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Statement by Joanna Grochowska – psychologist, therapist, vice president of the SYNAPSIS Foundation
Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome are an increasingly common disorder in a child’s development. Every year the number of children diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) grows. Due to problems in communication, social development, and the different way of processing information, children and adolescents with autism pose a great challenge to the education system.
As a result of the emerging difficulties, despite the applicable provisions of the educational law, students with autism often do not have education adequate to their psychophysical abilities and abilities. These students often fulfill their compulsory education in the form of individual teaching, which in turn leads to their even greater isolation and failure to use their potential.
Can people with autism experience feelings in mass schools?
In fact, we are actually talking about autism spectrum disorder (ASD) rather than autism itself. This term is more convenient and more realistic. He emphasizes that autism and related disorders (such as pervasive developmental disorders or Asperger’s syndrome) include, on the one hand, people with a very deep level of disorders (speechless and often not using alternative forms of communication), with great difficulties in social relationships, with rigid rituals, difficult behaviors, and on the other hand, highly functioning people, very good speakers (though not always understanding the nuances of communication, especially in its social aspect), a bit inadequate, awkward in dealing with others with special interests, but generally coping quite well with life and school. Whether a given child can go to mass school depends on many factors. Mass school is generally better for high-functioning children who require relatively little support in their relationships with others and in education. However, there are situations when, in small towns and villages, deeply disturbed children attend mass school, and thanks to the appropriate adaptation of teaching methods and content, they manage to do well. A lot depends on the school itself, teachers, and the conditions that will be created. However, it should be said that most children with autism attend classes for children with autism, special or integration schools. It is worth emphasizing that whether a child with autism spectrum disorders will cope with school and adapt well to it depends primarily on the involvement of the school and teachers, and good cooperation with parents. Unfortunately, still quite often neither special nor integrated schools are adequately prepared to work with students with ASD.
How many people with autism can go into education, and how many actually do?
In Poland, all children are subject to compulsory education, regardless of whether they are healthy or suffer from developmental disorders. Therefore, education should cover all children with autism spectrum disorders. However, in practice, few children with ASD are enrolled in pre-school education. Most children fulfill compulsory education in primary schools. At each subsequent stage of education, the number of children with autism decreases. Despite compulsory education, these children drop out of the system. In secondary schools, there are few of them, despite the fact that, according to the regulations, they can continue their education until the age of 24.
What are the biggest problems in the field of education?
It seems that the biggest problem is still the insufficient number of special and integrated schools willing to admit students with the autistic spectrum disorder. As a result, parents who have a child with ASD often hear their refusal to admit the child to another facility (it happens that the child is admitted to the seventh or even thirteenth facility where the parents try to enroll him!). Very emotionally difficult for parents, but also for children with ASD themselves, are the so-called castings for schools. It is hard to imagine how a child subjected to such an assessment must feel. Another huge problem is the still low level of teachers’ knowledge about autistic spectrum disorders and the specificity of functioning of students with this disorder. Although it should be emphasized that in recent years we have observed a positive, but very slow change in this regard. Yet another problem is the disappearance of the educational subsidy. For each child covered by education, the school receives the so-called educational subsidy. In the case of a child with autism, the educational subsidy is as much as 9.5 times greater. This money is so large due to the specificity of autistic spectrum disorders and the need to adapt the environment and methods of working with a student with ASD to his needs. However, it rarely happens that this money is actually spent on adjusting working methods and the environment to the needs of a child with ASD. These funds most often become part of the overall school budget.
There is an opinion that people with autism are aggressive. Is their presence at school safe for other students?
The vast majority of students with autism spectrum disorders are not aggressive. They are usually calm, though quite strange behavior students. As with other students, there are times when a child with ASD is aggressive. However, as with other children, there is always some reason for this behavior. It may be, for example, overload with sensory stimuli, too high level of requirements, especially in the field of coping with social situations. Often times, children with autism are judged by their peers as weaker and become scapegoats. They are provoked by them in a way that the teacher cannot always see. In such situations, other children can bite back in such a way as to catch up with the teacher. However, a child with ASD has too little understanding of the social rules governing such behavior and reacts directly, to the frequent delight of other students. Another cause of aggressive behavior that should always be considered is health reasons. Children with autism may experience pain and fatigue that they cannot communicate properly. This also applies to the best performing students with ASD.
It is often said about the outstanding abilities of people with autism. Does it make it easier for them to function at school?
First of all, it should be emphasized that these extraordinary abilities concern a relatively small group of students with ASD, i.e. approx. 10%. And they are not always helpful. It happens that a child has such a wealth of knowledge in some, usually narrow, area that he can bend the teacher. And that is never welcome. At the same time, it is difficult for teachers to understand that a student who has such knowledge in one subject, e.g. makes complex calculations on large numbers, may not be able to solve problems with the content or write correctly a short characterization of the hero of the read story. However, it is worth adding that in many cases a good teacher can use these special abilities and knowledge to encourage an autistic student to explore other areas of knowledge. I remember a boy who was great at math and had a lot of difficulty in English. But only until the English teacher communicated with the mathematician and the boy, instead of learning exactly according to the textbook, began to solve math problems and problems in English. He gained motivation to study and caught up quickly. But it required an unconventional approach to his education.
What should an ideal school and classroom look like for a person with autism?
An ideal school for a student with an autistic spectrum disorder is primarily an open school. A school where everyone – from the headmaster, through teachers, administration workers and cooks – is open, carefully observing, trying to look for solutions, cooperating with each other and with parents. It is a school that is able, despite unfavorable local conditions and numerous classes, to develop solutions that allow a student with autism to find a place in it, to feel part of the school community, to be accepted and noticed.
How to explain to a child the strange behavior of his autistic classmate?
It is said that autism spectrum disorders are an invisible disability. Indeed, a student with ASD looks the same as his colleagues. However, what draws attention is his different behavior, often incomprehensible and bizarre for us. It is worth giving a healthy child examples and asking how it would feel if they could not say or explain what they mean, e.g. when they want a drink or when they are sad. And when no one understands him. When others act like they haven’t heard him. Or what if he could hear noises all the time, continuous sound, ringing in his ears. How then could you focus on what the teacher is saying. It is always worth giving children specific examples, and sometimes even making a short experiment, e.g. during one lesson they cannot ask or say anything, and when they try, others ignore them. However, remember that you must have the consent of the parents and the student with ASD to inform other students that their classmate has autism. Determine how to do this. What examples to give. People with autism are very different from each other. And explaining makes sense when a child can observe specific behaviors in their ASD buddy and get an explanation for them. General knowledge about autism will be of little use.