Encouraging Peer Acceptance of Students with Autism as a Precursor to Class Performance - Research Paper Example

Encouraging Peer Acceptance of Students with Autism as a Precursor to Class Performance in School Name Institution Abstract The environment from which a student learns plays a major role in his/her success. This is even more important when it comes to students living with autism. Various stakeholders must understand that a child’s profile in line with a continuum of Autism Spectrum Disorder determines the child’s development Embrace, show of care and appreciation works magically to make a student living with autism succeed in school. This research seeks to affirm the essence of peer acceptance to such students not only in kindergarten, but progressively throughout their school life. This trend should also be extended to their friends and other children in the neighbourhoods. Many academic resources including peer review articles and other academic journals in coming up with this research paper. Introduction Children with disabilities are nowadays referred to as students with special needs. Indeed they have some needs that the society must meet. In referring to this category of people in the society this way, in its own way is pre-emptive in the sense that it puts the society on notice to take good care of children with autism. In as much as awareness is being carried out for the society to embrace children with autism, it is no longer a privilege to these children, but their constitutional right (Willis, 2006). That is to say, it is their right to be taken care of and loved. There is much legislation that has been implemented to ensure that children with autism are put on the same level playing ground with normal children. The Disability Discrimination Act of 1992 outlines the need for ensuring inclusiveness when dealing with children with autism and other special needs. In this research, the main area of focus will be acceptance. In as much as there are many policies that can be enacted to better the children living with autism, the issue of acceptance and inclusion remains an imperative. Acceptance at Family Level The family is the place where children with autism spent most of the time. This partly explains the essence of the family in development of the child with autism. This is the first place that a child is able to interact and create ties with people. According to Bradford (2010), the child with autism requires maximum attention while at this stage in their life. This is the foundation of the entire life of the child. The self-esteem of the child is supposed to be built at this point (Rodger, Ashburner, Cartmill & Bourke, 2010). This is the key that will be used to unlock all the challenges that this child is likely to face in life. This is from the understanding of the main challenge that children with autism go through. In almost all cases, they have something to do with poor personal outlook. This will always hinder the progress of the child in every attempt they make in life. This is why the role of the family becomes very critical in the early life of a child with autism. Children living with autism have all manner of challenges to do with communication and socialization in overall. The impact of the brain development challenges makes it difficult for the victim to interact and associate with realities around them. This is the most difficult part of this syndrome (Seeman, 2003). Nevertheless, this does not provide a leeway for neglecting these children. One basic fact that is aimed at encouraging parents and the family to embrace a child autism needs is the understanding of the uniqueness of autism disorder. From a medical perspective, children living with autism have different potential and abilities. It is not possible to take a group of children living with autism and assume that they do have the same characteristics. Parents and the entire family must understand that even with autism, the child can still be able to achieve many things. The most important thing is that the family must exploit the uniqueness of the child with autism to assist the child appropriately. From Bradford’s (2010) perspective, the family ought to focus on the abilities of the child as opposed to the disabilities. The child must grow up encouraged in what they can do as opposed to what they cannot do. This is the best strategy that can be used to build the child’s self-esteem. Building on this strategy will help a child with autism to overcome many challenges ahead of them. Having understood the uniqueness in the needs of the child with autism, the family must be the first entity to accommodate the child. They must learn to understand the inherent characteristics of the child. One way of achieving this is learning the communication approach of the child living with autism. Instead of forcing the child to communicate using a specific methodology, the family ought to learn the easiest way of this child’s communication. This may include the use of sign language. It is the responsibility of the family to learn and understand the sign language so that the child living with autism will be easily understood (Clarissa, 2009, pp. 85). This is a perfect way of accepting and embracing a child living with autism. This will make it not only easy to communicate, but also be more comfortable. This opens up the desire of the child with autism to express himself. Realizing that he is communicating with people in the environment is very uplifting to the psychological development of the child with this disorder. This will not only improve the child’s socializing ability, but also the academic performance (Seaman, 2003). The last thing that that must be done at family level to ensure acceptance and inclusiveness is the awareness of the real condition. The parents have a very big task of ensuring the other children in the family understand the medical condition of their sibling. This will foster an overall understanding of the condition. This is because children may possess inaccurate information concerning this disorder (Lee, Odom & Loftin, 2007). The various sources that people seek for information autism are very unreliable. According to Sicile-Kira (2004), the internet and other reading resources may provide skewed knowledge about autism. Therefore, the parents must ensure that the knowledge about the disorder is from appropriate sources. These sources can include medical practitioners in that field. The main reason for this enlightenment at family level is to ensure that other children may have full understanding of the condition. With that, it will be very easy for the other children to love and accept their brother. When they realize their sick brother behaves uniquely, they will not humiliate him. At the same time, when they see their sick brother messing up and just going unpunished, they will not be upset. The main focus in doing all this is to create an atmosphere that will make the autistic child comfortable to interact. At the same time, it works well to prepare this child fully before he meets the larger world in school (Rossetti, 2012). Neighbours and the General Society Neighbours and the overall society cannot be ignored. Just like the autistic child requires acceptance from the family, he also requires the same from the society. This is another important stakeholder in the development of this child. This is because if the environment is so hostile, the development of the autistic child may be hindered. Therefore, the child deserves the goodwill of the society in order to successfully win the fight against autism. All this is from the understanding of the manner in which the society can perceive disabilities. On many occasions, the children from the neighbourhood are likely to make fun of such a kid. This can be horrifying to the sick kid. Furthermore, exclusion can be the norm from by the children in the neighbourhoods. This is based on poor understanding of the nature of the disorder. Some may have the feeling of the disorder being contagious. This is very sad as the autistic child may be forced to live in seclusion. The more this takes place, the more this child feels he is less than a human being. What such kids require is a show of love and care, without which will affect even their performance in class (Willis, 2006). The society must come to the knowledge that children born with autism require to lean on someone in one way throughout the life on earth. Children with autism are special needs because there are things they cannot achieve on their own. The society must understand the depth of this problem and set aside every individualistic desire and accommodate this category of people amongst them (Bradford, 2010). One thing that the society ought to understand is that in one way or another, every individual has some form of inability or disability (Lee, Odom, & Loftin, 2007). The thing that separates people into different categories is the nature and the extent of the inability. Moreover, what the society has lacked is the understanding of the nature of the problem and the solution thereof. In most cases, the society has seen children fighting with autism and other disorders to be in need of only money related resources. This is not the case as we have come to find out. These children require more than money. According to Lee, et al. (2007), these children need love and care. They need to realize that whatever they are lacking in their genetic composition by no chance does it make them less than human beings. Therefore, any small thing that the society does to these children deeply from the heart will be a huge contribution indeed. These small contributions include a hug, a smile and any kind of embrace. These are some of the contributions that the society has ignored for long time. The combination of all these things will have a positive impact on the learning of the student with autism. School Environment This is another setting where a child with autism will spend most of his time. This is because time for learning takes a substantial amount of time throughout. This is an institution that must be careful in the manner in which they handle children with autism. When parents take their children to school is a sign that they have entrusted teachers with the care of their child. Teachers must be good custodians to the children living with autism. This must start from policy formulation to all other spheres of education. They must ensure that the policies formulated in the school encourage inclusivity at all cost. The children with autism must live in an environment where they are accommodated. The teachers have the first mandate to protect these children from all kinds of stereotypes and making all kinds of jokes aimed at intimidating them in one way. This is a very common trend with most teenagers and adolescents in primary schools and secondary schools (Adolescence, 2007). As young as they are, children living with autism do not have the vigour to withstand all those kinds of jokes and isolation. It requires the policy of the learning institution to protect these children. The learning institutions are supposed to formulate the required policies above according to the provisions of the Commonwealth Disability Act of 1992. The purpose of the act was to ensure by all means discrimination is completely eradicated. This is more pronounced in learning institutions. Any contravention of the provisions provided under the act attracts the penalty of the law according to section 32 of the act. The Disability Act covers the critical areas of the autistic student including enrolment, participation and curriculum development. The act is also inclusive of any supportive services while at the same time eliminating every form of harassment and victimization. The provisions given in this Act are very comprehensive. They provide a succinct procedures and roles to be followed by respective stakeholders in the learning institutions. Therefore, the role of teachers and support staff in the learning institutions is just implementation and monitoring. The Act also provides the legal consequences on every provision in case compliance in compromised at any point. This is a very good beginning point for learning institutions that happen to harbour also children with special needs. When the learning institutions ensure absolute compliance with the above provisions, the children living with autism will be able to excel academically. As a way of ensuring that children with special needs in the category of autism benefit a lot in the mainstream classes, the training programs for teachers must be more comprehensive. They must come out of college fully prepared to handle diverse categories of students. In support of such a child, the parents, teachers and caregivers ought to understand the basic supplies to such children. Some of the requirements for learning include environment that is calm and quiet. This is to reduce any form of distraction at all costs. Another thing is ensuring there are picture schedules to help them understand what may be required to understand (Elder & D’Alessandro, 2009).This includes not only children with autism, but all other kinds of disability. For instance, for a teacher to be effective in dealing with children suffering from autism, the teacher must understand some of the weaknesses that a child with autism has. For instance, a teacher must understand that a child diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder have challenges in communication and socialization (Willis, 2006). Another symptom could be perpetual screaming. The teachers ought to learn this and know the appropriate way of accommodating these children in the school. At the same time, teachers must understand the need of ensuring that in discharge of their roles, they do not have to criticize the weaknesses inherent in the children with autism. In fact, they ought to encourage these children on the grounds of what they can do. This is meant to encourage the student with autism to be proud of their achievements instead of demeaning themselves on the account of their weaknesses. Another way through which teachers can help improve performance of a child living with autism is by establishing long-term relationship with this category of students. Building of ties is very healthy for the purposes of learning. This benefits both students with disabilities and normal students. Nevertheless, this kind of relationship will benefit more a student with special needs like autism. The relationship enables the teacher to fully understand the student. At the same time, the student with autism will feel freer to interact with the teacher. The personal interaction between the teacher and the student with autism will help the child improve in their socialization. The interaction will greatly boost the moral and the ego of the children. They will feel more appreciated and valued. It is one way through which the teacher is able to win the trust of the child with autism. In as much as building trust may take some time, the fruits of having such a relationship are long-term. The environment where the student has good relationship with the student, it creates a rapport whose fruits are the improvement in academic performance of the autistic child. In such a relationship, what a child with autism requires is positive reinforcement. For such a child, the last thing they would expect is rebuke. This will completely break their hearts almost beyond repair. This can be very disturbing to such a child. According to Small & Kontente (2003) such a child requires positive reinforcement in everything they undertake. This calls for teachers of such kids to very careful. Teachers should bear in mind that they are dealing with very sensitive and almost psychologically delicate students. For this reason, teachers ought to be very careful with the choice of words they use against such students. This is extremely important for the teacher in the bid to ensuring good relationship with the autistic children. In achieving this goal, teachers must also ensure they engage the parents of the child appropriately. Survey has indicated that a good relationship between the teachers and parents can work to make the life of the autistic child better. Coordination between the teachers and parents in the case of children with autism makes it easier to understand the problem better. The fact that the parent spends time with the child when they at home while the teacher on the other side spends time with the children when in school, it is easier to get to the bottom of the problem. This will make it even easier to find a workable plan Recommendations The challenges facing children with autism are very diverse. The nature of this problem requires the participation of all stakeholders in order to reach a long-lasting solution. The goodwill of the entire society is of great value in dealing with this problem. One thing that seems to be lacking in the society is awareness. Many people in the society have not taken a keen interest to be part of a solution to the problems of this nature. It is the uninformed society that has increased the level of trauma against the people living with disability. These people are avoided, discriminated and made fun of. All these activities have made the life of people living with disabilities very miserable. The solution to the above problem is ensuring awareness among the society. The society must be enlightened concerning some of these issues facing people living with disability. One of the things that must be discussed about is the fact that disability problem is not contagious as many people may think. Many have been misguided by this notion in order to keep avoiding those who are challenged in one way. These awareness movements are aimed at increasing the acceptance of the children with disability. If the society can change their perception concerning children suffering with various disorders, it will be a problem half-solved. When such culture begins at the society level, it is easier to extend to the learning institutions. The level of acceptance of children with autism will surely increase when these good plans succeed. Conclusion From the research carried out, it is clear that acceptance and inclusion of children with autism is very critical to the success of the child in academics. This inclusion of children takes place at school level, family level and society level. People must develop an understanding that autism is a condition to live with. This is the reality that people must digest and look forward on the possible ways of living with such kids. There are many other things that the caretakers and the parents ought to do in order to ensure the child with autism is developing progressively. In doing this, the entire society will portray an image of inclusiveness and this will promote cohesiveness of the people. References Adolescence. (2007). helping children with Autism Learn: Treatment Approaches for Parents and Professionals. Fall2007, vol. 42(167), 626-627. Bradford, K. (2010). Supporting Families Dealing with Autism and Asperger’s Disorders. Journal of Family Psychotherapy, vol. 21 (2), 149-156. Clarissa, W. (2009). Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Strategies that Work. YC Young Children, 64(1), 81-89 Elder, J. & D’Alessandro, T. (2009). Supporting families of children with autism spectrum disorders: Questions Parents Ask and what Nursed Know. Paediatric Nursing, vol. 35(4), 240-253. Lee, S., Odom, S.L. & Loftin. (2007). Social engagement with peers and stereotypic behaviour of children with autism. Journal of Positive Behaviour Interventions, 9(2), 67-79. Rodger, S; Ashburner, J; Cartmill, L. & Bourke, H. (2010). Helping children with autism spectrum disorders and their families: Are we losing occupational-centred focus? Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, vol. 57 (4), 276-280. Rossetti, Z. (2012). Helping or hindering: the role of secondary educators in facilitating friendship opportunities among student with and without autism or developmental disability. International Journal of Inclusive Education, vol. 16(12), 1259-1272. Seeman, C. (2003). Helping children with autism learn. Library Journal, vol. 128(9), 106. Sicile-Kira, C. (2004). Autism Spectrum Disorders. New York: Penguin. Small, M. & Kontente, L. (2003). Everyday Solutions: A Practical guide for families of children with autism spectrum disorder. Shawnee Mission, KS: Autism Asperger Publishing. Willis, C. (2006).Creating Inclusive Learning Environment for Young Children: What to do on Monday Morning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. Read More

Having understood the uniqueness in the needs of the child with autism, the family must be the first entity to accommodate the child. They must learn to understand the inherent characteristics of the child. One way of achieving this is learning the communication approach of the child living with autism. Instead of forcing the child to communicate using a specific methodology, the family ought to learn the easiest way of this child’s communication. This may include the use of sign language. It is the responsibility of the family to learn and understand the sign language so that the child living with autism will be easily understood (Clarissa, 2009, pp. 85). This is a perfect way of accepting and embracing a child living with autism.

This will make it not only easy to communicate, but also be more comfortable. This opens up the desire of the child with autism to express himself. Realizing that he is communicating with people in the environment is very uplifting to the psychological development of the child with this disorder. This will not only improve the child’s socializing ability, but also the academic performance (Seaman, 2003). The last thing that that must be done at family level to ensure acceptance and inclusiveness is the awareness of the real condition.

The parents have a very big task of ensuring the other children in the family understand the medical condition of their sibling. This will foster an overall understanding of the condition. This is because children may possess inaccurate information concerning this disorder (Lee, Odom & Loftin, 2007). The various sources that people seek for information autism are very unreliable. According to Sicile-Kira (2004), the internet and other reading resources may provide skewed knowledge about autism.

Therefore, the parents must ensure that the knowledge about the disorder is from appropriate sources. These sources can include medical practitioners in that field. The main reason for this enlightenment at family level is to ensure that other children may have full understanding of the condition. With that, it will be very easy for the other children to love and accept their brother. When they realize their sick brother behaves uniquely, they will not humiliate him. At the same time, when they see their sick brother messing up and just going unpunished, they will not be upset.

The main focus in doing all this is to create an atmosphere that will make the autistic child comfortable to interact. At the same time, it works well to prepare this child fully before he meets the larger world in school (Rossetti, 2012). Neighbours and the General Society Neighbours and the overall society cannot be ignored. Just like the autistic child requires acceptance from the family, he also requires the same from the society. This is another important stakeholder in the development of this child.

This is because if the environment is so hostile, the development of the autistic child may be hindered. Therefore, the child deserves the goodwill of the society in order to successfully win the fight against autism. All this is from the understanding of the manner in which the society can perceive disabilities. On many occasions, the children from the neighbourhood are likely to make fun of such a kid. This can be horrifying to the sick kid. Furthermore, exclusion can be the norm from by the children in the neighbourhoods.

This is based on poor understanding of the nature of the disorder. Some may have the feeling of the disorder being contagious. This is very sad as the autistic child may be forced to live in seclusion. The more this takes place, the more this child feels he is less than a human being. What such kids require is a show of love and care, without which will affect even their performance in class (Willis, 2006). The society must come to the knowledge that children born with autism require to lean on someone in one way throughout the life on earth.

Children with autism are special needs because there are things they cannot achieve on their own.

Read More