by Ayelet Cooperberg, Adath Israel

During the zoom meeting on the 29th we learned about autism and got to know each other a little better. We started off by doing a show and tell with something in our room. People shared toys from when they were little and other objects that are meaningful to them. After that we watched a video clip from Sesame Street featuring their first autistic character, Julia. Big Bird, one of the other characters on the show, has a difficult time interacting with Julia at first. However, once he realizes that Julia can play the same games that he does, just with some modifications or differences, they had a good time together. After the video we had a guest speaker, Noah, who has autism. Noah told us about their life and some of the struggles they face and how they deal with them, then gave us some tips for how to handle problems that might come up in the classroom. Overall, the meeting was very informative, and I’m looking forward to starting TAP this year!