I read Still Alice months ago....having a life long interest in brain research and having read a couple of the medical technical book out regarding "The Forgetting". So the physical process had been understood and with the volunteering with Herschel, the actual process had been witnessed. But I found it interesting to read from Alice's perspective, what might be! Just as several individuals with Autism have been able to later write about what they experiences as a child. (A particularly recommend, "There is a Boy in There" ...the mother and the son alternate chapters....what he felt and what she saw...)
Oh, Beth.....that respect for all and the right to be treated with dignity....is to me the central point. I spent two years doing graduate work in clinical psych and working in a Mental Health Center.....and later moved into the area of Special Education. I saw the effects everywhere. Some families (or educators) only saw the limitations and therefore never expected and therefore never worked to develop the same behaviors that they would for any other child or individual.... That they grow and develop to be the best they can be and a responsible citizen of the community..... (I thought of that last week when Soosie wrote her disapointment with her job this year...that all they are expecting her to be is a custodian....not an educator...) Who are we to really know what an individuals best is....all we know is that it is the next step past where he/she is now. (Or in the case of Alice...who are we to know how long an individual holds on to who they are!)
The hardest were the individuals with profound physical and apparent cognitive disabilities....I say apparent cognitive disabilities b/c for so many years especially before the use of computers and fancy scanning techniques....if an individual was not able to speak or use their hands...it was often taken to mean they couldn't communicate.... When I interviewed staff I would remind them that of five students with profound handicaps in front of them...that psychologist would tell them have an IQ of less than 30......do we really know what their brains are processing.....if just one individual is locked inside a body without a "voice" how can we not treat each one as if there is a thinking feeling individual inside... (and I could give them examples....) Communication comes in many ways....not just with words.....
The diverse population of individuals with Autism is another group of individuals whose brains do not always process and respond like "normal" individuals......After years of working with, reading about and meeting many individuals with Autism...and others with unique sensor perception and ways of thinking...I have found that each individual needs to be seen and appreciated as who they are...not evaluated, judged, taught....as we have experienced the world...
Teachers that think that children "can't" learn...because the teacher has never been able to figure out that though the child may not be able to learn using the same "system" (maybe the only one that teacher knows
) that was used to teach these ten other students ....may not be the one that THIS student learns best with.....
Some of my best memories are of a parent who finally UNDERSTANDS and SEES that inside their child with Autism is a living thinking feeling boy/girl (..the mothers usually already know this!)...the fathers sometimes took longer. And then we would work together to give that child a way to communicate back to us! Communication is power. It is about choices.
The incidence of behavioral issues declined as the parents and educators treated a child with respect that the child DID have feelings and choices that wanted to be made. Some "choices" were still not allowed but...just being heard and acknowledged changes a lot.
Even with my background.... I had always wondered how staff working in geriatric facilities could do it day after day.....well that was before supporting my father though his decline and the last four years of volunteering with the dogs. Because most of our visit are back to the same facility for the past four years...we have gotten to know many of the residents and many of the staff....I recognize in the individuals living there the same individuality and diversity I learned to appreciate in my students...and in the good staff I recognize in the tone of voice that they use and the conversations and questions that they have....that underlying respect for individual dignity and needs.....and the presumption of life fully there....
I will put my soap box away....is only I was as good at graphics as Mitch and Vickie!