978-1572305441

Frankie 171
puter, using only the commercially available programs. All these programs
work by breaking down the complex task of reading or other
subject matter into its component parts. In the case of reading, the child
practices over and over again the symbol-to-sound correspondence and
practices putting together the sounds into words and eventually into
sentences.
* * *
Understanding the way children with ASD think is a large part of
the “art” of teaching them in schools. Indeed, this understanding is a
prerequisite to learning since it provides a framework for understanding
the goals of an education and where to begin, and suggests the ways to
achieve those goals. In supportive environments, both Frankie and
Heather were capable of learning a great deal. Yet the process of learning
for them is not the same as it is for typical children, and it is precisely
this recognition (and the ensuing accommodation on the part of parents
and teachers) that allowed such positive skills to develop. What
Frankie’s teacher and Heather’s mother were able to appreciate was the
advantage of using eccentric interests as a vehicle for learning the standard
curriculum, the need to break down the complex into the simple,
to use rote learning skills to learn these more simple concepts, and to
use visual presentations of educational concepts (especially computers)
to enhance understanding. This approach, it is important to understand,
is primarily an accommodation to the disorder, not a treatment of
it, based on understanding the disorder in all its myriad manifestations.
Such strategies will not erase the deficits that come with ASD, but they
will help prevent those deficits from making it impossible for the child
to learn. When teachers and parents capitalize on a child’s strengths and
work around the child’s deficits, provide a positive and supportive
environment for learning, and hold appropriate expectations for the
child given the learning characteristics of a child with ASD, the child
can enjoy going to school just as much as typical children. An added
benefit of that enjoyment is that social and communication skills improve
as well.
I sometimes walk to the apple orchard that overlooks the station
where Trevor and his grandfather watch the trains come and go (see
Chapter 9). I sit very still on the old bench at the top of the hill. The
wind blows through the trees and causes the long grass to change color
as the breeze travels up the hillside. I remember Frankie and his kites.