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Jen Quirk
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Jen commented on the article |lol - you're welcome. Still trying to find that balance myself.
Sending you love and solidarity thru the tubes :-) -
Jen commented on the article |
A thought on your observation that this is a lifelong condition: IEP's, I've noted, are generally focused on shoring up a deficit but they're not very strong on expanding a strength. Autism is one aspect of my children, but it isn't the totality of their identity and it doesn't mean that they can't "find their joy" which would lead them to fulfilling careers.
The problem with autism is that it is looked at as a problem.
Instead of trying to shoehorn these children into measures that determine how well they can fit into a certain way of disseminating information, I think it would be far more productive if the dissemination of the information were tailored to meet their specific learning styles. Yeah - this is a little out of the box for a lot of administrators to deal with, but I believe this approach makes for more productive students and in the end more productive adults.
Put it another way: no one freaks out if a child does not have a natural ear for music. No one would say that a child who struggles with arithmetic tables couldn't follow their dream of becoming President. I'm not equating the challenges of autism to either of these things, but what I'm saying is that all children have inherent strengths and weaknesses, and we should take those on as they are - but the presence of inherent weaknesses does not limit the ability of the child to grow into a fulfilled adult.
Off my soapbox ;-) -
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Jen commented on the article |
Wow - that was a little hard for me to listen to. I'm a parent of two children on the spectrum, ages 5 and 2 (although obviously with my son we're still sorting things out, it appears to me that he most likely has appraxia - sp?).
I'm trying to literally get everything I can for them services-wise, while beating the drum that this is something that does. not. limit. their. potential.
It's no easy trick, especially when dealing with some folks whose knowledge of autism is less than mine. I believe that there were several members of my family who were on the spectrum but never diagnosed - they were always considered by family members to be more "math people" than "language people"...obviously my knowledge has increased from that, but the mindset that this is just a part of who this person is, with its own set of pluses and minuses, hasn't changed.
It's hard to see the labels already being assigned, the pre-judging already coming out.
Just found this site and I'm glad I did. Thanks for the diary.
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