Autism

In the article 'Autism - The Way I See It', Grandin comes to realize that everyone thinks and sees the world differently and from varying perspectives. While this is especially true in people who are autistic, this idea is true for the general population as well. This article brings up an important that we, as teachers, MUST be aware of. It is essential for us to be able to find different ways and strategies of teaching in order to reach each and every one of our students and be able to adjust to different learning styles.

This article was particularly interesting to me because of a placement I did last semester in which I mentored a teenager with autism. He was 16 years old and was absolutely awesome. He was a very high functioning, but was particularly interested in doing hands on things and touching EVERYTHING. Through reading this article I realized that he definitely had a very visual way of learning. We did lots of art projects, which he became very passionate and involved in, while other topics seemed to bore him very easily. After trying many different activities and getting to know him, I learned what worked for him and a way to get through to him which is something that is very important to be able to do. It is important to be able to find subjects that your student is particularly interested in and make accommodations accordingly to get other topics and ideas incorporated into the learning.