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autism toolboxes used in schools

longman

I have been reading about one of the toolboxes/toolkits used to inform teachers about autism needs in schools and am very puzzled about what I've seen.

My background is adult education, so I don't have the opportunity to scrutinise what might be happening in schools. I wondered therefore if parents of children on the spectrum had seen in practice some of the things I've just seen explained in one of these toolboxes (the one used in Scottish schools http://www.autismtoolbox.co.uk/ ).

It is very closely based around Triad of Impairments. It is very limited on sensory issues and things like eye contact. For example sensory issues seem to be being confused with motor control - they list the sensory types, but there is no grasp of people being affected by noise etc. Take this paragraph linking sensory processing to coordination(2.3.8 in the toolbox background text http://educationscotland.gov.uk/resources/a/genericresource_tcm545007.asp ):

"Children who have difficulty with sensory process can often have issues with coordination, so may have problems with writing tasks, or self care skills such as tying shoe laces, doing zips and buttons, or cleaning themselves effectively after being to the toilet"

Or this from a section on solutions, if a child uses visuals as a stimulus "keep classroom environments as clutter-free as possible. If your preferred teaching style is to have busy walls then ensure the child has a screened off workstation with high sides, blank wall and a visible timetable only".

Or the proposition that school books have colourful pictures, so for autistic spectrum children cover over the pictures so they only see the text.

The toolbox goes to great lengths to provide every opportunity for group work and exposure to social interactions as if this is curable. Section 2.1 explains the difficulty with social interaction:

"Limited awareness and difficulty forming and sustaining social relationships due to lower awareness and appreciation of the perspectives of others. This may be interpreted by others as a lack of empathy".

Thus the entire basis of social difficulties is lack of empathy - and that it seems can be cured by maximising exposure to it.

What I've read is terrifying. Its an Orwellian nightmare where a set of teaching packages have been created based on a garbled vision of autism which sees coercion and shock tereatment as the way to cure autism.

How does this sort of thing come about?

Have any parents encountered evidence of these tool boxes in practice?  And has NAS any grasp of what is going on?

Parents

  • I cannot disagree with anything you have said.

    One cannot construct and use a 'toolbox' like this unless Autism is fully understood by the people who are writing the material and the people who will carry-out the advice.

    It seems to me that there is no real understanding of how a child with Autism thinks, and sees and processes the world around her/him.

    No doubt the information is all there for the writers of the 'toolbox', the words on paper, but there seems to be no sense of the theory being translated into real life.

    My perception is that everything they have been told about the Autistic child has been filtered through what they know...  the familiarity of the behaviour and processes possessed by a Neurotypical child. Hence their solutions to the dfficulties Autistic children may experience bear little resemblence to what is needed to help them.

    For example, the environment in Autistic terms refers to ENTIRE surroundings... the building, classroom, furniture, other pupils, teacher, movement around them, levels and pitch and layers of sound, complexity and brightness of visual stimulii around them, light levels and type, air movement and temperature, texture of surfaces and materials encountered, position in the classroom, as well as the amount and nature of communication required. To me, all of this is Environment.

    But they interpret Environment literally... the material physical space. And a lot of the solutions seem to be based on altering the physical environment, rather than addressing the real problem. e.g. ASC's cannot communcate well because they cannot read people efficiently and do not understand social cues; solution = tidy the environment.

    The concept of assessment and self-reflection is as you point-out, irrelevant to the Autistic pupils thinking. Is it however, advice that is relevant to the Neurotypical child. 
    Do they believe that if they apply these strategies the Autistic child will become more Neurotypical... treat them like an NT and they might just become one?
      

     

Reply

  • I cannot disagree with anything you have said.

    One cannot construct and use a 'toolbox' like this unless Autism is fully understood by the people who are writing the material and the people who will carry-out the advice.

    It seems to me that there is no real understanding of how a child with Autism thinks, and sees and processes the world around her/him.

    No doubt the information is all there for the writers of the 'toolbox', the words on paper, but there seems to be no sense of the theory being translated into real life.

    My perception is that everything they have been told about the Autistic child has been filtered through what they know...  the familiarity of the behaviour and processes possessed by a Neurotypical child. Hence their solutions to the dfficulties Autistic children may experience bear little resemblence to what is needed to help them.

    For example, the environment in Autistic terms refers to ENTIRE surroundings... the building, classroom, furniture, other pupils, teacher, movement around them, levels and pitch and layers of sound, complexity and brightness of visual stimulii around them, light levels and type, air movement and temperature, texture of surfaces and materials encountered, position in the classroom, as well as the amount and nature of communication required. To me, all of this is Environment.

    But they interpret Environment literally... the material physical space. And a lot of the solutions seem to be based on altering the physical environment, rather than addressing the real problem. e.g. ASC's cannot communcate well because they cannot read people efficiently and do not understand social cues; solution = tidy the environment.

    The concept of assessment and self-reflection is as you point-out, irrelevant to the Autistic pupils thinking. Is it however, advice that is relevant to the Neurotypical child. 
    Do they believe that if they apply these strategies the Autistic child will become more Neurotypical... treat them like an NT and they might just become one?
      

     

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