ASD.
A professor of ours asked us to write about something that led me to this. Halfway through writing it I realized I went on a huge tangent. Because it's something that has been weighing heavily on my heart, I thought I would share it here instead:
One of the greatest challenges I face on a daily basis is helping others understand that although some of our students have average to above-average intelligence and intact communication skills, they may have significant delays in adaptive behavior areas. Recognizing these children have a neurological disorder and often have difficulty controlling certain behaviors is not easy for them once they have seen how intelligent they are, and how successful they can be in different settings. Therefore, rather than believing their problem behaviors potentially stem from a lack of skills, they believe our students are being "noncompliant" or displaying "willful disobedience", and it's a shame.
One of the greatest challenges I face on a daily basis is helping others understand that although some of our students have average to above-average intelligence and intact communication skills, they may have significant delays in adaptive behavior areas. Recognizing these children have a neurological disorder and often have difficulty controlling certain behaviors is not easy for them once they have seen how intelligent they are, and how successful they can be in different settings. Therefore, rather than believing their problem behaviors potentially stem from a lack of skills, they believe our students are being "noncompliant" or displaying "willful disobedience", and it's a shame.