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Nora Rinehart

Professor Joyce Barnes

ENG 1201

18 March 2019

Autism and the Classroom..Should There be a Barrier?

About 1 in 54 children have been diagnosed with autism. Imagine you were in fourth

grade and your entire class was supposed to wear a blue shirt as a school uniform and you

showed up to school in a rainbow striped shirt. There are 162 students in your fourth grade class

and out of the entire class, three students, including yourself wore a different colored shirt than

the rest of the fourth grade. The teachers decide to take you three out of your classes and put

you in a separate classroom with different learning material than the other grade uses, all

because you wore a different shirt than your peers. How fair is that? How would your parents

feel about the situation? Now relate that to autistic students versus non-autistic students. Many

people see autistic kids as helpless, stupid, and a burden because they do not really know what

autism is and it is really hard for them to understand the struggles, the truth and the right

techniques to communicate and interact with kids who have autism. Those same people think

autistic students and students with disabilities should be kept in a separate classroom or school

altogether instead of being in a class with “normal” students. They think kids with learning
disabilities are a distraction and teacher’s favor them rather than “normal” students. Even

though mainstreaming and inclusion is proven to have both positive and negative effects on

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children with and without disabilities, we as a society can allow kids from all different brain

developments to feel “normal” and we can make prejudices associated with disabilities cease to

even exist.

Mainstreaming means that a school is putting children with special needs into

classrooms with their peers who have no disabilities. Sometimes it only happens a few minutes

each day, sometimes a few classes and it even lasts the whole day sometimes. The first step to

including all students with and without disabilities into classrooms is to understand your

students better. Teachers should know how to talk and interact with all of their students and

not just the students who are easier to interact with.

Depending on the severity or form of autism a child has, it’s hard to communicate with

them. Because autism spectrum disorder is such a broad learning disability, there are many

different levels of language barriers and sensory issues that autistic kids have. Many of the

barriers and issues are different from each other. It is very rare to have similar issues between

certain autistic kids. Most teachers overlook this and then wonder why those specific students

aren’t performing as well or they act surprised when their autistic students have meltdowns. All

autistic children have a very literal vocabulary. Autistic children don’t understand figurative

language, so if you were to tell an autistic child to “break a leg” instead of “good luck”, they’re
going to be extremely confused as to why you told them to break a leg. You must speak plainly

around autistic kids because it’ll be less confusing and stressful. Autistic kids also speak bluntly

because they don’t see it as being rude, they think that’s how everyone talks. Don’t take it

personally if you were 36 weeks pregnant and an autistic child say “Look at her Mom! Her belly

is

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huge!” It will, without a doubt, embarrass their parents, but they know their child means well.

They’re very observant about their surroundings. Sometimes, autistic kids may even randomly

say their thoughts or speak without raising their hand. This aggravates teachers who don’t

understand autistic students because they may not be introduced to autistic ways.

Lisa Smith, author of 12 Things I Wish My Kids’ Teachers Knew, ran into many problems

with her child’s teachers. She has a son with a very slight case of autism so she decided to place

her child in public school without an aide or warning the teachers of possible “disturbances”.

She would always get emails from teachers stating that her son wasn’t participating and he got

upset quite easily. The teachers also would call Lisa and say things like “your son is a disruption

to the class, I can’t get him to sit still, he speaks at random times in class and gets everyone

sidetracked”. After a while, Lisa Smith decided to start blogging about her son’s adventure with

autism and school to inform and teach others about autism. “Every year when Tate got a new

teacher, aide or camp counselor, I would find out who they were and write them an email or
letter explaining that Tate has autism and I would ask them to read my blog, just to provide

more insight on how to interact with my son during class” (Smith 2015).

Along with the problems around the language barrier, there are also sensory problems

that arise between autistic children. “Autism’s sensory issues can involve both over-

responsiveness and under-responsiveness to a wide range of stimuli. These can involve: sights,

sounds, smells, tastes, touch, balance, body awareness” (Smith 2015). For example, many kids

with the spectrum are over-responsive to bright lights. Many find certain sounds, smells and

tastes overwhelming. Even certain types of touch can feel very uncomfortable to anyone

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with autism. The sensory issues can cause autistic kids to throw fits out of nowhere if they are

triggered. Sensory issues can also give autistic kids the drive to work hard or find a hobby they

really enjoy. If kids know there is a reward waiting for them, they will work very hard so they

can get a reward. If there is a threat or they feel as though there is a punishment coming, they

will most likely shut down or have a flare up of anxiety.

Dr. Jed Baker wrote Social Skills Training and Frustration Management to give advice to

parents and teachers so they can help better support students with autism. He also stresses the

importance of mainstream classrooms and how they benefit the student with autism, parents,

teachers and even the other students. With everything that comes with a benefit, there are also

drawbacks, but drawbacks lessen the more people work to find a solution for the said drawback.
 All students, no matter if they have a disability or not, should be given the same

educational opportunities. If all students were given equal educational opportunities, they

would all be taught the same curriculum and they would also have the same academic

advantages offered to them. Autistic students may not be given the same academic advantages

if they were in a strictly special education classroom. “Integrated classrooms teach children

with autism how to learn in a standard classroom environment, often with the help of a

behavioral aide so that they do not fall behind with the workload” (Baker 2006). Learning in an

inclusive environment such as a classroom from an early age gives students the ability to adapt

well to higher education classrooms, so they can follow the path to a higher education at a

university or college. Yes, autistic students may have a difficult time keeping up with the

curriculum or they may get bored with the curriculum if they are not being challenged the right

way or if they don’t

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have a passion for what is being taught, but they are determined to accomplish any task given to

them even if it takes a long time to do. “Integrated classrooms can also mean a larger class size

where the teacher may not have the time available to help all students with their work” (Baker

2006). Aides are really important when it comes to the education of students with autism. Aides

can help keep the students calm, concentrated, and they also help students get their work done

if they are falling behind from the rest of the class.

 If classrooms stay separated and they don’t use the mainstreaming method in school,

then a greater part of the student body won’t be exposed to students with special needs, such as

autism. This means that most students will never get the opportunity to learn to accept people

for who they are, they will never learn strategies and ways to communicate and interact with

people who have disabilities, and they won’t get the exposure of a diverse classroom that they

can carry with them throughout their life to adulthood. For example, a mom and her six year

old daughter are grocery shopping at Walmart and they see a boy around the same age with

autism talking to his mom. The daughter notices the little boy’s speech is slurred and she also

noticed how excited he was to have a light purple stuffed horse as a new toy. When she points it

out to her mother, the mother laughs hysterically and makes fun of the little boy. She looks

down at her daughter and disgustedly tells her daughter that they don’t talk to people like that.

She then goes on to say that she couldn’t believe the boy’s mother brought him to Walmart

acting like that. What do you think is going to happen to the daughter when she grows up, on

her own and runs into someone with a disability like that? Children take after their parents and

they start to imitate them at an early age. Chances are that the girl will grow up and act just like

her mother

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did at Walmart many years earlier. That would be the case had the daughter not been

introduced into a mainstreaming school system. If the daughter was in a mainstream

classroom that had students from different cultural backgrounds, different brain developments
and students with different disabilities, she wouldn’t act like that when she’s older and on her

own. If her class was a mainstream classroom early on in her education, she may even notice

how unruly her mother was being and even stand up to her mother and set an example of how

to handle the situation with the young autistic boy and his mother.

Mainstreaming students with autism and other special needs with the rest of the

population exposes the entire student population to all types of students, whether they have

disorders or not. Students will learn from each other and they can learn as a big group to accept

others and how to interact with others who may act different than they do. “In the long run, this

could help promote acceptance of the special needs community by decreasing segregation

between individuals with disabilities and their peers without disabilities” (Baker 2006).

As students without autism learn to tolerate certain behaviors, the students who have

autism, will learn what behaviors are acceptable and which ones are not. They can practice the

tolerable behaviors in the classroom, so they know what is expected in society and how to act in

the workplace or when they are in public in general. Many children with autism throw fits and

have meltdowns because they feel as though they are in crisis. This is where the importance of

mainstreaming comes into play. Dr. Baker writes step by step techniques that teachers and

parents can quickly put into practice to help keep autistic students calm, prevent fits, and easier

strategies to help them know right from wrong. “When students are given this chance to

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interact and share with each other, they learn about each other’s differences, including diverse

thought patterns and creative processes” (Baker 2006).

In order to have a successful outcome from using mainstreaming in classrooms, the

teachers and students have to know how to communicate and interact effectively with each

other. It may be quite a bit harder for students who have autism and other disabilities to grasp

that concept than it would other students, but as long as everyone works together and they help

push each other, parents, teachers and administrative faculty will see how effective and how

important inclusion is for every child’s social, emotional and even physical development.

Inclusion helps students learn how to socialize with others, it introduces them to diversity, it

readys them for their future, and it even helps with dating (mainly once the child gets to high

school). A few strategies teachers can use to help their students with autism be successful in

their classroom include lots of visual aids, picture drawing, simple directions, use their

fixations as motivation, soft sounds and more.

Dr. Annabelle Marsh wrote many articles and case studies on the different effects that

ASD (autism spectrum disorder) has on individuals who are getting ready to start school or

transition to a different school. Many autistic people are visual thinkers. They think with

pictures. You can tell them something and then show them what you said as a picture, and

chances are they understood the picture better than they did what you verbally showed them.

When autistic kids learn part of speech like nouns and verbs, they’re typically easier to learn
because the students are able to make a mental picture of the word. “To learn words like "up" or

"down," the teacher should demonstrate them to the child. For example, take a toy airplane and

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say "up" as you make the airplane takeoff from a desk. Some children will learn better if cards

with the words "up" and "down" are attached to the toy airplane. The "up" card is attached when

the plane takes off. The "down" card is attached when it lands” (Marsh 2017). This strategy works

great with both verbal and non-verbal autistic students. A lot of children with autism are good

at anything dealing with art and even computer programming. Teachers can use and abuse

these specialty areas to their advantage when it comes to class participation and projects. In

fact, these specialty areas should be encouraged in their everyday life as well. “I think there

needs to be much more emphasis on developing the student's talents” (Marsh 2017). Talents can

be turned into skills that can be used for future education and employment.

With many autistic kids, loud sounds like the school bell hurt their ears like a dentist

drill hitting a nerve. Kids with autism should be protected from sounds that hurt their ears.

Sounds that cause the most problems are school bells, fire alarms, the PA system, buzzers on

the scoreboard in the gym during a basketball game, squeaking noises from parkers on the

board, and the sound of chairs scraping on the floor. If the sounds are slightly muffled, then

they can most likely tolerate the noise. They can muffle sounds by stuffing their ears with

tissues, cotton balls, ear plugs, etc. An autistic student may fear a certain room because they are

afraid they may hear that specific sound they have related to that room or space. The fear of a
dreaded sound can cause bad behavior, temper tantrums, and episodes. If a student covers

their ears, it is a good indicator that a certain sound is triggering them or it may be too loud.

“Sometimes sound sensitivity to a particular sound, such as the fire alarm, can be desensitized

by recording the sound on a tape recorder. This will allow the child to initiate the sound and

gradually

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increase its volume” (Marsh 2017). Autistic people can also be bothered by visual distractions,

bright lights in general and fluorescent lights. “They can see the flicker of the 60-cycle

electricity” (Marsh 2017). To avoid problems like that, the teacher can put the student's desk

near the window or try to avoid using fluorescent lights in their classroom. If the lights can’t be

avoided, the teachers should try to use the dimmer setting or frequently change the lightbulbs

to prevent the flickering. New bulbs typically flicker less. “The flickering of fluorescent lights

can also be reduced by putting a lamp with an old-fashioned incandescent light bulb next to the

child's desk” (Marsh 2017).

Not everyone is on board the mainstreaming train. Many people have convinced

themselves that inclusion takes away more class time from ordinary students and it also sways

the teacher’s attention away from them. Yes, schools want to try and get their students to accept

and understand students who may have disabilities, but that can also backfire. Explaining to

students how they can accept and understand others can lead to bullying because sometimes

autistic students have certain behaviors that can be disruptive to class or desire more attention
than other students. It’s hard to get students to understand why autistic students can get away

with acting a certain way that other students aren’t allowed to act, which can result in “bad

blood” between the students. Inclusion and mainstreaming is much more than just a few

negative reasons. “As of 2017, only 32.9% of autistic kids are enrolled into a regular school, with

regular class times and general classes” (Macmillon 2017). To help change parents’ mindsets on

mainstreaming and inclusion, schools should send out newsletters, pamphlets, and host a

meeting that parents could attend and state their opinions and ask their questions about

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mainstreaming to try and come to an understanding of how important mainstreaming can be.

If teachers see students being bullied or they hear about it, they can confront the student, the

entire class so they know there’s a problem, and they can even talk to parents on both sides of

the bullying to stop it then and there. There are so many benefits for students with and without

disabilities such as autism for mainstreaming and inclusion not to work. Not only does it help

them socially and academically, it also helps both students with and without disabilities prepare

for their future.

For students with autism, many benefits often focus on improved social acceptance and

social communication. Peers and other students also play a critical role in the outcomes. For

example, inclusion may allow for social learning, increase acceptance, and improve the social

standing of students with autism, but unfortunately, for some students with autism, social

experiences are negative. Some autistic students may report feeling lonely, excluded, and even
bullied. However, there is great news. “A growing amount of evidence supports the value of

educating students with autism in inclusive settings and involving peers in educational

programming across their “educational lifespan,” (preschool through high school/college)”

(Macmillan 2017). Peer-mediated (fellow student lead) practices in elementary school have been

shown to improve the quality of social interactions and even the amount of social interactions

for students with autism. “There has been an increased amount of work with middle and high

school students that has also found that peer buddies result in improved social outcomes for

students with autism” (Macmillan 2017). Many kids have autism in the world, and not enough

people understand what they go through everyday. Many people see autistic kids as a nuisance.

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Those same people also believe that autistic kids do not belong in normal classrooms with your

everyday students. Autism isn’t a rare disorder anymore. It is becoming more frequently

diagnosed in young children and autism is quickly becoming something that many people can’t

avoid in society anymore. If autism continues to become a prevalent thing, schools that don’t

use mainstreaming and inclusion will be in demand for more special needs or intervention

specialist teachers to teach at their schools. If schools don’t have the funding for more teachers,

then the government may have to open more autism specialized schools.
Fig. 1. The Skyrocketing Prevalence of Autism (“Autism Statistics”)

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Yes, there are both positive and negative effects to mainstreaming classrooms, but we as

a society can allow kids from all different brain developments to feel “normal” and we can make

prejudices associated with disabilities cease to even exist. Every child wants the chance to

become someone and every child wants the same opportunities as their friends and classmates,

so why not give it to them?

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Works Cited

Baker, Jed. Social Skills Training and Frustration Management: a Dynamic and Comprehensive

Presentation for Parents and Professionals Working with Individuals with Social Difficulties.

Future Horizons, 2006.

Gibbons, Elizabeth. “Weighing the Pros and Cons of Integrated Classrooms.” American Autism

Association, 5 Aug. 2016, www.myautism.org/weighing-pros-cons-

integrated-classrooms/.

Macmillan, Palgrave. “Stats and Facts.” Ambitious about Autism, 27 September 2017,

www.ambittiousaboutautism.org.uk/stats-and-facts.

Marsh, Annabelle. “Home-PMC-NCBI.” Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports., U.S.

National

Library of Medicine, 2017, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc.

“Autism Statistics.” Autism Statistics, 2014, www.autismtopics.org/

t29%20autism%20statistics.html. Accessed 24 March 2019

Saggers, Beth. “Supporting Students with Autism in the Classroom: What Teachers Need to

Know. “The Conversation, The Conversation, 26 Sept. 2018, theconversation.com/

Supporting-students-with-autism-in-the-classroom-what-teachers-need-to-

Know-64814.

Scott, Helen, et al. “Exploring Teachers’ Strategies for Including Children with Autism

Spectrum Disorder in Mainstream Classrooms.” Taylor and Francis Online, 2014,

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Smith, Lisa. “12 Things I’d Like Teachers to Understand about Autism.” Autism Speaks, Mar.

2015
 www.autismspeaks.org/blog/12-things-id-teachers-understand-about-autism.

Taylor, Kate. “For Children With Autism, No More Being Hushed.” The New York Times, The New

York Times, 14 June 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/06/14/nyregion/for-children-with-

Autism-no-more-being-hushed.html.