When you look at your child with autism, what do you see?  Where is your focus?  The educators that work with your child, what do they see?  What is their focus?

This is a great time of year to look at this, because it’s time to start focusing on goals and reaching milestones for next year’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP).  Most of the time, the focus is on the child’s weakness.  I agree that we need to address what the weaknesses are, and identify how to bring up the areas of weakness so they’re not so predominant.  There is something however that I think has been woefully neglected in the majority of schools when educating our children on the spectrum.
When is the last time you or the educators who are supposed to be educating your child identified what his/her strengths are?  We are short changing our children if we’re not identifying their strengths.  Now, let’s take it a step further.  After identifying strengths, now go back, and take a look at the weaknesses.  How can those strengths that we’ve now identified be used in the areas that are weak to find an equilibrium in learning?

Perfect example is writing.  Writing involves fine motor skills which are very difficult for most of our kids on the spectrum.  Yet if given the opportunity to use a computer, they are able to say what they need to say and even say it effectively once worked with on spelling, sentence structure, etc.

For the naysayers out there who say that then the child will never learn how to write.  I say this…… bull crap.  They may not write by hand as often as you’d like them to, but they will still write by hand.  On top of that, they will improve in it as well.  However, they will do so without meltdowns, without fights, and without all of the stress and anguish that they’re put through to fit into the little box of “one size fits all” education our school systems still keep trying to shove down their throats.  Besides, why call it an “Individualized” Education Plan if you’re still trying to make them fit into the same (broken) mold that everyone else is getting pushed through?

So, what are your child’s weaknesses?  What are their strengths?  Now, how do you plan to incorporate their strengths into future learning?  I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, so feel free to comment below.