Structured Activities and Education Foster Understanding and Acceptance

So much attention is paid to one-sidedly teaching autistic children how to interact with non-autistic children, often with limited results. I'm always on the lookout for anything that takes a more systemic, relationship oriented, approach to social interaction--is there greater success when the focus is not put on "fixing" the autistic child but on encouraging mutual understanding between the autistic child and the non-autistic children? How does that work, and what might result?

Today's Herald Tribune ran an article Children with autism paired with buddies to create art describing a Sarasota project that mixed kids labeled autistic, kids labeled gifted, and kids without any label together for structured art activities. The kids without an autism label were further given education about autism prior to the event. The final result is an exhibit entitled "Building Friendships: Fostering Acceptance and Understanding of Others Through the Arts."

Marjorie Williams, a teacher who participated in the project called it, "more successful than we ever imagined," and went on to say,

"Students were selected based on their attitudes about other students, and the post-test demonstrated a dramatic change in acceptance after the project," Williams said.

"But it was the actions and behaviors of these students that were most impressive. The children did not want to stop working with their new friends, and they wrote beautiful entries in their journals about their experiences."

This reminded me of an article last year about Scottsdale Elementary School in Scottsdale, Arizona. The school set up structured games at recess that involved the preferences and interests of the autistic students. Not only did the autistic students start interacting with the other students with great success, but the other students actually had more fun at recess and liked the structured games better than the unstructured time. The teachers even benefited as there were less behavior problems to remediate during and after recess.

I'm not surprised by these reports as a combination between structured activities of mutual interest and greater education about autism to others is what has worked for me personally in improving my relationships with others. The other benefit of such programs is that they teach children skills for gaining tolerance and understanding of difference in general, which goes a long way toward building a better, more humane future for everyone. I hope more projects that address mutual understanding are developed as time goes by--they are of benefit to all.