Angi Reid Sisk
ESE
Instructor Pillar
October 24, 2011
Autism Awareness
Autism is a disability that affects thousands of children today. The causes are yet to be known but there are many theories floating around as to how children develop this disorder. More importantly than how they have gotten the diagnosis, is what can be done do to help them thrive in their educational environment. Many of these children are staring school and are faced with an entirely new set of challenges other than adjusting to life in a home setting. There are many common characteristics that children with autism exhibit; educators must be aware of these traits and understand the best way to deal with them and other needs required by the students due to this disability. It is vital to be knowledgeable in the best teaching strategies and have access to support services and aids available to give children with this disorder the tools needed to achieve success along with their non-disabled peers. Autism has six distinct characteristics that involve students with the disability, (Turnbull and Wehmeyer, 2009).
Several characteristics accompany students with autism that can drastically impact their progression in a general classroom environment. One common characteristic that children on the autism spectrum face is difficulty with speech. Children with autism are likely to develop speech more slowly than other children. In some children they may never start talking and with others they could develop speech and then lose it suddenly or over a period of time. Students with autism may experience the lack of social language skills; they can also exhibit lack of eye contact and unusual facial expressions. These deficiencies are not done intentionally, but because students with autism have an inability to communicate on the same level as their other peers, (Brittish Columbia; Ministry of Education, 2000).
For the students who have developed speech it can differ in other ways