Learn About Autism from an Autistic: The Autism Project
When I was doing my field observations on my way to be a special education teacher, one of my observations was at what was called “The Autism Project.” It was a school for only children with autism that has since been closed down due to a lack of funding. I am an autistic adult who has worked with autistic children for the majority of the last 20 years so of course this particular observation was interesting to me and I figured it would be a place I’d want to try and work when I had my degree.
After observing there, I had a completely different outlook. I no longer viewed it as a good idea. The first problem was that the children there were all autistic and weren’t allowed to go there past the age of 9. This meant that once they aged out there would be very few options for them beyond being thrown into a school they wouldn’t be ready for. Upon aging out they would be heading to a school with children with all sorts of disorders, not just autism. People with autism have been proven to be more comfortable and socialize better with other autistic children. This means that while they might socialize well at The Autism Project, they wouldn’t likely socialize as well at their new school. They wouldn’t have the experiences that their peers would and a new school would be daunting to them as there was really no transitional phase.
The second problem was that they weren’t being taught regular subjects. While these autistic students were either nonverbal or still learning to speak English, they were being taught Spanish. From what I was shown, a lot of the material was just repeated week after week. There was no life skills class or material being used to help them prosper once out of the school. It was like they were being babysat but taught a little here and there.
The final problem I had was where would some students be able to go after aging out. The students who were about to age out were in the same class and while they did learn some academic material, I questioned even beyond the social issues where they would go after that year. In my state, most schools don’t allow students who aren’t potty trained, especially at the age of 9. There are even a lot of daycares that won’t take children who aren’t potty trained. As I was observing the older class, the teacher pulled a boy’s pants and diaper down in the back to see if he needed to be changed followed by taking the boy to the bathroom. While my classmate was worried about wouldn’t that child be embarrassed that his bare butt just got shown to the class and that he’s wearing a diaper (the answer is no but I’ll discuss that another time), I was concerned that in a few months he was going to be aging out and questioning where would he go. I observed and volunteered in 8 different schools, most of which had a special education team. I didn’t see a single student who wasn’t potty trained even in the special education classrooms. I honestly wish I would have asked the question of where would he go to my teacher, but there was a lot going through my head that day and I’m not good at asking questions or putting up a fuss like I wanted to.
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This was not a good experience for me. I went from thinking this was going to be an awesome place and probably be my future since it is my dream to teach a class of mostly autistic children, but after one day of observing I had more concerns than hopes. I realize it was a good school for kids who couldn’t go to a regular school, but my concern lies with the fact children age out at 9. There are some parts of regular school that are needed for children with autism who can’t be homeschooled. Being in a special school won’t help them when they are thrown into a regular school later on. The parents of these children would likely have more problems when their child went to regular school or would have trouble getting them into a regular school.
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