978-1572305441

Frankie 163
ents had to teach him how to brush his teeth by taking pictures of each
step involved in the process: picking up the toothbrush, putting toothpaste
on the brush, brushing his teeth, and spitting into the sink. Once
each step was taught individually, he had to learn to do them in sequence.
But at the end of it all, he was better and more consistent at
brushing his teeth than his brothers and sisters!
The other problem is that catching Frankie’s interest in academic
activities is even more difficult than for typical children. What motivates
and interests Frankie are the capitals of Europe, flags of the world,
stamps (but only those with flags on them), and old maps; he is simply
not interested in the typical things that an eight-year-old is interested
in, such as sports, the latest Japanese animation, robots, and transformers.
So when other children come over to his house to play, Frankie
wants to show them his collection of flags, which is interesting to them
for about fifteen minutes. The other children then want to play with
Frankie’s neglected toys—the cars and the electric train set. Frankie
stays in his room, poring over his books and ignoring his friends. His
parents sigh in frustration and wonder what to do. Soon the friends stop
coming over.
But sometimes children with ASD are in schools that are able to
capitalize on their extraordinary capacity for visual learning. When this
happens, gifted and creative teachers can make learning and participation
in school both therapeutic and an opportunity for growth. The
teacher is able to see the autistic disability as a gift, as a talent to be exploited,
not as a symptom to be eliminated. This insight comes from a
profound respect for the mind of the child with ASD and an intuitive capacity
for understanding and imagining the mind of other people. Not
all unusual interests can be transformed in such a way, but when it does
happen, the potential for learning is remarkable. It is also true that these
schools and teachers are hard to find, but they do exist. The best way to
find schools that are flexible in their approach to a child with ASD is to
see if the school has had previous experience with ASD, if it has used
the consultants and experts it has available to it, and if the school has
enjoyed working with children with ASD. Schools that see these children
as a burden, as extra work, are to be avoided if possible. Many
boards have special teams that will consult with specific schools about a
child with ASD in that classroom and help design an educational program
that takes that child’s learning style into account. A principal and
teacher that listen to these local experts and implement the recommendations
in the classroom are the best schools for children with ASD. Just