My teacher husband had a student in high school who had Asperger's and could get upset enough to throw chairs. At the beginning of each semester the parent (with the child's knowledge although he would go to the library) would come in and give a talk about autism in general and how the class was all in this together and tolerance and his specific challenges and the strategies he and the teachers were going to use. She also gave the talk to the football team (he was a team manager). The football coach emphasized how he was a full team member and how he expected them to behave. The young man was also know to walk up to people and introduce himself...hi my name is and I have autism...so his dx wasn't really a secret.
By the end of four years, there was very little chair throwing.
This was the student and parent's choice. But you know even if they never disclosed his actual dx the teacher would have had to address the chair throwing and how not to set him off and student safety once chairs were flying...so you could talk around it "everyone has his or her challenges" or you can, with permission of course, give the challenge a name. I think the biggest factor really is school climate.
You see those videos where the middle school or high school kids give the child with disabilities the chance to make a basket or touchdown. There was one middle school one and the kids worked up this plan all on their own and didn't tell the adults. The boy running the ball stopped purposely on the one foot line and then they called a play that they had made up where the young learning disabled boy was given the ball to run in and they surrounded him to protect him. But the interviews of the kids was the kicker...the kids got it...they got inclusion, friendship, putting others first, working around challenges, everything. Some of the organizers got it when they were hatching the plan. Another kid who was in tears during his interview only got it after he participated in the plan. He admitted to the whole thing changing him.
Last edited by Sweetie; 01/09/14 07:35 AM.
