Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Chapter Three Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Quill, K. A. (1995) “Visually cued
instructions for children with Autism
and Pervasive Developmental
Disorders,” Focus on Autistic Behaviour,
10(3).
Hodgdon, L.A. (1995) Visual Strategies
for Improving Communication,
Vol 1: Practical Supports for School
and Home.
of the student’s individualized program. Some more high-functioning
students who have benefitted from early intervention may be able
to benefit from more traditional learning styles.
Discrete trial training involves teaching skills in small units called
trials. Each trial consists of an instruction, a prompt (if needed), a
response from the student, and a consequence or feedback. The
instruction is given in simple, clear language that the student can
understand.
Discrete Trial Teaching can be delivered both in one-on-one
teaching situations or in the context of incidental and activity-based
teaching situations. A prompt may be necessary especially when
a new skill is being taught, to guide the student in achieving a correct
response. A prompt to guide a child to a correct response is more
beneficial and ensures success. Approximately 3-5 seconds are
allowed following the instruction to give the student time to process
the direction and to separate each teaching trial.
Using prompts to help students learn is an important element of
instruction for some students with ASD. Prompts may be physical,
gestural, positional, or verbal. They should be used only as long as
they are needed, since students can become dependent on them. The
prompt is given following the direction when the student seems to
need a cue to perform correctly or when learning a new skill. The
prompt is often designed to model the desired behaviour or assist
the student in performing it. The instructor decides what level of
prompt to use based on the student’s need (see Appendix B). A
prompt hierarchy should be established to determine how prompts
should be systematically faded, thus allowing the child to carry out
the task independent of adults prompts and/or cues. The least intrusive
level of prompting should be used with the goal to fade all prompting
as soon as possible as trials progress. Prompted trials should be
followed by an unprompted trial to see if the student has learned
from the prompt. The best reinforcement or consequence is given
to the student for a correct unprompted trial.
Visual approaches
The most strongly recommended approach for teaching students
with ASD is to use ABA, which includes the use of visual aids.
Students often demonstrate relative strengths in concrete thinking,
rote memory, and understanding of visual-spatial relationships, but
have difficulties in abstract thinking, social cognition, communication,
and attention. Pictographic and written cues can often help the student
to learn, communicate, and develop self-control.
24 Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders