Curious Nighttime Swot
The novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (2003) features a 15-year-old boy with autism. The book is a well-written novel from the perspective of Christopher, a boy with Asperger’s syndrome. Christopher faces many symptoms a person with autism could face such as having a savant skill, as well as having limited social skills, as he does not like interacting with people. Christopher displays various symptoms such as being unable to read facial expressions, he does not like being touched, and he is unable to be in an area with a lot of people. Christopher lives in a world in which everything is black and white. For example, when Christopher’s father lies to him he assumes that his father is a bad person. To further explain, Christopher is able to connect lying with being untrustworthy and therefore a bad person. All and all, this book is able to pull at the heartstrings of the reader, instilling an idea of being in the mind of a person who has autism. On the contrary many believe it is not Haddon’s place to portray a child who has autism. Through this paper I will be looking at the book through a SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis focuses on the Strength of the book, the Weakness of the book, the Opportunities of the book, and the Threats of the book. Through this analysis I will be bringing in my own experiences working with children who are autistic,
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effective teaching strategies, as well as commenting on how I believe the book would fit in a classroom setting. The strengths of using The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time revolve around the experiences of empathy.
As majority of the readers of the novel will not be on the autism spectrum as a result, the goal is students will be able to experience some of the challenges affecting a person from Asperger’s Syndrome. In addition to Haddon’s excellent experiences of empathy the novel is extremely well written it is portrayed in a unique way that depicts the life of Christopher through his own eyes, providing the reader with experiences otherwise they might not
understand. In the novel Christopher struggles with a common generality that applies to many with autism spectrum disorder specifically Asperger’s Syndrome such as, challenges with social interaction, the need to be on a fixed schedule, the challenge to trust people, a talent and love for math, and having a remarkable memory, as well as difficulty with facial recognition. However, the weakness stems from the issue that Haddon is portraying a person with Asperger’s Syndrome but Haddon does not have Asperger’s Syndrome himself. This is problematic because how can someone accurately portray a person with Autism without being a person with autism. Some of the arguments supporting Haddon include that Haddon has had experience working with people who have Autism. However, Haddon did post on his personal website that he knows very little about Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome. Furthermore, Haddon denies that the book is even about Asperger’s Syndrome or Autism, as these two words are not mentioned in the novel. Rather, Haddon describes Christopher as a “mathematician with some behaviour difficulties” (Haddon, 2009). Despite Haddon’s intentions, the book is widely interpreted by the public as a book about Asperger’s Syndrome. Despite the novels weakness I believe that it can in turn provide an opportunity for teachers to look and dissect novels such as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time because the stereotypes of Asperger Syndrome or Autism carry. As Draaisma (2009) states, “Labels such as autism, Asperger’s Syndrom or PDD-NOS carry connotations and consequences, and these will influence pedagogical and educational practices” (p. 1476). Furthermore, it provides the opportunity to have discussions with students to understand what autism is. It also allows students to think critically and observe the perception of autism in movies, literature, autobiographies and biographies Through the reading of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time I always thought back to my experiences with working, and interacting with students who had autism. One student in my high school who has Asperger’s Syndrome who I did not normally interact with, but was known by all the students as he excelled in all of his technology classes, I will call him Tim. Tim excelled in everything dealing with technology. He was skilled in coding, video editing, and fixing computers. However, to approach Tim you had to be careful. Tim had issues trusting people, whether it is teachers or students. I once remember asking him a question on whether I should buy a MacBook or a Windows computer. When I asked him this question his response was, “Why even get me started in such a heated debate”. As a result, he got quite defensive. I have other experiences with young adults and children with autism, include students will low communication skills, relying on PECS, as well as displaying stimming behaviour as well as having very specific interests. Two young boys I was able to work with had fascinations with fans. I believe this is due to the need for sensory stimuli. One young boy I worked with also had a fascination with wheels, when we go out on field trips we would have to watch him carefully to make sure he did not run to the road to see the wheels. Coincidentally, the novel does show the common characteristics of Autism, specifically Asperger’s Syndrome as outlined by Nancy Hutchinson (2014), “Impairments in reciprocal social interaction, and restricted, repetitive, and stereotypic patterns of behavior, interests, and activities. (p. 119). Hutchinson also observes that students with Autism may also display a limited range of interests, or a specific interest, or object. (p. 120). Christopher shows this through his through only liking prime numbers. In the novel the reader will notice the chapters will only go up in prime numbers. Additionally, Christopher enjoys the colour red, but dislikes yellow and brown. We see if Christopher’s food is yellow he will add red food colouring to change the colour. It is important to take the child’s interests in consideration when teaching. Throughout the novel there are factual strategies proven to provide success to some people on the Autism Spectrum Disorder. Priming, prompt deliveries, and visual schedules are forms of antecedent procedures that have been proven to work for students with autism (Crosland and Dunlap, 2012, p254). We have seen this to be beneficial to Christopher as he describes an experience travelling to France. He made his parents tell him the schedule for each day. Christopher needed to have his school schedule planned for the day. It is clear many students benefit from this as it provides schedules to be more predictable. Furthermore, students with Asperger’s Syndrome can show characteristics such as disliking loud noises. Christopher shows this dislike in a number of situations such as being in a noisy mall, and the train station on his way to London. A strategy that Hutchinson finds useful is to use headphones to decrease distractions, as well as putting tennis balls on the bottom of chairs and desk legs is an effective way to limit unneeded classroom noise (Hutchinson, 2014, p 125). I argue that one of the threats of the novel is the idea that if proper classroom discussion does not follow the novel the issue of perpetuating stereotypes of autism could continue. The threat also stems from the story’s weakness that since Haddon does not have Autism, people may still interpret Autism as a “one-size fits all” disability, which it is clearly not. There are many stereotypes that are often represented in the media. For example, in many representations of autism in the media many of the characters that have autism are male characters. However, this is not always the case. Females are some affected by autism, however, at a lower level. According to The National Autistic Society “statistics show that more men and boys than women and girls have a diagnosis of autism. Various studies differ from male to female ratios of 2:1 to 16:1 who have diagnosed autism.“ Furthermore, the prevalence of autism could suggest that females are less likely to develop autism, but when females are affected by autism they are affected more severely. On the other hand, it could also suggest that females with ‘high-functioning autism’ could be underdiagnosed (The National Autistic Society) therefore skewing the numbers of the prevalence of autism in males and females. It is important that we don’t have the idea that only males are the ones who can by autistic. Additionally, one of the major stereotypes that we see in novels is that the character usually excels in a certain skill or ability. For example Christopher is seen to excel in mathematics, and physics. According to Draaisma,
“It is important to note that among the family traits of autism, version Asperger, savantism was not included. Most experts would agree that this is still the case. Even if savantism mostly comes with autism, the majority of cases of autism do not have savantism” (2007, p. 1477).
Therefore when teaching students about autism it is important to inform students that not all people will have a savant skill. However, it is even more critical as educators that we do not make the assumption that a student with autism will have a special skill. Based off of my personal experience of the book. I hope that if others choose to teach the novel they provide multiple novels, and movies to look into how Autism affects people differently. This book is widely perceived by the community as a book about Autism despite the author’s original intentions. I believe that through reading the novel it has changed my personal perspective on Autism because I went into the book with the mindset that everyone has the same views on Autism. However, after the book I began to question some of the stereotypes Autism, such as all people with Asperger’s Syndrome has Savant Syndrome. I believe it is important for other people to realize that Autism is a broad disability that can look a lot of different ways. How this experience will change my teaching practice will be by encouraging students to become critical thinkers in whatever they are reading or watching. I believe this book does have potential as it provides students to be open to different perspectives to show them different worldviews through literature. As mentioned previously it is a great way to teach students about empathy. However, if one was to use Haddon’s novel in a classroom I would be clear to tell students that the novel is written by a man who does not have autism. Having a discussion about why using the novel for understanding of autism is problematic is important with students.
effective teaching strategies, as well as commenting on how I believe the book would fit in a classroom setting. The strengths of using The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time revolve around the experiences of empathy.
As majority of the readers of the novel will not be on the autism spectrum as a result, the goal is students will be able to experience some of the challenges affecting a person from Asperger’s Syndrome. In addition to Haddon’s excellent experiences of empathy the novel is extremely well written it is portrayed in a unique way that depicts the life of Christopher through his own eyes, providing the reader with experiences otherwise they might not
understand. In the novel Christopher struggles with a common generality that applies to many with autism spectrum disorder specifically Asperger’s Syndrome such as, challenges with social interaction, the need to be on a fixed schedule, the challenge to trust people, a talent and love for math, and having a remarkable memory, as well as difficulty with facial recognition. However, the weakness stems from the issue that Haddon is portraying a person with Asperger’s Syndrome but Haddon does not have Asperger’s Syndrome himself. This is problematic because how can someone accurately portray a person with Autism without being a person with autism. Some of the arguments supporting Haddon include that Haddon has had experience working with people who have Autism. However, Haddon did post on his personal website that he knows very little about Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome. Furthermore, Haddon denies that the book is even about Asperger’s Syndrome or Autism, as these two words are not mentioned in the novel. Rather, Haddon describes Christopher as a “mathematician with some behaviour difficulties” (Haddon, 2009). Despite Haddon’s intentions, the book is widely interpreted by the public as a book about Asperger’s Syndrome. Despite the novels weakness I believe that it can in turn provide an opportunity for teachers to look and dissect novels such as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time because the stereotypes of Asperger Syndrome or Autism carry. As Draaisma (2009) states, “Labels such as autism, Asperger’s Syndrom or PDD-NOS carry connotations and consequences, and these will influence pedagogical and educational practices” (p. 1476). Furthermore, it provides the opportunity to have discussions with students to understand what autism is. It also allows students to think critically and observe the perception of autism in movies, literature, autobiographies and biographies Through the reading of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time I always thought back to my experiences with working, and interacting with students who had autism. One student in my high school who has Asperger’s Syndrome who I did not normally interact with, but was known by all the students as he excelled in all of his technology classes, I will call him Tim. Tim excelled in everything dealing with technology. He was skilled in coding, video editing, and fixing computers. However, to approach Tim you had to be careful. Tim had issues trusting people, whether it is teachers or students. I once remember asking him a question on whether I should buy a MacBook or a Windows computer. When I asked him this question his response was, “Why even get me started in such a heated debate”. As a result, he got quite defensive. I have other experiences with young adults and children with autism, include students will low communication skills, relying on PECS, as well as displaying stimming behaviour as well as having very specific interests. Two young boys I was able to work with had fascinations with fans. I believe this is due to the need for sensory stimuli. One young boy I worked with also had a fascination with wheels, when we go out on field trips we would have to watch him carefully to make sure he did not run to the road to see the wheels. Coincidentally, the novel does show the common characteristics of Autism, specifically Asperger’s Syndrome as outlined by Nancy Hutchinson (2014), “Impairments in reciprocal social interaction, and restricted, repetitive, and stereotypic patterns of behavior, interests, and activities. (p. 119). Hutchinson also observes that students with Autism may also display a limited range of interests, or a specific interest, or object. (p. 120). Christopher shows this through his through only liking prime numbers. In the novel the reader will notice the chapters will only go up in prime numbers. Additionally, Christopher enjoys the colour red, but dislikes yellow and brown. We see if Christopher’s food is yellow he will add red food colouring to change the colour. It is important to take the child’s interests in consideration when teaching. Throughout the novel there are factual strategies proven to provide success to some people on the Autism Spectrum Disorder. Priming, prompt deliveries, and visual schedules are forms of antecedent procedures that have been proven to work for students with autism (Crosland and Dunlap, 2012, p254). We have seen this to be beneficial to Christopher as he describes an experience travelling to France. He made his parents tell him the schedule for each day. Christopher needed to have his school schedule planned for the day. It is clear many students benefit from this as it provides schedules to be more predictable. Furthermore, students with Asperger’s Syndrome can show characteristics such as disliking loud noises. Christopher shows this dislike in a number of situations such as being in a noisy mall, and the train station on his way to London. A strategy that Hutchinson finds useful is to use headphones to decrease distractions, as well as putting tennis balls on the bottom of chairs and desk legs is an effective way to limit unneeded classroom noise (Hutchinson, 2014, p 125). I argue that one of the threats of the novel is the idea that if proper classroom discussion does not follow the novel the issue of perpetuating stereotypes of autism could continue. The threat also stems from the story’s weakness that since Haddon does not have Autism, people may still interpret Autism as a “one-size fits all” disability, which it is clearly not. There are many stereotypes that are often represented in the media. For example, in many representations of autism in the media many of the characters that have autism are male characters. However, this is not always the case. Females are some affected by autism, however, at a lower level. According to The National Autistic Society “statistics show that more men and boys than women and girls have a diagnosis of autism. Various studies differ from male to female ratios of 2:1 to 16:1 who have diagnosed autism.“ Furthermore, the prevalence of autism could suggest that females are less likely to develop autism, but when females are affected by autism they are affected more severely. On the other hand, it could also suggest that females with ‘high-functioning autism’ could be underdiagnosed (The National Autistic Society) therefore skewing the numbers of the prevalence of autism in males and females. It is important that we don’t have the idea that only males are the ones who can by autistic. Additionally, one of the major stereotypes that we see in novels is that the character usually excels in a certain skill or ability. For example Christopher is seen to excel in mathematics, and physics. According to Draaisma,
“It is important to note that among the family traits of autism, version Asperger, savantism was not included. Most experts would agree that this is still the case. Even if savantism mostly comes with autism, the majority of cases of autism do not have savantism” (2007, p. 1477).
Therefore when teaching students about autism it is important to inform students that not all people will have a savant skill. However, it is even more critical as educators that we do not make the assumption that a student with autism will have a special skill. Based off of my personal experience of the book. I hope that if others choose to teach the novel they provide multiple novels, and movies to look into how Autism affects people differently. This book is widely perceived by the community as a book about Autism despite the author’s original intentions. I believe that through reading the novel it has changed my personal perspective on Autism because I went into the book with the mindset that everyone has the same views on Autism. However, after the book I began to question some of the stereotypes Autism, such as all people with Asperger’s Syndrome has Savant Syndrome. I believe it is important for other people to realize that Autism is a broad disability that can look a lot of different ways. How this experience will change my teaching practice will be by encouraging students to become critical thinkers in whatever they are reading or watching. I believe this book does have potential as it provides students to be open to different perspectives to show them different worldviews through literature. As mentioned previously it is a great way to teach students about empathy. However, if one was to use Haddon’s novel in a classroom I would be clear to tell students that the novel is written by a man who does not have autism. Having a discussion about why using the novel for understanding of autism is problematic is important with students.