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Many people believe that autistic individuals lack empathy. This is not true. The reason this misconception never seems to get discarded may be due, in part, to its deep historical roots. Early descriptions of autism and autistic individuals, dating as far back as the 1930s, tended to emphasize the social and communication difficulties associated with the condition. This helped foster an assumption that autistic individuals lacked empathy. Even as recently as the early 2000s, research sugge …

When I was a graduate student, I spent a number of hours observing other school counselors conducting classroom guidance lessons. One memorable lesson involved a counselor who used the idiom, “Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes.” The lesson was designed to introduce the concept of empathy to first graders. While the students seemed to enjoy the lesson, there was still some confusion regarding the concept. Some even took the idiom literally. I can only imagine the interest …

When I was 11, I walked over to the corner store to buy a soda. I paid with a twenty-dollar bill, and the guy mistakenly gave me back some ones and a fifty instead of a ten. I ran up to my dad and said, “Guess what? I just got paid to buy a pop! It’s my lucky day!” My dad looked at me surprisingly and said, “You’re keeping it?” I replied, “Heck yeah! He’ll never know.” Then he said, “But you will know. You’ll know today, and tomorrow, and forever. You just sold out your integrity for forty …

As we enter into the 2020-2021 school year, a sense of unease, of uncertainty, hangs above students, parents, and educators alike. For most educators and support staff, it is like their first year all over again. There are new rules, new procedures, and new methods of delivery. It is an altogether new normal, if it can be called that at all. With all of these changes comes anxiety, not only from the rapid acquisition of new methods of instruction, but from the floating fear of the unkno …

Working in the school system, I often hear children being asked, “Don’t you know any better?” or “Why didn’t you make a better choice?” These questions are usually met with a confused expression. Then these children look at the ceiling or the floor, searching for a response that won’t get them deeper into trouble. The truth is that there are a lot of children who don’t know better. They have often made the best choice they could, given the information, skills, and resources the …

Earlier this month, I discussed how one of my son’s middle-school teachers focused on his kindness towards others as the highlight of our parent-teacher conference, and how it inspired me to look at my own behavior and seek ways to choose kindness and reinforce the same with our children. In this week’s post, the story continues with a reflection on kindness and tips for teaching children to choose kindness. Our son has always been a kind soul. From the time he was young, he had wha …