Asperger's and bullying

[HelenWheels]

This was sent out by the autism coordinator in our district:

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=5055644

I think it's very well done.

[MADem]

1. I agree--worth a watch. K/R. NT

[whyverne]

2. Very good,

I'm a single dad of an aspie teenager and sure would like to see more of this happening.

[customerserviceguy]

3. I looked at it

and in the usual quickie way of glancing over a subject that the mass media does, it really doesn't tell me why this is some sort of disability. It just looks like a new way to label people who are somewhat on the nerdy side.

[nomorenomore08]

6. If they were only "somewhat on the nerdy side," then it wouldn't be an actual DSM disorder.

But that is (and I mean you no offense at all) an extremely shallow way of looking at a complex, often baffling condition. The difference between "nerdiness" and Asperger's is that kids who are labeled "nerds" at an early age often become quite successful (and even socially adept) later on, whereas Asperger's kids are frequently seen by peers and even teachers as being mentally "slow" (despite having normal and sometimes even exceptional IQ's), and many have a very hard time living independently and forming relationships even as adults.

[customerserviceguy]

7. Like I said

the mass media did a poor job here of describing this as a disability. I had to look elsewhere on the Internet for a bit of depth on this.

Maybe the problem isn't the Asperger kids (I still detest labeling) but the bullies. Bullies pick on everyone, but they continue to do so on kids they get "results" from. Maybe it's time to bring back the idea of reform school for the tormenters.

[nomorenomore08]

8. I don't disagree at all, but that only takes care of half the problem.

Even if those with milder forms of autism (of which Asperger's is a subset) didn't face the level of bullying that they do, many need a great deal of help in adapting to the "normal" world. And sticking them in special ed classes, alongside those of below-normal mental ability, is no solution either as it's a terrible waste of talent and potential.

So I'm just saying there's no easy solution here...

[sam sarrha]

10. link...>> you have make an effort, i still dont know how to deal with people like you other than

just pray that it is just lazyness.

http://www.wrongplanet.net

http://www.thomhartmann.com/

google 'Autistic Spectrum Syndrome'

and please keep in mind that there are a lot of bullshit theorys out there, on must educate themselves discriminate effectively.. you will never understand till you meet some Aspys and see as other than nerdy,

[customerserviceguy]

12. I did do some research

and what I was criticizing was the wispy way that ABC was treating this. They did not seem to get seriously into the nature of it, pretty much what they showed was what seemed to be a fairly outgoing young man who kept repeating, "I have Aspergers" without really telling us what that meant. So he made a stoplight costume? That's different, but it looked simply imaginative in that segment. So he felt awkward around girls? Most boys feel that way at first.

As far as nerds go, those were the people I hung out with. I worked in the electronics lab as an assistant, checking out equipment (after getting a "D" in electronics class!), I hung out with the drama kids, who were fascinated with J.R.R. Tolkein long before there were "Rings" movies, and most of my friends were non-jocks like me, who couldn't see the point of running around a track ten times for the hell of it.

I'm glad that we didn't have school shrinks running around trying to label us, and shove drugs down our throats. Instead, we had some really great teachers who valued everyone who had a positive contribution to the mission of learning.

[medeak]

4. want to take them all home! K&R!

thank you for sharing!

[CoffeeCat]

5. I can only imagine what these kids endure...

...and I try to raise my two girls (ages 8 and 9) to understand that all human beings deserve respect and kindness.

I really like that my children's school mainstreams the children with mental and physical disabilities. There are
two kids in wheelchairs in my third-graders class. They have developmental and physical disabilities. This has
sparked some discussions at the dinner table about people with disabilities. How they are different, but also
how they are all human beings deserving of compassion and respect.

I imagine kids with autism are bullied. My two girls are very shy--and they've been bullied. It's one of the most
difficult things for me to deal with as a parent, mainly because the school does nothing.

When my daughter was in kindergarten, she was bullied by a little girl who had severe emotional problems. I suspect
that she was being abused. The principal told me that my child needed to be more assertive. I tried to help for
the few months that this went on. My child would come home with bite marks on her forehead. She was afraid to go to
school. The principal continued to treat it as a personality conflict between two friends. Very disheartening.

I hope our society, and our schools, make an effort to understand autism--and also to combat the bullying that these
kids, and other kids, endure.

[sam sarrha]

9. i'm an Aspi... 60 yrs old.. IQ164 functionally illiterate, Bullying is "TERRORISM", not just for

Aspys but for everyone Bullied, but especially for Aspys. having little to no social skills i could not get help, i had very little contact with the outside world other than to suffer from it.

i suffered Broken ribs, arm twisted till broken wrist, beaten to the ground by 6 older boys, viciously kicked in the guts back head.. even jumped up and down on by 2 at a time, once in the gym showers when i was a freshman the gang of thugs pushed me back and fourth in a circle..tripped me and they all pissed on me. i was 6' tall in the 8th grade. sophomore year i was 6'3" weighed 123 pounds. clay kicked me so hard sitting in the bleachers when i wasn't looking he dislocated a rib, broke it off the sternum, took 3 years to heal.
then i went home and was beaten by my father..

i showed my wife the Muslim Woman's beating in Pakistan.. she was horrified.. i just said, she got off easy, i was beaten daily at times much worse, that switch or belt would sing thru the air before it hit me and would follow through... my first memory in life is being beaten, then being beaten worse till i stopped crying. i was probably not 5 yet, laying on the floor trying not to cry or maybe he'd come back, my ear was on the floor, the hard leather heals of his shoes made loud resonating staccato thumps through the wood floor.. my father was complaining how bad his hand hurt. i remember how stupid that sounded.

i could read at 3, i had to be careful, or people would say "you cant read, give me that", my son went thru the GATE Program.. for gifted children, he has a PhD in Engineering. i taught him algebra when he was 3 1/2 with a deck of cards. i knew i only had a short time with him so i used it to program him to believe that Learning was fun, math is a game that they kept adding rules to, to keep it fun/interesting.. go to the library and learn them first.. they will think you're smart. it's all a game, some teachers/adults aren't fun, pity them they suffer, keep your mouth shut about them, don't piss them off. they are like chuck holes in the road, they wont change, they just get worse be happy don't be like them. then he was gone. i hear he became a wonderful loving person. my family has the compassion gene, and are clairvoyant.. his mothers side were exceptionally brilliant, without a lick of common sense. LP his grandfather was one of the most intelligent people ever, he had creative curiosity and love for adventure, my best friend ever.

i'm thankful my son was blessed with the opportunities i wasn't able to provide him..

[HughMoran]

14. That's one heck of a story

I've been able to provide support for my daughter that I never received as a kid - glad you were able to do that for your son. As far as being picked on, I got fed up one day and started kicking everybody's ass and then figured out that I barely had to fight after developing a reputation. Funny thing the intimidation game is.

[juno jones]

11. My solution was to send my aspie son to a charter school

for two years, then he went into a public alternative HS program. Both are small schools with a lot of one-on-one time between teachers and students, a steady, watchful staff that teaches all classes and grades, and VERY strict 'No Bullying' policies.

I took him out of regular grade school because his fifth grade teacher would make a big deal of sending him and another kid to special ed class math when they did their math lessons. Being singled out like that by the teacher didn't really help his already strained social contacts at that school and she didn't really seem to care.
It got to the point that he hated school, stopped studying, started acting out and talked about 'getting even' with the teacher and kids that were tormenting him.

He's managed to come thru HS with a lot less bullying than I suffered during those years and is now taking college classes thru 'running start'. He will graduate this year and start at the local JC with a third of his credits already in place. Math is still a challenge, but he has gotten help from his teachers and the math lab, he is not unteachable, he just needs a bit more instruction than most. His teachers at his HS are wonderful. Many of the kids are there because they don't fit in elsewhere and the teachers aim to keep a safe, bully-free place for the kids to feel welcome.


A bully-free space makes a huge difference. Thanks for the link!

[Smarmie Doofus]

13. Wow,...that's good.

RE. The narrator's description of middle school as "the scorched earth" period of childhood: why does it HAVE to be that way?

If the schools *know* that kids "have" to "fit in" at that point in their social development, why do they not adjust the curriculum to reflect that fact? I'm talking structured, explicit instruction in how people are different... that we are WIRED differently... and that differences are GOOD and NATURAL, and need to be valued.

We teach sex education ( in most places) because we have recognized the NEED. The need for tolerance training is no less obvious and no less important.

[tonysam]

15. "Aspies" are Not the Only Ones.

Physically disabled students, "fat" students, gay students, minority students, hell just about any student not fitting in with the "in-crowd" is subject to bullying.

And it isn't just students who are bullied; teachers are also, too, by abusive and unethical administrators, as documented by NAPTA.

[Smarmie Doofus]

17. Cross-cultural comparisons could be helpful here.

The Scandinavian countries are usually several steps ahead of us on most measures of what I would call "enlightened civilization". How do they teach "respect for differences"?

*D0* they teach it?

Seems we're so clueless here we need national "role models".

[LWolf]

19. I agree there is a need.

I think you don't see it happen much because the typical middle school environment doesn't support it. Large numbers of students, all in the same age-range (which is an artificial grouping,) adults who handle many students for briefer periods, students who have many teachers that don't get to know them as well...

Explicit teaching of appreciation of differences is not effective with that age group unless they feel emotionally and socially safe, unless they've established a relatively trusting relationship with the teacher.

Which doesn't happen as often, or as well, in the factory model.

Personally, I don't think "tolerance" is where the main focus should be. "Tolerance" can be cold, and can be isolating. I think we should be teaching appreciation of differences; that differences are positive, and to be celebrated, not just tolerated.

I've spent my career in K-8 schools; we can address this issue better than our counterparts in regular middle schools, and we do, but we still don't do it well enough.

Except for one school that I taught in, an IB school. The 6-8 weren't part of the authorized IB program, which ran K-5, but we extended it. The IB PYP REQUIRES explicit teaching of "attitudes," which include:

Appreciation
Confidence
Commitment
Cooperation
Curiosity
Creativity
Empathy
Enthusiasm
Independence
Integrity
Respect
Tolerance

Appreciation and empathy go WITH tolerance and respect, in this case, to help create and maintain a socially safe, nurturing environment.

[Smarmie Doofus]

20. You're right about "tolerance". I should have used a better word.

>>>Personally, I don't think "tolerance" is where the main focus should be. "Tolerance" can be cold, and can be isolating. I think we should be teaching appreciation of differences; that differences are positive, and to be celebrated, not just tolerated.>>>>>

Still can't find the right word for it. Teaching appreciation of differences is a bit of a mouthful ( although I agree completely that that's what needs to be done). "Inclusion" is *close* to what I mean but that word's been corrupted by the educrats.

OTOH, it's pretty relative. The Aspie kids depicted in OP seem to be within striking distance of "the promised land"... i.e full acceptance. So we should push for that... in whatever way we can. Some suicidal gay kid in the same ( or a different) school might be more than happy to settle for "tolerance". It might be expecting a lot look for school districts around the country to teach full acceptance of that particular difference. Although they absolutely SHOULD. ( In NYC, it's nowhere to be found.)


I'm glad I'm not in junior high school.

[Dinger]

16. Good Video. I'm Going To Pass It ALong

I'd like to know more about how to implement the program. Thanks for posting Helen. Are you a teacher?

[Jkid]

18. I actually seen the story before.

Sadly, little has change in regards to school bullying in this country.