EDWARDSVILLE – Students at Lincoln Middle School will learn about autism throughout April, which is Autism Awareness Month.
Edwardsville Community Unit School District #7 has a CASTLE program specifically designed for students on the autism spectrum. This program, along with Lincoln Middle School’s social workers, administrators, and Student Council, have arranged a month of programming that aims to celebrate neurodiversity and inclusion.
“I hope our kiddos enjoy it. More than anything, I hope everyone learns a little something. I think that’s one of the reasons why we like to recognize and celebrate any sort of diversity in our building,” said Principal Michael Cory. “We want to make sure that students feel included, that they’re a part of our Lincoln community, just like everyone else, and let them know that we support them and everything they go through every day.”
Throughout the month, students will have dress-up days on Wednesdays. The entire school community colored the autism infinity symbol to create a display in the school’s common area. Many teachers and social workers have created displays for their classroom doors.
Once a week, there will be sensory tables set up during lunch so students can engage with different sensory toys and activities. Cory hopes this teaches the students about different sensory needs. The goal of the month is to educate students about their classmates’ experiences.
“It’s something that we want to pay a lot of attention to, so that all of our students and our staff and our community members can be aware of what our students with autism may go through on a daily basis that others don’t quite understand, and be a little bit more understanding and maybe provide more supports,” Cory explained.
Equally important is making sure students with autism know that their experiences are valued. Cory hopes the Autism Awareness Month activities empower these students and remind them that their presence is important at Lincoln Middle School.
“When you’re a kiddo who’s in a special program like this, sometimes you can feel like you’re isolated or not quite part of the environment. And that couldn’t be further from the truth here,” he said. “I think it’s a great way to let them know that we see you more than just one day a year. We want to recognize you and all the special qualities that you bring to the school and how you impact our population, the same as all the other students.”
As Lincoln Middle School kicks off the Autism Awareness Month activities, Cory looks forward to engaging with the students and staff to promote inclusion year-round. He believes these experiences are important for all students to learn, and he can’t wait to see this celebration of neurodiversity in the school community and beyond.
“It’s just awesome to watch our students rally around stuff like this,” he said. “I think it’ll be a pretty exciting, unifying event to watch over the course of the next month.”
