This observation warmed my heart :)

During the last observation that I did for my SED 104 class, I went back home and sat in on a seventh grade social studies class. Within the class was a student with autism and ADHD. He was so precious! I could have watched him all day. This student was constantly humming and appeared to be directing his own band in his mind during class as he rocked back in forth in his seat. Although some may have viewed this behavior as distracting, all of the students around him seemed unaware or just use to this behavior. Every once and awhile he would chime into class, sometimes it was relevant to what was be discussed, and sometimes not. However he seemed confident is his speech and seemed to have well developed language skills. Yet someone in class mentioned how they knew someone with autism who did not speak at all. It seems crazy to me how this disorder manifests itself in totally different ways. However some characteristics of autism are always prevalent, like being overly sensitive. For example the student I observed once called out, "Mr. Utz, someone is stealing my sounds!". He seemed quite upset about this, but luckily he was calmed by the reassurance of the teacher saying "Those are all your sounds, you don't need to worry about anyone stealing them from you...we can even have them Patton if you want" (haha :)). Autism is a really fascinating disorder that effects so many students in today's classrooms, but as long as we find out how to keep them calm and feeling safe, its amazing to think of what they can accomplish!