ABSTRACT
The title of this book points deliberately to a specific stance with regard to the education of children with autism. It suggests that in autism, perhaps more than in any other context, the very nature of teaching and learning needs a special kind of scrutiny. There is an underlying premise here that what can usually be assumed when anyone engages in trying to teach something to someone else cannot be assumed in autism. The individual with autism needs help to learn. For example, it is not enough to ask from the singular perspective of the teacher, ‘How can I motivate this child to learn?’ Rather the question needs to be, ‘How can I help this child learn to be motivated?’ Clearly, to get to a position where an answer to this latter question can be reached there first needs to be some understanding of what is habitually regarded, in this instance, as ‘being motivated’ and more generally as the process of teaching and learning. Following this there needs to be some consideration of what effect the autism will have on that way of being and that process. In autism effective teaching can only be realised by an initial consideration of the individual’s way of learning and its effects on whatever the teacher might plan to do. Education in autism needs to be pursued from the child’s perspective.
