Working with Autism in a Typical Classroom: What Are Best Practices?

Transcription

1 Introduction: Working with Autism in a Typical Classroom: What Are Best Practices? In this session, we explore how to teach a child with autism in a typical classroom; knowing each child in your classroom, both those with autism and those who are neurotypical; knowing how to prepare a classroom; knowing where the child with autism should sit; other practices to help make your teaching successful. Certain things need to be understood when teaching someone with autism in a typical classroom. Objectives: To explain the meaning and importance of setting up an educational environment where both the child with autism and neurotypical children can learn together To understand and explain the reasons why understanding the sensory and behavioral needs of individuals with ASD are essential in successful teaching To understand how to create an effective learning environment and methods to check whether the child with autism is learning in that environment To recognize that you, the catechist, are modeling how to interact and respond to the child with autism in and out of the classroom To understand that most behaviors expressed by a child with autism are a form of communication and not an attempt to be oppositional Due in part to varied symptoms of autism, including sensory needs, preparing a classroom that includes children with autism needs to be carefully thought out. For example, enriching a classroom with colorful pictures or objects in the room, having bright colors or music, or having children move about frequently during class can be huge obstacles for a child who needs an orderly environment with clear and predictable structure and simple in design. A teacher in such a classroom needs to be aware of the type of lighting in the room, whether the light comes from a fluorescent bulb or streaming from the sun in an uncovered window. Furniture needs to be considered as well and may need to include soft casters on the desks and chairs to reduce noise. Walls may need to be plain or contain simple messages and art. Lessons need to be presented in ways that the child with autism gets what is being introduced, and frequent checks for understanding need to be in place routinely. Be prepared to review, reword, and rework certain aspects of your lesson so that your child with autism better understands the new material. Lessons can be taught verbally, but use of outlines written on paper handed out to each student or written on the board can be of much help.

2 Other Considerations - Some students with autism may be emotionally fragile, particularly older students. Students with autism perceive things differently than their neurotypical student peers Some students with autism may have hyper or hypo vision, olfactory, auditory, and tactile senses Differences can often cause stress, and stress may be observed as agitation or restlessness and needs to be recognized for what it is and not as the child being oppositional or defiant Unfortunately, many children with autism have ineffective strategies for dealing with stress Those strategies may include verbal outbursts, aggression, self-abuse, or property destruction There needs to be a focus on respect when teaching a child with autism in a typical classroom. Remember you are modeling to the children in your classroom how to respond and act toward the child with autism! It is important to do the following: Focus on minimizing stressors, not changing the person. It is about respect, dignity, individualization, and tolerance. Philosophy can set you apart as an effective teacher to students with autism and other developmental disabilities. Take note of the following about most behaviors from children with autism: These children are not being bad. Behavior is an attempt at communication; nearly all expressed behavior is an attempt to communicate something. Students may have ineffective strategies for dealing with stress. Teach children better strategies through the use of replacement strategies or behaviors. Students with autism are often visual learners as opposed to auditory learners and need Visual presentation of information Visual supports Clear, concise, concrete language Students with autism often have Difficulty integrating new input/information Sequencing problems A hyperfocus on relevant or irrelevant details

3 Are often easily distracted by details and may perseverate on what you may think is an irrelevant detail Difficulty with words or phrases that have more than one meaning Rule-oriented most often, once a rule is established, you as the teacher must enforce that rule 100 percent of the time or the child with autism may become confused and may act out. May be internally disorganized Difficulty with initiation knowing how to start a response, particularly an abstract response Educational Strategies need to include the following: Visual strategies Accommodations for sensory issues Noise (noise-cancelling headphones, earbuds, or listening to music to help focus) Lights (material filters, paper on windows, sunglasses) Need for movement (Zuma chairs, movement breaks within building, walking up to board, etc.) Thinking from their perspective what needs to be in place for optimal learning Headphones for noise-sensitive students (Earbuds work too!) Filtering lights using material can be very effective:

4 Paper covering the windows may help as well: Additional educational Strategies may include the following: Highlight relevant details. Use children s special interests to focus, teach or reinforce. Provide cues to recognize important information (increase size of print, bold, italics, color coding, underlining, etc.). A clear beginning and end (work system and finished bin); put finished pictures in pouch or on back, etc. Engagement is critica.l Focusing the student and getting him or her involved in your learning activity.

5 A critical component to learning is that the teacher must ensure that the student is actively engaged in learning Sometimes there are differences in the student s ability to engage: Trouble switching gears once engaged;transitioning to new page, concept or class may be a challenge. You need to have a plan for engaging your students; use their special interests Also need to plan breaks; build them into the schedule Engagement/disengagement can be a source of frequent outbursts or behavioral issues. Consider using individual schedules in either a horizontal or vertical format.

6 Consider an individual work station if your classroom allows for it.

7 Setting up a classroom and recognizing how a child with a developmental disorder and autism in particular is one of the keys to success in teaching him or her. It is critical that you know the children in your classroom, those with autism and those who are neurotypical, for in so doing, you have the ability to help create an atmosphere that will allow each to learn in his or her own way. Understanding these concepts enables a catechist to come to creative terms for orchestrating an appropriate faith formation learning environment.