I read Adesola's Akinleye's blog about the recent Module 3 Skype session and her final comments "The way you capture an idea reflects your relationship with the idea itself" really had a resonance with me because I am currently looking at people's attitudes to autism and trying to formulate my own.
So much has been written about the deficits of autism that it is tempting to get into the negative mode of considering it a blight. I have just undertaken my first observation of a dance session for my research and that was not the impression I came away with.
I witnessed some young teenagers in an inclusive theatre class rehearsing for their next performance. They all had special needs of some sort. Most were on the Autism spectrum; some had Down's Syndrome, others ADHD and some a mix of these. I have to confess to being somewhat apprehensive about entering the class as I didn't know what I might see. What I saw was a group of talented individuals with an evident love of performing arts. I soon forgot about the fact that they had special needs.
I realised that my apprehension had been due to the fact that I had been studying the common traits of autism and looking at methods that specialists are using to try to help address the challenges they present. I had, for example been reading case studies of how Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) was implemented for severe behavioural problems and how the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) was helping those who were non verbal and had difficulty understanding and processing spoken instructions. In so doing I had become daunted by the severity of some of the conditions and the challenges that many on the spectrum face.
This observation had reminded me of the old adage "there are two sides to every coin". I thought back to my blog : "Dancing to a Different Rhythm" that I had written in Module 2. In this I commented on an article by Andrew Palermo which took the view that we should just accept people with autism as they are and for whom they are and not try to change. Some people, after all, see autism as a gift; one such individual is a 14 year old boy with Asperger's syndrome. The link to the article is below:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3106599.stm
I found a very interesting article about the view put forward by Dr Laurent Mottram that "unusual activity in autistic people's brains should be seen as 'evidence simply of their alternative, yet sometimes successful, brain organisation.'
He maintains that people with autism often outperform those not on the spectrum in both auditory and visual tests and that:
"'It's time to start thinking of autism as an advantage in some spheres, not a cross to bear,'
The link to this article is below:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2056941/Autism-advantage-Valuable-traits-include-exceptional-memory-visual-skills.html
I thought this would make a good discussion amongst my SIG so I posed it to them.
Most of them had had experience teaching at the mild end of the spectrum and they were of the opinion that people with autism often have talents in certain areas and that autism shouldn't necessarily be seen in a bad light. One or two felt however, that it would be hard to think of having autism as being an advantage because of the challenges associated with it.
A couple of my colleagues also questioned how someone at the severe end of the spectrum who was non-verbal, had extreme behavioural challenges and couldn't function independently could possibly be seen as being in any way at an advantage.
I personally think that Mottram was not attempting to make light of the problems many on the spectrum can face, but rather to point out that there are those who are high functioning who do have talents and are extremely intelligent and we should remember that. Just because they think differently from what we perceive as the norm does not mean to say that we should think any less of them- do not undervalue people with autism.
I had been very impressed with the talent and confidence of the students I had observed. I made a note in my reflective journal to remember the positive feeling I had come away with, but also to try to remain neutral in my final writing. It is difficult once you have met the individuals, not to let your personal feelings influence your writing.
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