Teaching Autistic Learners: Listen, Believe, Then Act
Wow, this is a sensitive topic. And remember that every person with autism has a different experience. But Claire O'Neill is a teacher and she's telling her story of school.
Claire can see the roof of her old primary school from her classroom window. She remembers walking up to the school door with that gnawing, upset feeling in her stomach and the itchy, scratchy uniform that made her so uncomfortable. She says the room was either too hot or too cold. It was almost always too loud, and she says it was smelly. Claire got in trouble a lot. Now, that she's studied autism, she understands better why.
Claire has spent more than twenty years teaching autistic students and is a PhD researcher at University College Cork (Ireland) studying what school is actually like for autistic teachers.
Claire shares her story from an educational perspective. A full-circle moment of a PhD expert teacher reflecting upon the girl she used to be and advocating to help us all understand how to help children like her.
My Mom was one of the most compassionate, intuitive teachers I've ever known. She always said when I had a student who learned differently and I would accommodate for the whole class, everyone in the classroom learned better. Claire says the same thing. She also talks about the importance of Universal Design for Learning (UDL).
She also encourages us to listen to our learners. Believe them when they tell you how they experience your room. And to act upon what they tell us.
Claire is an expert, but I'm not. While I've taught some precious students with autism and most of them thrived in my classroom (one early in my career, I wish I could go back and use strategies I know now.) I share this story with sensitivity and the knowledge that I don't know what I don't know but I know it is important to listen. And isn't that what Claire tells us in the show?
I hope this show makes us all more empathetic on this Wonderful Classroom Wednesday because not every child actually thinks our classroom is wonderful and we need to listen and learn to make it better.
Show notes: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e977
