Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/20186
better training for teachers and resources to the classroom. Apparently the governor thought it was not all that important.” Autism needs to be a higher priority in Sac- ramento, asserts CTA Board member Tyrone Cabell, a special education teacher and mem- ber of the Los Angeles County Education As- sociation. “It’s a challenge that needs to be addressed,” says Cabell, noting that out of 678,105 students in special education, 53,183 are on the autism spectrum. “Schools need more money to help these children — and to help them early, be- cause the earlier you offer inter- vention, the better they do. We need more money for research to find out why autism is a growing problem. And we need more mon- ey to train classroom teachers to work with this challenging student population.” The truth about autism Autism is a complex neurologi- RIGHT: Rachel Thomas, president of the Manhattan Beach Unified Teachers Association, talks about the challenges involved in mainstreaming students with autism. boys than girls. Some individuals with autism also have mental retardation, while many are extremely bright. “They might learn very well, but they are Sue Allen cal disorder that affects a person’s ability to communicate and inter- act with others. It is defined by a certain set of behaviors including repeated words or motions, fixation on certain subjects, sensitivity to light and sound, little or no eye contact, and difficulty forming relationships. It is a “spectrum” disorder that affects individ- uals differently and to differing extents. The condition is four times more likely to occur in Carlsbad language pathologists. Many begin with one-on-one sessions with classroom aides, but progress to the point where they can manage on their own. The goal is to make them as independent as possible. The school has a “sensory break area,” where students with autism can take a time out if needed and calm themselves. Seven-year-old Will jumped 50 times on a small trampoline and did wall pushups and some ball bounces. He then donned a backpack with weights for a few minutes before removing it and heading back to class. Will performs fine academically, but struggles with communication skills. In a session with speech pathologist Amy Gold, the two play a board game and work at casual conversation. It looks fun, but the purpose is to reinforce the concept of taking turns. “Turn-taking with a game is concrete, and from this he learns about conversational turn-taking,” explains Gold. “If someone asks ‘How are you?’ he may not answer. He struggles with conversing on the playground with peers, but he’s young, only in first grade.” Alicia Granberg, who helps coordinate mainstreaming, says each child has to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Peggy McGowan “It also has a lot to do with the general education teachers and how they accept students with disabilities and make accommodations,” says Granberg, a special education teacher. “It can be difficult for the general education teachers that don’t have a special education background, but we are lucky that our district and SELPA [Special Education Local Plan Area] offer trainings and seminars to help everybody understand the needs of all students better.” The SELPA is a local service area that Middletown Teachers Association not great social learners,” says Peter Mundy, director of educational research at the UC Da- vis Mind Institute, which is devoted to the re- search and treatment of autism. “Children with autism have a difficult time paying attention to the right things at the right time when it comes to learning from other people. The biggest misconcep- tion is that most of us think chil- dren with autism don’t respond well to intervention, but we’re be- ginning to see that they do re- spond pretty well to intervention. Many people think of children with autism as flapping their arms or spinning in some corner, which was the prototype in the ’60s or ’70s. Not to say that children don’t engage in that type of behavior, but many children with autism don’t resemble that prototype at all, which is very surprising to teachers.” MacFarland says it is a misconception that children with autism don’t have a sense of hu- mor. “That is so false. We laugh all the time in my classroom. Even if they don’t always get humor in the same way we do, they definitely understand humor in their own way.” “Another misconception is that they are not affectionate and can’t form relation- ships,” says MacFarland. “I’ve had relation- ships with every student on the spectrum. ABOVE: Nate (right) gets help in dealing with autism from his friend Ryan at Pacific Rim Elementary School in Carlsbad. NOVEMBER 2010 | www.cta.org 11