The Empathic Educator

Empathy is one of the most important qualities a special educator needs in order to be effective in the classroom. According to Webster, empathy is the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner. The past two weeks in my classroom have been an exercise in empathy.

One of my female students has Smith Magenis Syndrome. There are a host of physical features associated with this disorder including:

• Characteristic facial appearance; flattened mid-face, down-turned mouth, prominent and often rosy cheeks; prominent jaw in older children and adults; dark eyebrows that meet in midline (synophrys). (Note: these facial characteristics can be subtle.)
• Low muscle tone (hypotonia)
• Oral-sensory motor dysfunction (poor suck/swallow, decreased tongue strength & movement, open mouth posture, frequent drooling, textural aversions)
• Middle ear problems (chronic ear infections) and laryngeal anomalies
• Hoarse voice, hypernasal speech
• Short fingers and toes
• Hyporeflexia
• Signs of peripheral neuropathy

• Markedly flat feet
• Distinct, broad-based gait (walking pattern)
• Decreased sensitivity to pain

There are also major developmental & behavioral features associated with SMS:

• Developmental delay
• Variable levels of mental retardation (mild - moderate)
• Generalized complacency/lethargy (infancy)
• Mouthing objects or hands that persists beyond early childhood
• Speech delay and articulation problems
• Sensory integration issues
• Teeth grinding
• Delayed toileting skills (delayed potty training and/or persistence of nighttime bedwetting (enuresis) for age)
• Sleep disturbance (chronic)

• Frequent nighttime awakenings
• Increased daytime sleepiness/naps
• Early morning awake times (5:30 a.m. - 6:30 a.m.)

• Inverted circadian rhythm of melatonin
• Stereotypic/repetitive behaviors such as arm hugging/hand squeezing when excited, “lick and flip” behavior (i.e., quick flipping pages of books/magazines with/without licking finger)
• Self-injurious behaviors: head banging, hand biting, picking at skin, sores and nails, pulling off finger- and toenails (older ages), inserting foreign object into ears, nose or other body orifices.

Source: www.prisms.org

The physical and developmental characteristics challenge a special educator's sensitivities and abilities to teach without being judgmental, however, the maladaptive behaviors such as: hyperactivity, impulsivity, attention seeking (especially from adults); easy excitability or distractibility; sudden mood shifts; explosive outbursts; prolonged tantrums; and aggressive or destructive behaviors are where the monumental challenges exist.

How would you respond to a student grabbing your shirt collar or hair with both hands, with a mouth and nose full of mucous, trying to bite you? If a teacher does not have empathy and an understanding that the behavior is coming from the disorder and not the person; the teacher may be reactive instead of proactive.

For the past two weeks, this female student has disrupted my entire class with her maladaptive behaviors. One student goes to the other side of the room when she walks by, another student has started "flapping" and exhibiting his frustration, and one of my autistic bipolar students has been laughing while trying to "bonk" her on the head. When she hit one of my students in the back, he started screaming while jumping up and down and then started running down the hall.

When a student becomes aggressive, my first priority is to protect the class. This usually requires putting the aggressive student in a safe hold (CPI), and then asking my assistants to take the other students out of the room. In each episode, this is what I have done. When the female student began acting out, if I could not control by using a safe hold, then I would have my other students escorted out. Some teachers have a different philosophy and will not dismiss their students and "fight" with the student until they are in compliance.

So how does a teacher generate empathy in the situation I have described? What is the teacher's perception of the student? How I perceive my students is the key. The brain is made up of neural pathways. In the typical brain, these pathways are like a highway system with traffic flowing. However, in my students, there are traffic jams, accidents, detours, and roads that abruptly end. The chances for major disasters are enormous. Sometimes traffic builds up and there are so many wrecks, the adrenalin begins to rush and the only outlet is too attack something...whether it is others or the self. The perception I have of my students then is that when they have maladaptive behaviors, it is the disorder and not the person. Perception can be controlled and changed by educating oneself.

In addition to thinking about the chaos occurring in the brain, I also think of the context of the student. These students have families. They may be living as orphans in a residential group home because they were too much for the parents to handle. Regardless of how low-functioning my students are, they still want to be home.

One of the bus drivers that picks up our students often praises the staff for the work we are doing with our students. He will often say that he would not be able to do what we do. My response to him is that we have these students for 7 hours each day. The parents have these students for a lifetime. They are the heroes.