Robert Snyder: SPED General

I have worked with students on the autism spectrum here at Rouse for four years. We work on social skills and study skills to be more effective and productive in their daily lives. Social and study skills cover things like organizing, prioritizing, how to enter and leave a conversation, how to appropriately greet peers and adults, how to sustain a conversation, how to ask for help, making good choices when others aren’t, how to respond when people say things they don’t like and much more.

In my experience, students on the spectrum are creative, can be highly focused, intelligent, loving, compassionate, easily frustrated and can misread social situations. This provides some unique interactions and exchanges of information.

Most of all, just like everyone else, folks on the autism spectrum want to be like their peers. They want to have friends, to have fulfilling lives and be accepted warmly.

Of all of the student populations I have worked with in my almost 20 years of teaching, this has been my most challenging and rewarding time so far. I love the passion with which my students live, and taking the time to develop relationships with these folks is highly rewarding.