Sample Kindergarten Sensitivity Training
Simple Facts about Autism
· Autism is something you are born with – you either have it or you don’t
· More boys have autism than girls
· Autism is not an illness – you can not catch it
· Autism does not happen because you did something wrong
· Children with autism sometimes think different or act different than you or me, but in most ways they are the same as you and me
· Autism can not be cured
· If someone has autism it is just part of who they are – like having brown hair and blue eyes. That all happens before you were even born
Simple Facts about Noah (this section would be specific to the child with autism in the classroom)
· Our friend _______ has autism
· He is very smart. He can read hard books and do math, even multiplying
· He loves to read words and work with numbers
· He doesn’t always know how to talk to kids. For example, he might say “can you say a number higher than 42,000”? He really likes numbers and he might think you like numbers as much as he does. You could either play a number game with him or ask him to play something with you
· Noah has a hard time looking at your eyes, but he listens well
· Noah can be a good friend even if it seems like he doesn’t talk about the same things you do
We read “My Friend with Autism.”
Then we talk about the fact that Noah isn’t 100% like the boy in the book but some things are the same. Like the part about sitting still. That can be really tough for Noah sometimes. And sharing can be very hard for him because usually the things he picks out to play with are things he really, really likes and he doesn’t want to give it up. But Noah does want to be friends with you even if he doesn’t talk much or talks about things that you don’t understand. You can help him by inviting him to play with you. Noah likes to play cars but you might see him line them up. You could ask him to play car wash with you or something fun with the cars. Or you could line cars up with him and pretend you’re a car dealer and you want to sell the cars.
Autism is a word that really just means that sometimes Noah thinks differently than you and me. Sometimes his hands open and shut before his eyes instead of clapping. Sometimes he doesn’t want to quit what he is doing and will get upset if he is made to stop a favorite activity. If we really thought about it there is probably something that you do that is different than everybody else and that’s ok. We each have differences that make us unique people. Our school is more interesting because we are all different.