What should educators consider when working with students with autism?
Page 7: Instructional Practices
To implement an individualized approach to instruction, educators need to build a strong rapport with each learner. A deep understanding of a child or student’s interests, preferences, strengths, and challenges helps educators determine the most effective supports and strategies to include in their IFSP or IEP. Keep in mind that these plans are developed and implemented by a multidisciplinary team. The team members’ shared expertise and collaboration facilitate each learner’s access to the curriculum, development of critical skills, and ability to thrive within the school community. The practices below can help all educators support autistic children and students.
The multidisciplinary team must ensure that children and students with disabilities have equal access to learning opportunities. Often, autistic learners experience barriers to learning and therefore require specific adaptations to instruction. Educators can address barriers through two types of adaptations:
barrier
glossary
Keep in Mind
If the multidisciplinary team determines that a student requires accommodations or modifications, these must be outlined in an IFSP, an IEP, or a 504 plan.
- Accommodations—These types of adjustments change how a student accesses learning (e.g., graphic organizers, preferential seating, breaking large assignments into smaller tasks, increased wait time). Accommodations allow students with disabilities to access the same instructional opportunities as those without disabilities. In other words, they level the playing field.
- Modifications—These types of adjustments change what a student is learning or reduce the requirements for a task (e.g., simplified assignments, lower-level texts). More specifically, modifications alter the content of the instruction or lower the performance expectations. In other words, they change the playing field.
Depending on a student’s needs, multidisciplinary teams might decide that they need accommodations, modifications, or both. If a student requires adaptations, educators should prioritize accommodations whenever possible. However, modifications can be useful when all accommodations have been considered but a student requires additional measures to help them progress in the general education curriculum.
In addition to instruction in academic domains, most learners with autism benefit from supports and services in functional skill areas such as:
- Communication
- Social interaction
- Executive functions
- Emotional regulation
- Play and leisure
- Daily living
- Flexibility
- Independence and self-advocacy
executive functions
glossary
emotional regulation
glossary
flexibility
glossary
For Your Information
Learners with autism often have difficulty generalizing skills across environments and people. When a child or student begins learning new academic or functional skills at school, they should also have opportunities to apply them in other natural settings (e.g., home, community, workplace). For example, if a child is learning letter names and sounds in school, educators might ask the family to have them practice identifying letters on items at home. If a high school student is learning about budgeting and money management at school, they might practice making purchases during an outing with their family or support provider.
Many autistic people develop intense interests or expertise in specific areas. When educators strategically integrate these interests into instruction, they can promote a student’s engagement in learning, connect new concepts to existing knowledge, and boost motivation. For example, if a paraeducator knows that a child is especially interested in certain cartoon characters, they might use pictures of those characters in activities to practice color identification, counting, or sorting. Likewise, a teacher might leverage a teenager’s interest in the solar system when teaching concepts related to speed, distance, or trajectory.
Research Shows
Numerous studies have shown that interventions which incorporate an autistic student’s special interest are effective in enhancing communication skills, adaptive behavior skills, and peer interaction.
(Harrop et al., 2019)
Because differences in social communication and social interaction are primary characteristics of autism, providing structured opportunities for learners to interact with their peers is key to helping them develop relationships. Educators can support meaningful social interactions in a number of ways, such as:
- Teaching non-autistic students to understand and adapt to different styles of communication and social interaction
- Designing cooperative learning activities in which each group member has a defined role
- Assigning a peer buddy or partner to a student with autism
- Creating opportunities for socialization related to the autistic learner’s interests (e.g., interest-based clubs, events, gatherings)
cooperative learning
glossary
Some children and students with autism display challenging or interfering behaviors—those that interrupt instruction and have a negative impact on the learning environment. When an autistic learner demonstrates such behavior, it is often a sign of an underlying challenge or unmet need. For example, a child who struggles to verbally communicate what they want or need might resort to yelling, crying, or throwing objects to express themselves. A student who refuses to complete work might be communicating that the task is confusing or especially difficult. In the extreme, a meltdown—an intense reaction to an overwhelming situation in which a person temporarily loses control of their behavior—might result from frustration, anxiety, or sensory overload.
Educators can seek to understand interfering behavior by asking, What might this learner be trying to tell me? By approaching behavior with curiosity and compassion, educators can identify patterns, reduce triggers, and respond in ways that support both learning and well-being. When educators recognize what interfering behaviors are trying to communicate, they can work to prevent them by using the strategies described in this module (e.g., proactively adjusting elements of the learning environment, teaching communication or emotional regulation skills).
For Your Information
For students who display the most severe interfering behaviors or chronic patterns of interfering behavior that have not been effectively addressed by previous behavioral strategies and supports, the multidisciplinary team might decide to conduct a functional behavioral assessment (FBA). This process aims to identify the function of the behavior (i.e., to gain attention, to access items or activities, to escape, to experience a desired internal sensation). This information can then be used to teach and reinforce an alternative behavior that the student can engage in to address their needs. For example, if a student often becomes distressed or shuts down when presented with a challenging task, they might learn to hand the teacher a picture card to request a break from the activity.
functional behavioral assessment (FBA)
glossary
Did You Know?
The National Clearinghouse on Autism Evidence and Practice (NCAEP) has identified 28 EBPs that have clear evidence of positive effects with autistic children and youth.
To address the needs of autistic learners, educators should rely on evidence-based practices (EBPs)—strategies that have been shown to work through research. Additionally, they should collect data to track the learner’s response to the EBP and their performance across time. The multidisciplinary team then analyzes these data to determine whether the learner is making adequate progress. If they are not, the team must determine the types of instructional changes that need to be implemented to improve performance.
evidence-based practice (EBP)
glossary
In addition to these instructional practices, Jamie Pearson and Kara Hume offer practical tips for supporting autistic students in the classroom. Kara also provides suggestions for educators to facilitate positive post-school outcomes for these students.
Jamie N. Pearson, PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Teacher Education and Learning Sciences
North Carolina State University
(time: 1:37)
Transcript: Jamie N. Pearson, PhD
If I could give tips to a teacher who’s new to working with autistic learners or students with autism, I would start by saying it’s really important to build relationships first. You really want to think about, How can I learn more about what this student’s strengths are? What are their preferences? What motivates them in the classroom? How do they communicate? Understanding all of those things is really critical. If we don’t get a good understanding of that communication style, we won’t be able to support them in that way. So learning their strengths, preferences and motivations, and communication style is Step 1.
I would also strongly encourage teachers who are new to supporting students with autism to collaborate with their families, community-based providers, and also with related service providers. So really anyone who’s on that student’s IEP team, just collaborating and communicating with them across spaces and really thinking about ways to recognize that none of us really works alone. We have to support our learners through collaborative efforts.
And the final thing I would add to any teacher who’s working with autistic learners is just to be flexible. Know that you will have to adapt. Know that no single day looks the same. And when you go into the classroom, know that you will need to be flexible and think about ways that you can create better expectations for everyone. Having that flexibility will be advantageous, both for students with autism but also for yourself as an educator in the classroom.
Transcript: Kara Hume, PhD
These are my top three tips for a teacher who is new to working with students with autism. The first is really be effortful in building community in your classroom or in your school space. Teaching all of your students how to interact with each other, how to work in partners, how to work in groups, how to approach each other, how to build connections. Spending time teaching these skills explicitly to all students will certainly benefit your autistic student. And really refrain from making assumptions about who may or may not want to build these social interactions and instead assume that everybody is there and interested in being part of your classroom community.
The next tip is to work on celebrating a variety of skills and expertise and interests. Thinking about some of the nuances that your autistic students may have and really working to highlight those in the classroom, highlight those in your instruction, ensure that autistic students’ strengths are being celebrated and respected.
And last—a very practical tip—is making information as clear and visual as possible. So setting up from the beginning a clear classroom schedule that’s presented visually to students. And students might need that beyond hanging on a classroom wall but might need a copy of that right on their desk. Making expectations visually clear and concrete. What are the rules of specific activities, classrooms, or spaces? What are the instructions for a task? Making that as visual as possible. And anything you can do to prepare your students ahead of time for what’s coming up, what’s next, changes, and making those as visual as possible.
And then the last thing I think to think about is life post-school. Are there experiences either in the community or on the school campus that we can program for that will set students up for better success post-graduation? We know that this group of students have really the most dismal post-school outcomes across all students with disabilities, and so we need to be mindful when we’re building a plan about what’s coming next and how can we think about creatively how to build curriculum to think about postsecondary life.
To access these, we would think about lots of different types of accommodations that general and special education teachers can make. We would think about additional supports from related service personnel, like speech therapists, occupational therapists. We’d want to think about what types of access to community-based activities a student might need, either from a transition coordinator or from general and special education teachers.
Returning to the Challenge
Because the children in the Challenge have different interests, preferences, strengths, and needs, they benefit from different supports and strategies. Select the students’ photos to learn more about the instructional practices that support them.
Noah
Rogan
Evelyn
Joseph
Noah
Noah’s instructional supports include:
- Instruction in functional skill areas (i.e., communication, feeding, play)
- Support when using AAC (e.g., signs, communication apps) by team members simplifying language and directions
- The facilitation of meaningful social interactions by a registered behavior technician (RBT), which includes transitions after shared play- or game-based activities
- Visual supports to promote structure and predictability throughout his day
registered behavior technician (RBT)
glossary
Rogan
Rogan’s instructional supports include:
- Assistance from an aide who helps him with classroom routines and note-taking
- Social stories to improve flexibility with unexpected circumstances and fire drills
- Opportunities to engage in social opportunities that build on his interests (e.g., sharing jokes with peers and school staff)
- Prompting to promote self-regulation
social story
glossary
Evelyn
Evelyn’s instructional supports include:
- Instructional and testing accommodations, which include breaking large assignments into smaller tasks, providing instructions through multiple modalities, allowing breaks, offering extended time for homework, and administering assessments in a separate setting
- Opportunities to participate in instructional activities that incorporate her interest in poetry to increase her engagement
- Adjustments to the incentive program so it aligns with her preferences (e.g., earning points to use at a vending machine rather than attending loud assemblies)
- Structured support to engage in social opportunities with her non-autistic peers
Joseph
Joseph’s instructional supports include:
- Instructional accommodations (e.g., breaking math problems into steps) and modifications (e.g., simplifying assignments, providing lower-level texts)
- Instruction in functional skill areas (e.g., alphabetizing books, hanging up clothing, building independence and self-advocacy)
- Prompting during social interactions to use his cell phone as a form of AAC to convey his thoughts or clarify communications
- Peer support from non-autistic classmates who recognize his communication cues and respond appropriately (e.g., notifying school staff when Joseph is uncomfortable boarding the bus)
For additional information about content discussed on this page, review the following IRIS resources. Please note that these resources are not required readings to complete this module. Links to these resources can be found in the Additional Resources tab on the References, Additional Resources, and Credits page.
Accommodations: Instructional and Testing Supports for Students with Disabilities This module explores instructional and testing accommodations for students with disabilities, explains how accommodations differ from other kinds of instructional adaptations, defines the four categories of accommodations, and describes how to implement accommodations and evaluate their effectiveness for individual students (est. completion time: 2 hours).
Functional Behavioral Assessment (Elementary): Identifying the Reasons for Student Behavior Functional Behavioral Assessment (Secondary): Identifying the Reasons for Student Behavior These modules—both elementary and secondary—explore the importance of discovering the reasons that students engage in challenging behavior and outline steps for conducting a functional behavioral assessment (est. completion time: 2 hours).
Autism (Part 2): Evidence-Based Practices This module, the second in a two-part series, highlights strategies that have been shown to be effective in teaching appropriate behaviors and skills and decreasing inappropriate behaviors with children and youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It next explores several strategies that are particularly effective with young children, elementary and middle school students, and high school students (est. completion time: 3 hours).
Autism Focused Intervention Resources and Modules (AFIRM) Each AFIRM module introduces a procedure to plan for, implement, and monitor an individual EBP for learners with autism. Supplemental materials and implementation tools are also available for each EBP. |
