subject: How to teach an autistic child in the mainstream classroom [print this page] How to teach an autistic child in the mainstream classroom
The number of pupils with an ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) included in mainstream classrooms is increasing substantially.
ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) is a neurological disorder which affects the brain of the individual. Generally a child with an ASD will have deficits in three main areas of development:
Social Interactions
Communication skills both verbal and non-verbal
And Imagination skills will be missing
It is these characteristics of autism that can make life in mainstream education for most autistic youngsters difficult.
Many teachers of pupils with an ASD find that the hardest characteristics of autism to deal with in the mainstream classroom are the pupils:
The student with autism will have rigidity of thought and behavior, the student with autism will display limited imagination or imaginative play skills.
The ASD student will be far more likely to display repetitive or obsessive play where the ASD student may carry out ritualistic actions for example lining up toys or sorting into colors. Or they may focus upon minor details such as an item of clothing rather than the person, or part of a toy rather than the whole thing.
The pupil with an ASD will have limited verbal and non-verbal communication skills, for example they may lack the ability to have a true two way conversation. They will lack nonverbal communication skills and fail to recognize the emotions, gestures, or ideas of others.
The pupil with an ASD will have marked difficulties with social interactions and may appear rude they will struggle to initiate interactions and may misread social situations.
How to teach an autistic child in the mainstream classroom can therefore be confusing and stressful at times.
However there are methods that you can put in place that help address any social skills deficits that the student with autism may display. Methods such as PECS communication system, flash cards and social skills stories are all used in the mainstream classroom to overcome social, interaction, communications and imagination difficulties.
Social stories can act as a role model, using visual images and first person descriptive text the social story explains and answers the "wh" questions who, where, why, when and what as well giving an insight into the nonverbal communications displayed by others.
For many teachers looking at how to teach an autistic child in the mainstream classroom, social stories have become a valuable asset. There is no formal training needed to use social skills stories, they can be edited to personalize them and tweak to fit each individual they are printable therefore making them convenient and portable.
To learn more about how social skills stories can be used in the classroom to help autistic students cope with and manage mainstream school visit sites such as http://www.autismsocialstories.com/school
