Ouch is right

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On her Teen Autism blog, Tania writes: "And no matter how much you love your son and the wonderful person that he is, no matter how far he’s come and how much he’s achieved and how high your hopes, it still hurts. For both of you."

This week, Elmer's team leader cc'd me a post she'd sent to Elmer's teachers:

Hi All,

I noticed that Elmer doesn’t really have a clue about when to interject his ideas or perseverations of the moment during your class time. He becomes easily embarrassed if he is redirected in front of the class. So, how to shape and redirect his behavior effectively as gently as possible?

It will be helpful for us all to tell him when he can share information- exactly as you wish him to share.(both verbally and in written form) Gentle reminders in written form would also be helpful to him when he forgets or needs reminders in novel situations.

He has been in a 1 teacher : 5-8 student classroom for the last few years where this behavior was not a an issue. He needs to learn when to share relevant info and when to share goofy fun stuff so it doesn’t interfere with your teaching. Elmer and I will talk it over in goals lab, too.

Thanks, he is thriving in your classes, Team Leader.

Immediately I pictured his classmates rolling their eyes, tittering, "Weird Elmer"ing. Ouch. At least in our case, Elmer has Team Leader who is on top of this. Still, as Tania wrote, after all these years and as far as he has come.....Ouch.