KNOWING vs.
NOT KNOWING
Teaching Students to Accept
and LOVE their Diagnosis
By: Dr. Michael P. McManmon, Ed.D
Recently diagnosed adolescents and young
adults have shared that over the years before
they knew about their Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or Learning Difference (LD) diagnosis, they believed they were crazy, stupid, not
good enough and numerous other extremely
negative attributions. I drew some of these
same conclusions about my own self as I have
Asperger’s Syndrome and Sensory Processing
Disorder. I needed to understand my clinical
diagnosis and
learn how to accept it.
ZOOM Autism through Many Lenses
stand individual idiosyncrasies, characteristics
and personalities, making it hard to have positive social connections with others in school.
The interactions of these emerging adults are
often more negative and/or stressful than their
interest in pursuing selfgrowth or change. This
makes it hard for teachers to
integrate individuals into an
everyday classroom setting.
Helping individuals understand their differences can
ease this challenging task.
“The classroom setting is an ideal
place to work with adolescents and
young adults as they begin or continue
to understand their autism and/or
learning differences diagnosis.”
I can tell you
from my own
journey into
acceptance that
helping each
individual
student understand his or her diagnosis enables
each person to talk about it, read about it, ask
questions, do research and then identify with a
group of similar people. This, in turn, leads each
one to feeling more hopeful and courageous
about getting help, asking for accommodations,
and/or gaining more information in the various
learning environments they will encounter.
Adolescents and young adults with ASD or
LD have different thinking patterns and brain
processing functions – especially in the area of
social competencies/social actions. These differences often compromise the ability to under-
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Photo: CIP Staff
A
s individuals plan for success in school, having an understanding of who they are, why
they are different, and how to accept, work
with and learn to love these differences is critical. The classroom setting is an ideal place to
work with adolescents and young adults as they
begin or continue to understand their autism
and/or learning differences diagnosis because,
when young men and women don’t know what
makes them different, they can develop negative images about themselves. If no one is talking about their differences, they may come to
the conclusion that it’s a big bad secret.
Exactly how can knowing
about one’s diagnosis help? Here are some insights into the issue of knowing vs. not knowing
about an individual clinical diagnosis gleaned
from working with many students over the
years.
KNOWING VS. NOT KNOWING
• Knowing helps individuals with an ASD or
LD diagnosis feel proud of who they are.
• Knowing helps adolescents and young adults
plan their lives in a realistic manner.
ZOOM Autism through Many Lenses
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