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School Putting Autistic Children in Fenced Enclosure
In an attempt to deal with autistic children who "have no sense of boundaries and do not respond to staff asking them to stop," a Sydney primary school has created pens which hold the disabled children during play time. As you might expect, parents have expressed outrage that their kids are forced to stand inside a fenced enclosure that has one tree, a bench and a dirt floor. The Department of Education said in a statement: "The school is located on a busy road. Without this area, the students may leave the school grounds and could potentially be injured. Some of these children have no sense of boundaries and do not respond to staff asking them to stop. Once the school is satisfied a student will listen to directions from staff members and is also aware of playground boundaries, the child can use the playground."
I agree completely. My wife works at a school which caters to children with Autism, and they have several who are runners. At least once a week they have an escape which requires the school staff running after the child, calling the police, and all other levels of disruption and danger to the students and staff. One child in particular is a really good runner -- only one of the teachers there can run fast enough to catch him. Luckily they are located in an area which is mostly surrounded by farm land. A busy road nearby could really end badly.
As an Asperger adult, I find this shameful. If there's something an autistic child needs, it's other persons support and friendship. Putting these childs in fences would only
make their "integration" harder. This is what makes the diferrence between a silent, isolated autist and a "normal" person who doesn't consider his condition as a limitation. Let the autist be part of society!
Wow. I am a parent of an autistic child and I know many other autistic children and families. I guess you could say I, and many other parents, have years of experience.
Wandering is a very real issue for many parents: there is a fellow in our neighborhood who is mid-teens now and who has wandered since he was about 7 years old. "Wander" does not mean just to the end of the block -- could be anywhere in the city. The city police got to know him quite well because of the number of times he was brought in by passing motorists. For those who are tempted to blame the parents for not exercising enough control: it was not a simple thing to keep track of him. He is a real escape artist.
Even though he is not verbally communicative, he always seemed to know exactly where he was and how to get back. Early attempts of attaching a GPS transponder were futile but he now accepts the unit and actually makes sure he has it on before going out. er... look up "Social Stories" and "Carol Gray".
Depending on the enclosure, the school response may or may not be the best. One thing for sure though, the school is responding to a real problem and their first priority is to ensure the children do not get lost and that they come to no harm. After that it is what resources they have available and what expertise they can bring to the problem.
My experience with schools is that they are primarily mass production student factories. Individual needs and issues are low on the list. Special needs issues are difficult at best. Most positive situations result from the actions of individual teachers and principals, not as a consequence of an "administration approved" intervention.
Its a tough one. One thing is for sure though: Listen to the parents; they are the experts for their children. If the parents feel there is something wrong then they should be listened to.
After having read the original article and the comments made on it, I would like to share some comments about this, coming from a perspective which probably differs from what may be 74/75ths to perhaps 149/150ths of the rest of you who are Neurotypicals (NTs). You see, I have been diagnosed with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD... God... how I hate that last word), such as those who who are being put into the enclosure. However, in my case, my childhood occurred before ASDs were widely known by teachers and doctors, and for the most part, a bright but reclusive and awkward child. It was not until I was in my 40s that I was diagnosed, at which point, I could look back at my life and see where various events, behaviours and tendencies may very likely have been the result of my being on the spectrum.
1) Nowhere was the size of this area indicated, nor sufficient details about the surroundings. If it is of a significant size, OK. But even then, it has been pointed out by folks in the area that it lacked adequate shade and was in other ways lacking when compared with another playground at the school, which was apparently featured on a pamphlet of some sort.
2) When possible, kids with ASDs, whether they are low functioning and in need of 24/7 care, or so high functioning that they generally appear normal, should be treated as much the same as NTs, doing the same activities on the same playgrounds and as much as possible in the same classes. Yes, we **may** need a bit less distraction in the classroom (no covering the walls with unnecessary maps, posters, etc.), **may** have issues with bright lights, the buzzing from the lights, etc., and **may** get upset at changes such as a substitute. We **may** also be subject to being bullied. But at the same time, we **may** act up because we may be bored with what the NTs have taken days to understand while we got it in no time flat. (And grades are not a good indicator here...) The list goes on... But all this is necessary, because by doing so, we learn to socialize as best we can, and people have a chance to learn that AS vs. NT is no different than where we were born, the color of our hair, our race or anything else.
3) If you are going to fence off an area, take advantage of the fact and fence off an area for all the kids to use, not just those diagnosed with an ASD. I know of many schools where this was done for younger kids, who NT, Aspie or Autie are prone to go running off under the right conditions (such as chasing off after a ball). Indeed, the entire playground areas at schools I attended were big enough to play baseball in, if not larger.
4) As for the "dirt floor" comment... ours were a mix of asphalt, grass and dirt covered with sand, pea gravel or wood chips, to cut down on puddles and mud while allowing a chance for the kids to work off excess energy. More recently, there has been a move to use the rubber "asphalt" which is springy and more forgiving than either the hard ground or asphalt... fewer injuries from falls. And no, this is not a fancy rich area, but rather rural Appalachia, where 90% of us fed the livestock both before and after school, and were used to seeing garbage cans in the halls to capture water from leaks in the roof.
Don't get me wrong... I am not saying all children should be treated in 100% the same way. That is one of the problems with NCLB as implemented in many schools, and perhaps symptomatic of trying to teach 30+ children in a single classroom with one teacher. If a child has a speech impediment, such as saying "ch" vs. "st" but otherwise has a large vocabulary and reads and does math several grade levels higher than their peers, you should have a speech pathologist work with the impediment and give them instruction at their advanced levels when ever possible. If, however, they have problems reading or doing math, but are otherwise doing fine, give them the extra instruction they need in those areas, and otherwise they are just like any other child. Perhaps by doing so can we reclaim what once put us on the Moon, and go beyond that to possibly fix many of the ills which we are presently suffering.
Helping build UN*X and the Internet since 1981.
Most of you people have a total lack of reading comprehension. That or are just cold hearted. The problem here ISN'T that the playground is fenced off! No where does it say that. No where does it imply that. Not a single aspect of it. It's that the autistic children are fenced off from everyone else. Essentially telling the normal kids that the autistic children are animals, while telling the autistic children there is something wrong with them. Having worked with special needs children of all types for years, and a good portion of that time working specifically with autistic kids of all ranges, you are dead wrong if you thing they don't know whats going on around them. I have never met one who wasn't at least partially aware of their surroundings, and there's hardly any who wouldn't realize they are being mistreated by being thrown in a cage. And a cage with nothing to actually do in it for that matter (sitting on a bench doesn't count).
The people in charge of this school should be absolutely ashamed of themselves, and honestly don't deserve a job dealing with children. The fact that this is being defended is simply despicable and shows how poorly regarded disabled people are in this country.
Yeah, except you don't know the neighborhood I lived in (same neighborhood the school was in), so don't make such assumptions. I lived there long enough to know that there were drug dealers around CONSTANTLY.
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
Putting a dangerous kid in a pen isn't uncommon.
I've worked with high-function autistic, Asperger's, and ADHD students. In almost all the schools (all of them small), there's a "quiet room": a locked, padded room in case a student goes into a flailing tantrum. Ya, it happens. Ya, it's really quite dangerous for the other children and staff around the angry child. So, if they feel like that's the last resort, they go into the quiet room and chill out.