Greetings Earthlings! 🙂

Leading on from my previous posts about rejection sensitive dysphoria (RSD) and teaching students with autism, this week I’d like to focus in on the topic of constructive criticism.

Naturally, no one likes to be criticized, but with autists criticism can be quite devastating. As I’ve discussed many times, autists are black and white thinkers so when criticized, even constructively, we don’t tend to see the positives. Things are wrong and right, so if a mistake is made or an error pointed out, then it’s not just this one tiny thing that’s wrong, we perceive everything about us to be wrong. This can be particularly problematic in an educational setting where constructive criticism is essential to the learning process.

I found criticism particularly difficult in school. As a high achiever, it was a very bitter pill to swallow when I made a mistake. To this day I still cringe about the time I confused Lee Harvey Oswald and Mark David Chapman (I mean they were both high profile assassinations after all, it’s an easy mistake!) and had to embarrassingly hang my head after eagerly waving my hand around like an eejit to answer 🙈😂

In particular I struggled with constructive criticism when it came to art. It was one of my favourite subjects at school, but I was always butting heads with the teacher every time she tried to provide me with constructive feedback to the point that she felt she couldn’t give me any feedback at all based on my reactions. My parents had words with me, but while I adjusted my attitude as best I could, my teacher and I were at odds right up ’til the end of school as neither of us could seem to see the other’s perspective.

When it comes to education, this sort of relationship doesn’t help anyone. The teacher was frustrated with me, I was upset and frustrated with her, and my creative education was suffering as a result. While it is difficult for an autist to deal with constructive criticism, there are some ways to manage the situation.

• Time and place– Be conscious of the situation and environment. Autists are often hyperaware of their differences, so you don’t want to make a scene in front of their peers that will only add to their distress. Moreover, you need to consider the timing and state the student might be in to avoid conflict. In one particularly memorable moment during my leaving cert (Irish state exams to get into university), my teacher attempted to question my approach and design for my piece DURING MY FINAL EXAM. Naturally in my stressed state, I had a moment and quite loudly gave out to her for disturbing me during my exam! Pick your moments carefully- and try not give feedback in a test setting 😛
• Be specific– Don’t give vague feedback on areas for improvement. We need specific, concrete advice, otherwise we will catastrophize and drive ourselves demented wondering ‘What did they mean by X?’, or we may invest time working on the completely wrong thing. Don’t say ‘Your essay needs improvement’. Tell them they need to make it longer, include quotes, better spelling and punctuation, make a plan etc. When I worked in a lab and my experiments kept failing, each day for several weeks I was told ‘Not good enough‘, but no one took the time to sit with me and find out that I was missing one step every time (a step that they had failed to include in my instructions). All I knew was that I had failed and had to try and blindly figure it out on my own, which didn’t help anyone. I kept failing, they kept getting angry and my education suffered. Like any construction project, constructive criticism requires clear instructions
• Focus on solutions, not problems– Similar to the previous point, focus on problem solving when giving constructive criticism. If the focus of feedback is all negative, this will likely overwhelm the student and trigger a meltdown (especially if they suffer from RSD) and they will learn nothing
• Compliment sandwich– Lead with praise, deliver negative feedback, and close with praise. This can help to soften the blow for an autist making it clear that they didn’t exactly go wrong, but improvements can be made. This piece of advice is not just for those teaching an autist, but can also be useful for an autist who has to deliver constructive criticism to avoid complete bluntness and seeming lack of empathy . The TV show The Good Doctor used this technique to help autistic doctor Shaun Murphy educate his new autistic intern

Hope you enjoyed this post dear Earthlings!

Have a lovely weekend! 🙂

Aoife