Dear Editor,

All teachers should be properly trained to manage students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and be made aware of their susceptibility to being abused by their neurotypical peers and adults alike. I am of the view that teachers should not only receive mandatory ASD training, but students should also be sensitised to this disorder by including child-development science in the standard high school curriculum that would teach students, among other things, about the often-debilitating condition, without being overly complicated.

It would explain to students how, among other aspects of the condition, people with ASD, including those with higher functioning autism, are often deemed wilfully “difficult” and socially incongruent, when, in fact, such behaviour is really not a choice.

And how “camouflaging” or “masking”, terms used to describe ASD people pretending to naturally fit into a socially normal environment, causes their already high anxiety and depression levels to further increase. Of course, this exacerbation is reflected in the disproportionately high rate of suicide among ASD people.

Regarding my own autism-spectrum disordered brain, I’m sometimes told, “But you’re so smart.” To this I immediately and somewhat frustratingly reply: “But for every gift I have, there is a corresponding three or four deficits.” It’s crippling, and on multiple levels!

There could also be childrearing/parenting instruction in regards to children born with ASD. Low-functioning autism is already readily recognised and treated, but higher-functioning ASD cases are basically left to fend for themselves.

As a moral rule, a physically and mentally sound future should be every child’s fundamental right, especially considering the very troubled world in which they must exist but never asked to enter.

Frank Sterle

fgsjr2010@hotmail.com