Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders

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Chapter Two Characteristics Associated with Autism Spectrum Disorders “One must separate the variables of social interaction problems from emotions. People with ASD desire emotional contact with other people but they are stymied by complex social interaction.” T. Grandin (1995). Thinking in Pictures and Other Reports from my Life with Autism. p44. For more information on teaching social communication, see Quill, K.A. (1995) Teaching Children with Autism: Strategies to Enhance Communication and Socialization, and Quill, K.A. (2000) Do-Watch- Listen-Say: Social and Communication Intervention for children with Autism. Baron-Cohen, S. (1995) Mindblindness. The extent of difficulty varies among individuals, but even those of average intelligence may have difficulty with communication. Implications for instruction Effective programs for students with ASD include comprehensive communication assessment and intervention. This typically involves evaluation by a psychologist, an occupational therapist, an autism consultant and a speech-language pathologist, as well as informal observation and classroom-based evaluation. The evaluation helps to identify the goals, objectives, and strategies that facilitate development of receptive and expressive language skills, as well as pragmatic skills. Instruction should emphasize paying attention, imitating, comprehending, and using language in play and social interaction. Communication goals should emphasize the functional use of language and communication in various settings. For more information on teaching communication skills, see Strategies for Communication Development in Chapter 3. Social Interaction Students with ASD demonstrate qualitative differences in social interaction and often have difficulty establishing relationships. They may have limited social interactions or a rigid way of interacting with others. Their difficulties with social communication should not be seen as lack of interest or unwillingness to interact with others. This lack of effective social communication may result from an inability to distill social information from the social interaction and use appropriate communication skills to respond. Understanding social situations typically requires language processing and non-verbal communication, which are areas of deficit for people with ASD. They may not notice important social cues, and may miss necessary information. People with ASD typically experience difficulty in the use of non-verbal behaviours and gestures to regulate social interaction, and in reading the non-verbal behaviour of others. People with ASD have significant difficulty with any interaction that requires knowledge of other people and what they think or know. It has been theorized that they have a social cognitive deficit in this area, which Baron-Cohen describes as the “theory of mind”: People with ASD may not be able to understand the perspective of others, or even understand that other people have a perspective that could be different from their own. They may have difficulty 14 Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Characteristics Associated with Autism Spectrum Disorders Chapter Two Sigman, M., et al., (1997) “Cognition and emotion in children and adolescents with Autism,” in Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders (2 nd ed). Howlin, P., et al., (1999) Teaching Children with Autism to Mind Read: A Practical Guide. Wing, L. and Gould, J., (1979) “Severe impairments of social interaction and associated abnormalities in children: Epidemiology and classification,” Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 9. understanding their own, and particularly other people’s beliefs, desires, intentions, knowledge, and perceptions, and often have problems understanding the connection between mental states and actions. For example, they may not be able to understand that another child is sad, even if that child is crying, because they are not themselves sad. Students with ASD may not grasp the fact that other people have their own perceptions and viewpoints. Students with ASD demonstrate such difficulties in a variety of observable ways. For example, they have tendencies to play with toys and objects in unusual and stereotypical ways. Some may engage in excessive or inappropriate laughing or giggling. Play that does occur often lacks the imaginative qualities of social play. Some children with ASD may play near others, but do not share and take turns, while others may withdraw entirely from social situations. The quality and quantity of social interaction occurs on a continuum. Social interaction can be classified into three subtypes along this continuum: • aloof----those who show no observable interest or concern in interacting with other people except for those needed to satisfy basic personal needs; they may become agitated when in close proximity to others and may reject unsolicited physical or social contact • passive----those who do not initiate social approaches, but will accept initiations from others • active but odd----those who will approach for social interaction but do so in an unusual and often inappropriate fashion People with ASD may exhibit behaviours across the continuum. Implications for instruction Social skill development is essential for students with ASD. Plans for managing challenging behaviours must include specific instruction in appropriate behaviours. Students with ASD do not learn social skills incidentally by observation and participation. Teachers must target specific skills for explicit instruction and to provide support for using the skills in social situations. Additional information is provided in the section Strategies for Teaching Social Skills, in Chapter 3. Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders 15
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Page 10 and 11: Introduction The final section of t
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Chapter Four Managing Challenging B
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Chapter Five Students with Asperger
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Chapter Six Transition Planning For
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Chapter Seven Assessment and Evalua
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Chapter Eight Planning Support for
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Appendices These appendices contain
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Appendix B Hierarchy of Prompts Pro
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Appendix D Name:___________________
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Appendix E Home-School Communicatio
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Appendix F Communication Dictionary
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Appendix H The Components of a Beha
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Appendix I Tips for Teaching High F
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Appendix I 13. If that doesn’t wo
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Appendix K Integrating Student’s
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Resources Consultative and Support
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Resources Print Resources The follo
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Resources Do-watch-listen-say: Soci
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Targeting autism: What we know, don
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Resources Assessment Tools Assessme
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References This section includes so
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References Durand, V.M., & Crimmins
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References Hodgdon, L. (1991). Solv
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References McGinnis, E., & Goldstei
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References Rourke, B.P. (1989). Non
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138 Education Guidelines for Referr
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Step 1: Guidelines for Referral Pro
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Step 2 - A: *** Note: A psychologic
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Referral for Consultation School Ps
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SCHOOL DISTRICT _____________ PAREN
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Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders

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