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 snapshots a self-sustaining cycle found in schools and other groups. Honestly, I wouldn't limit this to young people, that area of life just happens to be where this research was focused. It's more obvious with younger people, because younger people usually haven't learned to be as subtle or diverse about their exclusion.
The cycle can start at either point. A person comes into a social group, like a grade at school. Perhaps they have additional challenges, like autism or ADHD. Perhaps they're simply from a different culture, or speak an additional language. They may or may not be suffering mental illness at this point, but the other people in the group don't understand them, and so avoid them or even mock or bully them.
This person is thus excluded. The exclusion is emotionally painful, causing depression and anxiety as the person tries to make their way in the group. Over time, and with repeated failures, mental illness develops. The mental illness makes the person even more different than before, which alienates them further from their peers...
And thus the cycle repeats. It doesn't actually matter if the newcomer has mental illness to begin with. Given a typical group, this cycle repeats forever. It needn't do so. Influential individuals within the existing group can halt this cycle before it begins, or even after it's gotten into full swing. Diversity training and anti-bullying training can help change the group such that all the group members are more tolerant of differences.
In truth, the latter situation is what I'd prefer. Teaching people that differences aren't scary, that skin color isn't something to be worried about, that other languages are just new opportunities to learn to say things you couldn't otherwise say, and that different people have different strengths, is the most important thing I think people should know.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
Today's article snapshots a self-sustaining cycle found in schools and other groups. Honestly, I wouldn't limit this to young people, that area of life just happens to be where this research was focused. It's more obvious with younger people, because younger people usually haven't learned to be as subtle or diverse about their exclusion.
The cycle can start at either point. A person comes into a social group, like a grade at school. Perhaps they have additional challenges, like autism or ADHD. Perhaps they're simply from a different culture, or speak an additional language. They may or may not be suffering mental illness at this point, but the other people in the group don't understand them, and so avoid them or even mock or bully them.
This person is thus excluded. The exclusion is emotionally painful, causing depression and anxiety as the person tries to make their way in the group. Over time, and with repeated failures, mental illness develops. The mental illness makes the person even more different than before, which alienates them further from their peers...
And thus the cycle repeats. It doesn't actually matter if the newcomer has mental illness to begin with. Given a typical group, this cycle repeats forever. It needn't do so. Influential individuals within the existing group can halt this cycle before it begins, or even after it's gotten into full swing. Diversity training and anti-bullying training can help change the group such that all the group members are more tolerant of differences.
In truth, the latter situation is what I'd prefer. Teaching people that differences aren't scary, that skin color isn't something to be worried about, that other languages are just new opportunities to learn to say things you couldn't otherwise say, and that different people have different strengths, is the most important thing I think people should know.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
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