Connecting with your inner "isms"

I spent Friday at an all day seminar entitled : "Teaching Students with Autism: Classroom Strategies That Work". Wow, my mind is full of thoughts and ideas for the upcoming year. I will have a child with Autism in my room next year. I was excited about experiencing this before I went to the workshop, but now I can hardly wait to get to know T*.

The presenter was Paula Kluth. If you ever see this name associated with a training, RUN, don't walk to the workshop. She was so knowledgeable and such a dynamic speaker!

One of the things she addressed was the idea that we all have aspects of the autism spectrum in us. If you have a strange collection, a ritual, a weird fascination, you have a little "ism". We need to respect these things that make each student an individual. Often times, once that diagnosis is made we immediately try to change the student; make him more like the other children in our class. Do we really want all the children in our class to be alike? Or, do we want a classroom of individuals who act, learn, think, and communicate differently? She wasn't saying that we shouldn't teach our children with autism ways to communicate better, fit into our society better, etc... She was just saying that we need to respect them as individuals.

The workshop was full of practical ways to help all students, especially ones with disabilities. She shared the idea of the Birthday Party Test. After reading a child's IEP you should be able to think of a really good birthday gift for that child; if you can't think of one, the IEP isn't worth the paper it is written on. She believes you should always work with what the child can do, his strengths, then build from there. Rather than looking at the weaknesses and concentrating on them. (sound familiar, Reading Recovery Teachers?)

Paula Kluth has a website: http://www.paulakluth.com/ she is also the author of several books. Check it out, you'll be glad you did!