Today I would like to talk to you about my experience as an autistic person in relation to school, a topic that is particularly current today because the incidence of autistics on new borns has increased greatly and now in almost all elementary schools there are some autistic children and therefore it involves personally many parents and many teachers.
Diary of an autistic boy: “Don’t raise your voice. For me it’s like a drill that pierces my mind”
by Federico De Rosa
My first problem in school was sensory overexposure because, for me autistic, there was too much auditory and visual confusion at school and, given my perceptual hypersensitivity, that chaos further reduced my already poor ability to understand what was happening . So, having to bring an autistic child to school, I would start with an analysis of the sensory excesses of the classroom and the class group, to try to cushion them.
My second problem was understanding how time and space were organized at school. I would therefore see well for an autistic child to have two display boards on the wall in the classroom. The first would be a map of the school highlighting the places the child frequented, such as his classroom, toilets and gym, as well as the paths that connect them. The second would be an hourly calendar to orientate oneself between entry to school, exit, hours with different lessons.
From our correspondent in autism. Federico: “Noises and smells are stronger for me”
by Federico De Rosa
You should go to these billboards every time you change place or activity because seeing things in graphic form helps to understand, until this chaos you call school becomes a clear logical structure in the autistic’s mind.
In a broader sense, a cultural change from a school for everyone to a school for everyone would be desirable, because instead of trying to format the behavior of the autistic child to the rigid rules of the school, perhaps it could be more effective to ask how much and how school can be. flexible in adapting to how the autistic child learns best. It is a cultural revolution that needs not only for us with autism but also for all the forms of diversity that our society is increasingly experiencing.
Diary of an autistic boy, Federico: “I’ll explain the reason for the stereotypy”
Federico DeRose
And then there are the people who make the difference. I will never forget my debt of gratitude to teachers Ermanno and Onia who welcomed me to elementary school when I was a very problematic autistic child. They took on many difficulties so that I would not lag behind and if I write today in Salute, the credit goes to Ermanno and Onia. Who knows if they are reading now. I’d like to tell him: “Yes, I learned to write!”.