provided my release. It also actually benefitted me long term, but that's another story.

    There were no safe refuges when I was at school, and in my higher education role of a disability coordinator, I have had a frustrating time trying to get genuine quiet rooms created. Often these are multi-purpose rooms that aren't quiet at all. Whether schools do this effectively is probably very variable. And of course other children know you have to go to the special room, which adds to the buzz.

    The other thing is, and this is partly why I started this thread, is that my strategies for coping with this probably contributed significantly to my coping strategies as an adult. I don't want to use the phrase toughening up, not least because that was what I was always being told to do as a kid - the rough existence supposedly toughened me up. It did a lot of damage, including baggage I carried for decades.

    However what I'm trying to suggest is that some of the adverse side better managed may be better in the long term that total avoidance. I'm sure I'll get strong reactions against this, but I also feel this is a subject area that needs to be confronted.

Reply

  • Hi Fish,

    My refuge was in between school and home, as my parents were spending a lot of time talking it out of me. I was persuaded to feel it was all my fault. After all no one else was apparently doing anything wrong. So evidently it must have been something I was doing, and it was down to me to put it right.

    So I filled the time between home and school with 'shortcuts' that were really massive perambulations that led to getting home late. I spent a lot of time making dens for one, or walking on my own. That provided my release. It also actually benefitted me long term, but that's another story.

    There were no safe refuges when I was at school, and in my higher education role of a disability coordinator, I have had a frustrating time trying to get genuine quiet rooms created. Often these are multi-purpose rooms that aren't quiet at all. Whether schools do this effectively is probably very variable. And of course other children know you have to go to the special room, which adds to the buzz.

    The other thing is, and this is partly why I started this thread, is that my strategies for coping with this probably contributed significantly to my coping strategies as an adult. I don't want to use the phrase toughening up, not least because that was what I was always being told to do as a kid - the rough existence supposedly toughened me up. It did a lot of damage, including baggage I carried for decades.

    However what I'm trying to suggest is that some of the adverse side better managed may be better in the long term that total avoidance. I'm sure I'll get strong reactions against this, but I also feel this is a subject area that needs to be confronted.

Children
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