Frequently Needed Answers

With an ever increasing umber of special needs students joining mainstream classrooms, teachers face the challenges of meeting their needs whilst creating an inclusive and challenging learning environment for all students.

Teachers are able to use several alternative strategies that can help them deal affectively with those children with ASD.

After first establishing the student’s capabilities both verbally and intellectually a teacher can assess which strategies will best suit the student with ASD. 

Some special needs students with autism are high functioning and able to use language and cognitive abilities to express what they are thinking.

However some special needs students with autism may be non-verbal; in these cases children can communicate with visual supports aids for autism (PECS -Picture Exchange Communication System). These visual aids for autism have wide uses within the autism classroom.

For many students with autism trying to communicate and be understood is difficult, they may lack the ability to effectively communicate, which is a common problem in autism.  For example children with ASD can have difficulties asking questions, taking turns, sharing even forming friendships this can be frustrating and stressful, causing some special needs students with autism to become agitated.

Teachers are able to help by providing an organized classroom with specific areas that the student with autism may locate easily through the use of visual support aids for autism like verbal or visual clues for the autism classroom. For example visual supports cards can be placed in special areas such as the bathroom, coat pegs, pencil tray and so on, for easy identification taking away stresses.

The images used in visual supports cards are easily identifiable to all special needs students and can be used not only as visual supports cards placed around the autism classroom but also on visual schedules, now and next boards and as cues for social stories.

Teachers also find the use of social skills stories for students with autism beneficial and are now one of the major strategies used by teachers for helping student’s better cope within the autism classroom.

Social skills stories for students with autism are visually rich showing the student the how, why, where and when of the skill or behaviour that they are being used to teach or re-enforce. First developed almost twenty years ago to teach social and communication skills, social skills stories are used effectively by both parents and teachers to help children with ASD understand and cope with all skills and situations they struggle to understand and deal with.

To find out more about how social skills stories can be beneficial to children with ASD and in the autism classroom visit: http://www.autismsocialstories.com/school

http://www.autismsocialstories.com/school_resources

For all other social skills stories visit any of the following sites and gain immediate downloads:

http://www.autismsocialstories.com

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One of the major issues for parents of children with autism is that of teaching social skills to their child. For many parents of children with autism teaching emotions is difficult, children with autism tend to lack social skills and find it difficult to recognize and react to emotional both verbal and non-verbal stimuli and actions or reactions.

For example “small talk” in social settings, making friends, or the importance of good eye contact during a conversation, these are all skills autistic people lack until taught directly. Being able to read people is not a natural skill in autism and many autistic people will also lack social etiquettes, and the ability to be sensitive, emotional and understanding. They will also for example find it difficult to read the subtle cues contained in social interactions, such as how to tell when someone wants to change the topic of conversation or shift to another activity.

So for many parents the social skills goals for children with autism is to teach their child the how, where, why, when and what for social settings and behaviors that they may struggle with or find stressful and or confusing.

Consequently many parents of children with autism turn to visual aids for autism such as social stories to help them to teach their child with autism to interpret social signals, skills, cues and behaviors so that they can determine how to act appropriately in the company of other people in a variety of different situations.

The social story is not only used for teaching social skills and behaviors in public but also in school, and at home, the social story can be used to help teach your child with autism, social skills such as hygiene routines like tooth brushing, washing etc, how to act and follow rules in school. Plus skills such as sharing, taking turns, respecting personal space, keeping calm, asking questions, appropriate eating habits and so on..

Many parents of children with autism use social stories when focusing on social skills goals for children with autism, reported as one of the major visual aids for autism social stories are normally written by experts in autism, following a set formula that has been proven to work for many autistic children for almost twenty years.

Downloadable autism social stories from sites like: http://www.autismsocialstories.com are written by an expert in autism. These social stories are instantly downloaded and implemented easily, editable and printable for convenience of use. All the autism social stories on this site are visually rich, use appropriate first person text, following specific formulas.

For parents of children with autism social stories are excellent tools for teaching, providing and reaching appropriate social skills goals for children with autism.

Download autism social stories for autism from sites such as:

http://www.autismsocialstories.com

Students with special needs such as autism spectrum disorder often struggle in the classroom. For autistic students the classroom is confusing and can cause unnecessary stress. Students with special needs such as autism spectrum disorder may have problems with things like understanding instructions, listening following rules, changes to routines, transitions and friendships as well as other issues such as sensory processing, toileting, behavior and so on.

These issues will require special handling for the student with autism to feel comfortable in class and throughout the school day. Visual aids for autism can help alleviate many of these issues.

Visual aids for autism can make a huge difference to the student with autism and actually help them achieve their potential. For many autistic students using visual aids for autism such as social stories is a real benefit.

Generally teachers of autistic students will be aware of all autism classroom accommodations and will have taken their autistic students needs into account before the student with autism begins school. Many teachers of autistic students use social stories to help teach their student with autism appropriate social, communication, imagination and interaction skills and behaviors. As well as helping the student with autism cope with and understand the rules of school, as well as what is expected of them during the day, and what they can expect from others.

So let’s examine how do visual aids help special ed children - simply be making them more comfortable in and with situations, events and tasks they feel stressed by of fail to understand.

A social story is always written in the first person with visual cues and prompts appropriate to the skill or behavior being mastered. The social story is a visual step by step plan of a task broken down into small easily digestible chunks with focus being given to the key points the “social cues” which the student with autism can follow easily. They can be edited to suit individual needs and printed to make the accessible anywhere. So for example the social story can be used in the playground, outside school, in any class and so on in-fact anywhere it is needed to help support the autistic student.

To find out more about social skills stories for autistic students and how do visual aids help special ed children, plus get a download of 48 social skills stories for autistic students visit: http://www.autismsocialstories.com/school

Or http://www.autismsocialstories.com/school_resources where you can download social skills stories for autistic students, quickly and easily.

Other sites offering social stories can be found at:

http://www.autismsocialstories.com

http://www.autismsocialstories.com/social_skills

http://www.autismsocialstories.com/visual_aids

Chances are a child with autism in mainstream education will not require special education, which means they are unlikely to have obvious learning disabilities. But that said they will still have special needs.

The first thing as a teacher you should do is to speak to other members of staff including SENCO in your school. Make sure that everyone understands what autism is and that they are aware of how this will affect the child’s behavior. You should also make the other children in the class aware of their new class mate’s condition and explain that this may affect how the new member of class will act.

Probably one of the most significant issues you will need to address is to prepare all autism classroom accommodations before the child with autism begins school.

Generally a good start with addressing autism classroom accommodations is to prepare the class for the new student by adding visual prompts or cues, to areas of the classroom for example the coat pegs, toilet, art area etc. Ask the parents for a meeting and try to identify the autistic child’s strengths and weaknesses. You can build on the strengths and encourage these.

For many children with autism will prefer their own company, however older children and teens may feel left out or lonely. Sometimes it can be helpful to structure break times to avoid any problems. Sometimes it may be necessary to appoint a buddy system for the student with autism to help them cope with break times and recess.

Many parents will already be using visual aids for autism with their child before they begin school it is a good idea to carry on with these within the classroom also. Generally most children with autism will be visual learners and will respond well to visual aids for autism, such as visual timetables, PECS and social stories. These will all help avoid many of the problems in the classroom for autistic children.

Try using visual aids for autism when teaching a subject that requires abstract thinking. You could maybe use photographs or pictures to help keep the autistic child’s attention. Even at secondary school, it is still possible to use visual aids for example illustrations or diagrams could be added to worksheets.

Visual timetables are used to help overcome problems in the classroom for autistic children with routine and any change to the routine. The autistic child can quickly recognize what is happening as has a visual cue for the various different times of the day, like break times, recess, P.E lessons, home time etc.

You may want to include time for the bathroom as this is a confusing time for most children with autism.

Many teachers find using autism social stories a significant advantage, as a tool for helping the autistic child keep on task and understand what is expected of them throughout the day and what they should expect from other’s.

Autism social stories are used with great affect in classrooms for all times of the day and all activities they are also invaluable for explaining classroom rules, personal space, assembly, recess and so on which are all areas many students with autism struggle to understand and cope with.

Developed to help teach social and communication skills to children with autism social stories are written in first person tense with visual images setting out a step by step visual plan that the autistic child can relate to and follow. By simply showing the autistic child the what, where, when and how for all areas and skills that they may struggle with. They are also used effectively for changes to routines, sport’s day and so on showing the autistic child what they can expect, and what others will expect from them.

Reports suggest autism social stories should be included in all autism classroom accommodations, experts agree students with autism DO benefit from the use of autism social stories within their daily routines and at home.

To download social stories for students with autism visit:

http://www.autismsocialstories.com/school

Alternatively social stories for students with autism can also be downloaded from http://www.autismsocialstories.com/school_resources

Other autism social stories can be downloaded from

http://www.autismsocialstories.com