How not to lose a generation of autistic children
January 29, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Punished, betrayed, sidelined – our ‘lost generation’ of autistic children is the name of an article in the January 29th Scotsman. When I first saw the references to a “lost generation” of autistic children, I wondered if this would be a reference to a generation of children “lost to autism” and in need of rescuing from poisoning from mercury, heavy metals, or some other environmental agent. The “poison” that is punishing, betraying, and sidelining autistic children in Scotland is, according to the article, an education system simply unable to “cope with their specific needs and leave parents angry and frustrated by failing to keep them informed.”
That certainly sounds familiar with too many of our experiences in getting our son Charlie the education he needs and that he indeed thrives in and likes enough to spend half his weekend talking about.
The Scotsman article notes that
Our investigation uncovered disturbing evidence of how schools often refuse to accept that a child’s behaviour could be linked to autism, despite the large rise in diagnosed cases. Even when a child is diagnosed, staff are often simply unable to cope with the challenges their autism presents – a lost opportunity. Instead, the pupils can be labelled disruptive, meaning the school looks to punish children rather than help them cope with the effects of their condition.
The system often leaves the child terrified to return to a place where they are at loggerheads with their teachers and where they are likely to be bullied by fellow pupils.
It is not that autistic children need to be rescued; they need to be taught, need to be educated. The losses incurred when autistic children are not provided with an education appropriate to their needs is a loss for everyone—-the children, their families, their teachers, the other children in the schools—-and all of us. It is up to us to keep working to find the resources to provide schools and services, and teachers and therapists, for autistic children, now and for the future.
Oh, well. There go my plans to pack up and move to Scotland.
The bottom line is that ASD kids are resource intensive. They need a lot of 1 on 1 teaching, and lots of extra training for the teachers/paras/OT’s/etc.
And in the face of tight budgets, every time you can force one kid on the spectrum into home schooling, you’ve saved the school district the same amount of money it spends on 2 or 3 neurotypical kids.
The irony is that, when viewed globally, it is a very shortsighted plan. For every student that is “forced” into home shcooling, another one will be labeled as “behaviorally disordered” and sent to a warehouse school until they are “aged out”. That student, instead of becoming a productive, tax paying member of society, then becomes a burden to society, because they have never been taught effectively. They’ll end up saving $20,000/year on support services for about 15 years, and then will spend $30,000/year for the next 50-60 years of their life to take care of them.
Many general education teachers are also not educated enough about autism, particularly the types of autism that don’t fit the stereotype (”high functioning,” Aspergers, etc.).
I have worked very hard to form a good relationship with the general education teachers on campus, but there have been two students in the last four years whose behavior and social struggles in school just SCREAMED “autism.”
When I raised the concern that they should perhaps speak to our school psychologist, their teacher insisted that it (talking out of turn, making unrelated comments, sensory-seeking stuff like fidgeting, poor organization) was simply bad behavior.
To them, “autism” still means “classic” autism, and unfortunately I’ve met some teachers who do not want to change that view. A child whose autism isn’t CLASSIC must be simply unwilling to behave as their neurotypical peers do.
(Both students have since moved on to middle school, undiagnosed, lonely, and outcast, unfortunately.)