I never thought I would write about this topic for the preschool education site. I actually feel this should be taught by parents and only reinforced at preschool as a social norm. But from what I have seen this past week, many parents are not instilling these values and preschoolers are becoming cliquish and learning that excluding other kids who are different is an accepted behavior.
I was prompted to write this after three failed attempts at different playgrounds with my three and a half year old son and a variety of other preschool aged children. First off, my son has autism and he is very high functioning. He has some speech delays and is a bit hard to understand but he is understandable on most occasions. On these occasions you would have been hard pressed to know my son had autism. He was not exhibiting any of the repetitive behaviors that many people associate with autism. He was outgoing, friendly and eager to play.
In a nutshell, on each occasion my son was playing (or trying to play) with other preschool aged kids. Each time one of the other kids would start calling my son “weirdo kid” or “odd ball”. They proceeded to make fun of him and to use his eagerness to play with them to have a laugh at his expense. I tried to distract my son and to get him to play elsewhere but he wanted to play with his new “friends.” He does not yet know when the kids are making fun of him. I knew. And I have no doubt that the parents sitting in arms reach of their kids knew. Rather then deterring or stopping the behavior of their children they sat back and did nothing. On two occasions the parents shot me dirty looks as though it was my fault their children were so cruel.
This got me thinking, if my high functioning son was deemed “weirdo”, then what about children who are not as high functioning or that look different? And so, here, for the preschool teacher (and any parents who feel the above behavior was wrong) I am compiling tools and information for teaching about acceptance.
