Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Chapter Two Characteristics Associated with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Rosenblatt, J., et al., (1995) “Overselective
responding: Description, implications, and
intervention,” in Teaching Children with
Autism: Strategies for Initiating Positive
Interactions and Improving Learning
Opportunities.
Implications for instruction
These cognitive variations result in unique patterns of strengths
and needs in a student’s academic performance, social interaction,
and behaviour. Development of cognitive skills is usually uneven.
Programming for the student should therefore be based on the
specific combination of strengths and needs of that individual, which
are identified through the Student Education Plan (SEP).
The professional literature on ASD documents deficits in attention
and language development, problems in concept formation, and
difficulties with memory for complex information. These
characteristics, considered in combination with personal accounts
of how individuals with ASD are more visually oriented, suggest
that visual material should be incorporated into instruction when
teaching students with ASD.
Suggestions for instructional strategies are provided in
Chapter 3, Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum
Disorders.
Unusual Patterns of Attention
People with ASD often demonstrate unusual patterns of attention.
Students may have a range of difficulties in this area, with major
implications for effective communication, social development, and
attainment of academic skills.
Students with ASD often have difficulty paying attention to
relevant cues or information in their environment and may focus
their attention only on a restricted part of the environment, to the
exclusion of what is relevant. For example, a student may look at
the ball but not at the person to whom the ball is to be thrown. Or
a child may notice the insignificant details such as the staple in the
corner of a paper, but not the information on the paper. This
characteristic is referred to as stimulus over-selectivity. Another
feature of ASD is an impairment in the capacity to share attention
between two things or people, which is referred to as joint attention.
Students with ASD may have difficulty disengaging and shifting
attention from one stimulus to the next, which may contribute to
the characteristic rigidity and resistance to change. They may also
demonstrate a short attention span.
Implications for instruction
Difficulties with attending may significantly influence the
student’s ability to develop effective social behaviour and language.
For example, students with ASD may respond to irrelevant social
18 Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders