WEBVTT 00:00:02.480 --> 00:00:07.139 Welcome to From the Spectrum Podcast. This is 00:00:07.139 --> 00:00:12.000 a podcast about autism. It is my goal to explain 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:17.760 what is autism. I plan to use a mixture of scientific 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:22.339 literature, personal experience, and opinion. 00:00:23.660 --> 00:00:27.260 With opinion, I will explain why I feel the way 00:00:27.260 --> 00:00:32.429 I do and give examples. I will provide links 00:00:32.429 --> 00:00:37.170 to various references for each episode. For each 00:00:37.170 --> 00:00:41.130 episode, we will discuss various aspects of autism. 00:00:43.030 --> 00:00:46.030 The From the Spectrum podcast will mostly avoid 00:00:46.030 --> 00:00:50.189 causes of autism and I will try avoiding the 00:00:50.189 --> 00:00:54.189 increase of diagnoses of late. This is like playing 00:00:54.189 --> 00:00:57.390 tug of war with barbed wire and I don't think 00:00:57.390 --> 00:01:02.539 I want to travel down that path. For today's 00:01:02.539 --> 00:01:06.859 episode, we will cover autism and education. 00:01:08.420 --> 00:01:11.879 Any conversation around education ought to be 00:01:11.879 --> 00:01:16.379 taken serious. The conversation about education 00:01:16.379 --> 00:01:23.560 is dangerous. It's touchy. Autism and education 00:01:23.560 --> 00:01:28.980 adds to the heated discussion. There is so much 00:01:28.980 --> 00:01:34.200 going on in education, even within a single school 00:01:34.200 --> 00:01:40.120 building. Many types, many differences with curriculum, 00:01:41.319 --> 00:01:47.420 learners, educators, corporations, staff members, 00:01:48.459 --> 00:01:54.500 rules and regulations. With autism, autism will 00:01:54.500 --> 00:02:00.299 grab attention of those involved. Staff, For 00:02:00.299 --> 00:02:04.900 the most part, even educated staff on the topic 00:02:04.900 --> 00:02:12.340 are uneducated. Education cannot and should not 00:02:12.340 --> 00:02:18.199 have much weight on their opinion. Undergraduate 00:02:18.199 --> 00:02:24.319 level to, well, all the way up the highest degree. 00:02:25.400 --> 00:02:28.539 Some of this population needs to reconsider. 00:02:28.800 --> 00:02:34.520 their involvement. In the show notes I mentioned 00:02:34.520 --> 00:02:38.599 the podcast is for the lay public and professionals. 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:46.020 Mostly in education they are distributed somewhere 00:02:46.020 --> 00:02:51.680 in between. It is my goal for this episode that 00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:57.199 others involved with people with autism can receive 00:02:57.319 --> 00:03:01.800 further information so they can make informed 00:03:01.800 --> 00:03:06.280 decisions either for themselves or for their 00:03:06.280 --> 00:03:12.680 loved ones. Parents get hitched on their opinion, 00:03:13.400 --> 00:03:18.800 their meaning school staff. What's coming out 00:03:18.800 --> 00:03:24.659 of the school building? Which should count, but 00:03:24.659 --> 00:03:29.580 it needs to be considered. their knowledge, their 00:03:29.580 --> 00:03:36.159 education, their experience of autism. Is it 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:43.419 enough? And one should consider the goal of the 00:03:43.419 --> 00:03:48.039 school is to have the child docile and behaving 00:03:48.039 --> 00:03:53.819 correctly to the school's definition as much 00:03:53.819 --> 00:03:59.979 and as fast as possible. and whatever is needed 00:03:59.979 --> 00:04:07.120 to make that happen. At times, humans have enough. 00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:12.500 They want solutions, answers. They want things 00:04:12.500 --> 00:04:20.120 taken care of. And to qualify my comments, undergraduate 00:04:20.120 --> 00:04:25.860 level, teachers to support service type, or even 00:04:25.860 --> 00:04:31.500 master's level, Staff are not qualified to understand 00:04:31.500 --> 00:04:40.439 autism's full complexity. Few are. Now, I realize, 00:04:41.139 --> 00:04:46.399 unless it is a school psychologist in which they 00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:51.860 should still be questioned, diagnosing autism 00:04:51.860 --> 00:04:58.350 does not come from here. It takes specialization, 00:04:58.930 --> 00:05:04.149 certain licenses, but more importantly, experience 00:05:04.149 --> 00:05:10.490 and the ability to remove implicit biases, to 00:05:10.490 --> 00:05:14.829 quiet those when dealing with the other person, 00:05:15.990 --> 00:05:20.910 the person with autism or the suspected autism. 00:05:22.410 --> 00:05:27.110 However, It only shows the vast and deeply rooted 00:05:27.110 --> 00:05:33.709 biases these adults will have. Remember, humans 00:05:33.709 --> 00:05:37.970 love to take control, feel like they are helping, 00:05:39.089 --> 00:05:43.670 and humans love to have their beliefs confirmed. 00:05:45.569 --> 00:05:50.029 Already, if you are in education, you probably 00:05:50.029 --> 00:05:58.259 have underlying wants or desires to help. Feel 00:05:58.259 --> 00:06:02.420 like you are providing something to the children 00:06:02.420 --> 00:06:08.860 or students and the parents. Further, you are 00:06:08.860 --> 00:06:13.040 in the school building handling these situations 00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:21.920 for long hours and enough could be enough. It 00:06:21.920 --> 00:06:25.939 feels good. It provides a sense of purpose and 00:06:25.939 --> 00:06:30.860 confirmation of competence, a relief in the job 00:06:30.860 --> 00:06:36.180 and the daily duties. This opens up negative 00:06:36.180 --> 00:06:40.000 beliefs and worries for parents and guardians, 00:06:40.399 --> 00:06:45.899 and it is a good path, a reliable path for stuff, 00:06:46.319 --> 00:06:50.560 for treatments, for information to be misplaced. 00:06:50.639 --> 00:06:57.100 or incorrect and it provides a path for something 00:06:57.100 --> 00:07:04.779 common in our society an appointment with PCP 00:07:04.779 --> 00:07:11.360 and one or more prescriptions and that is hard 00:07:11.360 --> 00:07:17.660 to reverse if anything doses will increase or 00:07:17.660 --> 00:07:24.019 more prescriptions will be prescribed. As a side 00:07:24.019 --> 00:07:27.959 note, we'll just take a hard pause here. Go into 00:07:27.959 --> 00:07:36.259 your search bar and type in CAGR compound annual 00:07:36.259 --> 00:07:44.199 growth rate is what that stands for CAGR of anti 00:07:44.199 --> 00:07:57.660 -psychotics for 2023. Society loves to prescribe 00:07:57.660 --> 00:08:02.480 medication. That is our first line of defense. 00:08:04.540 --> 00:08:09.740 Children and adults get prescribed antipsychotics, 00:08:10.339 --> 00:08:15.339 antidepressants, psychostimulants. We are giving 00:08:15.339 --> 00:08:20.649 these things to children. To sit down, behave, 00:08:20.949 --> 00:08:27.029 and act right. Do what you're told. I think our 00:08:27.029 --> 00:08:32.029 era will be known as the over prescription era 00:08:32.029 --> 00:08:36.769 or the great prescription era or something along 00:08:36.769 --> 00:08:43.669 those lines. Psychostimulants and ADHD has a 00:08:43.669 --> 00:08:50.029 sharp increase. Hopefully, this will clean up 00:08:50.029 --> 00:08:55.730 closer to let's say 10 years from now than 100 00:08:55.730 --> 00:09:00.950 years from now. Can we sustain this paradigm? 00:09:03.070 --> 00:09:08.389 You can search Rockefeller medicine or Rockefeller 00:09:08.389 --> 00:09:15.009 and medicine men, medicine and capitalism. Further, 00:09:15.399 --> 00:09:21.460 The top revenue business types from 2023. Three 00:09:21.460 --> 00:09:26.399 of the top five business types include medicine 00:09:26.399 --> 00:09:31.080 and health care. These are all cleared profits. 00:09:31.860 --> 00:09:36.600 Revenue. That was a long turn from the school 00:09:36.600 --> 00:09:41.080 and staff not being educated for properly understanding 00:09:41.080 --> 00:09:48.429 what is autism. However, everything I just mentioned 00:09:48.429 --> 00:09:55.370 is directly involved with the situation. It is 00:09:55.370 --> 00:10:01.990 our first line, our first option. Similar to 00:10:01.990 --> 00:10:06.629 the healthcare rant and that not working, what 00:10:06.629 --> 00:10:12.289 we are doing in education is not working. Autism 00:10:12.289 --> 00:10:17.399 or not? The worst thing the government has done 00:10:17.399 --> 00:10:23.320 is not remove itself from education. They tried. 00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:33.019 They seemingly, seemingly failed. So next. Okay, 00:10:33.779 --> 00:10:39.220 the school day. Already the structure of the 00:10:39.220 --> 00:10:44.690 school day conflicts with autism. The entire 00:10:44.690 --> 00:10:49.669 structure is completely opposite of autistic 00:10:49.669 --> 00:10:57.850 phenotypes. Both criteria A and B. The social 00:10:57.850 --> 00:11:02.250 communication and interaction and the repetitive 00:11:02.250 --> 00:11:08.570 restricted behaviors. Before we move on, maybe 00:11:08.570 --> 00:11:14.169 you need to know criteria B. a little bit better. 00:11:15.429 --> 00:11:21.610 Please research what criteria B looks like. If 00:11:21.610 --> 00:11:26.250 you think it is odd or different type of behaviors, 00:11:27.330 --> 00:11:31.269 then you are evaluating it with limited critical 00:11:31.269 --> 00:11:36.909 thinking. Maybe you are offended because your 00:11:36.909 --> 00:11:43.440 capacity to think is limited. Maybe you view 00:11:43.440 --> 00:11:50.460 life through a narrow lens. And maybe that is 00:11:50.460 --> 00:11:56.840 easier. It limits the conflict, the agitation 00:11:56.840 --> 00:12:03.000 or frustration underlying learning. All types 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:07.860 of learning. All forms of learning. When learning 00:12:07.860 --> 00:12:12.860 happens, there are underlying thoughts and feelings 00:12:12.860 --> 00:12:21.600 associated with agitation and frustration. And 00:12:21.600 --> 00:12:27.500 maybe you like to dismiss that consciously or 00:12:27.500 --> 00:12:32.600 unconsciously to return to a comfortable state. 00:12:33.700 --> 00:12:37.860 Remember something that keeps us within ourselves, 00:12:38.740 --> 00:12:42.480 autism. Something that keeps autistics within 00:12:42.480 --> 00:12:47.419 ourselves is the amount of possibilities and 00:12:47.419 --> 00:12:55.159 interest, just enjoyment of those. Remember, 00:12:55.820 --> 00:13:01.340 are you even interesting? If no, in comparison 00:13:01.340 --> 00:13:07.159 to our fixated interest, if no, we are content 00:13:07.159 --> 00:13:11.399 with the incredible amount of thinking capacity 00:13:11.399 --> 00:13:18.679 we possess. Autism gives us the ability to be 00:13:18.679 --> 00:13:23.399 comfortable within ourselves and this accelerates 00:13:23.399 --> 00:13:31.600 our abilities, our superpowers. Again, you can 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:36.139 sum it up by are you like the so -called normal 00:13:36.139 --> 00:13:43.549 people or not? So, back to the school. The classroom 00:13:43.549 --> 00:13:47.649 typically involves 20 or so, sometimes more, 00:13:47.929 --> 00:13:52.570 sometimes less. But nowadays, people are not 00:13:52.570 --> 00:13:56.889 going into education, and people are leaving 00:13:56.889 --> 00:14:02.870 education. Finding teachers, special needs teachers, 00:14:03.210 --> 00:14:07.049 especially, or just general education teachers, 00:14:07.590 --> 00:14:15.320 is hard. So, 20 or so students, to make it easy. 00:14:16.100 --> 00:14:20.759 Remember criteria A. The classroom requires a 00:14:20.759 --> 00:14:24.460 social dynamic, a speech and language dynamic, 00:14:25.759 --> 00:14:30.600 and of course, sensory processing dynamic. Three 00:14:30.600 --> 00:14:36.100 strikes. Three strikes against autism. And that 00:14:36.100 --> 00:14:43.299 is just criteria A. Next, the school day typically 00:14:43.299 --> 00:14:47.919 studies a single subject for 40 to 50 minutes 00:14:47.919 --> 00:14:52.159 or so, depending on the age, but typically 40 00:14:52.159 --> 00:14:58.700 to 50 minutes and then switches. 40 to 50 minutes 00:14:58.700 --> 00:15:04.679 on the next subject and switches and repeat all 00:15:04.679 --> 00:15:14.000 day. Criteria B That's it. B3. Episode over. 00:15:14.779 --> 00:15:18.179 This is all you need to know about autism and 00:15:18.179 --> 00:15:25.720 education. Those are complete contrast to autism 00:15:25.720 --> 00:15:33.600 phenotypes. It does not work for us. The teacher, 00:15:34.240 --> 00:15:39.220 and this is not a shot at them, the teacher is 00:15:39.220 --> 00:15:43.659 seemingly best prepared, best suited to teach 00:15:43.659 --> 00:15:49.019 the masses, the general abilities of the students. 00:15:50.519 --> 00:15:54.960 Now, education has seemingly made strides to 00:15:54.960 --> 00:16:00.220 accommodate. I guess we can say things like 504s 00:16:00.220 --> 00:16:05.940 and IEPs, smaller class sizes and scheduling 00:16:05.940 --> 00:16:10.860 breaks and so forth. A major consideration is 00:16:10.860 --> 00:16:16.740 each person involved has their own opinion, has 00:16:16.740 --> 00:16:21.919 their own expectation of how it should go, what 00:16:21.919 --> 00:16:27.139 the child needs or should do, or how the child 00:16:27.139 --> 00:16:35.169 should be treated or act, and so on. And Each 00:16:35.169 --> 00:16:39.350 individual involved has their own knowledge, 00:16:39.990 --> 00:16:44.990 sometimes or most times, a limited knowledge 00:16:44.990 --> 00:16:54.549 of what is autism. Higher education or any type 00:16:54.549 --> 00:16:59.809 of degree does not have a single autism specialty. 00:17:00.250 --> 00:17:05.319 You can't get a degree in autism. And even if 00:17:05.319 --> 00:17:10.559 you could, there's a saying about meeting a child 00:17:10.559 --> 00:17:14.160 with autism or an adult with autism for that 00:17:14.160 --> 00:17:18.339 matter. If you've met one child with autism, 00:17:19.220 --> 00:17:25.839 you've met one child with autism. So, to break 00:17:25.839 --> 00:17:28.680 that down, because I'm not sure if you interpret 00:17:28.680 --> 00:17:33.859 that, each person with autism, each autistic, 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:39.680 has their own form, has their own problems and 00:17:39.680 --> 00:17:45.819 superpowers associated with this phenomena. It's 00:17:45.819 --> 00:17:54.299 so unique. Okay, elementary school. In elementary, 00:17:55.099 --> 00:17:59.599 I had trouble reading and keeping up. It was 00:17:59.599 --> 00:18:03.339 the 80s, and I remember being put in a small 00:18:03.339 --> 00:18:07.279 group. three or four of us with a teacher's aid. 00:18:08.160 --> 00:18:12.579 We would read short passages, short assignments 00:18:12.579 --> 00:18:15.839 of some sort and come back together as a group 00:18:15.839 --> 00:18:22.339 to talk about it. The comprehension part. I remember 00:18:22.339 --> 00:18:25.779 sometimes the group was tasked to read it twice 00:18:25.779 --> 00:18:31.539 before discussing it. I always finished last. 00:18:32.519 --> 00:18:38.539 I learned to not read it, to pretend and I would 00:18:38.539 --> 00:18:42.359 look around and say I was finished after the 00:18:42.359 --> 00:18:47.420 group finished. Mrs. Blasey was the name of the 00:18:47.420 --> 00:18:51.400 teacher's aide. I remember one day on the playground 00:18:51.400 --> 00:18:57.140 she taught us to say thank you and not thanks. 00:18:58.660 --> 00:19:04.200 Thanks doesn't have the same meaning. I remember 00:19:04.200 --> 00:19:07.680 she was handing out chocolate kisses. Back then, 00:19:07.779 --> 00:19:11.440 you could do this and making the students say, 00:19:12.339 --> 00:19:18.519 thank you. Anyway, when reading in small groups, 00:19:18.519 --> 00:19:23.880 it was very stressful for two reasons. I want 00:19:23.880 --> 00:19:31.720 to discuss two reasons on this. One, reading 00:19:31.720 --> 00:19:36.329 creates our visual thinking, the movies being 00:19:36.329 --> 00:19:42.529 created in our heads. This adds time and a step. 00:19:43.309 --> 00:19:49.509 This creates delays. The visual thinking is captivating 00:19:49.509 --> 00:19:56.089 and required. This is common with autism. Remember 00:19:56.089 --> 00:20:00.710 Temple Grandin, Thinking and Pictures. Read chapters 00:20:00.710 --> 00:20:05.559 two and three. In addition, Temple Grandin has 00:20:05.559 --> 00:20:09.880 a newer book out called Autism and Education 00:20:09.880 --> 00:20:14.839 in which she discusses the reading to visual 00:20:14.839 --> 00:20:19.519 thinking, the visualization of what the context 00:20:19.519 --> 00:20:24.859 is, the content is, and how that delays and slows 00:20:24.859 --> 00:20:31.769 us down. Second thing is, do you even know When 00:20:31.769 --> 00:20:35.329 reading, we activate our speech and language. 00:20:36.170 --> 00:20:39.670 Speech and language process is implicated in 00:20:39.670 --> 00:20:44.849 common problem with autism. I was in speech and 00:20:44.849 --> 00:20:50.049 language whenever I was a child. However, anyway, 00:20:50.430 --> 00:20:54.849 when reading, our speech and language silently 00:20:54.849 --> 00:21:01.759 speaks to our brain. We speak to ourselves. silently 00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:07.400 to teach the brain. If you know about criteria 00:21:07.400 --> 00:21:12.539 A and if you combine these two other factors 00:21:12.539 --> 00:21:18.279 reading and comprehension is difficult compared 00:21:18.279 --> 00:21:25.460 to others. Now I just want to just want to take 00:21:25.460 --> 00:21:31.819 a slight turn here and mention now Imagine reading 00:21:31.819 --> 00:21:40.380 out loud. Imagine the difficulties now. That 00:21:40.380 --> 00:21:44.220 is extra steps, that is choppy and broken languages, 00:21:44.900 --> 00:21:48.400 that is reading the words, the text on the page, 00:21:49.039 --> 00:21:52.940 visualizing it, processing it through visualization, 00:21:52.940 --> 00:21:57.380 and then recruiting the speech and language to 00:21:57.380 --> 00:22:03.430 form verbally speak what is being read then seen 00:22:03.430 --> 00:22:12.910 out loud. I am 43 and just last semester I butchered 00:22:12.910 --> 00:22:18.329 this. It was awkward but I don't care but it 00:22:18.329 --> 00:22:22.609 was strange for this to happen the first time 00:22:22.609 --> 00:22:29.559 in this cohort. Anyways Out of those two factors, 00:22:29.940 --> 00:22:33.619 both are driving forces against my abilities. 00:22:35.859 --> 00:22:40.279 I don't read much because I can't keep up with 00:22:40.279 --> 00:22:46.960 it. It just takes me so long. However, I have 00:22:46.960 --> 00:22:51.099 other special techniques. I won't go into them 00:22:51.099 --> 00:22:54.900 in detail. We kind of touch on them from time 00:22:54.900 --> 00:23:00.539 to time. or mostly every episode probably but 00:23:00.539 --> 00:23:04.420 mostly it involves the visual thinking and some 00:23:04.420 --> 00:23:10.660 patterns and anticipation. In fourth grade I 00:23:10.660 --> 00:23:13.680 am thinking it was the fourth grade it was not 00:23:13.680 --> 00:23:17.579 the third grade because it wasn't Mrs. Miller 00:23:17.579 --> 00:23:22.380 or her classroom and remember that was my Vietnam 00:23:22.380 --> 00:23:27.359 War novel year. I am still in contact with Mrs. 00:23:27.960 --> 00:23:32.099 Miller. Anyway, the fourth grade. The class was 00:23:32.099 --> 00:23:35.579 sitting in a circle, and each student around 00:23:35.579 --> 00:23:38.740 the circle got the next letter of the alphabet. 00:23:40.119 --> 00:23:45.839 The student's task was easy. Name. Five nouns 00:23:45.839 --> 00:23:50.779 for that letter. As we moved around the circle, 00:23:51.259 --> 00:23:57.059 early on, I counted. I tracked which letter I 00:23:57.059 --> 00:24:02.920 would get. I wanted and I needed to rehearse 00:24:02.920 --> 00:24:10.140 it. Amazingly, I was going to get S. Same as 00:24:10.140 --> 00:24:15.380 my last name. In addition, the letters were across 00:24:15.380 --> 00:24:18.859 the top of the chalkboard. If you don't know 00:24:18.859 --> 00:24:25.470 what that is, a chalkboard, then search it. This 00:24:25.470 --> 00:24:29.509 was simple. Each letter had three pictures of 00:24:29.509 --> 00:24:34.430 the nouns for each letter. Each letter had three 00:24:34.430 --> 00:24:42.390 random pictures of nouns. S had sailboat, sailor, 00:24:42.849 --> 00:24:48.009 and school. I remember the picture and the alphabet 00:24:48.009 --> 00:24:52.190 hung across the top of the chalkboard. I had 00:24:52.190 --> 00:24:57.099 four of the five nouns already. and I began rehearsing, 00:24:57.099 --> 00:25:02.480 speaking them to the class. Finally, it was my 00:25:02.480 --> 00:25:08.839 turn and I said nothing. I just sat there. The 00:25:08.839 --> 00:25:13.380 teacher and students were shocked and gave me 00:25:13.380 --> 00:25:18.420 something like, oh, you know it. They also started 00:25:18.420 --> 00:25:23.279 to encourage me, like, come on, you can get it. 00:25:23.950 --> 00:25:27.670 This caused me to act like I didn't know the 00:25:27.670 --> 00:25:34.309 five. I acted like I was thinking. I was concentrating 00:25:34.309 --> 00:25:39.250 really hard on it. But I wasn't. I just wasn't 00:25:39.250 --> 00:25:45.029 going to speak. Time's up. Not that there was 00:25:45.029 --> 00:25:48.589 a time limit or anyone else experienced this. 00:25:49.230 --> 00:25:54.500 The teacher and students named five. and I awkwardly 00:25:54.500 --> 00:26:00.839 sat there. I cannot explain it. It was decades 00:26:00.839 --> 00:26:06.299 ago. It was the mid to late 80s. My troubles 00:26:06.299 --> 00:26:09.900 with education would continue and only become 00:26:09.900 --> 00:26:15.779 more challenging each year. Today, I still have 00:26:15.779 --> 00:26:19.799 challenges with spelling and subject -verb agreement. 00:26:20.640 --> 00:26:24.609 Now I realize Subject -verb agreement is not 00:26:24.609 --> 00:26:30.529 necessarily uncommon in society. Remember my 00:26:30.529 --> 00:26:34.730 comments on the English language. It's a little 00:26:34.730 --> 00:26:40.869 pretentious and lazy to me. I am unsure what 00:26:40.869 --> 00:26:45.809 came first. My struggles in school or giving 00:26:45.809 --> 00:26:51.140 up. But I had no confidence or trust. I could 00:26:51.140 --> 00:26:58.339 do anything in school besides art. All levels 00:26:58.339 --> 00:27:02.680 of education from elementary to high school I 00:27:02.680 --> 00:27:09.819 excelled in art classes. Typically, typical brains 00:27:09.819 --> 00:27:15.200 go from general to detail. They look at the whole 00:27:15.200 --> 00:27:21.680 picture first. We see details. and not that others 00:27:21.680 --> 00:27:27.920 don't. We go from detail to general. When I worked 00:27:27.920 --> 00:27:31.579 in an engineering department, we would call something 00:27:31.579 --> 00:27:36.539 like that reverse engineering. The slight details 00:27:36.539 --> 00:27:42.480 come first and come fast. I remember looking 00:27:42.480 --> 00:27:47.019 at pictures while doing the ADOS 2 mod 4 and 00:27:47.019 --> 00:27:51.299 just being caught. on slight details of pictures 00:27:51.299 --> 00:27:56.319 whenever I was supposed to be moving along. In 00:27:56.319 --> 00:28:01.480 high school, I barely made it. Mentally, I quit. 00:28:01.880 --> 00:28:05.579 And physically, I nearly quit a couple of times. 00:28:06.099 --> 00:28:11.000 Quit school for good. I couldn't keep up in class. 00:28:11.319 --> 00:28:15.579 And with each class, those generalized class 00:28:15.579 --> 00:28:21.670 requirements and in that environment. In high 00:28:21.670 --> 00:28:26.670 school, I changed schools. Then I changed back, 00:28:27.069 --> 00:28:30.430 but I had to do an alternative school first. 00:28:31.130 --> 00:28:36.329 Pathways to success. The alternative school was 00:28:36.329 --> 00:28:41.250 my senior year, and it was known I might not 00:28:41.250 --> 00:28:45.809 have enough credits to graduate. Alternative 00:28:45.809 --> 00:28:49.759 school was the first time in a long time I thought 00:28:49.759 --> 00:28:56.460 I could do it. Pathways to success lasted through 00:28:56.460 --> 00:28:59.819 the beginning of the second semester of my senior 00:28:59.819 --> 00:29:06.180 year, so it was close. One objective is proving 00:29:06.180 --> 00:29:11.039 I could do general education classrooms, prepping 00:29:11.039 --> 00:29:15.910 me to return to those classrooms. Alternative 00:29:15.910 --> 00:29:19.289 school was a small class. We had four to five 00:29:19.289 --> 00:29:24.349 students. It was slow -paced, reduced subjects, 00:29:25.329 --> 00:29:31.069 one teacher, and a quiet classroom. It was great 00:29:31.069 --> 00:29:37.630 for me. Then I was integrated back into the general 00:29:37.630 --> 00:29:43.930 classroom. General classrooms. My troubles returned. 00:29:44.400 --> 00:29:50.440 On paper and on record, official record, I did 00:29:50.440 --> 00:29:56.160 make it. At the end of the semester, my senior 00:29:56.160 --> 00:30:00.279 year, teachers would call students up to review 00:30:00.279 --> 00:30:04.700 their grade. This was standard. It was the old 00:30:04.700 --> 00:30:08.920 grade books, nothing electronic. Students' names 00:30:08.920 --> 00:30:13.319 listed in rows, assignments listed in columns 00:30:13.319 --> 00:30:17.940 at the top. and scores listed across the row, 00:30:18.420 --> 00:30:23.359 with accumulated scores at the end. A newer male 00:30:23.359 --> 00:30:32.200 teacher called me up, 58%, and asked me, you 00:30:32.200 --> 00:30:36.759 might not graduate, right? How does that make 00:30:36.759 --> 00:30:42.099 you feel? I didn't know. And after a long pause 00:30:42.099 --> 00:30:48.319 of looking at the 58%, I honestly did not know. 00:30:48.819 --> 00:30:54.960 Eventually I answered back, I don't know. Later 00:30:54.960 --> 00:30:58.660 I found out when the final grades were handed 00:30:58.660 --> 00:31:04.819 out on the paper grades, the report cards. Nothing 00:31:04.819 --> 00:31:11.160 electronic. The grade was changed to a 62 and 00:31:11.160 --> 00:31:16.279 a half percent. a D minus is the letter grade 00:31:16.279 --> 00:31:22.720 I have on that report card. I have my high school 00:31:22.720 --> 00:31:27.099 transcripts because of everything we're discussing 00:31:27.099 --> 00:31:36.420 today as a reminder of what occurred to me. It's 00:31:36.420 --> 00:31:41.400 not even an excuse. It's just reality. And at 00:31:41.400 --> 00:31:45.700 the time, the male teacher called me up and showed 00:31:45.700 --> 00:31:52.039 me the 58%. Assignments and grades were finished. 00:31:55.599 --> 00:32:01.160 And that year, earlier in the year, it was mid 00:32:01.160 --> 00:32:05.500 -second semester. I took it late. I took the 00:32:05.500 --> 00:32:11.160 SAT, a component of the education plan for me. 00:32:11.289 --> 00:32:16.390 was preparing me for post -graduation, either 00:32:16.390 --> 00:32:23.789 an unbelievable path to applying to colleges 00:32:23.789 --> 00:32:29.869 or different employment options. So, they had 00:32:29.869 --> 00:32:39.269 me take the SAT. I scored a 640 on the SAT. Six, 00:32:39.609 --> 00:32:48.339 four, zero. A part of the autism assessment is 00:32:48.339 --> 00:32:53.079 a full psychological assessment. I have scores 00:32:53.079 --> 00:32:56.839 and abilities from this assessment that puts 00:32:56.839 --> 00:33:02.039 me into very superior ranges relative to the 00:33:02.039 --> 00:33:09.259 population comparisons. Very superior high averages 00:33:09.500 --> 00:33:15.140 to very superior on many different items and 00:33:15.140 --> 00:33:20.420 some abilities or inabilities that are low average 00:33:20.420 --> 00:33:27.539 to extremely low or words like impaired or severe 00:33:27.539 --> 00:33:34.240 ranges. We have superpowers and super deficits. 00:33:35.180 --> 00:33:40.319 How are the schools and the educators supposed 00:33:40.319 --> 00:33:45.720 to facilitate each one of these? So the child, 00:33:45.900 --> 00:33:52.200 the student can excel in these environments. 00:33:53.079 --> 00:33:59.539 It doesn't seem fair to either one. Some of my 00:33:59.539 --> 00:34:03.079 superpowers from the assessment High average 00:34:03.079 --> 00:34:06.079 to very superior includes processing speeds. 00:34:07.099 --> 00:34:10.219 Remember the rate of information. The sensory 00:34:10.219 --> 00:34:14.579 processing phenomena. The fire hose of information 00:34:14.579 --> 00:34:19.940 as Dysaroth called it. That EI conversation. 00:34:21.579 --> 00:34:25.559 Know that in some environments, in some context, 00:34:26.019 --> 00:34:30.019 this is superior. This is a superpower. This 00:34:30.019 --> 00:34:35.239 is better than most of society, but in some environments 00:34:35.239 --> 00:34:40.619 it is a super deficit. Struggled. I cannot be 00:34:40.619 --> 00:34:46.119 in those environments. Understand that. Also, 00:34:46.559 --> 00:34:51.539 visual reproduction. Remember the details first. 00:34:52.380 --> 00:34:56.579 A test called trail -making. I received high 00:34:56.579 --> 00:35:02.840 average to superior in Processes like scanning, 00:35:03.380 --> 00:35:09.079 sequencing, and switching speeds. Remember autism 00:35:09.079 --> 00:35:16.760 has rigid thinking. B3. So rules are rules. Mostly 00:35:16.760 --> 00:35:22.659 as long as they are clear to us. We define a 00:35:22.659 --> 00:35:27.619 clear rule set and we do that. That is one of 00:35:27.619 --> 00:35:31.690 the jobs of the proof frontal. Cortex, understanding 00:35:31.690 --> 00:35:36.710 rule sets, and then recruiting what is necessary. 00:35:37.030 --> 00:35:41.369 Remember the activating and inactivating things. 00:35:44.849 --> 00:35:49.409 Also, organization and planning on the CEFI test 00:35:49.409 --> 00:35:54.210 was very high, superior. I forget the language 00:35:54.210 --> 00:35:59.900 used for that test. And then some super deficits 00:35:59.900 --> 00:36:04.440 include working memory. Remember the keeping 00:36:04.440 --> 00:36:09.559 up, that processing, some information into visualization. 00:36:10.440 --> 00:36:14.440 This complicates our short -term or that working 00:36:14.440 --> 00:36:21.900 memory. General adaptiveness, conceptualizing, 00:36:22.860 --> 00:36:27.789 and of course, socialness and leisure. or severe. 00:36:29.469 --> 00:36:36.590 The outside world is chaotic. Generally speaking, 00:36:37.369 --> 00:36:41.070 education is arranged around the middle, the 00:36:41.070 --> 00:36:45.550 average. This is where the majority of the population 00:36:45.550 --> 00:36:51.650 falls. And one final conveyance of some troubles 00:36:51.650 --> 00:36:54.730 that I have and other students out there will 00:36:54.730 --> 00:36:58.070 probably have too. And you can make sense of 00:36:58.070 --> 00:37:02.710 this with the biological factors and the processing 00:37:02.710 --> 00:37:06.769 complications we've discussed today. Taking notes 00:37:06.769 --> 00:37:13.389 in the classroom. I cannot take notes. Remember 00:37:13.389 --> 00:37:16.550 the challenges with spelling and visualizing 00:37:16.550 --> 00:37:21.210 the content. And my penmanship is awful, which 00:37:21.210 --> 00:37:25.949 hurts this. spelling and the penmanship are kind 00:37:25.949 --> 00:37:31.409 of indirect forces here. But keeping up with 00:37:31.409 --> 00:37:35.610 listening and just understanding the information 00:37:35.610 --> 00:37:39.210 being conveyed and writing them down, I cannot 00:37:39.210 --> 00:37:44.170 keep up with that. I cannot do it. However, some 00:37:44.170 --> 00:37:46.789 of those other superpowers that we have discussed 00:37:46.789 --> 00:37:51.510 supplements that. So I don't need to do the note 00:37:51.510 --> 00:37:56.219 taking. the typical students do. I've mentioned 00:37:56.219 --> 00:37:59.179 that I started a higher education, a grad school 00:37:59.179 --> 00:38:04.059 program recently. And before I started, I made 00:38:04.059 --> 00:38:08.480 a goal of keeping notes. That way I can keep 00:38:08.480 --> 00:38:12.800 up with the class and because I anticipated some 00:38:12.800 --> 00:38:16.659 troubles with this. So I made a goal. I really 00:38:16.659 --> 00:38:20.179 deliberately worked at trying to keep notes. 00:38:21.480 --> 00:38:25.730 Well, That did not last and I did not fight it 00:38:25.730 --> 00:38:29.670 because I wasn't going to change it. I just stopped 00:38:29.670 --> 00:38:34.369 taking the notes. Now in stats class I could 00:38:34.369 --> 00:38:37.570 I could write down some formulas that were important, 00:38:37.570 --> 00:38:43.610 but anything else I could not. Now I just typically 00:38:43.610 --> 00:38:49.090 watch people take notes and. Learn that how amazing 00:38:49.090 --> 00:38:52.829 it is. I'm constantly amazed. by watching them 00:38:52.829 --> 00:38:57.050 take notes. However, with those other superpowers, 00:38:57.929 --> 00:39:02.469 I have not failed or it has not hurt me one bit. 00:39:03.110 --> 00:39:06.550 So I am thankful for that. I am thankful for 00:39:06.550 --> 00:39:10.230 our superpowers, our sensory processing and visual 00:39:10.230 --> 00:39:18.150 thinking. It is a strong use. As we wrap up today, 00:39:18.150 --> 00:39:21.070 I hope you learned something about what it's 00:39:21.070 --> 00:39:25.130 like for someone with autism navigating the education 00:39:25.130 --> 00:39:30.329 system. Regardless of a young child to all the 00:39:30.329 --> 00:39:34.989 way up to an adult in grad school, problems are 00:39:34.989 --> 00:39:39.389 across the board. Each stop, each level, there 00:39:39.389 --> 00:39:43.090 are massive amounts of problems. However, there 00:39:43.090 --> 00:39:46.909 are techniques and differences that can be utilized 00:39:46.909 --> 00:39:52.079 that can serve the autism. with great benefits. 00:39:53.059 --> 00:39:58.480 This is the direction, the focus that I hope 00:39:58.480 --> 00:40:04.800 others can take, recognize, and take. Don't try 00:40:04.800 --> 00:40:08.300 to change someone with autism because they are 00:40:08.300 --> 00:40:13.940 different than you. If you are listening and 00:40:13.940 --> 00:40:18.260 enjoy the episode or enjoy the podcast, Please 00:40:18.260 --> 00:40:23.539 feel free to leave a review or rating. In podcasting, 00:40:23.880 --> 00:40:28.420 reviews, ratings, and downloads are huge. And 00:40:28.420 --> 00:40:32.559 I very much appreciate your feedback. If you 00:40:32.559 --> 00:40:37.559 would like to contact me, please email at info 00:40:37.559 --> 00:40:47.500 .fromthespectrum .gmail .com. Thank you. for 00:40:47.500 --> 00:40:50.619 listening to From the Spectrum Podcast.