Autism In Classroom
Sam Comes to School:
Including Students with Autism in Your Classroom
DIANA FRIEDLANDER
Abstract: Inclusion in the general education classroom is becoming the placement of choice for many students with autism. Autism is a disorder that can impact many aspects of a child’s learning experience. A child’s profile along the continuum of Autism Spectrum Disorders dictates the severity of impairment in language engagement, social connectedness, sensory integration, and cognitive skills. This can often be overwhelming for teachers who are uninformed and untrained in the unique issues of autism. Teacher awareness and understanding of behaviors and perceptions unique to these disorders can facilitate the development and implementation of strategies …show more content…
created specifically to ease this potentially overwhelming situation for students and teachers.
times, however, the barrier was not enough and other stimuli sent him into a panicky terror.
Autism: A Social Disorder
Autism is one of a group of developmental disorders called Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs).
ASDs include a wide continuum: Autism, Pervasive Development
Disorder, Asperger’s Syndrome, Fragile X Syndrome, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (Cohen and Volkmar 1997). Researchers are beginning to understand the genetic components of autism, which affects about
1 in 166 children born in the United States (Frombonne 2007). This frequency is put in perspective by the statistical knowledge that only 1 in 800 babies is born with Down Syndrome (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2006).
Most children diagnosed with an ASD have difficulty in social areas, such as picking up cues from their environment and the ability to form typical relationships. Language is another area of difficulty. Although children with an ASD may have adequate expressive language, sometimes beyond their years, receptive language may be compromised. Sensory integration is another troublesome spot. Students with an ASD can have difficulty regulating input into their central nervous system, resulting in sensitivity to touch, sound, taste, or smell. Sam once told a story of how he caught a snake after hearing it slither.
When a child is diagnosed with autism, a lack of social or emotional reciprocity in his or her …show more content…
classroom experience causes the most impact. The social aspects of childhood and school come easily to most children, but not to children with autism. Children learn to thrive and grow in their environment by watching and
Keywords: autism, inclusion, strategies for teaching students with autism
S
am’s first day of school was different from everyone else’s. He walked into the brightly lit, cheerful classroom and quickly became engrossed in the faint whirring of an overhead fan. Chewing on his shirtsleeve, he began rocking and humming. His eyes darted from the welcome message the teacher had printed on the board to posters of color words and days of the week and names printed above each cubby, avidly reading each word and trying to make sense of this new world.
Whereas most of the children were eager to meet their teacher and classmates, Sam did not notice them or the other adults in the classroom. Sam’s autism created an invisible barrier around him, protecting him from the social world of the classroom and allowing him to find comfort in familiar sounds, symbols, and patterns. At
Diana Friedlander is a special education inclusion teacher in elementary education in
Ridgefield, CT, and a doctoral candidate at Western Connecticut State University. Copyright © 2008 Heldref Publications
141
142
The Clearing House
copying others; however, those who have autism often fail to make these social connections. Their isolation causes them to remain inexperienced in a world of comparably savvy children and can make adolescence an unnavigable maze.
Help with Getting It
Teachers slowly come to know their students. In the first few days of class they find out who is an avid reader or a social butterfly, who has the book out and is on the correct page, and who needs their hand held on the way to and from the lunchroom. Find out all you can about your student with autism before he or she arrives in your classroom; this will ease the transition for the student, for you, and for the class. Parents are the most important resource because they know their child best.
As with all children, those who have autism are unique. Although they may share some common strengths and weaknesses, each child’s individual needs must be evaluated.
Teachers should consider that children with autism are generally rigid in their thinking and behaviors.
Typically, once they gain an understanding of a specific concept, they tend to access related information in the confines of that concept. For example, one child learned that a specific pet was called a dog; therefore, all pets became known to that child as dogs. This concrete analysis of the world helps them to maintain an orderly and comfortable life with few surprises. Routinization and rituals are common behaviors among some students with autism, as the familiar bears less uncertainty. Often behaviors that are troublesome in school are actually manifestations of uncertainty and lack of order or ritual, which can be frightening to children with autism. Sometimes a child’s controlled world may not blend well with the organization you had planned to make your classroom work. A meeting with parents and their child before school begins will give you and the family time to plan for and avoid pitfalls. Parents have a good sense of how their child
will react in a given setting. They have developed strategies to make life at home and school work for their child.
Brainstorming with them on how to make this transition easy will pay off.
In some cases, easing the transition can be as simple as allowing the child to visit his or her classroom a few times in late summer or setting up a buddy system with a familiar child. Often, you will need to take further steps. For example, a clearly delineated visual schedule, often written out or using drawings or photographs, can help ease the uncertainty of time and transitions by providing advance notice and giving the child with autism a visual cue as to what comes next, thereby increasing his or her comfort level and allowing him or her to internalize the change and respond better.
Seeing the chart change or participating in changing
January/February 2009
the icons helps the child understand and accept change
(Quill 1995). Students who have relied on this type of system to help structure their early school years can progress to the more sophisticated support of a highly organized day planner or an electronic personal organizer. Parents can provide assistance by predetermining where their child might encounter difficulty throughout the school day and sharing various techniques for addressing these difficulties. Together, you can formulate an environmental support plan to help the child meet daily expectations.
Implementation of this plan must be consistent or it will add to the child’s anxiety level. It must be appropriately designed to meet each child’s unique needs; if
Sam needs to adapt to a busy cafeteria, he should be taught supportive strategies. This may include bringing comfort foods from home, having a designated seat, being told exactly how much time he has to eat before he is expected to clean up his place, or being assigned a buddy who understands his discomfort and who will model appropriate lunchroom protocol for him until he understands it.
I Did Not Teach Him to Read
Parents often report to teachers that their child possesses precocious reading decoding ability with little to no instruction. Hyperlexia (precocious reading ability accompanied by difficulty acquiring language or social skills) is not a rare phenomenon in these children. Decoding symbols, a visual and spatial task, is a unique strength for some children with autism. Armed with advance awareness of these highly developed visual learning abilities, you can begin to think of ways to use this strength in your classroom.
Gray (1994) developed the Social Stories method to help children with autism capitalize on their visual learning abilities. In this method, an educator, parent, or individual close to the child creates a captioned picture book to improve the social understanding of people on both sides of a social equation. This technique can be extremely helpful in new settings in which expectations for your class may seem clear to you but may not be for your student with autism.
Teachers can also use it to encourage or change behaviors by explaining with visual support just what it is you want your student to do and how. For example, a visit to the school library was a difficult time for Sam.
The librarian told him he could borrow two books on each weekly visit. When Sam chose to borrow magazines, he was only allowed one because a different rule applied and he became loud and anxious. The teacher drew a Social Story to show him taking one magazine home. This visual explanation helped Sam to understand the change in procedure and calm his behavior.
Social Stories can be helpful to students with autism in all aspects of their lives because they teach social
Vol. 82, No. 3
Including Students with Autism
expectations to students who may otherwise have difficulty attaining them. They are tools that can be used to lessen the anxiety a student’s misreading of social cues creates. Written on an individual basis, they address any situation that may arise, such as a simple procedure like using the library or a more complex dynamic like asking for a date.
The Squeezing Machine
A lack of understanding of one’s social world along with an unregulated sensory integration system can be anxiety producing. As students grow and mature, they face uncharted territory. These challenges are often met with heightened anxiety and overt behaviors. Temple Grandin (1995), a professor who writes simply and honestly about her own autism, describes an anxiety reducing machine she built at age eighteen that consisted of two heavily padded boards that squeezed along the sides of her body. This machine produced the sensory input she craved and desensitized her overworked nervous system, thus reducing her anxiety.
Children with autism sometimes feel sensory overload in environments in which most people feel comfortable. Overhead lighting, especially fluorescent lights that buzz or flash; noise from fans or air conditioners; the clinking of dishes in the cafeteria down the hall; or a line tapping against a metal flagpole outside can send them into a tailspin. Sensory issues in which the central nervous system craves input may also appear. These children need constant sensory stimulation and may benefit from wearing a weighted vest, having a fidget toy, sitting on an inflated or rice-filled chair cushion, or using an exercise band strung between the front legs of their chair that they can push with their foot or leg.
These sensitivities and the strategies for coping with them can influence learning, attention, behavior, and social interaction.
Support from parents and a knowledgeable occupational therapist are crucial in developing a sensory diet. Classroom teachers have the responsibility of observation and intervention and of providing reliable feedback to support staff. Creating opportunities for students to move about freely and to have some decision making in determining their sensory levels is essential. What Teachers Need to Do
The inclusion of children with autism into the general education classroom affords teachers gifts and responsibilities; like all students, however, instruction and environmental considerations must be differentiated for them to reach their potential as learners. Here
143
are some simple strategies teachers can use to help all students succeed:
• Order the classroom in almost every way. Maintain a posted schedule and encourage older students to use the strategies they have learned to organize their school lives. Always give students notice of expected due dates and upcoming tests. When possible, give advance reminders of half days, schedule and class changes, and fire drills.
• Use consistent visual cues and supports to navigate the school day and to complete academic tasks. This may include different-color desk folders for each subject, specific bins for turning in completed work, or a handson system for ordering lunch choices (i.e., one that uses visual supports such as picture cards of available food choices placed in appropriate baskets). Students who change classes may find it easier to leave materials behind in a designated place so they do not have the added responsibility of organizing them each class period.
• Be aware of sensory issues and consult professional staff and parents when developing strategies.
• Provide social supports and models to help students with autism learn socially appropriate behaviors from peers.
• Develop a behavioral plan that supports classroom expectations and promotes learning in a general education program.
Pay attention to your verbal directions. Fewer words are always better and a clearly defined message that is consistent works best. Students like Sam can and do learn and grow in the general education classroom.
The daily opportunities for interaction with other students are vital to their social, communication, and academic progress. When a student with autism is given the opportunity to observe and interact, peers and others in the greater world of school teach targeted and nontargeted information by example. Providing all students with a rich, inclusive classroom environment that includes individual goals will foster mutual respect and understanding for all.
REFERENCES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for
Health Statistics. 2006. Health, United States, 2006. http://www
.cdc.gov/nchs/hus.html (accessed December 18, 2006).
Cohen, D., and F. Volkmar. 1997. Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders. New York: Wiley.
Frombonne, E. 2007. Autism Spectrum Disorders: Rates, trends and links with immunizations. Lecture presented at Advances in Autism Conference: New Insights in the Diagnosis, Neurobiology, Genetics, and Treatment of Autism, New York.
Grandin, T. 1995. Thinking in pictures. New York: Doubleday.
Gray, C. 1994. The new social story book. Arlington, Texas: Future
Horizons.
Quill, K. A., ed. 1995. Teaching children with autism. New York: Delmar.
144
The Clearing House
January/February 2009
APPENDIX
Support Organizations for Families, Teachers, and Practitioners Working with Students
Who Have Autism Spectrum Disorder
The Autism Society of America is a voice and resource in education, advocacy, services, research, and support for the autism community. http://www.autism-society.org/
Autism Collaboration raises millions of dollars each year for research in autism with an eye toward parent driven decisions. http://www.autism.org/
Autism Speaks provides autism information, resources, and news on research and treatments. http://www.cureautismnow.org Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Autism Information Center is the official information site on autism and provides general information, screening procedures, treatments, and research updates. http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/dd/ddautism.htm
Including Students with Autism in Your Classroom
DIANA FRIEDLANDER
Abstract: Inclusion in the general education classroom is becoming the placement of choice for many students with autism. Autism is a disorder that can impact many aspects of a child’s learning experience. A child’s profile along the continuum of Autism Spectrum Disorders dictates the severity of impairment in language engagement, social connectedness, sensory integration, and cognitive skills. This can often be overwhelming for teachers who are uninformed and untrained in the unique issues of autism. Teacher awareness and understanding of behaviors and perceptions unique to these disorders can facilitate the development and implementation of strategies …show more content…
created specifically to ease this potentially overwhelming situation for students and teachers.
times, however, the barrier was not enough and other stimuli sent him into a panicky terror.
Autism: A Social Disorder
Autism is one of a group of developmental disorders called Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs).
ASDs include a wide continuum: Autism, Pervasive Development
Disorder, Asperger’s Syndrome, Fragile X Syndrome, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (Cohen and Volkmar 1997). Researchers are beginning to understand the genetic components of autism, which affects about
1 in 166 children born in the United States (Frombonne 2007). This frequency is put in perspective by the statistical knowledge that only 1 in 800 babies is born with Down Syndrome (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2006).
Most children diagnosed with an ASD have difficulty in social areas, such as picking up cues from their environment and the ability to form typical relationships. Language is another area of difficulty. Although children with an ASD may have adequate expressive language, sometimes beyond their years, receptive language may be compromised. Sensory integration is another troublesome spot. Students with an ASD can have difficulty regulating input into their central nervous system, resulting in sensitivity to touch, sound, taste, or smell. Sam once told a story of how he caught a snake after hearing it slither.
When a child is diagnosed with autism, a lack of social or emotional reciprocity in his or her …show more content…
classroom experience causes the most impact. The social aspects of childhood and school come easily to most children, but not to children with autism. Children learn to thrive and grow in their environment by watching and
Keywords: autism, inclusion, strategies for teaching students with autism
S
am’s first day of school was different from everyone else’s. He walked into the brightly lit, cheerful classroom and quickly became engrossed in the faint whirring of an overhead fan. Chewing on his shirtsleeve, he began rocking and humming. His eyes darted from the welcome message the teacher had printed on the board to posters of color words and days of the week and names printed above each cubby, avidly reading each word and trying to make sense of this new world.
Whereas most of the children were eager to meet their teacher and classmates, Sam did not notice them or the other adults in the classroom. Sam’s autism created an invisible barrier around him, protecting him from the social world of the classroom and allowing him to find comfort in familiar sounds, symbols, and patterns. At
Diana Friedlander is a special education inclusion teacher in elementary education in
Ridgefield, CT, and a doctoral candidate at Western Connecticut State University. Copyright © 2008 Heldref Publications
141
142
The Clearing House
copying others; however, those who have autism often fail to make these social connections. Their isolation causes them to remain inexperienced in a world of comparably savvy children and can make adolescence an unnavigable maze.
Help with Getting It
Teachers slowly come to know their students. In the first few days of class they find out who is an avid reader or a social butterfly, who has the book out and is on the correct page, and who needs their hand held on the way to and from the lunchroom. Find out all you can about your student with autism before he or she arrives in your classroom; this will ease the transition for the student, for you, and for the class. Parents are the most important resource because they know their child best.
As with all children, those who have autism are unique. Although they may share some common strengths and weaknesses, each child’s individual needs must be evaluated.
Teachers should consider that children with autism are generally rigid in their thinking and behaviors.
Typically, once they gain an understanding of a specific concept, they tend to access related information in the confines of that concept. For example, one child learned that a specific pet was called a dog; therefore, all pets became known to that child as dogs. This concrete analysis of the world helps them to maintain an orderly and comfortable life with few surprises. Routinization and rituals are common behaviors among some students with autism, as the familiar bears less uncertainty. Often behaviors that are troublesome in school are actually manifestations of uncertainty and lack of order or ritual, which can be frightening to children with autism. Sometimes a child’s controlled world may not blend well with the organization you had planned to make your classroom work. A meeting with parents and their child before school begins will give you and the family time to plan for and avoid pitfalls. Parents have a good sense of how their child
will react in a given setting. They have developed strategies to make life at home and school work for their child.
Brainstorming with them on how to make this transition easy will pay off.
In some cases, easing the transition can be as simple as allowing the child to visit his or her classroom a few times in late summer or setting up a buddy system with a familiar child. Often, you will need to take further steps. For example, a clearly delineated visual schedule, often written out or using drawings or photographs, can help ease the uncertainty of time and transitions by providing advance notice and giving the child with autism a visual cue as to what comes next, thereby increasing his or her comfort level and allowing him or her to internalize the change and respond better.
Seeing the chart change or participating in changing
January/February 2009
the icons helps the child understand and accept change
(Quill 1995). Students who have relied on this type of system to help structure their early school years can progress to the more sophisticated support of a highly organized day planner or an electronic personal organizer. Parents can provide assistance by predetermining where their child might encounter difficulty throughout the school day and sharing various techniques for addressing these difficulties. Together, you can formulate an environmental support plan to help the child meet daily expectations.
Implementation of this plan must be consistent or it will add to the child’s anxiety level. It must be appropriately designed to meet each child’s unique needs; if
Sam needs to adapt to a busy cafeteria, he should be taught supportive strategies. This may include bringing comfort foods from home, having a designated seat, being told exactly how much time he has to eat before he is expected to clean up his place, or being assigned a buddy who understands his discomfort and who will model appropriate lunchroom protocol for him until he understands it.
I Did Not Teach Him to Read
Parents often report to teachers that their child possesses precocious reading decoding ability with little to no instruction. Hyperlexia (precocious reading ability accompanied by difficulty acquiring language or social skills) is not a rare phenomenon in these children. Decoding symbols, a visual and spatial task, is a unique strength for some children with autism. Armed with advance awareness of these highly developed visual learning abilities, you can begin to think of ways to use this strength in your classroom.
Gray (1994) developed the Social Stories method to help children with autism capitalize on their visual learning abilities. In this method, an educator, parent, or individual close to the child creates a captioned picture book to improve the social understanding of people on both sides of a social equation. This technique can be extremely helpful in new settings in which expectations for your class may seem clear to you but may not be for your student with autism.
Teachers can also use it to encourage or change behaviors by explaining with visual support just what it is you want your student to do and how. For example, a visit to the school library was a difficult time for Sam.
The librarian told him he could borrow two books on each weekly visit. When Sam chose to borrow magazines, he was only allowed one because a different rule applied and he became loud and anxious. The teacher drew a Social Story to show him taking one magazine home. This visual explanation helped Sam to understand the change in procedure and calm his behavior.
Social Stories can be helpful to students with autism in all aspects of their lives because they teach social
Vol. 82, No. 3
Including Students with Autism
expectations to students who may otherwise have difficulty attaining them. They are tools that can be used to lessen the anxiety a student’s misreading of social cues creates. Written on an individual basis, they address any situation that may arise, such as a simple procedure like using the library or a more complex dynamic like asking for a date.
The Squeezing Machine
A lack of understanding of one’s social world along with an unregulated sensory integration system can be anxiety producing. As students grow and mature, they face uncharted territory. These challenges are often met with heightened anxiety and overt behaviors. Temple Grandin (1995), a professor who writes simply and honestly about her own autism, describes an anxiety reducing machine she built at age eighteen that consisted of two heavily padded boards that squeezed along the sides of her body. This machine produced the sensory input she craved and desensitized her overworked nervous system, thus reducing her anxiety.
Children with autism sometimes feel sensory overload in environments in which most people feel comfortable. Overhead lighting, especially fluorescent lights that buzz or flash; noise from fans or air conditioners; the clinking of dishes in the cafeteria down the hall; or a line tapping against a metal flagpole outside can send them into a tailspin. Sensory issues in which the central nervous system craves input may also appear. These children need constant sensory stimulation and may benefit from wearing a weighted vest, having a fidget toy, sitting on an inflated or rice-filled chair cushion, or using an exercise band strung between the front legs of their chair that they can push with their foot or leg.
These sensitivities and the strategies for coping with them can influence learning, attention, behavior, and social interaction.
Support from parents and a knowledgeable occupational therapist are crucial in developing a sensory diet. Classroom teachers have the responsibility of observation and intervention and of providing reliable feedback to support staff. Creating opportunities for students to move about freely and to have some decision making in determining their sensory levels is essential. What Teachers Need to Do
The inclusion of children with autism into the general education classroom affords teachers gifts and responsibilities; like all students, however, instruction and environmental considerations must be differentiated for them to reach their potential as learners. Here
143
are some simple strategies teachers can use to help all students succeed:
• Order the classroom in almost every way. Maintain a posted schedule and encourage older students to use the strategies they have learned to organize their school lives. Always give students notice of expected due dates and upcoming tests. When possible, give advance reminders of half days, schedule and class changes, and fire drills.
• Use consistent visual cues and supports to navigate the school day and to complete academic tasks. This may include different-color desk folders for each subject, specific bins for turning in completed work, or a handson system for ordering lunch choices (i.e., one that uses visual supports such as picture cards of available food choices placed in appropriate baskets). Students who change classes may find it easier to leave materials behind in a designated place so they do not have the added responsibility of organizing them each class period.
• Be aware of sensory issues and consult professional staff and parents when developing strategies.
• Provide social supports and models to help students with autism learn socially appropriate behaviors from peers.
• Develop a behavioral plan that supports classroom expectations and promotes learning in a general education program.
Pay attention to your verbal directions. Fewer words are always better and a clearly defined message that is consistent works best. Students like Sam can and do learn and grow in the general education classroom.
The daily opportunities for interaction with other students are vital to their social, communication, and academic progress. When a student with autism is given the opportunity to observe and interact, peers and others in the greater world of school teach targeted and nontargeted information by example. Providing all students with a rich, inclusive classroom environment that includes individual goals will foster mutual respect and understanding for all.
REFERENCES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for
Health Statistics. 2006. Health, United States, 2006. http://www
.cdc.gov/nchs/hus.html (accessed December 18, 2006).
Cohen, D., and F. Volkmar. 1997. Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders. New York: Wiley.
Frombonne, E. 2007. Autism Spectrum Disorders: Rates, trends and links with immunizations. Lecture presented at Advances in Autism Conference: New Insights in the Diagnosis, Neurobiology, Genetics, and Treatment of Autism, New York.
Grandin, T. 1995. Thinking in pictures. New York: Doubleday.
Gray, C. 1994. The new social story book. Arlington, Texas: Future
Horizons.
Quill, K. A., ed. 1995. Teaching children with autism. New York: Delmar.
144
The Clearing House
January/February 2009
APPENDIX
Support Organizations for Families, Teachers, and Practitioners Working with Students
Who Have Autism Spectrum Disorder
The Autism Society of America is a voice and resource in education, advocacy, services, research, and support for the autism community. http://www.autism-society.org/
Autism Collaboration raises millions of dollars each year for research in autism with an eye toward parent driven decisions. http://www.autism.org/
Autism Speaks provides autism information, resources, and news on research and treatments. http://www.cureautismnow.org Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Autism Information Center is the official information site on autism and provides general information, screening procedures, treatments, and research updates. http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/dd/ddautism.htm