What do we mean by a "hidden curriculum"?

A hidden curriculum exists in every environment, whether it is the classroom, the town pool, gramdma’s house, a place of worship, or a sibling’s music recital. It contains many different elements such as the expected behaviors, actions and skills unique to a specific environment, degree of responsibility, and even conventional mode of dress. The following table overviews some hidden curriculum elements.

Sample Hidden Curriculum Elements

	Expected behaviors	Actions, skills	Responsibility	Dress
Classroom	Be quiet, sit still, listen	Do work, organize yourself and supplies	Do what you’re told and follow the teacher’s lead	Wear what everyone else is wearing
Town pool	Play boisterously, laugh a lot	Games, lots of interactions	Follow the rules posted or you’re out of the pool	Swimwear, sunscreen
Gramdma’s house	Remain polite but have fun; noise is OK but not too much	Be helpful, kind; eat all of your dinner	Don’t make a mess; no fighting with siblings even though Gramdma is unlikely to punish you if you do	Casual but probably less casual than at home
Church place of worship	Be really quiet; no talking or laughing	Fold hands, bow head, say prayers	Do as the others are doing	More formal than Gramdma’s
Music recital	Sit still and listen, or pretend to listen	Clap at the end, smile, congratulate sibling	None really (unless you’re performing)	More formal than in place of worship

 

To further complicate matters, the hidden curriculum changes according to location, situation, people, age, and culture. For example, a teenager’s trip to the library with his parents has a different hidden curriculum than going to the same library with a group of friends. The cast of characters involved in each scenario changes the very purpose of the trip (from "getting books" to "socializing"), the expected behavior (from "quiet" to "as loud as possible without getting thrown out"), the length of the trip (from "quick" to "as long as allowed by curfew"), the satisfaction expectation (from "productive" to "fun"), etc. (Myles & Simpson, 1998). The differences are often overlooked by persons with an ASD, in part because they lack the flexibility to change their expectations from one setting to another and because it requires integrating many components of information – things that are, by nature of the disability, already difficult for them. These include emotions, personalities, roles, intentions, human nature, and especially things that are transitory, such as mom’s mood five minutes before the milk-spill disaster (i.e., you can ask for a favor) vs. five minutes after the milk-spill disaster (i.e., don’t bother her about anything).

Many people accept these hidden curriculum items without giving them any conscious thought. We know the expectations that are inherent in a variety of typical settings. We forget, however, that when we are thrust into unknown social territory, such as visiting an emergency room for the first time or going on a first date with someone we know little about but want very much to impress, we tread lightly, knowing that we are more susceptible to committing social errors. While these errors may seem mortifyingly embarrassing, at the time, they are usually of small consequence.

The individual with ASD, on the other hand, is in unfamiliar territory on an hourly basis, every day of the year. In addition to experiencing many more opportunities for errors, he is also likely to make the type of errors that are not easily forgiven and can seem to be unkind, stupid, or just plain "weird." To make matters worse, the person with an ASD often does not recognize the type of error she has made, and may even be unaware that she has made an error at all. Consequently, it is unlikely that she is able to repair the situation adequately, and is, sadly, inclined to make the same error again tomorrow unless the hidden curriculum is made clear.