“You told me you were going to show me three turns and you did four!” This somewhat indignant response was from Oliver, an enthusiastic eight year old boy. Oliver wasn’t trying to be rude it was just that in his mind, I had lied to him.
Oliver has Asperger’s syndrome which is a developmental disorder that has a neurological base as has autism. We hope that by sharing Jim’s experience with Oliver, others may have improved and successful experiences if assigned an Aspergers child as a student.
Traits
There are many traits common to the syndrome but each child is different. Some of the most common traits shown include:
- The child will often tend to be inflexible which will generally be perceived as rudeness by adults
- The child will tend to perseverate – for example, a whole day can be spent focusing on the fact that his mother gave him porridge for breakfast when he wanted toast.
- The child’s social skills must be taught explicitly but will remain far below what is age appropriate
- There is an inability to show empathy
- Non-verbal communication cues will likely be missed – for example, the various emotions shown by facial expressions, expressions that we tend to interpret automatically
- The spoken language will be taken literally – ‘sit down’ may be taken as sitting on the floor rather than on a chair – idioms have no meaning
- Children are often very sensitive to external stimuli such as sounds, light and tactile sensations – for example they may not want to wear shoes or socks because they like the feel of the ground or carpet on their feet
- Further to ‘touch’, some children react angrily or violently when touched …… if the child falls, it is wise to ask , “Would you like me to help you up?”
- Rroutine is extremely important for the child. Any unprepared deviation from routine can cause a violent reaction (meltdown).
Oliver and his mother visit our area each vacation period. At first, he was placed in our Kids Klub program. The result was not at all positive. Once he was placed into private lessons, he had an enjoyable and successful learning experience.
Oliver’s tendency to perseverate wasn’t as severe as many Aspergers children; yet, virtually every trip up the lift involved a discussion about Trout fishing, what lure to use, where the best places are, with sudden spontaneous side diversion such as, “Do you think that there are any Trout in that stream?” It was spring and there was significant run off occurring on the hill. He wasn’t focused on a previous event in the day but rather a pastime he enjoys in the summer months but still doesn’t completely understand.
It is important that the child feels that you are interested in what is being said. This is not the time to provide suggestions to improve skiing since the child’s mind is not in that space at the moment. Indeed, you may find that the child seems to pay little attention to anything you say during the lesson unless it is connected to the topic in the child’s mind. Since the child is not really interested in what you have to say, the key is to demonstrate, demonstrate, encourage, demonstrate, and then demonstrate some more.
Like most children, Oliver likes to play games. Reach into your toolbox, suggest a couple of games. The Aspergers student will need to feel in control, so just make sure you present options that are all good choices. Oliver liked to do the same game over and over. With some gentle encouragement I was able to have him try some new activities. The trick is to make him feel like he made the choice and that it wasn’t forced upon him.
Don’t try to force your agenda on an Aspergers student as this will likely lead to conflict, or as often referred to as a “meltdown”. A meltdown is a term used to describe what the rest of the world might call a temper tantrum. For an Aspergers child, the meltdown experience is different than a tantrum because the lack of social and verbal skills leads to extreme frustration and behaviours more appropriate to a much younger child. With Oliver, and other children with a similar diagnosis, the frustration is magnified many times. The only outlet that is understood is to lash out at the people or the situation that caused the frustration. With poor social skills, there really is no concern as to how others perceive the outbursts and there is certainly no empathy for anyone being embarrassed by the behaviour. It is essential that you as the instructor understand that when working with a child like Oliver that there will be ‘meltdowns’. How well you maintain your cool and understand the reason for them, the more successful and enjoyable the experience will be for both of you. Parents and educational assistants will work on social skills; whereas, you as the ski instructor will work on skiing.
As is typical, Oliver tended to transfer blame to others. One time, while getting on the chair, he slipped on the wet seat and began to fall off. I grabbed him and pulled him back up safely onto the chair. “I almost fell, you didn’t give me enough room!” he shouted. On another occasion he tried to turn on a patch of hard snow and slid out of the turn landing on his side. “You didn’t tell me it was icy.” Clearly the fall in his mind was the result of my neglect not his inability to maintain an edge. You can’t take these statements personally. If you do, you will get into an argument that you are bound to lose……… and a tantrum (meltdown) will likely result. And …… the child will not be successful.
Oliver felt he was ready to handle the more challenging slopes. Our area had limited beginner terrain at the time and he was getting a bit bored. He was becoming more and more demanding that we try the harder hills. I knew that he would be safe enough but also that his skill level wasn’t there yet for him to have a successful experience. Please note, in this situation I was confident that Oliver would be safe. Putting a student in an unsafe situation is never an excuse to avoid a meltdown!
It looked like a no win situation. If I refused to let him try, there would be a meltdown, if I took him up, he would fall, several times, and have a meltdown. The only thing to do was to take up to the top of our easiest blue run. On the way up he noticed and commented unceasingly about how easy the hill looked until we saw a steeper pitch near the top. Oliver recognized immediately that he would be having problems. I expected a confrontation right away but it didn’t happen.
As predicted on the way down the pitch Oliver fell twice. Not badly, just a typical skid out on the bottom part of the turn due to a lack of edge control. After the second fall, came the meltdown. This was characterized by yelling, tears and thrashing of his poles. Interestingly, he didn’t blame me for taking him up. He transferred his frustration to the situation this time not the instructor. What he said was “I want to ski this hill but I can’t.” This phrase was repeated over and over again.
During an incident like this you are bound to feel somewhat embarrassed as other skiers go by. (Please note the earlier comment about inability to show empathy). You may feel that other guests are judging you because you have done something to upset the student. Remember, don’t take these outbursts personally. They have nothing to do with you or your abilities as an instructor. It’s an aspect of the child’s personality that not you or anybody else has control over. It’s a very good idea however, to make sure that your on-hill supervisor knows the situation you are dealing with before you begin your lesson since there may be feedback coming back to him/her by passers-by who don’t know the full extent of the situation.
Over the March Break week I had Oliver for a total of ten hours of lessons. The first two hour private was assigned by the lesson desk since I have a background in Special Education. The rest of the lessons were “requests” because Oliver told his mom he wanted me to teach him again. Aspergers children can recognize when someone is sincerely interested in what they have to say and have an interest in helping them learn.
When I first took Oliver out, he had a weak unbalanced snowplow going for him. After the ten lessons, he was finishing his turns parallel with good balance on beginner terrain. This may not seem like big progress for ten hours but for Oliver and his mother, it was much more than they expected.
I don’t recommend putting an Aspergers child into a group situation such as a kids program. The child’s poorly developed social skills will impact negatively on the other children in the group. In addition, the meltdowns that occur will create a distraction and affect the progress of the lesson for the rest of the group.
If you are assigned a student similar to Oliver, enjoy your time, let him talk, do lots of demos, let him feel that he is in control and above all, keep your cool.
If you understand how an Aspergers child thinks and responds to you as a snow pro you can have success in providing a positive lesson experience. Remember: do not take behaviours personally.
Submitted by Jim Dawson OCT (Ontario Certified Teacher)
Ontario Special Education Qualification: Part 1
CSIA Level II 137205
Retired Elementary School Vice-Principal
Former Snow Education Supervisor, Talisman Resort Village.
Email tourguy@everus.ca
Cell (519) 375-0765
Collaboration by
Jan Dawson OCT
Ontario Special Education Qualification: Specialist
Retired Elementary School Principal
Home (519) 924 -3766
At the time I had Oliver as a student, I was a supervisor with Talisman Resort Village. This article was written in collaboration with my wife Jan Dawson OCT who has a specialist certificate in Special Education and is a retired elementary school principal.
Oliver’s mother has given permission for this article to be written, confirmation can be attained by contacting her at the following email address. The permission includes using the pictures attached to this file.
T. Cunningham
89 West Carling Bay Rd,
RR#1 Nobel, ON P0G 1G0
tcunningham@clps.ca
