Internet Resources to Help Support
Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in
Physical Education
Sonya Felmly
West Chester University
October 28th, 2012
Adapted PE for Autistic Children
http://www.helium.com/items/713908-adapted-pe-for-autistic-children
Focus:
The focus of this website is to explain how adapted physical education benefits students
with autism.
Target Audience:
The target audience for this website is any parent, special education teacher, physical
education teacher, and any person who participates on an IEP team.
Information Provided:
This website starts off by describing the experience a student with autism had in the
general and adapted physical education setting. This website also provides information on key
components an adapted physical education class should include to make sure it is appropriate for
students with autism. Key components include the initial evaluation process, visual instructions,
and a list of ideas for health related physical fitness.
General Physical Education Teacher:
This website is a great resource for physical education teachers because it starts off by
highlighting the students experience in both settings. Teachers need to have an understanding of
their student to help make sure they are providing the correct placement. The adapted physical
education setting can be a great placement for a student with autism. The adapted physical
education class generally has less students, verbal directions broken down into chunks, visual
prompts, and appropriate gym set up. These components can benefit a student with autism so
they can be successful in meeting their goals.
Autism- PubMed Health
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002494/
Focus:
This website is focused on providing information on all aspects of autism spectrum
disorder.
Target Audience:
The audience that this website would be useful for is anyone who is researching autism.
Information Provided:
This website begins with the causes, incidences, and risk factors that come along with
autism. In this section the reader will find information on a few of the possible causes, how many
kids have autism, and a list of all of the persuasive developmental disorders. The next section on
this website is the symptoms of autism. Symptoms are broken into communication, social
interactions, responses to sensory information, play, and behaviors. This website than continues
on with signs and tests, treatment, support groups, and resources.
General Physical Education Teacher:
This website is very helpful for all physical education teachers. The first thing a teacher
needs to do to be able to teach a student is understand them. This website can help physical
education teachers understand what autism is. Another reason why this website is useful for
teachers is it provides information on the symptoms autism has. Teachers need to know these
symptoms so they can adjust and adapttheir lessons to meet the needs of their students. Having
knowledge about these symptoms will help students overcome challenges that they might
experience in physical education.
Autism
http://www.aea10.k12.ia.us/divlearn/APE/autism.html
Focus:
The focus of this website is to provide information on autism, physical education and the
law, physical education and the IEP, and eligibility for adapted physical education.
Target Audience:
This website is a great resource for any individual who is looking for information on
autism and the physical education setting. Information on this website would be helpful for
general and adapted physical education teachers, special education teachers, paraeducators and
all individuals who participates in IEP meetings for students with autism.
Information Provided:
This website is set up in hyperlinks that lead the reader to other documents or websites
that provides information about autism and physical education. The first link is a brochure that
provides information on autism spectrum disorders, characteristics of autism, learning
differences, educational needs, best practices, and family needs. The second link provides
general information about autism. The next two links lead the reader to information on the
Autism Society of America and Parent Educator Partnership groups.
The next section on this website is broken down into links on physical education and the
law. These links provide information on Individual with Disabilities Education Improvement Act
(IDEA) and position statements on physical education for students with disabilities. Also found
in this section are links to information on eligibility criteria for adapted physical education
services and how to use an IEP. This website finishes with links to different instructional
resources.
General Physical Education Teacher:
General physical education teachers can find important information on physical education
and meeting the needs of students with disabilities specifically autism on this website. General
physical education teachers can find information about the disorder so they can support their
students in their classrooms. Also, general physical education teachers need to have knowledge
on IDEA to make sure that they are in compliance with the law and making sure that all of their
students are having equal opportunities to be successful. Lastly, this website provides additional
resources on instructional strategies. This is useful for physical education teachers because it can
provide different strategies to help deliver information to their students in the appropriate way.
Students with Autism Spectrum disorders can be successful in the general physical education
setting if teachers implement strategies to help support the students individual needs.
Education.com
http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Approach_Ed/
Focus:
This website provides information on all aspects of the educational world. The part of the
website that I focused on has valuable information on autism spectrum disorders. The section on
autism spectrum disorders can be focused into two categories. The first category is focused on
providing information on each of the Pervasive Developmental Disorders. The second category
is focused on teaching strategies to support students in the classroom.
Target Audience:
This website is a great resource for any individual who is researching information on
autism spectrum disorders. Audience that I recommend to view this website include parents,
family members, general education teachers, general physical education teachers, special
education teachers, and adapted physical education teachers.
Information Provided:
This website is set up into hyperlinks that are located on the left. These links provide
information on what autism is and all of the Pervasive Developmental Disorders. It also contains
links for current research that is being conducted and information about the social aspects that
come along with these disorders. On the left hand side there is a link titled Educating Students on
the Autism Spectrum: Approaches to Education. This article describes students with autism in
the regular school environment, how the setting of the environment should be set up, and how to
find the right educational approach for each individual student.
General Physical Education Teacher:
This website is a great resource tool for general and adapted physical education teachers.
The first step to prepare for a student with a disability to be accommodated into a general or
adapted physical education setting is to understand and have background knowledge on the
specific disability that the child has. This is important because the teacher needs to have
knowledge on the characteristics that come along with autism spectrum disorders. Also, each
Pervasive Developmental Disorder has their unique set of characteristics. When the physical
education teacher has knowledge of the disability they can be more proactive in the way they
plan. Having knowledge of the disorder can help the teacher set up an environment that allows
the student to be motivated to stay on task. When the students with autism spectrum disorders are
on task they are more likely to achieve success.
High Quality Physical Education for Pupils with Autism
(You need to put that in Google for the booklet to come up!)
Focus:
The focus of this resource is to give general and adapted physical education teacher
knowledge about including students with autism spectrum disorders in their class.
Target Audience:
This website would be useful for general and adapted physical education teachers,
special education teachers, members of an IEP team, and paraeducators.
Information Provided:
The information provided on this website is broken up into seven different sections. In
the first section of this resource the reader will find information on autism and what challenges
students with autism will have in the physical education setting. The second section provides
information on sensory information. In this section readers will find information on how sensory
issues impact students with autism. The reader will also find information on how to create and
implement a sensory unit.
The third section of this unit is focused on communication. This section has information
on how a student with autism communicates and how to implement visual communication
effectively. The next section provides information on the importance of structure. This section is
focused into visual prompts that can implement and how a lesson should be formatted. The fifth
section of this website has information on practical strategies and activities. Readers can find
information on how to break lessons down into chunks and activities ideas to try. The next two
sections are focused on generalizing skills into categories and having physical education at the
heart of the school.
General Physical Education Teacher:
This resource has plenty of useful information that a general physical education teachers
can use in their classroom. The first useful information provided on this resource is the list of
challenges a student with autism may have in the physical education setting. Physical education
teachers need to understand these challenges so they can proactively plan to ensure the
student the best physical education experience. The second useful information for physical
education teachers is the section on communication. Students with autism have difficulty
communicating and it leads to frustrations and off task behaviors. Physical education teachers
can use the visual prompts provided to help with communication. Breaking the communication
gap can eliminate frustrations and students will be able to have more time to practice and
perform their goals. Using strategies that are provided in this booklet will help physical
education teachers accommodate students with autism appropriately into their classroom
setting.
My Asperger’s Child: Asperger’s Children and “Physical Education” Class
http://www.myaspergerschild.com/2010/09/aspergers-children-and-physical.html
Focus:
This website is focused on an individual with Aspergers Syndrome and his experience in
the general physical education class. This website allows physical education teachers to see the
view of the student and find helpful information to accommodate students with Asperger’s
Syndrome into their classroom.
Target Audience:
This website is useful for any educator that works with students with Asperger’s
Syndrome. This can include general academic teachers, physical education teachers, special
education teachers, and paraeducators.
Information Provided:
This website has a lot of valuable information to help accommodate students into the
physical education setting. This website begins with information on understanding the disability.
In this section the reader will find information on the characteristics that come along with the
disability. The next section of this website provides implications for the physical education
setting. In this section the reader will find the individual with Asperger’s Syndrome view of his
physical education experience. This website continues on with sections on emotional and
behavior characteristics, academic and cognitive functioning, gross motor functioning and social
and deficits in relation to peer interactions. Underneath each of these sections are the
instructional implications to include in the physical education setting.
General Physical Education Teacher:
This website is a great resource tool for physical education teachers. This website offers
the view of the individual with Asperger’s Syndrome on his physical education experience. The
student with Asperger’s Syndrome provides the challenges that he had and offers instructional
implications to help teachers accommodate students more effectively. Physical education
teachers can find implications to use in their classrooms to help support students emotional,
behavioral, and academic needs. Physical education teachers need information on all of those
characteristics to ensure that student with Asperger’s Syndrome is given the best opportunity to
be successful towards their goals.
PECENTRAL-AUTISM
http://www.pecentral.org/autism.pdf
Focus:
This website focuses on autism spectrum disorders and the general or adapted physical
education setting. This website gives background knowledge of the disorders and strategies to
implement to help guide teachers towards successfully accommodating students into the class.
Targeted Audience:
The target audience for this website is for any teacher that works in the physical
education setting. These individuals can include students studying to become a physical
education teacher, general physical education teachers, and adapted physical education teachers.
This website would also be a good resource to any pareducator who is working with a student
with an autism spectrum disorder that participates in physical education.
Information Provided:
This website provides information on what the disorder is and lists some of the disorders
unique attributes. The website also offers information that can help a physical education teacher
plan efficiently so they can meet the needs of their students. You can also find physical
education content broken into specific grade level categories and information on effective
teaching strategies that can be helpful with students with autism spectrum disorders. Information
also included is a list of standardized assessments, authentic assessments, and types of rubrics.
At the bottom of this website are positive behavior management strategies.
General Physical Education Teacher:
This website can be very useful for any physical education teacher. One way this website
is useful is because it provides physical education teachers with guidelines of what content to
teach at specific age levels. This is very helpful because most schools do not have a physical
education curriculum and rely on teachers to create their own. This information can also help
physical education teachers make sure that their students are achieving all of the standards given
by the state that they teach in.
Another way this website is useful is it provides a list of effective teaching strategies for
accommodating students with autism spectrum disorder in their class. These strategies will lead
straight towards student success. This website also provides a list of assessments that teachers
can use to determine where their student is achieving at. Having the baseline of each student will
help the physical education teacher set realistic and relevant student goals. Another way this
website is useful is it lists positive behavior management strategies. These strategies will
decrease off task behaviors that are characteristics of this disorder so students are getting more
time to focus on the content. This website provides a ton of useful information that can help
teachers give students a positive and educational physical education.
Physical Education and Autism Booklet
http://www.metrowestkids.net/storage/Adaptive%20PE%20Autism%20booklet%20for%20BW
%20printing.pdf
Focus:
The focus of this website is to provide physical education teachers a resource to help
accommodate students with autism spectrum disorders into their class setting. This booklet
concentrates on all aspects of Autism Spectrum Disorders and the physical education setting.
Target Audience:
This website is useful to any physical education teacher that is planning to have a student
with an autism spectrum disorder in their class. This website can also be helpful for any
pareducator who works with a student with an autism spectrum disorder that participates in
physical education.
Information provided:
This website begins with providing background knowledge for physical education
teachers on what an autism spectrum disorder are, physical education and the law, and physical
education on an IEP. Found on this website is guidelines on what content the physical education
teacher should teach and ways to adapt lessons so that all students are set up for success. This
website also provides physical education teachers strategies on how to work with a Pareductor
and how to effectively include them into daily lessons. Also the reader can find strategies to help
integrate lessons that use partner work that requires with students with and without disabilities to
work together. Also on this website there is a section on physical education equipment that
would help motivate students with autism spectrum disorders stay on task. This website
concludes with a list of resources that can lead the reader to more information about autism
spectrum disorders and the physical education setting.
General Physical Education Teacher:
This website is very helpful for a general physical education teacher because it provides
strategies to help accommodate a student with an autism spectrum disorder into the general
physical education setting. The first reason this website is helpful is because it provides
knowledge about the disorder. This information will help the teacher be proactive in the ways
that they deliver information to their class, set up the environment, and plan their lessons.
Another reason why this website is useful is it contains information on how to adapt your
lessons. This will help the general physical education teacher design lessons that students with
and without an autism spectrum disorder be engaged in the same lesson and provide an
opportunity for all students to achieve success.
This website also provides information on how to work with pareducators and how to
include them into your class. I think that this is a very useful section because most physical
education teachers do not know how to use pareducators effectively. Pareducators can be very
supportive in the physical education setting because it can provide students with an autism
spectrum disorder extra one on one instruction time. The pareducator can also help the general
physical education teacher with visual interventions such as schedules and behavior charts.
These interventions help students stay on task. Paraeducators can help the general physical
education make sure that all students in their class are given opportunities to be able to achieve
objectives and goals.
Physical Education for Students with Autism
http://www.csuchico.edu/kine/academic_programs/ape/programs/PE%20for%20Students
%20with%20Autism.pdf
Focus:
This website is focused on providing teaching tips and strategies for physical education
teachers to help support students with Autism into their classroom.
Targeted Audience:
The target audience for this resource is general and adapted physical education teachers,
special education teachers, paraeducators, and all individuals that participate in IEP meetings.
Information Provided:
Information on this website begins with the National Physical Education Standards and
the special education process. The reader can also find information on the different physical
education placement options for students with disabilities. The website ends with teaching tips
and strategies for teachers to use in their classrooms.
General Physical Education Teacher:
This website can be helpful for the general physical education teacher because it includes
information on different physical education placements. Physical education teachers and the IEP
team need to determine which placement the student will be able to be the most successful in. If
students are placed in the wrong placement environment it will have an effect on the student’s
ability to be successful. This website can also be useful for the physical education teacher
because it provides teaching tips and strategies. These tips and strategies will help support
students’ needs during instructional time. Students that are in the correct environment and are
being instructed the appropriate way can achieve success in physical education.
Structured Teaching: Strategies for Supporting Students with Autism
http://www.specialed.us/autism/structure/str10.htm
Focus:
The focus of this website is to provide information on the structured teaching intervention
philosophy. This website focuses on what structured teaching is and the three primary
components that make it up.
Target Audience:
This website is for any educator who is seeking information on the structured teaching
intervention philosophy.
Information Provided:
Information on structured teaching intervention philosophy is provided on this website.
Structured teaching is a proactive way to creating appropriate environments for students with an
autism spectrum disorder. Three components that make up structured teaching included the
physical structure, visual schedules, and teaching methods. For each component of the
philosophy the website provides the definition and strategies for students with autism spectrum
disorders.
General Physical Education Teacher:
The general physical education setting can be very overwhelming for students with an
autism spectrum disorder. Usually the general physical education setting is generally large, can
include more students, includes equipment, and can change from one place to another. Structured
teaching allows the physical education teacher to consider distractions that can lead to anxiety,
frustration and stress for students.
Another teaching strategy physical education teachers can implement into the classroom
is visual schedules. Students with autism spectrum disorders use schedules to transfer from one
activity to another. Physical education schedules display the activities that the student will
participate in for that particular period. Physical education teachers will show the student the
schedule. When it is time to transfer to the next activity the physical education teacher will have
the student point to the next activity. Visual schedules can help students stay on task and that will
lead students towards success.