Autistic Student being teased during lesson

amother

Orange

Mon, May 15 2017, 10:08 am

In my fourth grade class there is one student with autism. He is very intelligent and a very well behaved child. He is also happy to socialize with the students around him. The nicer of the students "tolerate" him with a smile and are somewhat responsive to his jokes and friendly gestures. However, I have been noticing lately that students have been making fun of his speech patterns and hand motions. They will even call out in jeering way "What was that "Jake"? Can you say that again?" So they can giggle at his mannerisms.

As a teacher, I can reprimand the students for "calling out" while "Jake " is speaking. I can punish them with consequences. But how do I call out the teasing behavior without humiliating "Jake" further? Please keep in mind that this usually happens in the middle of the lesson.

"Jake" is a wonderful and sweet boy. He is hardly ( atleast I suspect) aware of what is going on around him. But the other students snickering is really upsetting me and I want it to stop. Please share your advice and experience.

thank you

cnc

Mon, May 15 2017, 10:15 am

I would take the opportunity when he's not in class( by sending him on an errand etc), to give the class a speech about their behavior. A short story about being mean to peers may help.

amother

Orange

Mon, May 15 2017, 10:17 am

cnc wrote:

I would take the opportunity when he's not in class( by sending him on an errand etc), to give the class a speech about their behavior. A short story about being mean to peers may help.

Do I tell the class that he is autistic? Is that important to share? I think your idea is great. "jake" has perfect attendance and has never been absent. I will send him on an errand.

seeker

Mon, May 15 2017, 10:38 am

I don't think it is relevant that he is autistic. I think the key message is that everyone is different from each other and we need to respect people's differences. In life they will encounter many people acting similarly and either they don't have a diagnosis or you don't know their diagnosis, and it's neither here nor there. They need to learn to look past these things and treat others kindly no matter what.

mummiedearest

Mon, May 15 2017, 10:39 am

amother wrote:

Do I tell the class that he is autistic? Is that important to share? I think your idea is great. "jake" has perfect attendance and has never been absent. I will send him on an errand.

sounds like the class needs general middos work. I don't think you need to bring the diagnosis up. they need to learn to respect others. singling jake out as autistic will just give them more reason to consider him different. does your school have a psychologist on staff who can work with the kids on proper treatment of others?

STMommy

Mon, May 15 2017, 10:41 am

do not speak about the autism, talk in general about how different people have different ways of learning, different strengths and challenges. but that you expect that no matter what, students are to treat each other kindly in your class.

amother

Orange

Mon, May 15 2017, 10:45 am

mummiedearest wrote:

I agree with your responses There is no need to bring up diagnosis here. This is actually a Hebrew school program. We meet 2 times a week. There is no psychologist.

amother

White

Mon, May 15 2017, 11:11 am

I actually bought a Jewish book (forgot the title) written for kids teaching them to care about others feelings. What the "teacher" in the book did was had every child draw a smile and then crumble it for every insult. Then she asked them to straighten it - it'll never look like new. Another thing she did was hand out papers with different animals to each student and then have them find their pair. One student didn't have a pair and was then questioned in front of the class about how it felt to be singled out...

cbs880

Mon, May 15 2017, 12:27 pm

If I may humbly suggest,
Why dont you dedicate one lesson to the concept of middos. What they are, how they are vital to jewish ppl, how we demonstrate good middos. Include Stories, or videos furthering the topic. Ask kids to give examples of middos and have them decide if they are "good" or "bad"
I would follow it up with some sort of class chart or competition where kids "score" by showing good middos.
Stress the positive.
I feel it goes a longer way then the mussar.