I was a member of CEC in high school and a teacher's aide for an Autism classroom. The classroom I was an aide for had student's with low function autism. These students could communicate with assistance from a technology board. but some could only communicate through facial expression and movement. I have never worked with or met someone with high-functioning autism.
I learned from the video Barb's mission to stop discrimination to people with an ASD. When I was in high school there were many time where I would sit with student's who had autism as part of a lunch buddy program. A lot of students who were sitting at the lunch table would move when we sat down. I learned from Barb that she can communicate as well as any person can, she is just mute. Although she has autism she see no reason for that to hold her back. She may have abnormal tendencies, being attached to objects or being shy around peers, but she can achieve anything a "normal" student could.
Many people who go see Barb speak say there were some of the moments in which they were uncomfortable. How do you think their experience compares to yours, where you just watch a video? What implications might that have for your teaching music? (I'm wondering specifically about looking at Youtube videos of people playing a piece of music).
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of steps would you take as a teacher to ensure that someone like Barb could fully participate in your classroom?