There are so many – often inaccurate – preconceived notions about what being autistic is like. As a result, it is often difficult to access the correct support for autistic learners in mainstream and sometimes even specialist schools.
If you don’t know where to start, is a good source of information, produced by autistics. Their events and workshops are helpful for those seeking to understand and support the autistics around them better.
It is hard to say what could be a sign that someone is autistic. However, many autistic learners – or, in the case of children, their parents – may notice differences in sensory or emotional regulation that could be clues to neurodivergence.
Noticing what helps a learner to settle themselves can reveal clues. For example, some autistic children may seek to eat similar foods every day. This may be a sensory preference and also a way to stay regulated by increasing certainty and predictability. Many autistics find the assessment process for autism to be loaded with stereotypes and ableist questions – but bear in mind that it can be helpful to have a diagnosis in order to access educational support, while an can be helpful for enabling access to medical help.
Social communication is often noted as a challenge for autistic people, and this can create difficulties in education. It can certainly be the case that neurodivergent and neurotypical people have differing communication styles. Autistic people can find neurotypical communication vague and confusing. However, it is often left to the autistic person to bridge the gap, rather than for neurotypical people to seek to understand the autistic person’s communication style. So it can be unclear how much of the ‘difficulty’ is due to a lack of accommodation of difference and how much is due to the autistic person’s communication skills. The challenges an autistic learner may have can be dismissed if they seem to perform well in dialogue with their teachers and peers, even if this involves a high degree of camouflaging or masking.
The labels used (usually by others) to describe autistic people as ‘low functioning’ or ‘high functioning’ illustrate some of the challenges faced by learners. This effectively involves a person describing how well another is doing as it seems to them from the outside. Aside from the misfortune of being described as ‘low functioning’, the ‘high functioning’ label is also unhelpful because the descriptions are of how people appear to others, rather than being based on the experience of the individual. This is at the heart of the challenges autistic learners can face in the education system. Support is provided based upon how learners appear to, say, their teachers in school, rather than upon the learner’s inner experiencing or how difficult it is for them to cope, let alone learn.
As a result, many autistic learners may be suffering greatly from the unpredictable sensory environment they are in. They may have heightened sensitivities that provoke strong internal reactions to sounds, lighting and smells, and the uncertainty they experience in the world around them may feel overwhelming. These experiences can be accompanied by an outward presentation that seems ‘typical’ to teachers and other professionals. The anxiety and distress that a school environment can create is often more visible to parents and carers, who witness the exhaustion and upset that emerge only at home after school.
Sometimes, when trying to fit in proves too much, feelings may emerge as a meltdown or shutdown, and the autistic learner can be seen as suddenly uncooperative or having variable attention. This may be due to burnout and feeling overwhelmed, exacerbated by the challenges of spending several hours a day in a challenging environment. Often, autistics in a state of being overwhelmed or burnout can be seen as difficult or badly behaved when this is, in fact, a sign of feeling desperate.
Sadly, despite high levels of anxiety being common among autistic learners, coupled with bullying and feeling lonely in school, their needs often go unmet – even after a diagnosis.
Our recommendations include talking with your child to understand as well as possible how they experience the world. Sadly, parents are often left to advocate for their child. We recommend investigating as much as you can about what your child is experiencing and seeking training from organisations such as the aforementioned Autistic Advocate.
This can help you with the language to address the difficulties – one issue at a time – that your child has in school. It can be challenging to prove anxiety. However, if in some lessons or situations there are glimpses of what your child can be like when supported appropriately, unpicking what they are finding helpful can provide useful evidence of what they need.
Likewise, situations that are unpleasant for your child provide evidence of what not to do. Some of our clients have been able to seek expert evidence that their child is more sensitive to sound and other sensory input, and a good educational psychologist may be able to identify the strategies that will best support your child in school.
It is easy for the struggles of an autistic learner to be missed in school environments. Most importantly, parents and carers should remember that they are not alone in facing this, and to seek whatever support they can in advocating for their child. It is easy to be discouraged if accommodations and consistently good support are hard to access or are never available. However, the value of seeking accommodations for your child is to show them that they are worthy of encouragement, understanding and support. It is a failing in the world around them, and not in them, if these are not available.
If you need further support, our SEND advisory team is here to help.