Perspective: Autistic Children Are Teachable
April 16, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
4 hour “drive” to work today (I wasn’t “driving” all the time but “sitting in an unmoving car” with a semi crowding into my lane): Thanks to the nor’easter bestowing record-breaking rainfall on the East Coast, there is flooding, and road closures, everywhere. When I finally got into my office at noon, one student had written to me that he would have made it to class, had he been “lucky enough to have a boat”; another had gotten into a car accident.
Charlie’s teacher had written to me: Despite allergies and sniffles and a cough on Sunday, and being (as Jim put it) “out on his feet” while boarding the bus, Charlie was having a great day and was just headed to gym class.
One student showed up for Intermediate Latin class and, with the sky still gray outside, we translated from Cicero’s De Amicitia, “On Friendship,” and about our instinct for someone who is a friend shines through “as a certain light of honesty and virtue” does. We talked about the recent student production of Godspell (my student is doing the lighting for the show). I left work before 2pm (having clocked in a grand total of less than 2 hours on campus), so as to be sure to get home in time for Charlie.
And then I heard about what happened at Virginia Tech this morning.
It all put things into perspective and reminds me that, even more than autism being “treatable” (as DAN! doctor Kenneth Bock said on CBS this morning), autistic children are teachable, and more than might be thought.
I didn’t see CBS this morning as I was trying to get the kids to school. I want to know how my son can be ok with loud beating drums but terrified of flushing toilets.
Stay Dry!
You can view the clip on the website via the link above—-sometimes with Charlie, really loud sounds bother him less than those that are near by. (He also like the vibrations from the drums.) With the toilet—which we’ve had some interesting moments with—-let’s say, ahem, you can’t see where everything actually is going to………. Just a fast thought.
The auditory thing that seems to bother my son is the sound of voices when he’s just woken up, or when he’s about to fall asleep. That makes him really annoyed for some reason. Also, he doesn’t always like to hear other people sing his favorite songs or sing along with him. Oh, and there was this older woman with a harsh, deep voice that used to teach at his preschool, and she was the only person that made him put his fingers in his ears. He would never have this behavior in other circumstances.
One more thing: shame on CBS for promoting a doctor that does cellulite treatments and sells chinese herbs as if he were a great specialist on autism. Shouldn’t they do more research on the show’s guests?
Of course Autistics are teachable. It’s tough and takes a lot of patience (a LOT!) but it can be done. I’ve always said psychiatrists are the way to go with that – with following up done by a special education teacher. ABA can be useful, but it shouldn’t be forced because that’s not for everyone. The trick is to find the way into the world of child and work with it. Don’t try and change it – unless you want a meltdown!
“Of course Autistics are teachable. It’s tough and takes a lot of patience (a LOT!) but it can be done.” Phil, it was so obvious, but I just had to say it—-yes, ABA’s not for everyone; I’m heartened by how many ways there now are to teach autistic kids.
It just means a lot to me that Charlie likes school, and his school in particular so much now. A few years ago, he just did not; it became so hard to drop him off in the mornings (actually, I never just “dropped him off”; I had to coax him out of the car and the process took longer and longer). I think he was getting the message that he was not “teachable.” He’s in the right place for him now and what a difference.
Sometimes it has to do with the nature of the sound — frequency, intensity, predictability vs. unpredictability.
Sometimes — more often than you think — it has to do with *control* and *cognitive preparedness*. If I am the one controlling the sound, then I have full cognitive preparedness for it. I know when to expect it and my senses are ready for it. If someone else is controlling it, and doing so in a way that I cannot predict, it’s much harder to be ready for the sound.
Been there, done that. Only 45 years ago when the world was so full of sensory terror for me, they didn’t call kids who spoke and had taught themselves to read at age 4 “autistic”.
Well duh. Of course. Too many of the “experts” are just beginning to find this out.
To paraphrase Golda Meir’s words to Anwar Sadat: what took them so long?
Teaching literacy should begin as soon as there’s any evidence of rote memory — that’s the perfect bootstrap for learning letters and phonetics.
Getting our kids who can’t speak to the point where they can read, and type, should be a top priority. Computers and text-to-speech devices are great enablers for anyone who can read and keyboard.
It is so important for kids to acquire a reliable means of expressive communication that is trusted and taken seriously. That is what gets typically developing kids beyond the terrible twos. It is a big part of what makes the world a less terrifying place for kids as they grow up.
Been there, done that. Been there to help my kids through that, too. Both my very early-communicating daughter in the broader phenotype, and my autistic son.
A mini-manifesto here—-despite the “duhness” of the statement (”autistic children are teachable”), how often have I had to say it, at IEP meetings, at too many meetings…..
I think I’d prefer the statement “Autistic children are capable of learning” to “Autistic children are teachable”, but that might be getting picky.