New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline - Ministry of Health

Part 6: Professional learning and development
Part 6
• skills in interacting and communicating
with people with ASD and their families
and whänau
• the voice of the consumer (first-hand
experience of ASD)
• parent involvement (family views and
values)
• theoretical underpinning of instructional
approaches
• the development of skill in a variety of
techniques and natural teaching strategies
• the development of language and
communication
• the development of social competencies
• the development of adaptive skills and
supporting transitions
• providing structure
• trial teaching
• decreasing problem behaviours
• skills in supervision and management
of paraprofessionals, organisation and
collaboration with other team members 11 96 411 .
Paraprofessionals
Teacher aides, education support workers (ESW)
and other paraprofessionals require professional
learning and development for working with
specific children and adults.
They need to understand:
• the individual’s characteristics
• the individual’s communication skills and
style
• behaviour management techniques for this
particular person
• instructional methods for the development
of new skills
• optimum arrangement of the environment.
Every adult working with a person with ASD
needs to develop the skills to deal positively
with behaviour challenges. The paraprofessional
should be able to use, with ease, all learning
systems employed with the person (eg, Picture
Exchange Communication System (PECS) or
Incidental Teaching) 203 412 . Paraprofessionals and
in-home carers need to be trained in strategies
such as naturalistic teaching, visual supports,
communication and social skill methods, as
required 411 . A New Zealand study showed the
importance of teacher aides understanding the
usefulness of taking a facilitative role to assist
interactions with peers rather than a role which
tried to compensate for the child’s difficulties
and do tasks for them. They reported that the
teacher aides appeared confused about whether
their role was a teaching or caretaking one 413 .
Guidelines for the roles and responsibilities
of paraprofessionals need to be developed so
that everyone has a shared understanding of
the paraprofessional’s responsibilities and role
and who will provide supervision 96 . It is not
appropriate for paraprofessionals to have sole
responsibility for implementing or decisionmaking
about interventions or programmes 203 .
Teams
Because students with ASD benefit from a
high degree of structure and consistency, it
is important that the team working around
the child or person is coordinated and well
informed and shares common information
about specialised instructional and behaviour
management strategies 96 203 . It is helpful if the
team approach is reflected in the style of the
professional learning and development and that
different professions are given the opportunity
to share learning opportunities 96 . It may also be
helpful for parents to join with other workers in
professional learning and development so that
there is an opportunity for each to understand
the others’ issues and knowledge.
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New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline