Reasons why #autistic children may present challenging behaviour in class at school. A thread, and an incomplete list. (sorry to fill your time line with yet another but it keeps me going at the moment.
Talk to any teacher about #autistic students and I can guarantee 95% of the time they will have the following mental image or response.
a) oh god, there goes the behaviour in *that* group then,
b) oh they're so lovely and quiet. Maybe too quiet.
c) she's autistic? No!
It's either going to be a nightmare relationship, a dream, or it's a shock (often as #autistic traits are so misunderstood. I'm going to be focusing on reaction a) today - a strange yet often partly justified fear that a certain 'type' of autistic child can be hard to manage.
I'm not going to lie to you - #autistic people *can* be extremely difficult to manage, as a parent, teacher or even employer (sorry bosses over the years!) for many of the reasons we've been looking at all week on this endless odyssey of autism chat. But what can we do?
School settings are not set up, at all, for #autistic children. Pretty much everything about the cultures and organisation of a school is anathema to many #autistic children. There are some good bits (set routine, etc) but not many. Here's the issue.
Most #autistic children will find being at school extremely stressful. This is *before* you add on any extra stress for typical school issues like tests, detention, bullying, etc. They are walking around with probably 50-100% more stress in their heads than their peers.
And they're only children! Imagine that, being twice as stressed as everyone around you, not sure why, and with little experience of how to cope. It's absolutely no wonder they kick off at times. I would.
So what causes this stress and what releases it into challenging behaviour? Well firstly there's all those sensory issues I tweeted about a while ago...
These cause stress constantly - background, inescapable stress, but these things might not be the ones that trigger a meltdown - they're more like a stepping stone to a meltdown. But severe varieties of these sensory issues can cause instant problems.
For example, as really loud fire alarm, an exceptionally strong odour, really awful behaviour from another student, bright colours flickering on the projector - these could cause enough stress to trigger very challenging behaviour or even a meltdown.
I keep mentioning meltdowns, and this is a huge aspect of #autistic life I haven't touched yet - for the time being I'll just say they are times where our ability to cope is overwhelmed by events and we enter a kind of 'shutdown', which manifests in loads of different ways.
It may be a kind of passive effect, where we go non-verbal and kind of 'disappear', or it may be violent and physical. I think #autistic people vary considerably but we pretty much all get them. They're a kind of safety valve, only one that can alienate neurotypicals.
Please bear in mind that not all challenging behaviour will be a meltdown. Usually it probably won't, but you need to be aware of the possibility.
So sensory stuff is a good place to start if you have an #autistic student who's a bit, well, naughty. Audit your classroom, try to see it from an autistic person's viewpoint, and amend if necessary.
But what else? Well here I'm going to get a list going, as it's a useful structure fof these interminable threads I do. So, onto the first thing...
1. Have you, the teacher/adult been unreasonable? If you have, an #autistic person typically will see this and they.will.hate.it. Good lord, you won't be getting away with that, sunshine. If you start by being unreasonable, you have to back down. Sorry.
2. Have you been hypocritical? Again, this may be identified instantly, and often #autisticstudents can get extremely upset by this, as are adults. We can all be hypocritical at times - best thing to defuse is to admit, accept, and explain the circumstances.
3. Has the school body, SLT or someone else been unreasonable or hypocritical? I find one of the best ways to bond with my #autisticstudents is to talk with them about these perceived slights, see it from their view and be kind even when defending school policy.
4. Have you missed someone bullying or being horrible to them? This happens often in class, as kids can be wily things when trying to destroy the lives of their peers. #autistic students may feel upset that you've missed what happens as they know it did, so you should to.
5. They may have some truly dreadful experiences at home and need to let off steam. Remember my b) example earlier if the quiet #autistic kid? They may well have caused havoc at home to compensate. What if you *can't do that at home*? Then where will you do it? School.
6. Do they understand #autism? I find the more content #autisticstudents are those who know a decent amount about it. Not all do. For some it's just another thing a doctor has told their mum they are. It can be meaningless and irritating.
7. Are they desperate for a rest or a moment with their favourite interests? I get to know my students interests ASAP do I can try to mould activities and tasks around them. Writing creative writing? Got a Sonic the Hedgehog fanatic? Let him write creatively about that
(And in my case, bloody join in too! Nothing will make their day more than you knowing a bit about their interests!)
8. Are they sad about something bigger? Think @GretaThunberg. It's very likely you'll have #autisticstudents who care *deeply* about big issues. I know several who are immersed in gender and sexuality issues, fighting for that. Another is terrified by climate change. Another has extremely strong opinions about animal welfare and campaigns tirelessly. These are *real passions* and I can pretty much guarantee that they will sometimes feel down about these things to the point of challenging you. Talk with them.
9. Do they understand the value of the work? I know teachers feel all kids have to simply accept this as a given, but #autistic children can't necessarily. They may have way stronger ideas about what they want in life than you expect, and your work may seem irrelevant to them , so sit down with them and explain how it is relevant, how it can be useful. I know this feels off as a teacher; I hate that attitude myself, but with #autistic students it can be very genuine so be kind. Take some time to talk.
Notice how many of these involve talking to the #autistic student? This isn't as paradoxical as common misunderstandings of autism would suggest - autistic people are often happy to talk so long as that talk is calm, reasonable and friendly. No ambiguity, no sarcasm
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