A Window into Her World

I think one of the things that I struggle with as an educator is the social disconnect that my students sometimes have towards me.  For example, on Monday mornings I always greet my students with "how was your weekend!"  Most times, I am met by blank stares or comments that have little to do with my question.  It took me some time but I have grown not to expect an answer to my question although I continue to ask it.  Any parent of an autistic child will tell you that as they grow, they develop wonderful abilities in some areas and can even be considered gifted but they struggle to reciprocate.

When I think about reciprocating, I think of one of my students.  A little seven year old girl who wonders aimlessly around the room.  It took a while for me to assess the skills that this seven year old had because it was very difficult to communicate with her.  I could not tell  if she was understanding anything that was going on around her.  Eventually, I discovered that she read on about a fourth grade level, she was capable of writing complete sentences, she knew how to add, and could spell all the words on the first grade high frequency list.  On the flip side, my second grader sat on tables, hated wearing shoes and ate paper.  She was an enigma to me.

Then one day it all changed.  I entered into her world and tried to figure out the reason for her inappropriate behaviors in the classroom.  I soon realized that to her our world was confusing.  She retreated back into her world when things were not clear and easy for her too understand.

One day, this lovable seven year old handed me a crayon and ask me to write a sentence for her.  I wanted to see her ability and told her that I couldn't.  That lead to a tantrum and  she tore her paper.  After consulting with the director of the school, I felt that her frustrations were because she had trouble spelling one word in the sentence.  So we brainstormed and after she came back from a short "break, we asked her if she would copy the sentence.  I wrote the sentence down on another piece of paper and she copied the sentence on her paper and continued to work on her project.  I was now in her world!  I understood her frustrations and was then able to find a solution.