Autism is defined as “a mental condition characterized by great difficulty in communicating and forming relationships with other people and in using language and abstract concepts.” As communication is such a vital component of autism, the breaking down of this barrier would greatly enhance an autistic student's learning and living. Most people think of communication as tactful speech or concise writing, but it in fact consists of many more components. A person's tone of voice, gestures, and body-language are all indicative of good or bad communication. Furthermore, the use of visual references will greatly strengthen constructive dialogue between an autistic student and the teacher. Some methods of bettering communication include being positive and teaching students to listen. This can be done by praising the student often, and insisting that the student follow-through with any task required of him. Being positive also entails avoiding the use of negative commands or threats. In addition, it is advisable to be as specific and concise as possible when asking students to complete a task. For example, instead of giving the student a laundry list of chores to complete, wait for the student to complete one small step before guiding him/her to the next. At the same time, the mentor needs to keep the student informed of the larger direction, and update him/her if any changes have been made. When working with autistic students, it is imperative that the conditions of requirements be very clearly set and very easily understandable to the student. In order for the student to understand the necessity of task completion, the adult must consistently follow-through with conditional requirements.
I chose this article because I feel that the importance of effective communication cannot be overstated. Much of the world's societal ills are caused by break-downs of communication. Wars, regardless of conquest or of gang dispute, are caused by the inability of two groups to get across their needs in a cohesive atmosphere. Friends are lost and relatives are estranged because of simple misunderstandings. But as so clearly evidenced by this article, communication is a powerful tool when wielded properly. The “ah-ha” moment came for me when I visualized how I could have used the article's communication tips to resolve some of the difficulties I had come across while working with autistic kids. Reading this article made me regret that I had not come across it earlier.
As I read this article, I thought about the concept of operant conditioning and whether autism should really be considered a negative trait. Although it seems inhumane to relate the mentoring of a human being to a method commonly used to train lesser animals, this comparison is inevitable. And this concept does not just apply to teaching kids with autism – operant conditioning is essentially the root cause for a person's behaviour within any societal context. It is certainly interesting to consider autism as not some disability, but as a lack of malleability to society's inherent conformity. As children, our parents enforced our good behaviour through rewards and subsequent punishment. For example, we would receive treats for good deeds, and have our TV privileges revoked for misbehaviour. This is much like the negative stimulus and positive reinforcement used in Pavlov's experiment with classical conditioning. Over the years, we would have slowly become conditioned to behave in certain ways as reactions to expectations of reward or punishment. Autistic children just have more difficulty in associating action with consequence. Thus, they may not listen to commands. But is the reciprocity of command and action that our societal so desperately depends on, necessarily good? In many ways, I feel that people with autism retain the most of their genuine selves.
Two summers ago, I had the opportunity of working with autistic children at a daycamp over the course of five weeks. During training, we were taught the basic identifying syndromes of certain stages of autism and of Asperger's Syndrome. We were also trained to handle certain scenarios where issues would commonly arise. However, the week-long training camp was far from being sufficient. I still remember an instance when one of the kids refused to come on an out-trip, and another leader had to stay behind with him. Looking back, I know that the situation could have been handled a lot better. For one, more emphasis should have been put on listening to the child's needs, and not on how the group's schedule would be delayed. The camp's “three-strike” system was also inherently flawed for the purposes of working with autistic children. It was essentially the use of “threats” to make the children behave, but as the article states, threats should not be used – ideally. The system was rather ineffective, as proven by that conflict.
I was fortunate to have had very cooperative peer tutoring students. Even though some of them had autism, they understood the need to complete tasks on-time. The system of rewarding them with free time at the end of a productive class was also infinitely better than a three-strike system. Of course, I only worked with them on a purely academic basis. I was rarely given the responsibility of disciplining their behaviour. This is not to say that I will never encounter a difficult situation in the future, or that my method of communication was perfect. By learning to understand the article's thirteen tips on effective communication with autistic students, I believe that I will be better prepared to handle any situation which may arise. Currently, I am working with many ESL students, and I know that these skills will be invaluable in helping me communicate with them as well. Communication runs both ways, thus the mentor is as much responsible for the break-down of it as the student.
Further, the benefits of this article's guidelines are not limited to my future peer-tutoring role. Although this article targets communication with people with autism, many of these tips seem to be good guidelines for any type of constructive dialogue. Take for example the suggestion to be positive, or the avoidance of labelling people. Being a “Negative Ned” is never a good approach to communicating with anyone. Most people also dislike being categorized, especially if the person doing the talking has very little knowledge of them. Moreover, I believe that what I say is representative of my state of mind. If I think positively, and avoid judgemental thinking, I will naturally present a benevolent self, and subsequently a more personable self. Being personable and sensitive to others are invaluable tools for my desire to become a successful person and a successful professional within the community. There is no community without communication.
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