Math Shouldn’t Ruin Your Dreams

Over the span of our careers, we have worked with lots of students who are on the autism spectrum, and truthfully, they are some of our favorite students. They push us to think differently and to keep trying. Anna would like to share a story about one of her college students, Julia.  

Day one in class Julia announced to the class that she has autism so all students in the class know. It was obvious that not all students were comfortable. For Valentine’s Day, Julia brought each person in class a Hershey’s Kiss. Even when students were late, she would get up and give them their candy and tell them why they were getting their candy. I paused each time so that Julia could ensure that each student got their candy. Julia is such a sweet person and that day, everyone got to see how sweet.  

Julia talks to herself out loud sometimes when she gets frustrated. During tests, it is obvious that most students share Julia’s frustration and that by hearing her voice her frustrations it helps them to feel more at ease during tests. On the last test of the term, a few of the students actually responded to Julia during the test. Once Julia said, “I don’t know how to do this!” and another student responded “I don’t either. It’s ok.” After the test, Julia asked if we really needed all of this Algebra. I told her honestly, “Not all of it.” Julia responded with “Math shouldn’t ruin your dreams.” Three students responded to Julia about that statement and told her how true that is. She was definitely everyones favorite person that day because she said what everyone was thinking.  

In our classrooms, we normalize that math is a separate journey for everyone. We all have to take our own path to get there and it is not the same for everyone. When Anna was a baby teacher, she thought that all students would love hands on activities. Oh, how wrong she was… She found that for some students, especially students on the autism spectrum with sensory issues, those “fun” hands on activities cause extra stress and don’t help but actually hurt. What we think is fun may not be fun for all students, so we want to try new activities until we find one that each student likes. We never want to force our students to conform to the norm and it is important that we meet them where they are academically and socially and emotionally. It is all about finding a way to do math that each student likes. Does this mean you could have several different types of activities happening at the same time? Yes! It’s all about finding something fun for each student. Some students love coloring sheets and for others that is torture, they would much rather have a worksheet. Some students love walk around the room activities and others would rather have a maze. Whatever it is, we want students to have options. We want them to eventually be able to take ownership over their own learning and understand what they need to help them succeed.  

Whether you are a homeschool parent of a Julia, a teacher of a Julia, or maybe you are a Julia… we want you to know that we are here to help support you in your math journey.  

Happy Autism Awareness Month! 

Megan and Anna