Reading the Research: Working with Different People

Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects, then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and observations.

Today's article underlines a major problem I see overall, not just in schools: we aren't taught how to work with people who are different from us.  Whether those differences are skill-based, which is what this article is outlining, or neurology or biology based, like autism or type 1 diabetes, shouldn't matter.  I would even hazard to say that this same lack of skill in working with people different from us might also extend to political differences.  

Something I've learned in my particular track of life is that you don't have to be similar to someone to work with them.  It helps, sure, but it's not essential.  Skills that might be relevant to this subject are:

• knowing when a disagreement is irrelevant to the task at hand, and being able to put it aside.
• being able to work your hardest to implement a plan of action, even if it's one you personally think isn't ideal.
• the skill of recognizing the expertise of other group members, and asking and heeding their advice on those subjects.
• conveying to each and every group member that they are valuable and their work matters.  

You'll notice these are also hallmarks of good leadership in general. 

As an autistic person who was once a student, I deeply dreaded the words "find a partner..." when it came to schoolwork, because it almost invariably meant I was going to be stumbling through social rituals and being excluded before being assigned a fellow outcast or shoved into a group that didn't want me.  

For projects trying to teach this kind of collaboration, I suspect the words "find a group" wouldn't be involved.  After all, if you simply let people group together, they'll find their friends, who are similar to them.  Instead, you'd need to assign groups to ensure sufficient diversity.  At least, if you want to do this teaching properly.  

It saddens me a bit that the activities called out for teaching these skills are also the ones that are optional: band or orchestra, school newspapers or yearbooks, and volunteer activities.  

I feel it would be very beneficial to all of US society if everyone, old and young, was taught these collaborative problem solving skills.  And especially to autistic people, because not only do we need these skills, we would benefit from everyone around us having them.  It seems to me like a step towards people handling human diversity more gracefully, which we badly need in these fearful and divided times. 

(If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that didn't make the cut for a Reading the Research articles!)