Granta_Omega
Well-Known Member
I'm a middle school education major and I've been working with a couple small groups of children with different levels of autism.
There is one kid that the resource teacher and I have lunch with, and I can't really gather any information on how to make our time more interesting to him or get him to talk or elaborate on anything. He talked to me a little bit last week on how he got into a lot of trouble last year after a physical altercation with a teacher, and I was able to help him out a bit with that, but that's about all I have been able to do to have an open conversation with him so far.
The only topic of interest to him is Nascar and racing. That's the only thing he has ever said he has any interest in. Unfortunately for him, it is something I know nothing about.
I've asked him different questions such as what are some of his plans for the future, what does he like to do in school, would he like it if he had some friends, would he enjoy joining a club, etc. It is the same answer all the time, "I don't know."
I kind of want to try and steer him in the direction of developing some better peer to peer social relationships, but given his lack of giving any information about his thoughts or feelings, I don't even know if that is what he wants. I'm afraid that if I start giving him some advice, tips, and plans of getting to know people he can enjoy being around and discussing his interests with, it is only going to be frustrating and unrewarding for him if that isn't what he wants. He said he stays with relatives up north during the summers, and they often bother and pick on him because he doesn't wanna play any games or do anything with them, so I am not sure if he even wants to make any friends or connections.
If casual friendships aren't of his interest and he just needs to learn to better cope with dealing with others, I would be happy to try and give him some friendly input with that, but I don't have anything. This is the first high functioning autistic child I've worked with that doesn't like to talk about anything. Many are really hyper and love to talk about their interests and play games, but he doesn't seem to be giving me any clues of what he needs at all really. He does have some behavioral issues, so I've been trying to help with that as I indicated above and he also gets frustrated easily, but he doesn't generally like to openly talk about anything.
I'm just wondering if I should ask the resource teacher if there is a point to me meeting with him or something specifically they are trying to improve for him. I know there are probably a lot out there, but this is the first child on the autism spectrum I've met personally that I generally found to have not much in common at all with.
There is one kid that the resource teacher and I have lunch with, and I can't really gather any information on how to make our time more interesting to him or get him to talk or elaborate on anything. He talked to me a little bit last week on how he got into a lot of trouble last year after a physical altercation with a teacher, and I was able to help him out a bit with that, but that's about all I have been able to do to have an open conversation with him so far.
The only topic of interest to him is Nascar and racing. That's the only thing he has ever said he has any interest in. Unfortunately for him, it is something I know nothing about.
I've asked him different questions such as what are some of his plans for the future, what does he like to do in school, would he like it if he had some friends, would he enjoy joining a club, etc. It is the same answer all the time, "I don't know."
I kind of want to try and steer him in the direction of developing some better peer to peer social relationships, but given his lack of giving any information about his thoughts or feelings, I don't even know if that is what he wants. I'm afraid that if I start giving him some advice, tips, and plans of getting to know people he can enjoy being around and discussing his interests with, it is only going to be frustrating and unrewarding for him if that isn't what he wants. He said he stays with relatives up north during the summers, and they often bother and pick on him because he doesn't wanna play any games or do anything with them, so I am not sure if he even wants to make any friends or connections.
If casual friendships aren't of his interest and he just needs to learn to better cope with dealing with others, I would be happy to try and give him some friendly input with that, but I don't have anything. This is the first high functioning autistic child I've worked with that doesn't like to talk about anything. Many are really hyper and love to talk about their interests and play games, but he doesn't seem to be giving me any clues of what he needs at all really. He does have some behavioral issues, so I've been trying to help with that as I indicated above and he also gets frustrated easily, but he doesn't generally like to openly talk about anything.
I'm just wondering if I should ask the resource teacher if there is a point to me meeting with him or something specifically they are trying to improve for him. I know there are probably a lot out there, but this is the first child on the autism spectrum I've met personally that I generally found to have not much in common at all with.