Helping my student:

by Marlene
(East Meadow, NY)

My 12 year old student with autism claps & screams and it is hard to distract him. What can I do?



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Nov 09, 2011
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starstarstarstarstar 		A hard task to achieve
by: Anonymous

Hi, Your student offers a rather interesting dilemma. Having no information other than a brief diagnosis it would be impossible to offer truly professional help. But there are a couple of things that you may be able to try to do to get an easier less stressed life for your student. Is he in a mainstream class if so how crowded and noisey is it? Are the other class members touching him I mean in a normal friendship way? Or are the lights to bright or is he in any pain due to an underlying medical condition such as glue ear something easily sorted? I know a barrage of questions with no answers but folks with autism can be hypersenitive to sound touch light food types etc.

Try offering routines such as a compromised favorite seat or a task to give a calming element to the day such as a musical session. For example a scale on a guitar or a piano (these contain routines so have both a safety net and an educational value)? With an element of compromise. As part of life is compromise and those with autism due to how their brain is wired they find empathy and sympathy alien to them due to a different cognitive awareness. So if you can invest in them a brief amount of time (daily) to compromise you will make life easier for everyone-for example your local shop may not have the type of pizza you want for tea so you have to compromise and buy a different item? I'm sure there are reams and reams of information on how to help in these situations so bon chance. The only thing I can say is it won't be a quick fix but well worth the effort.

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