Teaching Children With Autism: Final Thoughts
This guide isnt meant to tell teachers how to change their ways to better accommodate children with autism, its meant to help teachers understand how to prioritize their values when it comes to teaching children with autism.
Children with autism have the same motives as their peers to be accepted and loved for who they are. Its our job to meet them where they are and ensure their learning. It starts with being willing to change up what we had in mind for the ideal classroom and dare to make modifications for students with autism.
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Resources And Tips For Teaching
Recently I sat down with Sheri Taylor, MEd. founder of Uniquely Taylored Educational Consulting, and asked her some questions. Sheri is a Professionally Certified Educational Therapist, Certified Dyslexia Therapist, Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment Mediator, Florida Certified Teacher, and MNRI Core-In-Training.
She has over 25 years of experience teaching and supporting children with special needs and their families Her expertise is an invaluable resource I would like to share with you.
Q. What are your favorite strategies for teaching kids who are autistic?
A. Strategies for working with people with autism should be individualized.This is true for all learners, but it is especially true for our outside-the-box thinkers.
Take time to think about things your student is interested in, and take an account of their strengths. Start there.
Focus on the child, not the subject matter or skill. This does not mean that you do not have goals. On the contrary, goals are very important. However, your goals or the state standards may not be your childs goals, which brings us back to finding that thing that interests your child.
What makes your childs eyes sparkle? What would your child gladly do for hours at a time? Even if the answer is video games, that is where you start. Find ways to connect with your child as they pursue their interests.
Q. What do you wish other teachers knew about working with kids with special needs?
Characteristics Of Autism Can Include:
- trouble using and understanding language or certain aspects of language such as sarcasm, expressions, and body language.
- difficulty taking in sensory input in an ordinary way. For example, a vacuum cleaner may sound overly loud, a smell may be extra strong, or the feel of something may be extra itchy.
- a need for a particular routine so they know what to expect as they can become frustrated when things dont go the way they had expected.
- trouble recognizing another persons opinion or understanding another persons feelings.
- difficulty working on or participating in activities with no clear ending
- difficulty switching from one activity to another, especially if they have to switch from something enjoyable to something not enjoyable .
- difficulty organizing themselves in productive play when not directed or given specific instructions.
Sometimes these characteristics lead to problem behaviors at home, in the classroom, or in the community which can be frustrating for the child and the adults caring for him.
Here are some strategies which can prevent problematic behaviors or promote positive behavioral changes :
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Strategies For Teaching Children With Autism
Last June, my oldest son graduated from high school. All parents who can say that about their children are proud, but for parents of children with autism, and learning challenges, it has an elevated meaning.
My son graduating meant that he accomplished something we didnt think was going to be possible for a long time. After years of struggle, we finally found an alternative learning environment that would facilitate his success, not just academically, but socially and emotionally as well.
He worked with an educational therapist for four years, it changed our entire world and gave him access to it. Through it all I learned: teaching strategies make a huge difference for neurodivergent kids.
In this article I would like to talk about strategies for teaching children with autism, and their potential impact on learners. I would also like to offer some suggestions and resources for parents helping children overcome learning challenges.
Some Children Thrive When Given Structured Hands
Many children I have worked with or have observed, did very well when given a hands-on/visual activity. Examples include playing a computer game, sorting objects by color or object type completing a puzzle, constructing a model car, tracing or coloring in a picture, etc. As another example, some teachers of children with autism teach academic skills through sorting tasks. For instance, an activity about learning colors would require the child to put all the yellow chips in a yellow cup, all the blue chips in a blue cup, etc. Keeping a child focused with an activity they do well at is a great way to encourage calm behavior. However, if the child is feeling overwhelmed or frustrated from the activity, allow a break or a change in the task.
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Acknowledge Your Child Or Students For Complying With Your Requests
For instance, if your child is using a loud voice in the movie theater and you say, whisper in the theater, praise the child with a comment such as nice job whispering, or thank you for being respectful in the theater. For children who understand language well, situations like this are a good time to teach about other peoples perspectives .
Some Sensory Activities Can Include:
- Stamping on Paper
- Finger painting
Students with autism may struggle with these types of play. The goal is to figure out the unique needs of each unique student with autism. Some types of sensory experiences are calming and successful for one student, but may be extremely overstimulating for another. However, once the best sensory play is found for a student it can really open the door and decrease some of the challenges to learning. Sensory activities can improve social skills, hand-eye coordination, as well as fine motor skills. It can also help to challenge a students brain that they typically do not use and be a key to being successful in the classroom setting.
Again, we want to emphasize that each student is unique and the strategies used need to reflect their unique needs.
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How Would It Feel To Be : : : :
Next time you read a book to your class, try asking your students how it would feel to be the main character in the story. If youre reading a picture book about Cinderella, for example, you could ask how they would feel if they had two evil stepsisters who were mean to them. Or if youre reading Peter Pan as a class, you could ask them what happy memories they would think about to fly with magic pixie dust.
This can help students with autism learn empathy as well as how to see situations in their lives from another perspective. It can also teach them how to recognize emotional cues by encouraging them to put themselves in the perspective of another person.
Earn Your Teaching Credential Ms In Aba Or Graduate Certificate In Autism At National University
Whether your goal is to become a special education teacher, a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, a school counselor for children with ASD, or to explore a related career path, youll hone the skills you need in National Universitys challenging, fast-paced degree programs.
Our accredited programs in school psychology, teacher education, and special education offer a wide range of academic options for undergraduate, graduate, and transfer students. NU students can pursue their passion through programs like the Master of Science in Educational Counseling, the Graduate Certificate in Autism, the MS in ABA, or other academic majors, combining theory and analysis with hands-on fieldwork to build the foundations for a rewarding and dynamic career.
Earn the degree, credential, or certificate you need to take your teaching career to the next level. Ask our admissions office about our accredited ABA and educational counseling programs, or start your application today.
Additional Sources
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How To Calm A Child With Autism In The Classroom
When it comes to working with special needs children, such as those with an autism-spectrum disorder , it’s a good idea to acquire a special toolbox of strategies in addition to your autism certification. These efforts will help your students thrive and feel comfortable in the classroom setting. Kids with autism may quickly become over-stimulated and they may have difficulty coping in new situations or environments. In these contexts, try some of the following techniques to ease their stress and restore calm to your classroom.
Ways Autism Impacts Learning In The Classroom
One of the main strategies for a classroom setup for students with autism is to label materials and spaces. Setting up the classroom a certain way can increase a student with autisms ability to be successful in the classroom setting. We can help students understand expectations, and in general, make sense of their entire environment. Researchers have defined environmental support as aspects of the environment, other than interactions with people, which affect the learning that takes place.
Predictability and sameness are significant factors throughout students daily lives. One way to address these elements in the classroom is with Environmental Supports.
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Incorporate Interests And Strengths Into Learning
We all do best when activities tap into our personal interests and strengths.
For instance, if someone is just learning to read and does well with puzzles, use that to your advantage. Get puzzles that incorporate a reading component.
If someone else loves to draw and make posters, let them demonstrate what they learned in class by creating a poster.
If someone is great at singing and making up songs, allow them to write a song to demonstrate a concept they learned.
Think outside of the box to find ways to incorporate a childs strengths and interests into learning.
Sorting With Snacks Activity
This tactile activity for children with autism can be a fun way to engage students during math time. Give everyone in your class a food that is easy to sort, like chewy snacks or small crackers. Multicolored snacks are ideal, but you can also use food that comes in different shapes, textures, or sizes.
First, ask them to sort the food by color, shape, or another characteristic. Then, use the snacks to teach students basic math skills like counting, adding, or subtraction. Once theyve grasped the concept you want to teach, reward your students by letting them eat the snack.
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Strategy #: Focusing On Autism Reading Comprehension Strategies
Reading is an essential skill for lifetime learning. Without strong reading comprehension skills, not only are students likely to struggle with completing their assignments and retaining information theyre also at risk for additional problems. According to The Childrens Reading Foundation, children with poor reading comprehension are more likely to struggle with low self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy, and may even be in danger of attendance and dropout problems.
Because some research has shown that reading difficulties are common in children with ASD, educators should be mindful of their strategies for teaching literacy. Here are five techniques that educators can use to teach stronger reading comprehension skills to students with ASD:
Examples Of Environmental Support
- Activity completion signals
Students with autism can get overwhelmed easily or become overstimulated. Have a designated calm down area. When the instances occur, it is easier on everyone if there is a designated area for the student to go to aid in their self-regulation. The space should be quiet and include items they may use to help calm down and re-focus themselves.
All of these environmental support strategies are a simple yet effective way to help a student respond appropriately in their day-to-day activities throughout their school day. Environmental support can be effectively utilized across all environments and all settings to help support individuals with ASD. Additionally, environmental support has been shown to increase student independence, and help stimulate language.
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My Three Key Strategies For Supporting Children With Autism
When you read these suggested teaching strategies please know that they are written from a place of understanding and empathy. They are options, advised tactics, and potential ideas to meet a childs needs that you can keep in your toolbox which may work some days but not on other days.
They may work wonderfully for Child A but get Child B absolutely nowhere. We know that the autism spectrum is broad and is never one-size-fits-all but hopefully some of these strategies will at least start a conversation about how we can effectively support autistic learners in mainstream schools.
Youll note that in this article we have avoided referring to autism spectrum disorder or developmental disorders as we prefer a more strengths based approach.
Its also worth noting that there are plenty more strategies I could mention but in order to give some depth, clarity and detail Im just going to talk about three biggies with a focus on developing independence. Lets get to it!
Teach Coping Skills And Calming Strategies
Children with autism absolutely need to be taught coping skills and calming strategies for when they are feeling frustrated, anxious, or are having sensory overload. For lower-level ASD students, they may need assistance with using these strategies and wont be able to do them independently. It is not uncommon for children with autism to seem anxious, fidget, or even have a meltdown. Providing physical and emotional tools to help calm the body and mind are important during times of stress or sensory overload.
Examples of these include providing a weighted blanket, a bouncy seat, a fidget or other sensory toy to play with, turning the lights down, playing soft music, giving noise-cancelling headphones to wear, allowing the student to use a sensory room or go to a calm space in the classroom, practicing deep breathing and stretching, counting backward, tapping, etc. Each child will have his or her own preferences and what is used will also depend upon the situation. A SPED teacher and a parent of a child with autism should have a toolbox full of calming strategies handy.
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A Written Behavior Plan
A plan should be in place for each childs targeted behaviors. If students have inappropriate behavior, there should be a plan for dealing with that behavior. All staff members in your class should have a copy of the behavior plans. The behavior plans can be very short or extensive depending on the needs of the student. Behavior plans can cover information as minor as what to do when the child keeps taking of their shoe to something as major as aggression, hitting, kicking etc. In each case, you will want to conduct a Functional Behavior Assessmentto develop a Behavior Intervention Plan. The behavior plans should be a written plan of action so that each member of your classroom team responds in the same way to a behavior.
Stay Calm When Interacting With The Child
If you are regularly having trouble staying calm, you may benefit from talking to a friend, family member, or therapist for support. Do not take it out on your child. Yelling and threatening will not make behavior better. It may stop the behavior in the short-term, but the behaviors will occur again. You may actually make the behaviors worse because the child may start to feel anxious, scared, angry, embarrassed, or sad. Children with autism are not choosing to act in a way that is frustrating to you or anyone else. They legitimately need positive support from you to help them meet their emotional/behavioral needs.
Finally, it is important to recognize that some children on the autism spectrum have trouble generalizing expectations across situations, so the same strategies may need to be used in situations that are similar to one another.
Keep in Mind: If you are using these strategies for the first time, you may not see change as quickly as you d like. Your child/student will not be used to your new techniques and may even push harder due to the sudden change in your behavior. I know it is hard but be patient and keep implementing these strategies with consistency.
Here are some options for how you can create pictures to use with children with language difficulties:
If you work in a school, they may already have a laminator for you to use. If you are a parent, you can also try asking your childs school if they can help you laminate some pictures for an at home schedule.
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Technology Plays A Role In Helping Students With Autism Succeed In School
Transitioning to a new school year often is challenging for students with autism, but technology can help support those students as they become more independent in their learning.
During an edWeb webinar, visual strategist and speech language pathologist Linda Hodgdon shared five tips to help students with autism begin the school year successfully. Lauren Stafford, vice president of Research and Instructional Design at Monarch Teaching Technologies , offered technology tips to support each of the five strategies.
The most important thing to understand, Hodgdon said, is the communication strengths and challenges of children with autism. Most people misunderstand how autism can impact a students communication abilities.
The majority of them understand what they see better than what they hear, she said. The same is true for other special-needs students and students in generalthey tend to be visual learners.
Theres no problem with using low-tech, mid-tech or high-tech, Stafford said. In outlining ways to match Hodgdons strategies to technology strategies, Stafford touched on MTTs web-based vizZle tools, but other tech tools also are available for students with autism.
1. Communication
- Create a communication environment that is user friendly for students
- Plan for all students
- Use many forms of communication, including speech, pointing and gestures, body language, pictures, objects, written language, and technology
2. Environment
3. Giving information
4. Managing time