ABSTRACT
This book does not set out to explain autism; we would refer the reader to other texts for that explanation. What we aim to do is to pinpoint some key features in our understanding and interpretation of the condition, that we feel underpin examples of good practice. At the root of our beliefs about the education of those with autism is the notion that we need to respect the way in which those individuals think and learn. By ‘respect’ we mean more than the acknowledgement of a right to the kind of respect that is necessary in any human relationship if it is to be truly of the human kind. We use the term here to include a notion of recognition at a psychological level that the world is as it seems to the individual with autism for him/her . We think this holds true in as much as the way in which the child perceives and reacts to the social and physical worlds in which they live represents a reality for him/her. We may not be able to share autistic ways of understanding but that is our problem as teachers and our starting point for any move towards real learning on the part of our students. There is a natural tension (which professionals need to resolve) between, on the one hand, respecting the individual’s autism and so working within its constraints, and, on the other hand, trying to enable individuals with autism to work effectively and live productively within the non-autistic world by improving the effectiveness of their thinking and learning.
