Selecting The Right Autism Teacher For Your Child

One of the most important aspects of getting help for your autistic child is finding the right autism teacher. Makes sense, right? With everything we have going on in our lives in these busy times, consider the fact that your autistic child probably spends more time at school than he does anywhere else, including home, if you count just the hours that the child is not sleeping. So from that aspect, your child is going to develop a relationship with the autism teacher you have chosen, and that autism teacher is going to be a role model for your child to teach them how to be able to function in today's world in spite of their autism, and that teacher will be trained and experienced enough to fulfill this awesome and very large responsibility.

Autism Teacher - Do Your Research

It may take some searching to find the right autism teacher but the time you take to find the right teacher is going to pay off in the end. Do not feel that you need to accept whoever the school says will be your child's autism teacher without doing some research of your own to make sure you are comfortable that this teacher can fulfill the "role model" role that they will be playing in your child's life. This autism teacher is going to be like an angel sent from heaven to answer your prayers, right? But if the autism teacher is trained, experienced, and is employed by the school district as a qualified teacher of autistic and/or emotionally impaired children, isn't that sufficient, which is a question you may be asking right now. The answer, in my mind, is a resounding NO, and that is why I wanted to present a case study below.

Autism Teacher - Case Study

The case study below is real, based on several years of observation, not just a glance once or twice, and these are actual teachers of autistic and emotionally impaired children at a school in a moderately-sized city in a northern midwestern state which was hard-hit by the decline in the auto industry. For the sake of this case study, let's just say their names are Maryanne and Karen (not their real names). Both Maryanne and Karen have Masters Degrees in Special Education and have been teaching autistic and emotionally impaired children in this "pretty much inner-city" school for about 10 years or so at the same school. They are well respected by their peers and appear to do their jobs of working with autistic and emotionally impaired children quite well. From every external aspect, both would seem to be an excellent choice for an autism teacher. Both are very personable when you meet them and appear to be very caring for the challenged children in their respective classrooms. But now let's take a closer look at both Maryanne and Karen outside of the classroom to see if either of these would be an ideal solution for your choice for the best autism teacher for your autistic child. First Karen -- Karen is well-liked by her friends and has many friends outside of her co-workers at school. She is an active church attendee and in addition of "talking the talk", Karen actually and consistently "walks the walk". She is honest to a fault and her many friends respect that aspect of her personality tremendously. If she says something, she means it and follows it up with actions that reinforce what she said. If Karen disagrees with your opinion or viewpoint on something, she will tell you that she disagrees with what you said or your viewpoint, instead of simply seeming to agree but internally not agreeing. Karen has a great home life away from school which is continually enhanced by the fact that her friends know how honest and forthright she is in what she says and what she does, and is always willing to go the extra mile to help a friend. In terms of an autism teacher, Karen appears to be ideal. Unfortunately, taking a similar look at Maryanne shows a very different story. Her friends, and even her alleged best friend, do not really know her because she expertly deflects conversations to where they really do not know the real person. I have observed her outside of school at functions like high school class reunions, where old friends ask her a simple question, and she looks them right in the eye and lies to them without any qualms about deceiving them with her answer to a very simple and not-at-all threatening question. Maryanne has significant trouble with being honest and truthful. That is not to say she is a thief or shoplifter, but being honest with friends or even close friends is not something she is capable of. She avoids confrontation at all costs -- even telling a close friend that she agrees with what he or she just said and then doing something demonstrating totally the opposite because she really did not agree with what was said. Even worse, Maryanne does not view lying to or deceiving friends as a problem, if the subject of the lie or deception is not important to her. When she says something, it is words only because her actions typically in no way reflect her spoken and meaningless words. Maryanne refuses to see or acknowledge the problem, regardless of how much she continually hurts people around her.

Still More On The Autism Teacher Case Study

Even in close interpersonal relationships, Maryanne cannot be honest. When she says "I love you", it is clearly not something she means, although she is more than willing to accept presents and gifts from the person she said that to, feeling fine with tossing them aside when she feels they have outlived their usefulness to her always-hidden agenda. Maryanne's method of dealing with an issue is to sweep it under the carpet, hoping that the issue will just "go away" in time, and she unfortunately remains cold, heartless, and even oblivious to those she hurts in the process, even those that her words indicate she is close to; again, words only with no meaning behind them. Maryanne is "well past her mid 50's" but you wouldn't think that by looking at her as she looks much younger, and loves to flaunt that fact, even if it's all at the superficial and artificial level. Though she would like to have people believe that "Father Time" has been good to her at her age, the looks are courtesy of totally cosmetic (and unnecessary) plastic surgery and a decent dentist/orthodontist -- again with the deception of friends and concern about what people think of her externally. From the standpoint of her emotional and interpersonal skills, one might think that she never graduated from junior high, since both those skills are severely lacking, so perhaps the "external view", albeit superficial, is all she has since if she could be viewed internally, it would be a truly ugly picture. Yes, a common descriptive word used by many people to describe Maryanne is superficial. She always dresses well but it is all superficial, as she is always concerned, first and foremost, about what other people think about her. Maryanne really doesn't have any friends outside of the school where she teaches because she is secretive to almost a point of paranoia, which amplifies her need to tell untruths and deceive "friends". Maryanne claims to be a Christian but like anything else Maryanne says, there is no meaning behind that claim, nor do her actions backup that statement. She does not go to church or belong to one because she "has issues with God". It is truly disturbing to see how Maryanne uses people, lies to them, and deceives them with such ease and no qualms, as if this is very natural for her. For the string of people that she has hurt so tremendously, it would seem that Maryanne almost takes a "military" view of her actions where they are just "unfortunate casualties" that got in her way of achieving her always-hidden agenda and goals. The really scary part, however, is that by just meeting her on the street or particularly in the classroom, you would never guess from her "perfect" exterior that such stark evil lurks just beneath the surface. Although neither Karen nor Maryanne were raised in the inner city, even though they both act as an autism teacher in the inner city, that fact has not seemed to affect Karen, whereas Maryanne appears to have adopted the typical inner-city perspective of "don't care unless it benefits me personally", and that has been engrained over the years on her very faulty and almost psychotic personality and interpersonal traits.

Autism Teacher - So What Do You Do?

These are two extremes of what two real autism teachers are like outside of the classroom environment. I think you would agree that Karen would be an excellent choice as an autism teacher for your child, demonstrating a caring heart and personality both inside and outside the classroom. But does all this mean that Maryanne is not a good or fit autism teacher? You tell me. I don't know about you but this is not the kind of person that I would want an as autism teacher for my autistic or emotionally impaired child. I am not sure how successful such a person as Maryanne can be in keeping the "Dr Jekyll" of the classroom and the "Mr Hyde" outside the classroom completely separated. That must be an ongoing internal battle with her to keep those two very distinct and opposite personalities separated, and no person can be successful in keeping such distinct and opposite personalities separate in the long run. I am not saying nor do I mean to imply that every autism teacher is like either Karen or Maryanne in this very real case study. Most are not like either of these two very real but extreme examples. But the message is that just because somebody appears to be just what the doctor ordered to help your autistic child, the reality of that person may be otherwise. What I am saying is that some due diligence on your part is something you should consider doing for the benefit of your autistic child when selecting an autism teacher.