Adolescence and Autism - Don't Stop Teaching!

People with autism may go through many different developmental stages in their lifetimes, probably the most dramatic being adolescence. Puberty is typically evident in our autistic kids a year or two before there are any physical signs, and then, most unfairly, lasts much longer than it seems to linger with typically developing students. Very few people recall those mostly middle and early high school years with nostalgia, so just imagine the chaos the hormones inflict on kids with autism. But there is some good news for those families in the throes of adolescence. If we can get their kids safely through the teen years without too much upheaval, they typically arrive on the other side of adolescence calmer and more relaxed.

Another phenomenon we’ve seen is that during puberty their learning seems to plateau or at least, not progress as it did in earlier years. That is when schools mistakenly want to limit educational offerings to only functional work to match their apparent halt in acquiring information. But I think it is important to recognize that this ‘hiatus’ from learning is likely only temporary. While we clearly need to emphasize the acquisition of functional skills and work on independence, we should keep in mind that as they exit puberty, people with autism will typically go through another uptick in their ability to learn new things. At least, that has been our observation, with all the students we have seen move from childhood to adulthood. Puberty grinds everything to a crawl while emotional and behavioral problems become paramount and then, they begin to get back to where they left off in their pre-teen progress.

So, it remains important to continue to present information to these students, even if it seems futile or useless, for we never know when that window of opportunity to take in information might open up again. To that end, I feel that it is important to continue to explore academics and present science and math and encourage opportunities to read. The students need to continue to be challenged and engaged in activities as they move into adulthood. We all need to keep our brains stimulated and open for learning, and people with autism are no different. Who knows what we may discover?