This time the “Professor” wears the Dunce’s cap
I had a surprise last month, talking to my son’s 1:1 assistant, this time about maths (or math in US English).
Normally I am trying to simplify school academics, and so
if something really is not important, like argumentative writing, I am all for
skipping over it. The idea is that Monty,
aged 17 with autism, should focus on useful learning that he has a chance of
mastering.
Monty’s international school follows an English
curriculum and in that model you have a choice in some subjects of studying the
core or the extended version. So a typical child who wants to become a doctor,
or an engineer, will have to follow the extended version of all their subjects,
but someone who is going to shift boxes in a warehouse might opt for the
core/simplified versions. Most people lie somewhere in between.
People with severe autism would not normally follow any
of these academic curricula, because it is all way above their heads. Their school is about life skills and
providing day-care, while the parents are out at work, or having some respite. Realistically,
“graduation” is often just a photo opportunity - things could and should be better.
There is very little published about literacy and
numeracy in severe autism.
I thought an ambitious target for Monty would be to try
and sit exams, aged 18, in five subjects, but at the easy level where possible,
the so-called “core” version. These exams are normally taken at the age of 16, which is the minimum school leaving age in the UK.
The maths teacher has been thinking about which of her
students should be aiming at core or extended.
She thinks five pupils should be aiming for extended and the others
should settle for core. Monty is one of
the group of five.
The assistant was almost apologetic, because she did not
want to change my plans for Monty. He is now "too good" for core maths.
I do know Monty’s mathematical abilities very well,
because I teach him maths at the weekend.
He is no maths savant, but he works extremely hard and now has a good
understanding of what they learn at school. I am just amazed at the other kids,
with no disability, who do not keep up with him. Prior to pharmacological
autism treatment, starting at the age of nine, Monty could not subtract single
digit numbers, like 9 – 2 = 7.
Even more recently Monty’s school assistant proudly
announced his results in the half year maths test. He got 68%, making him 3rd
out of the 15 people in class. 68%
certainly does not make you an “A student”, but given he was a “basket case” at
maths not many years ago, it is truly remarkable. The teacher even told the
whole class his score, which you might think would lead to resentment, but the
others are actually very supportive. They have seen his progress over the
years. They are currently involved in helping him to reliably tell the time.
For some people solving algebra is easier than telling the time – who would
have thought that?
The other day I skimmed through an article about some Professor who was quoted as saying “Autism is untreatable and you should not try to treat it”. What a fool - more of a dunce than a Professor.
Literacy and Numeracy Rates in Autism
People
rarely talk about literacy or numeracy in autism. I think it is another issue
that people do not want to discuss. We would rather hear about people with
savant skills, or characters from those TV shows like the Good Doctor, with trivial autism.
It is
clear that many people with severe autism currently cannot read or write, so I suppose
they are also innumerate.
You can
be non-verbal but literate and numerate; there are specific teaching methods.
I was
recently asked to present at an autism conference in Russia. I did click on the
organisation’s website and I was pleased to see on the first page its message
to Russian parents that you can teach people with autism to read and
write and indeed that non-verbal kids belong in school. I agree with them, but
it may seem like a Herculean task at times.
My last conference presentation was very simple and not controversial, at the request of the US organizer. Russians like science and they have asked for a long presentation, so they will get the real deal. A big job for the person who has to translate and then dub it into Russian!
One to one teaching, as above in Russia, is the only way to teach those with severe autism.
Reading and writing do matter. Look at the literacy rates by country and guess where you find countries like Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Sudan and Nigeria?
In
Afghanistan the male literacy rate is 55% and for females it is 30%.
Even India has 25% illiterate and they tell us it is the world’s largest democracy. In India literacy ranges from about 66% in Andhra Pradesh in the South East to over 95% in Kerala in the South West. In China illiteracy is just 3% and it shows.
In
the US 4% are non-literate and the average
American adult reads at the 7th- to 8th-grade
level, i.e. like a 13 year old child; plenty of room for improvement. The problem is the large group at the bottom
who drag down the overall results. This is why countries like Finland do so
well in skill assessments; they do not have a forgotten underclass.
Why
bother with Mathematics?
It is certainly worthwhile reconsidering what to teach
people with severe autism. If you cannot cut your own fingernails, or tie your
own shoelaces, why do you need to know any maths?
Maths is all about following instructions/rules. If you
can follow instructions, you can do maths. Daily living skills are also all
about following instructions; before emptying the dishwasher, check the dishes
are actually clean! Monty has learnt that lesson.
What do you do when the toothpaste has run out? Find some
more and if that does not work, ask for help.
Learning to follow instructions is extremely important to
those with learning difficulties; just like practising motor skills helps them
overcome their initial challenges with fine and gross motor skills. In the end, the problems just fade away.
Lego is a great way to combine following instructions
with improving fine motor skills. It is a perfect therapy for autism; at the
very beginning you can use large bricks to get a young child to replicate
simple colour patterns (so-called “block imitation”) by stacking bricks. You
can use Lego to develop team skills; one person locates the next bricks, while
the other assembles them.
We have a lot of Lego at home, but until recently it was
mainly the simple models of planes and helicopters that were of interest to
Monty. People would give complicated (expensive) models for birthday presents,
when actually what you want are the cheaper, simple ones.
We have now progressed to the point where Monty has
completed a model that was intended for people older than himself. All the Lego
sets have an age recommendation on them. Yes, Lego has some very complicated
Star Wars models meant for those 18 and over.
A Christmas present from big brother, it did have a ridiculous number of
pieces (several hundred) and some mistakes were made.
Monty actually calls it “doing the instructions”, rather
than making Lego.
The key seems to be to leave him entirely alone and let
him make the occasional mistake. If a
later part does not fit, he asks for help and you then intervene, find the
earlier mistake and correct it. If you
hover behind him to prevent any mistake being made, then you are not achieving
much.
Conclusion
You definitely can treat severe autism, meaning raise IQ
and/or improve quality of life. The
evidence is overwhelming and is sitting there in the peer-reviewed science.
It looks like you can avoid/prevent some autism by taking
certain steps prior to conception and during pregnancy. This is quite clever.
After birth, can you “cure” severe autism? I think this
will only be possible in rare cases, for example correcting an in-born error of
metabolism at an extremely young age. One example in this blog was the young Greek boy with biotinidase deficiency, that responds to high dose biotin. Our reader Roger is a rare example of an adult whose central folate deficiency was only treated in adulthood.
You can minimize many troubling features of autism at any
age; this applies to Aspies and those with more severe autism.
Learning maths develops much broader skills than might be
initially apparent.
Lego is a great activity and a fun therapy. You can of course re-use it, particularly the
most basic sets, which you can use over and over.
