 FASD, ASD and Down Syndrome
Sara McManus
School of Education, University of Northern British Columbia
EDUC 336: Inclusive Education
Melanie Baerg, M.Ed. – Lecturer
July 31, 2022
Sometimes I feel like a broken record player in my reflections because I connect my past lived experiences so passionately to almost everything we study. But then I pondered, isn’t that the most genuine intention of a reflection? Isn’t it true that “without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful” (Wheatly, 2002)? Not that my past experiences have not been successful; that is to say, I am gaining a genuine appreciation for the value of this learning experience and its impact on my future practice.
Myles Himmelreich is the grown-up version of one of my Math & PE students at the Alternate school. He was one of the most challenging students that the school had in my two years teaching there. I couldn’t help but imagine while watching The Myles Himmelreich Story (Sask. Prevention Institute, 2018) that it was an inside look into my student’s amazingly complicated mind. Teaching him twice a day was like walking on eggshells. I never knew what to expect on any given day. (That is one of my favourite parts about the profession of teaching – no two days are ever the same!)
I appreciated seeing Myles Himmelreich’s growth in his teachings on FASD and his development of the Faith, Ability, Strength, and Determination acronym (Sask. Prevention Intervention, 2020) It gives me hope that my student will someday come to understand his life better in a similar way. I agree wholeheartedly that we need to focus on every student’s strengths and help them to forge their paths as they increase in age. This brings me round to the heart of my ongoing pedagogical development. I want my students to know that the World is Better Because They Are in It. One of the biggest gifts I gave my student at the Alternate school was that he knew that I saw him as a whole person who could accomplish anything he set his heart on. When I stepped onto the school grounds this past spring, I was nearly pummelled by this young man’s energetic run across the field to hug me. I was so incredibly proud of him for accomplishing his goals, and he was so proud to share with me his future plans. There had been many days where his behaviours jeopardized his ability to continue his path to graduation within the high school environment. Understanding more about FASD will enable me to become a better advocate for students like him in my future practice to ensure that their disability is accommodated appropriately.
I welcomed learning more specific FASD details in the second video with Myles Himmelreich, Let’s Change the Conversation and Challenge the Stigma (Sask. Prevention Intervention, 2020). I found myself thinking about how there were no sentinel facial features on any of the three students designated with Chronic Health for FASD at the Alternate school. In fact, I would not have known had I not been privy to their IEP meetings. All three students certainly did not see themselves as disabled. Using disability first language directly with them would have been beyond insulting. These three young men came from diverse ethnic backgrounds and socio-economic environments. Each of them had unique learning needs and different responses to my teaching methods, but had I not known otherwise, they were just complicated students, like everyone else. I believe they appreciated that I treated them that way.
Onto subject number two – Autism. I have much less experience with autism; however, I had one scout in my group when he was nine to twelve years old. He two graduated from high school this past year. He won the Citizen of the Year award and scholarship, and I was incredibly proud of him. When this young man was little, he taught me a lot about teaching children with autism. Similarly, I found that the YouTube video series embedded in the POPARD reading by Amythest Schaber was highly informative as an educator (POPARD, n.d.) My scout taught me that he was capable, and I was the one that needed to remember patience and to take extra time with him. He reminded me that I needed to vary my teaching style and give everyone good instructions (what I now know to be explicit instructions) through various methods. For example, if I needed to send the kids to bed at the end of a day at camp, I couldn’t say, “Time for Bed,” and send them off. I had to give them short, easy-to-follow directions with visual reminders. “#1 (pointer finger) Brush your teeth (move a finger up and down like a toothbrush in front of the mouth). #2 (two fingers up) Pajamas on (pretend to pull off clothes and put on PJs top and bottom – two things). #3 (three fingers) Quiet Time in Bed (hold fingers in front of the mouth – make shhhhh sound). #4 (four fingers) Sleep Time (lay head on the side of hands).”  This allowed me to quietly walk around the room as the time passed, reminding all the kids the order to do things, and they all had a small list they could accomplish with less than one hand because of him. (UDL and I didn’t even know it – LOL.) Schaber’s video series, Ask an Autistic, has expanded my learning. She goes into much more detail regarding the different aspects of autism that can be presented in people and how people, like educators, need to presume competence, such as in episode #10 – How to Be An Ally (Schaber, 2014).
I don’t know where my scout would have been placed on the spectrum; he was certainly not high functioning or incapable of performing self-care tasks. I remember his parents telling another leader that he was bigger in size than his average age but younger in every other way by four to five years. We permitted him to stay two extra years with the younger group before moving him up with the “Explorers” when he aged out of “Timber Wolves.” We moved him to the older kids, that were less play-based when he showed interest in what the older group was doing. When he arrived back with his age-based peers, they accepted him like he hadn’t missed anything and had gained the skills he needed to be in the older group. I suppose, in retrospect, he might be one of the reasons I am hesitant to keep all students with their peers’ rules (especially when it is student-led). However, I am open to it, knowing that my one-off tiny life experience with one child pails in comparison to actual research on the subject.
In closing: Down Syndrome is something where my learning far exceeded my personal experience. However, it provided my mother and me a great launching point to discuss the history of Down Syndrome in our family and how she remembers people with Down Syndrome being treated when she was younger. I found the website from the reading list (https://cdss.ca/resources/general-information/) and enjoyed the embedded videos. As much as I enjoyed the light learning experience, I know that in my future practice, when a student with Down Syndrome is placed in my class, I will need to do a substantial amount of learning to make sure that I am doing everything within my capabilities to ensure that the student knows they are capable and valued within my classroom.
References
POPARD – Provincial Outreach Program for Autism & Related Disorders. (n.d.). Autism and Autistic Traits: A Strengths Based Perspective. Retrieved 07 26, 2022, from https://autismoutreach.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Popard-Handout-Autism-and-Autistic-Traits.pdf
Sask. Prevention Institute. (2018, December 111). FASD Realities and Possibilities – the Myles
Himmelreich Story. TommyBrooks. [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved July 26, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B81BNRyrHCg
Sask. Prevention Intervention. (2020, 11 04). FASD: Let’s Change the Conversation and
Challenge the Stigma. [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved 07 26, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb5A6eR_0XU&t=2120s
Schaber, A. (2014, April 24). Ask an Autistic #10 – How To Be An Ally. [Video]. YouTube.
Retrieved 07 30, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= JsllOQeWqNg&list=PLAoYMF syj_k1ApNj_QUkNgKC1R5F9bVHs&index=10
Wheatly, M. (2002, April). It’s An Interconnected World. Shambhala Sun. [Article]. Retrieved July 27, 2022, from https://margaretwheatley.com/articles/interconnected.html#: ~:text=Without%20reflection%2C%20we%20go%20blindly,on%20what%20we%20just%20did.