Schools are where children are educated. To be educated, one has to be in the right environment, have the right teacher and be receptive to learning. Many believe that should be easy. But it really isn’t easy in this day and age. Educating the young is complicated, and I am explicitly talking about nursery and primary-aged children. Going into that deeply would take a few blogs. The fact that how we educate our young is archaic and doesn’t even follow what we know about child development today is a given. The fact that schools are under-resourced and underfunded is a sad reality. The fact that we pay teachers and those who work with our future so little verges on a crime. So, again, discussing all of that would take a few blogs.
I need to address how we are teaching Autistic children in schools today. The “why” schools are using what they are to teach Autistic children is a direct result of the under-funding, under-resourced, archaic education system that schools are now. Again, a sad reality. But, changing how we teach Autistic children only takes a shift in perception and approach.
Yes, we need teachers, senior staff, Teaching assistants (TAs), Learning Support Assistants (LSAs), lunchtime Monitors, and all school staff to be educated in the Autistic Experience. Goodness knows they have not and do not get the education they need now, which is a big issue. That education alone, in the Autistic experience, would radically change how we teach Autistic children and change lives.
It is schools’ lack of education in the Autistic experience that has resulted in these insidious behaviour-based compliance training “strategies”. These strategies are tweaked occasionally, but they never really go away. They were there when my now adult children were in school over 18-20 years ago. They are there in virtually every school now.
So, let’s look at the main strategies used. I am not going into Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) as there are enough resources now that prove how dangerous and damaging ABA is to Autistic children and young people. (see resource here – The Great Big ABA ). I won’t explain why Positive Behaviour Support (PBS), aka Positive Behavioural Interventions and Support (PBIS), is also dangerous and damaging for Autistic children and young people. However I will go into how it is used and some strategies that use ABA tactics.
Here is one of the best resources I have found on PBS with citations.
Let’s start at Nursery school. The variations in the settings and environment of Nursery school are vast. So, I’m looking at local authority (LA) maintained Nurseries as I have experience working in one.
In many Nurseries, there are over 30 children at any given time of the day. The environment can be loud and filled with things on walls and hanging from the ceiling. There is one Nursery teacher with often 2-4 Nursery aides, depending on their resources and funding. Remembering that they also, unfortunately, have little training in the Autistic Experience. Is it any wonder that they would utilise compliance training techniques?
The Autistic child who is non-mouth word using in a nursery school is immediately faced with PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System). PECS is ABA, make no mistake. How it is taught to the child is cruel and compliance-based. The person teaching it will use the child’s favourite item to ensure they comply. Basically, the child has their favourite item taken, and until they place the picture card used, usually a picture of the favourite thing, in the hand of the person teaching PECS, they do not get their item back. Imagine doing something like that to a non-Autistic child or even an adult, and yet it is acceptable if the child is Autistic. See more about PECS here, including citations.
There is a “strategy” that is coming back again called “Attention Autism“. Sadly, there isn’t much research, and what is found is positive. See Attention Autism research here and here. Because Attention Autism does work, as do most behaviour-based compliance training strategies. Gina Davies (Gina Davies- website here) created it to address the “lack of attention” and “delayed joint attention”, specifically in Autistic children. That deficit-based neuro-normative basis of what is “normal” child development and what is not.
In a session of Attention Autism, the Autistic child is usually made to sit on a chair, still, with their hands in their lap or beside them. The adult leading will have a bucket with an activity inside geared to attract the attention of the Autistic children, and there are four stages. Often the activities will include practical skills- writing, drawing, cutting etc.
Gina herself said, “It is possible to teach these skills without the (Autistic) child understanding them”. See the first video on this page –
If the child leaves their seat, they will be directed back to it. If the child starts to stim vocally or with any area of their body (hands, arms, legs etc.), they are usually instructed to stop as it is “taking the attention away from the adult”. At no point can any Autistic children join in until stage three of the four stages.
- Stage 1: The Bucket to Focus Attention.
- Stage 2: The Attention Builder.
- Stage 3: The Interactive Game – Turn-Taking and Shifting Attention.
- Stage 4: Individual Activity – Focus Shift and Re-engage Attention.
In all of these stages and throughout Attention Autism, compliance is required and autonomy stripped. As Gina said herself, they don’t need to understand. Autistic children are learning by rote with no context, no understanding and purely by compliance. Tell me how this strategy, whose goal is to help Autistic children with attention, joint attention and shifting attention, will not encourage masking? Considering Autistic Inertia and Monotropism, it is clear to me that this strategy was created with the medical deficit model in mind without considering the Autistic experience at all.
Another strategy that hasn’t ever gone away and is being utilised increasingly is Behavioural charts- aka sticker charts. Teachers and parents are told that they encourage positive behaviour in Autistic Children without realising how they do that. All these charts targetting attendance and behaviour are Positive Behaviour Support, aka Positive Behavioural Interventions and Support. They are ABA with rewards. They are enforcing behavioural compliance.
They are leading to masking in the Autistic child, possible mental health issues, and even the possibility of grooming. The Autistic child learns they cannot say no to authority or a perceived authority figure. Just because the Autistic child is rewarded for complying does not make it less dangerous for the Autistic child. In my opinion, Sticker charts and all of the PBS/PBIS strategies are just as dangerous and damaging as ABA, and maybe even more so because of the rewards.
The fact that many schools also link behavioural charts to “free time”, aka “Golden Time.” where the child can do “whatever they want”, such as play outside, read a book, play a game, etc., is so disheartening and damaging. So many Autistic behaviours are targeted, and the Autistic child is punished for it by not being allowed this weekly free time as a direct result of their behavioural chart. The chart that is specifically designed to make them comply with neuro-normative standards. The chart that doesn’t take into account nor consider the Autistic experience and all that entails.
The young Autistic child entering education is vulnerable. Making sense of the Sensory processing difference we have can take a lifetime, and masking unconsciously is a survival instinct and a direct result of living in a neuronormative world that doesn’t truly understand us. Unconscious masking is also a result of the continual compliance training we face to eradicate our Autistic “behaviours”. We need all the staff in all of our schools to be educated by Autistic professionals to truly understand the autistic experience as best as possible. What isn’t working is the Non Autistic delivery of any education about the Autistic experience. The continual deficit model they use is hurting Autistic children instead of helping them and allows all these behaviour-based compliance “strategies” to continue. Our educators need to be educated to actually encourage and realise any change away from trying to fix Autistic children. It is the only way forward.
Bobbi Elman: NeuroDivergent Autistic Experience Consultancy & Training™ 