Here at Temple Grandin School, one of the core values we live by is Understanding: “…we understand the nuances of Asperger’s and other neurocognitive differences. We look beyond behavior to understand our students’ concerns and motivations. We respect their learning styles, and through our socio-academic curriculum, we help them develop a respectful understanding of different perspectives.” As we enter April, a month in which the traits and needs of autistic people are highlighted, we will lean into this core value as we share what we’ve learned over our ten years of teaching students on the spectrum and what we continue to learn as we interact with our students, our students’ parents, our teachers, and the general autism community.
We’ve targeted three different mini-themes for the month: We Get It, We Live It, and We Love It. Autism is a spectrum – We Get It. Not everyone with autism has a vocation like Temple Grandin’s, or savant skills like The Good Doctor. But everyone on the spectrum we’ve met has a unique and creative perspective on life, the universe, and everything. During the first third of April, we’ll focus on the need to cultivate greater understanding of the diverse voices that make up the autism spectrum as we share some of our students’ answers to the question “What do you wish other people knew about autism?” Also within this time period we’ll release the first episode in our Power of 10 video project. This first video will cover Ten Surprising Careers for Aspies. We’ve been working toward this release for months and are excited to share the video!
Our next mini-theme is We Live It. We’ll feature positive autism moments shared with us by parents and teachers of autistic and neurodiverse students. We will also deliver the first in a two-part webinar series, in partnership with Guiding Bright Minds on “Autism: Finding Flexibility, Structure & Support.” We hope to see you there, on April 21, 2021 at 7 pm MDT.
Finally, in our month of sharing what we understand about autism, we’ll share how We Love It! You’ll hear many of the things we love about working with students on the spectrum here at TGS. As well, we are gathering information about how other autism schools love it too, and we’ll share what we learn with you. We may even release our second Power of 10 video episode – stay tuned!
Along the way, we’ll pass along resources that come our way from others in the autism and neurodiverse community. We look forward to sharing and expanding our understanding of autism as we all come together to celebrate these amazing minds!