Every third Sunday of the month, the American Museum of Natural History opens its doors to reveal a museum that is uninhabited by visitors. The Neanderthals lie still by their fire, the Tyrannosaurus rex stalks its prey motionlessly, amd a 21,000-pound Blue Whale Model dangles from the ceiling in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life. A hush blankets the galleries.
For many, the absence of the usual cacophony of daily visitors might seem eerie. But, to a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the American Museum of Natural History’s Discovery Squad turns the Museum into an accessible sanctuary where curiosity reigns and every exhibit invites exploration, with ASD visitors in mind.
The Discovery Squad is a program at the American Museum of Natural History, developed in collaboration with the Seaver Autism Center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Since 2013, the Discovery Squad has invited children diagnosed with ASD and their families into the American Museum of Natural History an hour prior to opening, in order to provide a dedicated, sensory-friendly experience.
To understand ASD, one must understand the effect of certain sensory inputs on diagnosed individuals. These sensory inputs can range from different textures, to flashing lights, and anything in between. These “triggers” can cause even the most mundane experiences or objects to overwhelm an individual with ASD, causing stress and discomfort that can interfere with day-to-day life.
Paige Siper, the Chief Clinical Psychologist at the Seaver Autism Center, said, “Museums are naturally very high stimulation environments. There are often a lot of loud sounds and echoes within these places. Individuals with ASD can feel overstimulated visually, just through the pure number of people in a museum. Because of the overstimulation that can happen within museums, there are many families who are unable to engage in these experiences when accommodations are not made for their children.”
The Discovery Squad takes these stimulus-related issues into consideration, turning the Museum experience into a pinnacle of accessibility.
One of the founders of the Discovery Squad is Michelle Gorenstein, former Director of Community Outreach at the Seaver Autism Center and a current psychologist at the Center for Autism and the Developing Brain. She recalls the idea for the Discovery Squad stemmed from just a small social skills group that she was running at the time.
“When I founded the Discovery Squad program, I had been running clinical social skills groups through the Seaver Autism Center on weekends. One of these groups had really wanted to go to the American Museum of Natural History. I called the Museum and spoke to someone in their access office in order to create a tour for them, but I found that there were no available tour guides who were trained to work with neurodiverse individuals.”
When Dr. Gorenstein reached out to staff members at the American Museum of Natural History to discuss this issue, they replied with intrigue. Subsequently, the Discovery Squad was created.
The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) states that museums receive approximately 55 million visits annually from students in school groups; schools support these visits knowing that museums enhance education. Studies have shown that children who visited a museum during kindergarten had higher achievement scores in reading, mathematics, and science in third grade than children who did not. With the many benefits of childhood museum visits in mind, shouldn’t the ability to comfortably visit a museum be a more accessible opportunity for all?
There is a very real stigma surrounding individuals with autism. But at the end of the day, we’re all just people. There is no reason for children with ASD to be excluded from these beneficial learning experiences just because they are “atypical.” Everyone deserves the opportunity to learn, and that is what programs such as the American Museum of Natural History’s Discovery Squad accomplish.
A Discovery Squad tour of the Museum begins even before a family enters. It starts with a “social story.” The Museum’s social story is available to help visitors with sensory difficulties or on the autism spectrum prepare for their visit, and it includes directions, sensory descriptions, images, and many more useful tools. Receiving the social story in advance helps visitors with ASD and their families prepare for their Discovery Squad tour, helping to ensure that it is the most successful experience it can be.
Many other museums have a variation of this document. This is because even if a museum doesn’t have a program such as the Discovery Squad, this document will still help individuals visit a museum during regular hours.
Once the tour group convenes in the grand Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall, the magic can begin.
The tour first leads the group into the dimmed Bernard Family Hall of North American Mammals, where individuals can view and hear about the history of mammals in North America. When looking at dioramas of the big brown bear and the strong bison, it may be difficult for some to hold back their excitement. It is common for children with ASD to be hyposensitive, which means they want to experience every sensory input they can. This is why, as part of the Discovery Squad, every child is given toy replicas of the animals, so that they can experience the exhibit for themselves in a safe, permitted way.
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Next, the tour brings the group into the Theodore Roosevelt Hall of Biodiversity which is known for its abundance of species from all over the world. This room can be dark, which may often be uncomfortable for children with ASD. For this reason, everyone is on the tour is supported by dedicated volunteers that allow safe exploration. When the tour visits the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, they are greeted with the crown jewel of the tour: a 94-foot-long blue whale, imposing over the whole room. Here, all families are free to explore the impressive marine gallery; the exhibit is their oyster.
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After walking through a few more halls, the tour reaches its final destination and namesake of the very tour they are on, The Discovery Room. Within this room lies multitudes of interactive, educational adventures. Once one steps in this room, they are whatever they want to be. They can be an archeologist and dig for fossils on the excavation table, they can be a geologist and inspect real rocks from various eras, or they can even be an explorer from the past; the choice is theirs.
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The Discovery Squad, and programs like it, are vital to society because they provide ASD visitors with a safe space for hands-on activities. Children get to learn and thrive without being restricted or judged. Dr. Gorenstein said, “We saw lots of kids, teens, and adults coming in with a hyper focus or restricted interest with dinosaurs. So, it was a really natural collaboration.” She even recalls a young boy on the tour who knew so much about dinosaurs, that he had surpassed the knowledge of the tour guide.
Parents and family members of ASD children are also positively impacted by programs like the Discovery Squad. Jessica Zweifach, another clinical psychologist at the Seaver Autism Center said, “I believe that [The Discovery Squad] makes parents and caregivers really feel seen. They recognize that this place, this renowned institution in New York City recognizes the challenges that can come up for their child. And once they get there, they really can allow their children to be their children.”
This point cannot be stressed enough, as many people overlook the work parents of children with ASD do in order to ensure their child’s happiness and safety. In a world where they must always be alert, these children can take a break within the soft embrace of the museum.
While AMNH’s Discovery Squad is a unique program with far reaching impacts, it is important to discuss the wider movement of increasing museum accommodation. One hub of this movement has been in New York City. Employing the diverse cultures and facilities of the city, accessibility programs have been reaching new heights for decades now. For instance, Dr. Siper has consulted and helped create various programs, one of which is Relaxed Performances at Lincoln Center. This program, along with various others at Lincoln Center, provide performances that are sensory-friendly for children with disabilities such as ASD.
Similarly, one of the first organizations to implement such a program on a large scale was the Theater Development Fund, or TDF, in 2011. This distinguished organization buys out several Broadway shows a year and transforms the shows into a sensory-friendly experience that cannot be replicated.
For these reasons, there has been an increase in accommodational programs throughout the country for autistic individuals. Dr. Siper said, “We’re seeing many museums and cultural institutions around the country following in the footsteps of the Discovery Squad, and starting to integrate specific programming for neurodiverse audiences and making accommodations for neurodiverse individuals. It’s really wonderful to see how much awareness and acceptance is happening in this space.”
ASD was never as rare as one may think. In 2000, the CDC reported that 1 in 150 children are diagnosed with ASD. Now, 20 years later, the CDC reports that 1 in 36 children are diagnosed with ASD. No, there has not been a sudden increase of children with autism, but rather an increase in children diagnosed with autism. Due to increased resources and awareness, more children who previously didn’t have access to diagnosis resources now do. This means this disorder cannot be ignored anymore.
ASD was never “too rare” to accommodate for. This argument can no longer be used as a shield to perpetuate stigma and not accommodate individuals with ASD. As a society, we have a choice. We can accommodate and aid the lives of these deserving people, or we can continue to lie dormant and not take action to effect change.
We know what the Discovery Squad chooses.
“We’re seeing many museums and cultural institutions around the country following in the footsteps of the Discovery Squad, and starting to integrate specific programming for neurodiverse audiences and making accommodations for neurodiverse individuals. It’s really wonderful to see how much awareness and acceptance is happening in this space,” said Dr. Paige Siper, the Chief Clinical Psychologist at the Seaver Autism Center.