Today, we did not work with students. Instead, the teachers attended numerous in service meetings, and the paras watched training videos. One video we watched really hit home with my old teaching job: teaching life skills to Intellectually Disabled students.
Specifically, the video was about teaching what is known as "The Hidden Curriculum" to students with Autism. What this refers to is the instruction of skills to students revolving around social etiquette and what is generally considered common sense behavior in social situations that most of us learn as we grow up (without ever really being taught). Examples includes when is the appropriate time to use profanity (not around adults or certain social situations), using tactful conversation with someone you may not see eye to eye with, or even when is it appropriate time and place to pick or scratch at oneself (that includes ALL of their body parts).
Some good examples of what an Autistic student might need to learn can be found on the video below. You may want to mute the volume as you don't need it, and the music playing in the background repeats itself over and over (it gets quite annoying):
As the speaker in the video shared examples of the hidden curriculum, I kept thinking of the different autistic students I worked with. At my current job, we have several students with Asperger's Syndrome, though I don't work with them as much as work with students who have conduct disorders and severe mental illness. I hope that in the future, I get the opportunity to work with more students who have Autism, as they are an immense pleasure to work with.
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