esjayeff wrote:
It is a huge topic Murasaki. Since I have started writing this article I have come across many interesting perspectives and probably have enough material for a few more articles on various other issues surrounding ASD.
I am very interested in your experience as a student.
When my daughter was in mainstream school there was (to some degree) allowances made for her special needs as a student. Her teachers would make as much time for her as they could to help her, and I was able to attend school as a teachers aid a few days a week to assist in her learning. However, now that she is in adult education there seems to be no support whatsoever for people on the spectrum, and it is difficult for me to assist in any way.
May I use the following quote from you in my article? "If they can bend over backwards and accommodate other minorities they can do it for people on the spectrum."
You have made a very good point here. As a society we go to great lengths to accomodate people from various cultural backgrounds, or to reduce the gender gap etc, but little is done to harness the incredible focus and attention to detail of many on the spectrum.
Some years ago my daughter was in class with a child who had severe physical and intellectual disabilities. Due to her disabilities this child qualified for a $50,000 per year fund for a full time teachers aid. My daughters teacher felt frustrated as it was clear that there was a lot of funding available for children with disabilities, and yet it was allocated to children who would not contribute to society in a great capacity. This may sound heartless, but the two students on the spectrum were both highly intelligent with great potential for future careers and yet they were considered too high functioning to receive any funding for specialised assistance.
Here in Australia Dr Tony Attwood does a lot of conferencing and work with employers to teach them the benefits of hiring people on the spectrum, but it is slow going. I worry a lot about my daughters future employment opportunities. She is currently studying animation and is a very talented anime artist who has one some great awards, and yet I am not sure what her future is in this career. Only time will tell.
Thank you so much for your reply Murasaki. I hope you do well with your current studies. I can only imagine the frustration you feel with your current assignment.
Of course you can use that quote in regards to accomodating others and not ASD. If you want me to contribute more experiences Iam happy to assist. Ive made similar comments in the past offline to others in regards to this issue and I've been told that Iam being 'insentitive' and 'racist'. That BS imo it's realist.
I've been fairly lucky with getting help at school esp TAFE as I let the DLO's know what I am specifically looking in a tutor/assistance. One of the biggies is that the tutor is NOT to be the type that is patronising and speaks down to me like I have a intellectual disability as I have encountered a couple of them in the past, total insult to my intelligence. In regards to the allocation of funding you are not being heartless at all, just honest. The more severe the disability the more it costs society, you can put all the resources in the world into this stuff but nothing would really improve despite what the 'do gooders' say. Inclusion and mainstreaming doesn't work for everyone with a disability. To be honest this girl that was in the same class as your daughter would be better in a special education class/school than a mainstream one and the funding could help kids with ASD instead. The money spent on helping ASD kids would be saved many times over with them being employed instead of costing the tax payer. Meg
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Cat dead, details later.
13 Oct 2012, 6:29 am
