It’s not enough to say individual learning styles exist. We have to respect them. When we lived on the farm, our tree house builder was supposed to be the builder for the room we were adding on to the house. He had no idea what he was doing building that room. But I didn’t figure that out until I called a contractor and the contractor asked to see the blueprints. Read more
When it comes to sensory input, change the environment rather than the person. That’s why I made a castle for myself to sleep in. Once I understood my sensory integration dysfunction, I noticed I adjust my environment for sensory needs all the time, unconsciously — the castle is one of many places where I make sure the light is yellow.
The majority of kids with autism have sensory issues, and a classroom is a difficult place to get sensory needs met. Kids are much more likely to get their sensory needs met at home, where they can control the environment. (Pre-emptive strike: an office is a place that has very clear sensory limits and guidelines. A classroom is much more wild because of the kid factor.)
My memories of school are largely focused on avoiding difficult sensory situations. I skipped lunch because of chaos of a hundred kids getting lunch simultaneously. I walked two miles home instead of taking the bus because I couldn’t stand still to wait for it. I ditched gym class because of the lockers slamming.
In hindsight I spent way more energy managing my sensory environment than I did learning school lessons. Not that anything has changed: I think about my balancing my sensory needs vs. my kids’ needs all the time, but it helps a lot that I have way more control over my environment as an adult.
This is an example of why a lot of autism researchers say we should change the environment instead of the person.
After sending Y off to college, I did seven months of minding my own business, mostly, and letting them succeed or fail on their own. It was not easy. At Halloween, for example, they asked me if could help with a costume. Read more
My son can’t take notes and listen because he has bad working memory (doing two things at once) but he is great at memorizing, so when he’s with tutors he doesn’t take notes. He listens to the tutor and memorizes as he listens. Read more
Working memory affects how we process, retain and use information. Specifically it’s memorizing and repetition to retain the information. A common trait among prodigies is having incredible working memory. Read more
My older son usually won’t put up with posing for pictures, but he is the one who told me, “Look, I match the table cloth.” So I snapped the picture. I included the description next to the painting in case he wanted to talk about the painting later on. Which he did not. Read more
I had never heard this term before. I was looking for research about practicing (which I do a lot) and one coach who helps athletes, Leah Lagos, had resources for physiologically gifted kids. She recommends that parents of PGC (because there’s an acronym for everything) pay careful attention to the child’s overwhelming emotions. Parents should use a 3-step formula that includes developing a sentence to describe the fact, the feeling, and the need. Read more
We live across the street from Swarthmore college, which I thought would be amazing, but most things at the university are not open to the community. Still, I walk past the art gallery each week to see if there’s anything new, I always check fliers to find interesting things for the kids. Which the kids always do not want to go to. Read more
My older son told me he wants to learn history. He says he needs a normal education. Which means that he’s begun managing his own education since he knows I don’t think there is anything anyone SHOULD know. So fine, he disagrees. Fine. Read more
Good grades were so easy for my dad because he has Asperger’s. He doesn’t remember anyone telling him to do his homework. He says some person told him it was the rule so he just followed it. Read more