By Lexi Roach, Delaney Stryczek and Gina Jarvis, Editors
In Heather Spaetzel’s Spanish class, when a student says the word “retarded,” her reaction is immediate. She makes students aware that what they are saying is false by showing them a video of actress Lauren Potter from Glee
It’s a personal issue for Spaetzel, whose daughter, freshman Amber Spaetzel, was diagnosed at the age of four with autism. Amber is one of several participants in Kaneland’s Adaptive P.E. class, which works with the P.E. Leadership class.
WHAT IS AUTISM?
According to Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network Surveillance, The autism spectrum disorders are a group of developmental disabilities characterized by atypical development in socialization, communication and behavior. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, autism and other special developmental problems are growing more common in children throughout the years, affecting an estimated 3.4 percent of children between ages three to ten. Symptoms of autism are present before age three, when children begin showing abnormalities in cognitive functioning, learning, attention span and sensory processing, according to DDMNS. Yet people with autism can hear, speak, learn and love just like anybody else. Autism is really a spectrum of disorders with different levels of severity. It’s diagnosed through clinical observation of development in the child, and although development often proceeds at a slower pace, many autistic students are still able to communicate and be just like anyone else, both inside and outside of school.
Senior Richard Williams is one of several Kaneland students diagnosed with Asperger’s, a high functioning from of autism.
Williams, an honor student and an Eagle Scout, has dedicated much of his time to helping others understand that students with autism are often highly capable and intelligent. They just express themselves differently.
“People with autism are still normal people, they just function differently,” Williams said. “We have different talents and different weaknesses.”
The DDMNS says that symptoms of autism peak around age eight.
“In high school, [being a student with Asperger’s] hasn’t been much of an obstacle. Kids at Kaneland accept kids with special needs, and I like that,” Williams said.
There are many students who don’t know much about the world of autism, he said.
“There are not too many misconceptions [about students with autism or Asperger’s] because people don’t really know exactly what autism is, but I do encounter a lot of ignorance,” Williams said.
Brian Willis, the teacher of P.E. Leadership and Adaptive P.E., a class that mixes P.E. Leaders and students with disabilities, said that sometimes students can be hurtful because of that ignorance.
“It angers me [when people say the word ‘retarded’] because it shows how shallow someone is when they make fun of someone that has no control over how they were born,” Willis said.
AMBER’S CHALLENGES
“We never looked at things as obstacles for Amber, we always look at them as opportunities. When Amber was diagnosed, they said she wasn’t going to have friends, a job, or be able to live on her own. Me being myself, I said ‘no way.’ I took off of work to focus on her, and now she’s happier than she’s ever been through the past 10 years,” Spaetzel said.
Amber has overcome many obstacles, including making friends, opening up and trusting others throughout her life, Spaetzel said. Amber is a member of art club, enjoys bowling and loves to dance. The one thing she loves to draw is Lady Gaga, her celeb obsession.
“We play a lot of music throughout the house, but it’s just her personality [that likes to dance],” said Spaetzel.
Amber was diagnosed at age four with a score of four out of eleven on the Autism Diagnosis Spectrum, a severe level of autism.
The Autism Spectrum Scale is a chart that measures different levels of autism. Scores from one to four indicate a severe form called autistic disorder, while scores from five to eleven indicate a milder form called Asperger’s syndrome. Anyone can be first diagnosed with a severe case of autism—there is no known cause—and some eventually improve and get off the spectrum entirely. Amber is a miracle, Heather Spaetzel said, because she conquered autism when she went off the spectrum.
“Amber was diagnosed with autism when she was four and a half, and when she was 11, she was considered off the spectrum, with a 14 out of 11,” she said.
Amber was put through the Relationship Developmental Intervention, a program for autistic children that focuses on achieving basic milestones of childhood, but taken in slower paces. Over the years, through therapy and family support, her condition progressed for the better. By the time she was 11 years old, Amber’s improvement was life-changing.
P.E. LEADERSHIP
Amber is a student in Adaptive P.E., a class where students with a variety of needs learn, play and socialize. P.E. Leaders assist the Adaptive P.E. students in their activities and help them form new relationships.
“We teach everything from cognitive to motor to speech skills. We play Frisbee, hockey, golf, paint, draw, write, run and ride bikes. We do anyhing you can think of,” Brian Willis, P.E. Leadership and Adaptive P.E. teacher, said.
Willis has been running the program for four years now and said he loves every moment of it.
Activities include playing sports, learning school materials, drawing, coloring, reading and more. Each student goes at his or her own pace, but all are able to participate.
Students in the class have different and unique needs, but the one-on-one time they receive helps them adapt to their environment and be comfortable around other people. P.E. Leaders not only work with the students to help teach and guide them, but they also play many of the same games, which forms strong bonds between students.
The class also plays a big role in improving students social skills, senior Jennifer Howland said.
“In regular classes, some of the students with disabilities would sit in the back corner of the room with their head down, talking to no one because of how shy they were. The teachers didn’t know how to deal with them, so they just ignored them. It wasn’t their fault; they just needed extra attention to focus on what they needed most,” Howland said.
According to Suzan Blackney, co-teacher of P.E. Leadership and Adaptive P.E., the class keeps students moving, and every day there is a new activity or project for students to participate in.
The class often goes to the auxiliary gym and play a variety of games, including pass the ball and t-ball, that allows students to be active. The class also walks miles outside on the track, goes on community field trips and spends days playing board games, all the while working on social skills and making friends in a welcoming environment.
“The bond they have is unbelievable. They truly connect with each other, and it’s not just one way. It’s a true mutual connection,” Willis said.
Some days they will spend in a classroom playing xBox games together, the P.E. Leaders doing everyone’s hair, or playing Connect Four and dancing to music.
Howland became a P.E. Leader last year and said that connecting with other students at first takes time.
“In the beginning, it’s kind of like meeting a new friend. You have to earn their trust,” Howland said.