Johari Windows

So one of my students and I have been working on his self-advocacy skills.  He is at that age, where it is important for him to be able to advocate for his own needs, but his parents are adamant that he not know he is autistic.  It makes it a bit challenging to not be able to label something, but I am desparately trying to honor their request.  Although, I really feel like he needs to know!  Anyway, a collegue and I were discussing self-knowledge & he suggested I look up Johari Windows.  Never having heard of them, I was a bit intrigued by them, so I looked them up.  Here is what I found:

If you remember all the way back to Biology, it might look a bit familiar.  (Think Mendeleev's peas)  The "window" is a way to define yourself both to yourself and to others.

My little friend has found this activity very challenging. We began with identifying the things that are his Open Self  and he found it easy to complete the square. I knew the other 3 squares would be a challenge for him, but I didn't think it would be so challenging. I thought that if he had some parameters, then he would surely be able to complete the Hidden Self square . It is proving to be more of a challenge than I anticipated. The good news is that we have had some productive discussions that we may not have had otherwise. The downside is that the activity is taking much longer than planned. Hopefully we will be able to complete the activity before we break for our end of term break. I really hope this helps him be able to advocate for his needs in the future!