Question- to help me better understand...

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Hello,

As part of my classes to become licensed in ASD we (our cohort) are instructed to ask a question that someone diagnosed with ASD will address.
I have a lot of questions, yet I am also unsure what I want to ask. Confusing, I know. I have worked with students with ASD through substitute teaching in elementary school, and recently, from being an ASD teacher at a middle school (for three months), resigned (for extraneous reasons) and now work with some students diagnosed with ASD at the high school level.

The first question that came to me was, now that I am teaching a social skills class in high school, how are students able to "respond" differently now that they are in high school versus when they were younger? Do you understand living with a diagnosis of ASD better; meaning, do you have the skills you feel you need to live your life?

Is this social skills instruction still valuable, or would you rather be in other types of classes?
What has been most helpful to learn as you have grown? How can I best provide for my students? What would you suggest I teach students diagnosed with ASD? How would you suggest I do this?
Does this make sense
Thank you.
Lynne

I am sure that you could see the value of bringing these sort of questions to the students that you plan on serving. It will help foster a better understanding of their individuality and provide you with the opportunity to see where each one is at so that you can tailor your approach to the audience you have rather than the one you imagine you might have.

Thanks for you response. I appreciate being reminded that I can and should ask the students what they want/need. What was your experience in school?

My experience was I wished I had a teacher ask me what I thought my needs were rather than taking a one size fits all approach.

Thanks. If I have 8 students in class and they all want something different...is it ok to use these 8 topics--for the whole class? Does that make sense? What would that look like in a class?

I understand you are anxious about doing it "Right", but when ever you deal with people you have to take into account individuality and different levels of comprehension. What I would do and what you would do are very distinct.

Personally if you have this much apprehension about it and are doing this as part of your class I would consult with your instructor about it. They would be the best resource you have to find productive and inclusive ways to achieve your goals.

Thanks for your communication. I appreciate you advice and insights. Have a good rest of your weekend.

I was fortunate enough to have moved, in the middle of High School, from a huge, impersonal school where no one knew my name nor acknowledged my existence, to a small town school, where everybody knew everybody and the students in my peer group were friendly and open. This was ages before I was diagnosed, so there was no special assistance in place to help, anything I learned, I learned by osmosis. That said, being in a more congenial environment certainly helped my social skills tremendously, in that any skill remains more sharply honed when it's kept in use - on the other hand, none of that ever did anything to improve my own innate abilities or help me "learn" social skills I did not already possess.

The Selective Mutism, the inability to empathically asses the mental and emotional states of those around me, the inability to initiate social interaction, or to notice, recognize, or know how to appropriately respond to non verbal cues - none of these noticeably improved. My parents were intimately involved in the church and I was constantly exposed to social situations, in school and outside of it. For the first time in my life, I had multiple friends. Though a much more supportive environment in terms of mental and emotional health, my disability did not appreciably improve.

Now, more than 30 years later, I still struggle with the same impairments. I learned plenty of coping mechanisms in the workplace and I can pass for relatively normal for short periods of time, though anyone around me for more than a day or two begins to realize that I am "different" and "odd."

All that said to point out what should be obvious: Autism is a Neurological Condition. It is Congential Brain Damage. I have been this way since birth - my mother noticed the peculiarities well before I started kindergarten and in those days nobody had ever heard the word "autism." It's hard-wired into my neurons and synapses. Attempting to teach me "Social Skills" is a pointless exercise in futility and only annoys me. That's not to say we're incapable of learning certain things - my parents drilled me incessantly on social behaviors like eye contact, hand shaking, saying Hello and so on - again, learned as rote coping mechanisms, because none of these things come naturally to me to this day.

Anything you drill into someone's head to make them self-consciously perform as obligatory ritual is doing absolutely nothing to change the way their brain works. It is only driving home the point that they are different, damaged and unacceptable in their natural state. That's not a constructive message. I'm not telling you that you should not make an effort to help students learn life skills that they will need to survive, nor that they are incapable of learning such behaviors to a certain extent - but keep in mind that they will never be very good at any of it and it will never come naturally to them, no matter how well you teach it, because they are not configured neurologically to think, feel or react that way. They will never learn to notice and interpret nonverbal cues consistently because their brains just don't focus on those things.

I know what a great many "body language" signals mean, but I still don't notice them because I'm generally looking elsewhere, since eye contact makes me uncomfortable. Even when someone tells me how they are feeling, and I know that, for instance, the appropriate response would be to give them a hug, that action does not come naturally to me and I awkwardly hesitate, unsure how to initiate it, until the moment has passed and become uncomfortable for both of us. I have a great sense of humor and I'm very creative and yet, in conversation with people I'm not well acquainted and very comfortable with, I can never think of an appropriate response to anything they say to me, much less respond with friendly humor, until the moment has passed and any remark would just seem non-sequitur and stupid. I made a living for more than 30 years being an acid-tongued clown in a closed radio studio, but put me in a room with living people and I'm essentially mute. You can't change neurology. The constant, overwhelming pressure of juggling a barrage of heightened sensory signals just makes socialization one more ball to try to keep in the air.

The simple answer to your question is both a yes and a no - my coping mechanisms certainly improved over time, but it has never changed my essential condition. Parents, teachers and employers have tried valiantly for many years to bend me into the shape they think I should have, by sheer effort of will, and all any of them have ever accomplished by it was to make us both miserable. The brain is what it is. We need acceptance, not reprogramming.

I think those questions are OK, but I can't really answer them myself because I was diagnosed as an adult.

With regard to the sorts of social skills it would be useful to teach a high school class of ASD students, you are correct in that they understand more now than they did when they were younger. Important skills to work on at the high school level may potentially include: topics of teenage conversation, the way by which the adolescent heirarchy works (something I was utterly oblivious to in high school), how to ask people out, and vitally, how to show people that you like them without coming across as creepy or harrassing. There have been many cases of sexual harrassment charges brought against unsuspecting AS teens because they were attempting to forge a romantic relationship in a socially inappropriate way. Make sure your students understand the strict guidelines for what is and isn't okay in those situations. Basic things like how to dress so they don't stand out, and how to handle personal hygeine now that they have reached puberty are also important. Teaching them how to better control potential meltdowns is also essential, because what looked like harmless tantrums in an eight-year-old boy can look extremely threatening in an eighteen-year-old man who weighs over a hundred pounds. Not knowing how to get a handle on situations like that is a good way for a teenager to potentially get into trouble with the law. They have books on how to teach this to kids, one I've looked at is entitled "A Five is Against the Law". Hopefully you'll be able to find similar useful references.

Similar sorts of social practise that you did with younger students will also be valid for adolescents; practise having conversations, play games that involve paying attention to and correctly interpreting facial expressions/body language, figures of speech (particularly important for deciphering teenage slang), and attempt to encourage eye-contact without forcing it. You can put on mock job interviews as well, as this age group is getting to the point where they might be starting their first job, and knowing what to expect and how to perform at an interview is very important. Explain the sorts of behaviour employers like, and give different examples, depending on the job, for how the adolescent could display those skills. Teach them to ask the boss for help if they need it too: I lost my only real job after nine months because I was too afraid of my boss to tell him I was having trouble keeping the instructions he gave straight.

Anyway, that's just a start, hopefully all goes well for you, good luck!

Thank you all so much for your reply. This is very helpful information. I appreciate your sharing with me.