I am an autism teacher of students in high school who are ready to move on and live as most independently as possible. I chose the students because they are the forgotten ones. The help that they desperately need is often taken away during high school years such as speech therapy. I find myself constantly fighting with administration that spends less than 1% of their time visiting our classroom. Online education seems to me to be the ante ability course for students with autism. It isolates them, plays down to their intellect but most importantly it isolates them more and that is the last thing the student with autism needs is more isolation I'm looking to do a research project to show that online education may be okay for some students but it is definitely not okay for autistic students.
I work as a Psychologist in Portuguese schools, with students from 3 years old to 18-21 years old. I do it, especially, with those who need psychological and psychopedagogical support. In them, for reasons that are intrinsic to their diagnosis, children with autistic disorder may be included in the group of students who have my support. Generally, these children appear, are oriented, with some frequency, to my work of psychological/psychopedagogical support or cognitive promotion. In relation to them, I direct them a program to promote their communication skills, situated, in phase, in perceptual motor activities, which are extended to linguistic and conceptual activities. I work initially with perceptual motor activities, because it is in them, in my experience, that autistic children feel most comfortable. I direct the child's understanding in the identification of the perceptual motor reality that surrounds the child, based on the perceptual motor figures with which the child works. Through them, the autistic child acquires vocabulary, communicates. When carrying out this work, at an individual level, he does not immediately obtain spontaneous reinforcements. However, if this situation happens in a group, it is reinforced in the activities he performs and, for this reason, he feels happier. In online education, this situation does not occur. The child does not acquire happiness through interaction, as happens in the group in which he can work. The work I mentioned must always have located the characteristics of an autistic child, so that their needs are met.
In my experience with university students, I can say that virtual education has generated large gaps in interpersonal communication, besides distancing them from reality. Likewise, there are many problems at home that have generated students with low self-esteem, no resilience, an excessive attachment to their lover, codependence, loss of skills to perform manual tasks such as making educational material and low interest in studying. Then I can imagine how young people, adolescents and children with Autism will be and with the little or no attention given to them by the educational system it will be more difficult for these children, young people etc., as well as for the teachers who struggle to achieve with them. I agree with your statements and if it is necessary to carry out studies about it to make society aware of the importance of face-to-face education.
Good for you Krista, I have never had autistic children as students, but it is much better for them to interact remotely than closely. Kind regards
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