Curriculum failing kids with autism?

[Geordie]

JUDY Nelson worries about the future of her children every day and believes the current primary school curriculum is letting down her seven-year-old daughter Bronte.

Ms Nelson, who asked that her and her daughter's names be changed to protect their identity, says primary schools are trying to make autistic children fit like "square pegs in round holes" and deny parents input into how their children are educated.

Autism Queensland spokeswoman Teresa Irvine said she agreed with the Nambour mother-of-four.

"The schools assess the children and they tell you what your child needs and the parents get no say on what help their children get and where the help is going," Mrs Irvine said.

Ms Nelson added: "It's the parents and their specialists that know the children best."

Special education teacher Margie Cross said Education Queensland allowed school principals to manage resourcing for disabilities within schools.

She said the school looked at the child and decided what they could offer with resources and programming and how the child could best be supported.

"What we do is devise a program that is modified or adjusted and we will also have strategies in place - a child could be in Year 6 but still at a Year 2 standard," Mrs Cross said.

Ms Nelson said the general consensus from other parents with autistic children was that changes within the current primary school curriculum needed to be made.

"The schools tell us they're providing a service but they're just modifying a curriculum," Ms Nelson said.

"Autistic kids need special programs because they're not modified in the right way.

"They modify them by bringing them downwards.

"If regular kids have 30 spelling words every week, (Bronte) may have a five-word spelling list of cat, mat, sat, hat, and bat.

"But even so, she still won't get it, but she's supposed to.

"They're trying to do science and geography classes and it doesn't mean anything to (Bronte) - it's overwhelming.

"That's why autistic kids like (Bronte) lash out and can become disruptive or violent because they don't understand.

"She's sitting there bored and frustrated and she just can't cope.

"If a better system were provided that they understood, maybe this wouldn't happen."

The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show 9700 autistic school-aged children living in Queensland in 2009.

Eighty-two per cent of children who attended school had difficulty with communication, learning and social skills.

"A truly autistic child finds it difficult in a mainstream classroom," Mrs Cross said.

"But there are benefits from the exposure and positive social skills and also the communication of what we call the hidden curriculum like learning to look at facial cues.

"The benefit for regular kids in the classroom is they can build up an understanding and tolerance to children with disabilities."

The ABS reported that while schools in Australia were providing some support to help autistic children, the latest data indicated that more needed to be done to help these children so they could one day enter into further education and the labour force.

Curriculum 'failing' autistic kids | Emerald Education | Primary and Tertiary Education in Emerald | Central Queensland News

 

[Dusty285]

Learning disabilities touches a special nerve for me.

First a disclaimer: I am old and grey and no longer need any special attention. I just want to be left alone and given some slack when that is appropriate. I have found that 'backing off' is the most difficult thing for people to do.

I did very well with the written word. I found in high school and in college that where I could read the information in a reasonably well-written book I could learn what was being taught. In most classroom situations and in lectures I was wasting my time and did not learn the material well. The education system insists on verbal communication. It provides jobs for teachers and the bureaucracy of the education industry provides power and money to the incumbents. Programmed learning has been proven to be as good or better but reduces the number of persons in the administering system and has been supressed and sidelined. Some of us on the Autism Spectrum could benefit from non-verbal alternatives, electronic (computerized) or plain books and paper and pencil; some would not of course and need other alternative approaches. The System is not about to become flexible because of the money flow and things like Tenure. Perhaps eventually. History is full of changes that had to wait until the senior people got old and were replaced.

As an example of the kinds of changes that had to wait until the older power brokers retired: It is almost funny that when I was in college a slide rule was forbidden in a test because "You might be an engineer in South America and your slide rule got broken. Do the long division and multiplication and square roots by hand!!!" Years later I became aware that an electronic calculator the size of a cell phone was required all the way from about the 4TH grade to graduate school. Now my grandson is required in High School to be using a computer, lap-top and desk-top with a decent full-color printer, and homework is mostly copied & pasted from the web and turned in as a print-out. (Advanced Program for 'A' students?)

I hope that the efforts to improve the treatment of persons with disabilities and of course from my own perspective, Autistics all across the Spectrum, can benefit from changes and a lot more flexibility within the educational industries and systems. Technology and the products of the things learned from the behaviorial sciences that apply to us on the Spectrum do seem to have so much promise.

Footnote for the moderators: The spell-check within this forum does not work with my computer. I have Windows-7 64 bit, IE, HP computer. I have not been able to sucessfully download and install the spell-check and/or it is too involved just for this one forum. I am nervous about too many programs added to the OS. That is both an Aspie thing and experience with problems resulting from too many add-ons.

 

[Soup]

"The schools tell us they're providing a service but they're just modifying a curriculum," Ms Nelson said.

"Autistic kids need special programs because they're not modified in the right way.

"They modify them by bringing them downwards."

This is one of the major objections I have to so-called integrated classrooms as a teacher & as an Aspie. Having been in such classrooms, the autistic kids are in the class but not truly a part of it. the teacher may have 5 or 6 special needs students in the class-all with different issues. Then, too, there are gifted kids who complete the work quickly & easily & may become disruptive when bored. There may be about 20 students per classroom. Under those circumstances, curriculum modification is all that really can be done. The autistic kids get little attention & are often in their own world, in the room but unable to focus on, comprehend or keep up with the mainstream activities that dominate.

The decision to integrate schools & phase our 'special needs' schools was more of an emotional 'feel good' type decision than it was a sensible practical one that took into serious consideration the problems & benefits to the special needs children themselves. Since autism symptoms (as with most conditions) vary enormously, Autistic kids can be those with Asperger's but of above average intelligence or those with impaired speech who are quite detached from their surroundings. These kids often are the ones who need helmets die to head banging.

Parents of children with special needs want to emphasize that their children are 'just like everyone else' & that they can accomplish anything they are given the chance to & they belong with 'normal' kids. I can see where a parent is motivated to think this way & want to minimize the impact that a disability has on their child's life, education, mobility & opportunities.

America was on an integration 'high' having abolished the segregation of black kids in schools (buses, park benches, restaurants, public drinking fountains, hotels, gov't buildings etc.) Extending this to children with disabilities seemed like a humane natural progression. HOWEVER...this kind of decision must be made on a case by case by case basis prioritizing the needs of the child:

- What is the nature of his disability? NOT just the name of it, but how it manifests in this specific child.
- Does he have mobility/aural/oral/visual impairments that are severe enough that a simple pair of glasses or a hearing aid won't significantly mitigate them?
- Can the child be in a mainstream classroom without becoming overwhelmed or becoming disruptive?
- Does he strike out, sometimes randomly, at others?
- What special equipment does the child use? (if he's in a wheel-chair, are the classrooms, the bathrooms, the cafeteria, the yard etc. fully accessible to the child?
- how does the child behave around other children?
- What are his learning-related challenges AND can a teacher lacking 'special education' training accommodate them?

These are just some of the important questions that need to be asked in each individual case in order to provide the optimal environment for that child: not to accommodate the aspirations of the parents or the 'feel good' philosophies of the education system. Kids with certain disabilities & challenges are just not served well by mainstream schools. Where I'm scheduled to begin in Jan, there is an Autistic boy who spent much of the class time wandering back & forth aimlessly tinkering with this & that while the other kids were actively engaged in learning. This was a 2nd grade class. Two of the kids couldn't write beyond the preschool level (able to write their name). Who are we kidding by placing them in 2nd grade? The parents are kidding themselves, the teacher is too busy teaching to provide him with the interventions he requires, the other children simply ignore & avoid this boy & the child is learning nothing but isolation in a mainstream room.

I'm not advocating turning back the clock to where special schools were little more than warehouses for disabled kids where they were kept fed, safe & clean until their parents returned for them. Later, minimal educational opportunities were provided. Still, kids with highly varied disabilities were lumped together. I know we can't build separate schools for every disability there is but we do need to scrap what we're doing because it just isn't providing for the social and educational needs these children require.

 

[Dusty285]

We know that 'Special Needs' are often glossed over; effectively ignored. Some places are making a maximum effort, however. I know that the Plano, Texas, USA, school district has an intensive program with special teachers for these children. On the other end of the scale, in my area, several school districts have extensive and intensive programs for the very bright & motivated children. My own school district (my grandchildren's schools?) has a Magnet school for Science and Math, grades 1 - 6. Children who do well there go to a middle school dedicated to the higher achievers. After that, there is a high school, grades 9 - 12 with very special courses for the top performers with strict minimum standards requiring continued effort. This gives a challenge and some college-level classes to the brightest and motivated. These high-end special programs keep the brightest active, motivated, involved and out of the hair of teachers dealing with mainstream students. Everybody wins.

I do not know about programs for autistic children specifically. I am distantly acquainted with someone whose pre-teen daughter is the classic Autistic, wandering around in a world all her own. He has spent much time and money trying to provide help and care for her. That is all I know. (As a HFA I feel that I can not even relate. My own problems have been limited to people thinking I was strange and aloof --- or whatever they think.) I take my grandson to school quite often and have seen several children being carefully wheeled into the school in their wheelchairs; obviously these kids do and will spend their lives like that. All I can do is cry for them, inside myself.

 

[Geordie]

I do not think that special education schools do even help Aspies. However, specialised programs that provide intensive and extensive programs for bright children working the hardest they can - and hopefully stretch society's potentials in future.

 

[debym6]

This is currently a big issue with my son. He is being pushed to be just like all the other children and it's not working he gets frustrated as he has a hard time moving along to the next topic if he is still trying on the current. Currently what seems to be happening is they are making him keep pace with the class by just saying ok just take that home to finish bring it back tomorrow. Well some would think oh that's great he is keeping up with the class, but is he really?? Not at all and our home life after school is getting harder by the week. He has A's in social studies, science, excels in reading is a 5th grade level he's in the 3rd grade but has big trouble with math. It's not that he cant do it it just takes him longer to get in the groove to get moving because he just doesn't like it. So in return I am left to teach him and do almost all math classroom work at home. The teachers have granted us access to school programs to do classroom computer time and it just keeps rolling. I don't want it to seem like I don't want to do this with my son as that is not the situation. It's that he feels like a failure and it makes us not have hardly anytime for fun time and time together is all about school work. Yesterday because we had a therapist coming at 4pm we had to start right away after school. Then return as soon as she left then came dinner and oh yes the computer math facts testing he had to do that after dinner. I am not very happy at all. As I love my son with all my heart and I feel like I am having to push him and say things out of frustration that is not good for him. We have a large family total of 5 kids. They are all centered around his school work as well. I hate to say this but I just love summer time as it is such a break and makes me feel like that is our biggest family time of the year. During this last holiday break they sent home 3 huge packets and a project, how could we do much of anything but Jacobs school work. Again I don't mind I love him with all my heart, but his siblings say things and it just makes him frustrated and upset. I want to look into a different education for him, but have some resistance from family as they say it will hurt him and make him think why me whats wrong with me. I am thinking the opposite it could help him see that being different is ok and he can excel with the correct leadership and teaching his style.

 

[Dusty285]

For: debym6

Where are you? Not your street address; what country and general area or major city?

The school work you describe seems very involved for 3rd grade? But I can only compare to what little I see of my own grandchildren in similar grades doing their homework when they stay with me after school.

I know that the school districts in my area, north and east of Dallas, Texas, USA, have several Special Needs programs including one for Autistic children, but all I know is that these programs exist.

 

[debym6]

We are in South Florida, USA

 

[Dusty285]

To: debym6


My full sympathies. Florida has a reputation for their schools. I was there in the late 1960's long enough for my own children to attend first and second grades. Then we moved to near Philadelphia, PA and in the schools there (which at the time were noted to be among the best in the nation) my kids were no further than what the PA kindergartens taught. I can see that you are not going to get any help from your school districts. The teachers are still probably struggling to cope with bigger problems every day. They are letting you pick up all the slack for your son. Consider that your son is benefiting very much from what you do.

It is too easy to suggest that you relocate somewhere else. I do not know anything about you or how your life is arranged and you need to keep that private. Jobs are difficult to find and will be for a long time. I like 'North Texas.' The Dallas-Ft Worth Metroplex seems to have a passable economy even with the national economic problems (but there are still a lot of cut-backs and unemployed/underemployed and that is beyond my knowledge). We are far enough from the ocean that mosquitoes and humidity are not a problem. Taxes are average; there is no State Income Tax but property taxes make up for it. Texas is not crowded-in the way the East Coast megalopolis is; but there are other considerations that might make up the difference? I have been here too long to remember much of anywhere else. This is the "Land of Summer." It is always warm; real summer is hot; a few days of snow or ice a year. Right now, in winter (January & February), the temperatures are bumping down through freezing many nights and in the 40's to 60's in the day. Long Springs and Falls, 6 weeks of real Summer when the daytime highs are at or over 100 (and the nights are above 90!). Texas schools do not measure up well overall, but in some areas, like where I reside and some parts of suburban Houston and Austin, the schools are very good.

The song I sing might sound good, but you or any reader needs to research thoroughly and come spend some time to look around and find a job before doing something you might very well regret. Do not leave property in the hands of a Real Estate agent; sell it before departing for somewhere else. This little tidbit of never doing things blindly or of leaving loose ends applies, of course, to any major thing you/anyone might want to do.

Blessings and good luck!