Tomorrow, please think about autistic children
- highbrandon202
- Mar 7, 2021
- 1 min read
Quite understandably, many parents and pupils are eager to return to school. Many 'special needs' children, including those with autism, are dreading this 'return to normality.' Those whose domestic circumstances were conducive to study have found the absence of school pressures, sensory overloads, and difficult human interactions a profound relief.
If our society prioritised the needs of autistic children, it would be engaged in a radical rethink of these children's education. The unspoken assumption is that autistic children have to adapt to difficult circumstances, whatever the emotional and psychological cost to them. Resources to fund 'reasonable adjustments' are increasingly not available ; when they are, they serve to mitigate a neurotypical environment, not to create an ideal situation in which autistic children can learn. Often, autistic children are excluded because of behavioural problems which arise from the intrinsic difficulty of their operating in a neurotypical world.
It is an understatement to call this a criminal waste of human potential. When the technological means exist to address this problem, the failure to do so is beyond excusable.
While not as serious, some parallels with world of work and introvertism. Most work situations are set up by extroverts and suit them: open plan offices which encourage spontaneous interaction and disturbance, free seating so people move each day, teamworking, meetings where only the loudest/confident are heard. I particularly remember a training exercise, the team being given a problem, and me wanting to sit in a corner to work it out on my own in the quiet, after which I was criticized for not being a team worker! The extroverts thought the only correct way to work was to pile in immediately, shouting ideas into the group.
Homeworking was the first situation which benefitted the introverts, with more controlled interactions…