Children who have an autism spectrum disorder can pose major challenges in public-school classrooms. Autistic children can struggle to understand instructions and social cues, to explain themselves or their answers, to accept changes and to apply information to new contexts. They often have trouble filtering sensory input, which can lead to anxiety, aggression and uncontrolled behavior. The National Education Association and the Autism Society of America have a series of strategies they recommend to help handle autistic children in the classroom.
Step 1
Make visual aids to help students understand schedules, assignments, instructions and descriptions. Autistic children tend to have extremely literal minds, so be as specific and exact in your pictures and graphs as you can. Color-code timetables, draw comic strips that teach etiquette and write down step-by-step instructions for classroom assignments, including what the student should do after he completes the work.
Step 2
Establish an area in the room where the student can go if she becomes overwhelmed. Fill it with items that the student finds soothing. For example, if she self-soothes by covering her head, put heavy blankets in the area. Instruct the student to take a time-out in her soothing area whenever she needs to.
Step 3
Follow consistent routines in the classroom. Autistic students often become distressed when things don't happen the way they expect, so make sure your student has plenty of warning if something unusual is going to happen. This can be a major disruption, such as a fire drill, or a minor change, such as a new display on the bulletin board.
Step 4
Discuss clear rules and consequences with autistic students. Provide them with pictures or charts of good ways to handle social situations, unacceptable responses and the consequences of bad behavior.
Step 5
Explain assignments thoroughly and specifically. Give the student written instructions of exactly what to do, particularly for collaborative projects. Help the student record in his planner the due dates for every step of an ongoing project, and give him a checklist of all the things he must do to achieve a perfect score.
Step 6
Ask the student to give two-sentence answers to questions, summaries of recent experiences and reviews of factual information. Autistic students often struggle to identify the important parts of situations and reading materials, and requiring short summaries helps them learn to distinguish details from main points.
Step 7
Give information, rules and instructions with concrete examples before you use abstract ideas. For example, say "It upsets Sam when you take his books, because those books belong to Sam, not to you. You must respect other people's property."
Tips and Warnings
- Assign friendly, patient students in the class to be peer mentors to the autistic student. These mentors can remind the student to look at her visual behavioral aids, written instructions and timetables, and they can suggest a time-out in her soothing area if she begins to show signs of distress.
- Some autistic children don't like to be touched. Find out how your student responds to this and other physical stimuli.
Things You'll Need
- Visual aids
- Self-soothing items
