Reaching and Teaching Kids with Autism

Reaching and teaching kids with autism can be challenging. Engaging students by allowing them to express “enthusiasms” draws them into other subjects.

Hi and welcome back to Attentionology for K – Teachers!

If you have ever worked with children on the autism spectrum, you know that it can be difficult to reach and teach these special students.

According to Barry M. Prizant, author of a recently published nonfiction book titled, Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing Autism (Simon & Schuster 2015), many professionals have mistakenly interpreted the behavior of people with autism as bizarre; behavior in need of fixing or changing.

Prizant advocates for professionals and parents to change perspectives.

Changing some educators views may help them reach and teach kids with autism. “To help them” (children on the spectrum), he writes, “we need to work to understand them, and then change what we do.”

In a review of Prizant’s book, Associated Press reporter, Rasha Madkour describes the first half of Uniquely Human as focusing “on understanding autism, with affirming examples like viewing a child’s intense interest in a subject – that might be derided as an ‘obsession’ – as an ‘enthusiasm,’ something that can be built on as a hook to engage in other subjects.”

Key words there…engage in other subjects. I’ve had success in engaging students with autism in grades 3 – 5 in writing by inviting them to express their “enthusiasms” for sports, movie characters and more.

Madkour writes that Prizant paints a picture in his new book of “people with autism (being) especially vulnerable to everyday emotional and physiological challenges, and (having) difficulty learning how to cope.”

Prizant asserts that helping a child manage anxiety requires a “gradual, empowering approach” that Madkour interprets as acknowledging the experience and providing support.

One example of reaching and teaching (think of the adaptations effective teachers of special needs children make in their classrooms) that Madkour pulled from Prizant’s writing in Uniquely Human…

“A girl who was afraid of amusement parks was given the option to attend without going on any rides. Her parents showed her pictures of areas she liked and offered noise-dampening headphones. Giving the girl a sense of control helped her relax.”

Speaking of parents, the second half of Uniquely Human draws on the experiences of families affected by autism as well as insights from people with autism.

In many ways, Prizant’s writing echoes the observations of Temple Grandin, herself an author who is also known as “the world’s most famous person with autism.” How so? (more…)