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A parent comes to you as a sailing instructor with a child in tow.   You give a furtive glance to the child, as usual you are hoping to make a connection.  The child seems oddly unresponsive, and you realize he is avoiding eye contact.

Meanwhile the parent is hurling acronyms at you:   ASD,ASP, PDD-NOS, Autism Aspergers. They all mean just one thing:  that you have a kid who is on the Autism Aspergers spectrum, and you are going to have to modify your methods somewhat. Your gut feeling is that you have a kid who does not want to be there.  You are getting none of the usual cues from the kid– no eye contact, no looking longingly at the boats rigged.  Still you say to yourself, “We try to teach everyone.”  What you don’t realize is that you have a potentially super dedicated sailor; and if you treat the opportunity correctly, you may well be able to give that child the kind of satisfaction and sense of accomplishment that he has never felt in his or her life before. A true lifelong sailor.

Sailors tend to be self sufficient and enjoy their own company. You probably know someone who is only really happy when he is sailing.  It’s likely that the sailors you know like that are on the Autism spectrum.  Some famous single handers are notably taciturn; by definition they enjoy their own company and they like everything to be in place.  These are all classic autistic traits. The famous French singlehander, Bernard Moitessier, was a poster child for autism.   Unable to face the adulation at the finish line in England when he was expected to win the first single handed, round- the-world race, he carried on half way around the world to a place that was in his comfort zonet,Tahiti.

Some of the symptoms of Autism / Aspergers are:

· An inability or an unwillingness to communicate well.

· Insistence on sameness, resisting change in routine

· No real fear of danger

· Little or no eye contact

· Unresponsiveness to normal teaching methods

· Sustained odd play

· Preferring to be alone

· Noticeable physical overactivity or underactivity

· Tantrums

· Inappropriate attachment to objects

· Uneven gross and fine motor skills

· Thinking in pictures

· Learning by doing rather than watching

After a glance through these symptoms,  you’ll realize that these symptoms could apply to most people– and probably many of your friends;  but in this population some of these characteristics are taken to extremes. Good sailors, of course, always “think in pictures.”   And who has not met a boat owner who does not have an “inappropriate attachment to an object”? –or maybe boats don’t count as inanimate objects.

All US Sailing Level 1 instructors should be familiar with the book “Teaching and Coaching Fundamentals for Sailing.” It’s a great book and not just for sailors. In the first chapter they talk about different learning styles: visual, auditory and kinesthetic.   Or putting it in ordinary language: show them, tell them and let them do it. With this autistic population, as with most groups, the visual and kinesthetic styles are going to work best, with the instructor reserving the auditory for verbal reinforcement. With this group your teaching will have to be more intense and sustained; but the payoffs will be greater. Make the US Sailing book your friend.  It’s written by a collaboration of great people; and through its inclusive nature, it has ended up being a great guidebook for teaching these young people.

Unfortunately there are no hard and fast rules.   You may have seen the Temple Grandin movie, but that won’t help much–in fact there are many fewer girls than boys who are diagnosed with this. When the book says “spectrum,” they mean just that. The fact is, not much is known about this syndrome. It all takes work, patience and perception by you as the instructor.  The only thing that can be said is: “If you’ve met one kid on the spectrum, then you have experience with one kid on the spectrum. They are all different”.

Let’s talk about the learning curve.   I think we all know that’s a misnomer, and it should be a learning meander.   For many of these young people, learning will be in steps, or more like cliffs and plateaus. You may find yourself reinforcing and reiterating one point seemingly fruitlessly; and suddenly it will be indelibly grasped, and they are on to the next plateau.

Again as with all pupils, focus is of paramount importance. With this population, it’s a two edged sword.  You’ll have no difficulty having the pupil “get their head outside of the boat.  They’ll instinctively be able to view the boat from the proverbial seagull’s eye view, or any view you want. As with all pupils, however, there will inevitably be distractions; and you’ll have to redouble your efforts to keep your pupil focused.  This should get easier throughout the lesson because as your young sailors progress , they are more likely to become absorbed in an activity that could have been custom made for them.   The rewards will last a lifetime. Sailing will become a refuge where they can control their world and yet make it react to outside forces, just as we all do. You as the instructor may feel pretty good too.

 

–Gareth Hughes is the Waterfront director at Kennebunk Beach Improvement Association, www.kbia.net, and has an autistic son.