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Teaching students with ASD – a framework
Why is school challenging?
Introduction and contents
 Standing in the shoes of the student
 Why is school challenging?
 ASD-ready schools
 ASD-ready classrooms
 Teaching strategies across the curriculum
 Visuals
 Environmental adaptations
 Adapting teaching style
 Using special interests
 Links, references, and further reading
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Schools are typically busy, often noisy environments
which require good social interaction skills
Teaching uses inquiry-based learning and discussion.
This requires the ability to think about the big picture
and understand the perspective of others
Teaching and learning often uses oral language which
requires students to have good receptive and expressive
communication skills.
These are all skills which are difficult for students with ASD.
The impact of ASD means they often have a narrow range of
strategies for learning. This is what tends to limit the
student, not specific curriculum content.
Standing in the shoes of the student
Students with ASD will respond to school in different ways.
Many students will be able to participate and contribute in a
well-structured classroom where their needs are catered for,
and they are supported to engage in learning using their
interests.
However if they are just expected to ‘fit in’, it is likely that
they will become stressed and anxious. Many young people
and adults with ASD have described their experiences of
school. Some personal accounts are summarised in the
article 'Autism experts on education'.
Success will depend on learning about the specific student
you support and identifying how each characteristic impacts
in different settings and with different people. Some
students will engage at particular times and places, while
others will withdraw.
Begin and build on a profile of the student. You will gather
the information you need to help predict how your student
will react to specific experiences. You can download a
template - What is it like to be a student with ASD? from the
ASD kete
There is good agreement that to be able to learn students
need to be able to
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pay attention to the right person at the right time
have a range of effective communication skills to
understand and be understood
learn by watching the experiences of others
understand the success criteria for the particular
learning activity
be motivated by the teaching, either for social reasons
such as wanting to succeed, or because they have a wide
range of interests
self-manage and identify the main point of information
and instructions
The characteristics of students with ASD mean that in order
to experience success, they will need to be specifically
taught how to do some of these things.
Skills such as these are well reflected in The New Zealand
Curriculum key competencies, which are explained in the Key
Competency section of Te Kete Ipurangi (TKI). Along with
learning areas, these skills should feature in each Individual
Education Plan (IEP). Other resources in this series will focus
on each of the competencies.
About this resource
This teacher resource follows on from the booklet ‘Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) - A resource for Educators’. The resource is
one of a series for teachers and teams who work with students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). For information about other
resources in this series go to ASD in Education website.
8 February 2016
ASD in Education
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ASD-ready schools
Schools that support students with ASD will
• Demonstrate ethical leadership
• Have a school-wide commitment to addressing the
learning needs of all students
• Have high expectations for all students; welcome and
value students with ASD
• Ensure that parents and whānau feel welcome, and
are supported to identify their long term goals and
preferences for their child’s learning
• Support staff (if need be with release time) to
regularly meet and plan with parents and other team
members
• Support effective home-school communication
• Have monitoring systems in place to make sure
students are engaging in evidence-based learning
activities, and are making progress
• Ensure accurate documentation about the student
(strengths, interests, successful strategies) and a
transition process goes with the student to each new
class and/or school
• Understand that successful learning for students with
ASD relies on teachers being flexible, able to adapt
their teaching and communication approaches, and
willing to modify the learning environment
• Support teachers and other team members (including
parents) to access quality professional learning and
development
• Support teachers to implement goals and be open to
using positive behaviour approaches.
‘For some people school is like fitting a square peg in a
round hole. For me at the moment the hole (school) has
changed its shape slightly to accommodate me and the
square peg (me) has tried to soften its edges. So a better
description would be a rounded square trying to fit itself
into a circle with sticky out bits.’
Luke Jackson
ASD-ready classrooms
In many typical classrooms students with ASD frequently
do not understand what is happening. They become
anxious, avoid interactions, and are unable to engage in
the learning programme. When students are constantly
confused and anxious, and do not have the
communication skills to indicate their emotional and
mental discomfort, they typically use behaviour to
communicate their needs.
Students in ASD-ready classrooms will know what is
happening, and have strategies to support them to learn
effectively. They will be motivated, and are available for
learning.
8 February 2016
Teachers will be working closely with families and whānau.
Teachers will know that any change or new skill for the
student is both difficult and a cause for celebration, and
will try to see the classroom through the student’s eyes.
Successful teachers will be flexible and willing to plan longterm, think laterally, and change their own teaching
approaches.
When students understand what is going to happen, know
what’s expected of them, and have successful ways of
communicating and requesting breaks, they are usually
able to engage and participate.
When students with ASD feel comfortable in the
classroom, understand the routines of the day, have
strategies to independently complete tasks and use their
interests for learning, they will be able to learn and
participate.
Teaching strategies across the curriculum
As well as strategies which target specific ASD
characteristics (and key competencies), there are a
number of teaching approaches that will support students
with ASD across the curriculum. The next sections will
focus on these strategies, including
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Environmental adaptations
Visual supports
Adapted teaching approaches
Using special interests
Environmental adaptations
Many students with ASD are very sensitive to their
environment. Making small changes to their physical
surroundings can make them more comfortable. Parents
will have information about each student’s specific
sensitivities and an infosheet about sensory issues is
planned.
Students with ASD may need to have individual
approaches to whole class activities such as sitting on the
mat, moving as a group, physical education, assembly etc.,
and individualised support to go into different settings
(e.g. library, class trips etc).
Visual supports
Why use visuals?
There is evidence (from brain scans) that most people with
ASD process information in slightly different ways from socalled typical people. These differences mean that it is
much easier for people with ASD to act on visual
information than it is for them to recall and act on verbal
language.
ASD in Education
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Visual information is enduring. It is available to refer to
over and over again, whereas verbal language is gone once
it has been said. To use verbal information, you need to be
able to recall it and to ask questions to clarify – both of
which can be quite challenging.
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Using visual supports increases the likelihood that
students will be able to do a task, helps them to become
more independent, and provides the predictability,
structure, and order that helps many students to
participate.
Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early
Learning at Vanderbilt University developed a tip sheet
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What form of visual supports?
Visual supports can be
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Static – just words and pictures (or real objects)
Dynamic – using multimedia, such as video
Interactive – using multimedia which require student
involvement
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Access to cameras, phones with video capability, and
tablets (e.g. iPads) mean that the resources for creating
and using dynamic visuals are now available in most
schools.
What can the student understand?
for making visuals that work.
Visual scripts: Written scripts, scenarios or examples
of common situations can help students to predict
what will happen and to learn what to do and say.
Other examples include Social Stories™, comic strip
conversations and social scripts.
Video modelling: Dynamic visuals using video are
showing a lot of promise as a strategy for developing a
variety of skills in students. They use either the
student with ASD or other students to demonstrate a
communication, play, or social interaction skill and to
give information about events and routines. Watch an
introduction to using video modelling on YouTube
Developing a visual support
The type of support that each student requires will
depend on the level of visual information they are able to
understand. Many students will move from one level to
another over time.
Some students will require the actual object (i.e. cup, ball)
to make an association with the activity. Others will need a
photograph of the actual object, and some will be able to
make a link using just a generic picture or photograph.
Text captions (words) are typically used with pictures
(which can help parents and others to use the same
words), and also provide a bridge for literacy and the
possible later use of text-only supports.
Work with the child's strengths to overcome the
weaknesses, and work within the autism, not against it,
to overcome the developmental barriers.
Frank Klein, autistic
Visual supports need to be individually developed as each
student is very different in what they understand and
what they need. If the support does not fairly represent
the task or situation, the student will not respond well to
it.
To make a visual support you need to
• Identify the situation that requires support
• Break it down into small steps that the student will be
able to follow
• Decide on the form (real object, photograph etc.) and
type (static or dynamic) of support
• Create the support and think about how the student
will access it
• Teach the student to use the support
• Assess the student’s response and make changes if
necessary
Adapting teaching strategies
What is the purpose of the support?
Visual supports can be used for many purposes – both at
school and at home:
• Schedules: For students with ASD a schedule or
timetable helps to provide predictability and support
independence. Schedules can be used to show what is
happening now, what will happen next, when an
activity will finish, and to identify changes in the usual
routine.
8 February 2016
Task visuals: If students have a visual representation
of a task, they can be more independent and require
less adult prompting. Visuals can be used to show the
sequences in a routine task (such as going to the
toilet, getting out equipment or tidying up), as a
reminder about where things belong, as a checklist for
the steps to successfully complete an activity, or as a
visual prompt to help students to make a choice. The
To support your student you may need to adapt your
teaching approaches. You will need to
• access the skills and experience of a team of people,
including parent(s), to help collect information
• together, identify goals so that learning can be
generalised across settings
• spend time to develop a good understanding of the
student’s likes and dislikes; be able to predict how
different tasks, times and places are likely to affect
them
ASD in Education
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Links, references, and further reading
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develop the skills to become a supportive
communication partner your student can understand
you and you understand them [link to future infosheet
on communication]
provide a structured and predictable classroom
programme to ensure that the student knows what,
when and how things happen
be prepared to be flexible about your usual classroom
rules and preferences.
•
Ministries of Health and Education (2008).
New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder
Guideline. Wellington. Ministry of Health.
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Ganz, J.B., Earles-Vollrath, T. L., Cook, K.E.
(2011) Video Modeling. A Visually Based
Intervention for Children with Autism
Spectrum Disorder. Teaching Exceptional
Children. Vol 43. No 6, 8-9.
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Jackson, Luke (2002). Freaks, Geeks and
Asperger Syndrome: A User Guide to
Adolescence. Jessica Kingsley. London
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‘Autism experts on education’ article on
http://www.shoeboxtasks.com/autismarticles/autism-and-education Accessed 1
November 2011.
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http://lastcrazyhorn.wordpress.com/quotesabout-autism-and-everything-that-includes/
Accessed 2 November 2011
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http://autismandoughtisms.wordpress.com/
Accessed 2 November 2011
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGZySiOrAs Accessed 8 November 2011
There is good evidence that using these interests for
learning is effective.
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http://www.txautism.net/docs/Guide/Interv
entions/VisualSupports.pdf
This might include adapting the learning objectives of a
particular activity to include the student’s interest, using
the interest as a motivator, or encouraging the student to
develop independent research, reading or writing skills
around the interest(s).
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Bellini, S., Akullian, J. (2007) A Meta-Analysis
of Video Modeling and Video Self-Modelling
Interventions for Children and Adolescents
with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Exceptional
Children. Vol 72, No 3. pp 264-287.
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Other classroom strategies which might also benefit other
students in your class include
• using technology
• stress reducing activities such as time in a quieter
space, time doing preferred activities etc.
• using different modes to access and respond to
learning activities (e.g. interactive media, video, web
tools)
• mixing preferred tasks with less-preferred for
motivation
• peer teaching.
Using special interests
Many students with ASD are not motivated by the same
topics as their peers, but they often have one or more
strong interests or passions.
As well as providing motivation, this strategy draws on the
student’s prior knowledge and also gives them social
motivation to engage with their peers.
I described life with an [ASD] diagnosis as intense
yesterday when someone asked this question. It is an
intensity of the senses and of the mind. The intensity can
be overwhelming, from both sensory input and the need
to sort through the noise of socio-emotional inputs.
C. S. Wyatt
8 February 2016
Other teacher titles in this resource series:
• A bit more about ASD
• Communication
• Social interaction
• Sensory
• Positive behaviour support
• Thinking
Find all titles on the ASD kete page on the ASD in
Education website.
ASD in Education
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