To my surprise, while having lunch with my class, one of the boys stayed back at the lunch table and chatted with us. He started off with talking about his own interests, then as we were more engrossed in the conversation, he mentioned that he had autism, but on the mild side. I was shocked to hear that. This piqued my interest alot. Many questions were running through my head. After having known a little about Autism, and having spent some of my holidays reading about Autism, I asked him curiously, what were the problems he faced in his general education school as well as the special school.
He said, he always had cases of classmates bullying him in the general education school, having heard all the vulgarities, he was taught to ignore. At times he struggles a challenging problem inside him whether he should scold them back with what was thrown at him. He would then remember his fathers advice on people bullying him.
After hearing what seemed to be the boy's main concern in schools, i started wondering and thinking back. In sunday classes, he also gets bullied by his classmates. Not only do the bullies poke fun and call him names, they dislike him too.
I as a teacher in charge of them, should do something about it.
I am thinking of talking to the whole class about the boy's condition and explain to the class how things can be hard for him and how we all can work together to make is learning successfull.
But, i should approach the boy to ask him if he is agreeable with informing the class about his condition first.
Any comments? I would like to approach this matter with utmost sensitivity and i would like to avoid stepping on anyones toes.
Bryant.