Guidelines
for Teaching Individuals with ASD in School Settings
(From A Student’s Perspective)
Originally written
for and published by the Autisable blog.
I am a young man with autism, aged 23, who presents
around the
During my travels around the
First, to present and give inservices to the staff at those schools.
Second, to consult and give advice to the
staff at those schools.
Third, to give autism awareness presentations
to the students at those schools, sometimes in classrooms or in the form of an
assembly.
When I visit these schools, I often hear stories
about the concerns and issues that teachers and
parents have about how to properly educate children with autism.
Growing up with autism myself, my education was split
between homeschooling and public school education. In a school district that,
at times, did not always understand autism, my parents would often homeschool me when they felt that the school did not
understand my needs, and then I would sometimes attend school when they felt
that they did. This experience enabled me to see the benefits and advantages of
both worlds.
Based on these experiences in the educational system, and
the visits I give to schools, I have created a checklist of guidelines that I
believe should be implemented in schools that are educating children with
autism. I share these whenever I visit schools, varying them based on the
context of the school I am visiting.
Guideline #1: Academic instruction should be taught
separately from social instruction in order to accomodate
that a child with autism may be academically at one level, but socially at
another.
Guideline #2: Schools that educate children with autism
should have an "escape room," or place where children can go when
they need to have sensory breaks.
Guideline #3: Children with autism should be allowed to
use assistive technology, such as computers, iPads,
etc., if it helps them perform better academically in a classroom.
Guideline #4: Children with autism should be notified
prior to all emergency drills, such as tornado drills, earthquake drills,
lockdown drills, and especially fire drills.
Guideline #5: Teachers should acknowledge and understand
the differences between "intelligence" and "school
intelligence," that is, a student's intelligence vs. a student's ability
to function in a school setting, and be aware that students with autism may be
highly intelligent yet may still struggle within the context of a classroom
setting.
Guideline #6: Children with autism should be educated, in
high school, about the multiple options they have when transitioning out of
education, rather than focus on a single option (such as going to college),
unless the family (and if possible, the individual with autism) has decided
that is the transition they desire for their child.
Guideline #7: Children with autism should be notified
that they do not magically become independent at the age of 18 and that they
may still have to live with their parents into adulthood, and that it is not
shameful to do so.
Guideline #8: The social preferences of children with
autism often differ than non-autistic children--therefore, teachers should be
respectful of friendships that children with autism make independently provided
the friendships are mutual and that the child with autism is not being hurt as
a result of the friendship.
Guideline #9: Children with autism should not have
friendships forced on them, if they desire to be alone, teachers should respect
their desires, focus on helping them academically, and possibly help them
communicate to other children their desire for space and to be alone.
Guideline #10: Every child with autism is different, and
their accommodations should reflect their unique differences, strengths, and
needs, even if they do not always match up with general guidelines about
helping individuals with autism.
It should be noted that these are a list of guidelines, and
therefore, no one has to agree with all of them. At the same time, since every
autistic child is different, what works for some children with autism may not
work with other children.