Source

Costa, G. (2020). Expert voice: On Autism. In, Shanker, S. and Hopkins, S. Self-Reg for Schools: A Handbook for Educators. Pearson Canada: North York, Ontario, Canada. 58-61

References

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Gerard Costa served as the founding director of the Center for Autism and Early Childhood Mental and a Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Montclair State University. He is a member of the faculty of the Infant and Early Childhood Development (IECD) Ph.D. program at Fielding University (formerly the ICDL Graduate School). He serves as a trustee and President of the Interdisciplinary Council on Development and Learning, founded by Drs. Stanley Greenspan and Serena Wieder, and has served as a consultant to ZERO TO THREE for the past 20+ years. He is one of the first 16 "Expert Faculty" selected by ZERO TO THREE in the new DC: 0-5 (2016) Classification system. He sits on several state and non-profit boards and was appointed by two New Jersey Governors to serve on the New Jersey Council for Young Children, where he headed the Infancy and Early Childhood Mental Health committee. He received his Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Temple University and was one of the first 16 recipients of the DIR certificate by Dr. Stanley Greenspan and Dr. Serena Wieder. He is a trained faculty member in the Brazelton Touchpoints Model and holds a "Self-Reg" Certificate from the MEHRIT Center in Canada, led by Dr. Stuart Shanker. He holds an endorsement as an Infant Mental Health Clinical Mentor, through the New Jersey Association for Infant Mental Health and Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health. He led a 4-year Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health systems development project in partnership with Child Development Services of Wyoming and the Wyoming Developmental Disabilities Division and is the principal author of a 15 module Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health training curriculum. He led a multi-year training and consultation project with 25 Infant Mental Health mentors with South Dakota Voices for Children, and he led a strategic planning initiative with the Missouri Association for Infant Mental Health-Early Childhood. He has presented keynotes, workshops and trainings at hundreds of events and programs. Since 2018 he serves as the Coordinator of the Northeast Regional Terrorism and Disaster Coalition. He served as the Principal Investigator of the New Jersey Inclusive Education Technical Assistance (NJIETA) project, an $8 Million, 5-½ year project advancing full inclusion in New Jersey Public Schools. He is past president of the NJ Association for Infant Mental Health, and is President of the Interdisciplinary Council on Development and Learning (ICDL). Dr. Costa has been honored with numerous awards including the Christian Kjeldsen Champion for Children Award by the NJ Child Care Advisory Council, the Lucille Weistuch Early Childhood Special Education Award, by the New Jersey Division for Early Childhood (NJDEC), and the Golden Bell Leadership Award, by the New Jersey Mental Health Association. He has conducted presentations and trainings in 31 states and 11 countries, and he is the recipient of numerous awards. He is a NJ licensed psychologist and is the author of articles and book chapters on autism, infant mental health and professional formation. He is the 2021 recipient of the Weatherston Leadership in Infant Mental Health Award, from the Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health.

CHALLENGING OUR THINKING : 15 PROPOSITIONS

Consider these propositions in light of our current practices and what we can do as educators to make these propositions a reality in our classrooms and schools.

1. Autism has ALWAYS existed in the human experience!
2. Naming a “disorder” changes the social, cultural, economic, and political views and responses, and creates an “othering” and power imbalance.
3. The meaning of autism varies by culture and society and changes over time within and among cultures.
4. The term autism may have value in as much as it helps in understanding and helping those whose individual differences need to be supported — and whose suffering must be relieved.
5. The term autistic may have value as a tribal identity (Silberman, 2016).
6. Autism, as a way of being in a neurodiverse community, must be understood beyond disability and inability/deficits but as allowing unique gifts and strengths.
7. In the disability rights movement — “Nothing about us without us!” — a social and political voice exists that demands respect, inclusion, and full participation.
8. As is the case with all humans, there is a range of capacities and abilities, in the spectrum among individuals with autism. This means that we must honour the different ways in which those with autism live, learn, and communicate.
9. For any student, and that includes students with autism, we cannot have a one-size-fits-all approach to learning, relating, and communicating. Employ a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) view.
10. Presume COMPETENCY. This was a common reminder In the work of child psychiatrist Stanley Greenspan (e.g., Greenspan, Wieder, & Simons, 1998; Greenspan & Wieder, 2006).
11. Embrace a “Competence-Moderator- Performance” framework. Competencies in all of us can exist, but internal and external variables can moderate their manifestation in our performance.
12. Science must inform us about the underlying biological/ constitutional forces that are at work in supporting regulation, engagement. relating, communication, and thinking.
13. Support, education, and intervention must honor unique individual differences, and the goal must be to promote full human development.
14. Research into the nature of autism and ways to support individuals on the spectrum must embrace multidisciplinary sciences and the larger ecological context and embodiment implications. Searching for genetic markers alone is insufficient.
15. The phenomenological experience of autism spectrum disorder reflects the consequences of a human body-and associated mental and emotional processes associated with heightened levels of stress and dysregulation. This is an important area to help reduce suffering and enhance regulation, engagement, reciprocity, and higher forms of human development.