Autism
This post has been written by Classroom Secrets
April is Autism Acceptance month, and we hope you will find this blog useful in helping you to understand how you can support children on the autistic spectrum to thrive in your classroom. The terms ‘neurodiverse’ and ‘neurotypical’ are becoming more widely used. Neurodiverse is often used in replacement of ‘an autistic person’ or ‘a person on the autistic spectrum’, and neurotypical is used for someone who doesn’t have or display signs of autism.
It’s important to note that this will not tell you everything there is to know about autism, but we hope you’ll find some useful tips to take away.
What is autism spectrum disorder (ASD)?
Autism is a developmental disorder that affects people their whole life. Much like neurotypical people, the neurodiverse amongst us have their own strengths and challenges, but the main difference is they all have difficulties with communication and social interaction. These difficulties range from not speaking to others or at all, needing longer to process information presented to them, or finding facial expressions hard to understand. There isn’t a cure for autism, but there are plenty of strategies to use to make things easier to help neurodiverse people live a rich and fulfilled life.
As the name suggests, autism is a spectrum disorder, so no two neurodivergent people are exactly the same. You may see similarities or shared characteristics, but just like everyone in the world, we are all unique. Some common traits you might come across are:
- sensory sensitivities
- keeping a strict routine and finding changes difficult to process
- difficulties socialising
- speech and language communication difficulties
- difficulties in social situations and socialisation skills
- repetitive behaviours
- hyper-focused hobbies or special interests
According to the National Autistic Society, there are around 700,000 people diagnosed with autism in the UK, including both adults and children. This is around 1 in every 100 people diagnosed with being on the spectrum somewhere. They also say that there are currently 150,000 people waiting for an assessment to see whether they can get a diagnosis.
You are likely to come across more male pupils diagnosed with autism than females, as autism can present itself differently in females than males. Experts say that girls and women tend to use ‘masking’ much more than boys and men, and this is often why they go undiagnosed for longer than their male counterparts. Masking is when an individual mimics or copies learnt social behaviours and applies them to different social situations that they find themselves in. This can be exhausting for the neurodivergent person as they outwardly appear to be functioning well in social situations, but underneath, their autistic traits are being masked to help them fit in. This can lead to meltdowns or differences in behaviour at home and in school.
Meltdowns can come in many different forms and are very different from tantrums, although they can appear similar. Here’s a definition from the National Autistic Society:
“…meltdowns are involuntary responses to a nervous system overload. They are the physical manifestation of neurobiological chaos caused by a perceived threat to life. Meltdowns are not behavioural responses and generally aren’t used to attain a specific outcome. The reaction is involuntary and cannot be controlled as intense emotions take over, and tension build-up is released via stimming, repetitive movements, zoning out, screaming, crying, stomping, etc. Once individuals have reached that state, they cannot usually respond to standard behavioural calming cues or techniques. Recovery time for meltdowns can last up to 20 minutes or more after removing the stressor.”
Meltdowns & Calming Techniques in Autism - Autism Research Institute
Autism also affects people from all walks of life, no matter their religious beliefs or cultural heritage, or where they live in the world. However, the way autism is perceived differs across the world, as well as the support and understanding of the spectrum too.
How can you support students with autism?
First and foremost, it is important to understand that every child, whether they are neurodiverse or neurotypical, are individuals in their own rights. Whether you’re reading this as an experienced teacher who has taught many children with autism, or you’re an ECT and haven’t had any experience with autism yet, remember that every child will respond to strategies and support mechanisms differently. What works for one child may not work for others, and building relationships early is vital.
Building relationships
I always tried to get parents or carers involved early on to find out any strategies that work well for their child and to find out what they want their child to achieve in the year ahead. This helped to not only to build a relationship with the child, but also with their parents or carers, to bring consistency and cohesion for all involved. By building in these strategies early on, it can help children when it comes to different transition times throughout the day, and they will no doubt use these in the future too. Sometimes, I found what worked at home didn’t work at school, and vice versa, but I cannot stress enough that getting to know your children on an individual basis early on is key to having a successful year with them. It’s also important to note that some of the strategies you use early on may need changing or adapting throughout the year as progress is made.
Special interests
Once you’ve built a relationship with a child, you may notice they have a keen interest in something. It could be a toy, a game, a subject or topic, or even a tv series. You can use this special interest to engage them in learning other subjects. Here’s a couple of examples of how I used special interests when I was in the classroom:
One of the children I taught loved gaming, it was his special interest, and I often used this as a way of getting him interested in subjects he found more challenging. He found English particularly hard, but when I incorporated the gaming world into different text types for him, he was motivated to learn, completed work with interest, and it didn’t cause a trigger which later brought on meltdowns or raised his anxiety levels as it was something he could relate to. This didn’t always work because gaming can’t link with everything, but it didn’t discourage me; I worked around it to find something else that would be of interest for those situations.
The following year, I had another neurodivergent child, and he wasn’t as interested in gaming, so I had to find his special interest. He loved animated films and knew all the characters in depth of a certain icy film franchise. This special interest helped him to share his knowledge of icy climates when we came to our Arctic topic, and we fed his character interest into his writing skills. We used the names of the characters and adapted them to certain writing genres to help him engage in text types he found challenging.
Using support staff
Some children on the autistic spectrum will be allocated an individual member of staff who is there to support them in class. They often build a great relationship with each other, and this can give you an insight into how they completed the task or what they found challenging. I would still encourage you to get to know the child on an individual basis, as it will help you greatly, especially with on-going assessments, and allows the child to not be fully reliant on the same member of staff.
Make sure any additional adults are on the same page when it comes to expectations and being consistent with behaviour management techniques. It will benefit all children in your class when all the adults are on the same page, so to speak.
Listening to what young people on the spectrum have to say
The charity, Fixers, conducted a study of children with autism and asked them to share their experiences and how teachers can best support them. They published a full report, which can be found here, but here are my key takeaways:
- Look at and adapt the learning environment. Children with autism can find the classroom environment overwhelming due to many factors. It might be too noisy during some lessons, they may need more regular breaks during the learning time, some children respond better to individual workstations or working with certain children. As we’ve mentioned before, you will only gauge what works for that child by getting to know them.
- Take your time and be patient. Neurodivergent people can take things literally and may ask lots of questions if they are not sure what the task is they are being asked to complete. Give instructions one at a time so children don’t feel overwhelmed by what you are asking them to do.
- Help your class understand what autism is and bring awareness to other children without making the child with autism feel excluded. This can be a tricky task, as some children understand they have autism, whereas others are not aware. This comes back to you having a great relationship with the child and the parent. Sometimes, letting the child take the lead can be powerful in allowing the rest of the class to understand what it’s like to be neurodivergent. Other times, you will need to take the lead. You know your class best, so use this as a guide in making the judgement on how you can become an autism-friendly classroom.
Learning styles or multi-sensory learning
You might want to explore the use of different learning styles, or multi-sensory learning approaches, and adapt your teaching to suit the styles that is most common in your classroom. By adapting the way you teach, it’ll help you to get the most out of your class and play to their strengths. If you’d like to find out more about multi-sensory learning styles, this blog has a wide range of examples for each learning style.
Social Stories
One tool I used quite frequently was social stories. These are used to explain or demonstrate a behaviour or social ‘rule’ using a simple story and images. It’s a great tool for introducing children to social situations they might never have encountered before, or you can use it to address desired behaviours. They take on lots of different forms - you may find some presented in booklet form, in the style of a comic strip, or without images in a list of simple sentences. They work best when they are personalised and play to the learning style that best suits the neurodivergent person, although there are lots of generic examples available online. A social story often includes:
- A way of describing the desired behaviour or explaining the social situation.
- Exploring feelings of those around them, how they might feel, how they might act and sometimes examples of things they may say.
- Explain how to respond in different social situations or what behaviours are acceptable.
Social stories work well when they are used regularly and read together with an adult so you can address any questions that may arise. You can use them on the lead-up to an event such as a change in routine or a new social situation the child may encounter. They are great for teaching a child a new social skill or helping children with situations that might make them feel anxious.
Senses Sensitivities
More often than not, children with autism are often sensitive to one or more sense. This can be over or under sensitive, but what does that mean? I’m sure you can relate to eating something and not enjoying the taste or texture of it, or you’ve found the fabric an item of clothing is made from feels strange. Imagine if everything you ate or touched was like that. This analogy can be used to show how an neurodivergent child experiences the world. It can affect any one of the senses, but there are plenty of tools out there to support children. Some great ones I have come across are ear defenders when the situation is too loud for children, using a weighted blanket or accessory to give them the sensory feedback they need, and fidget toys to support children during times when they need to listen, as it will occupy their hands and helps keep their attention on what you’re saying.
Raising awareness of autism in your classroom
There are plenty of books and videos that you can use with your class to raise awareness and encourage acceptance and inclusion. You could create a discussion in class about what children already know about autism, get them thinking about how they can help each other to learn and share things they each find challenging and what helps them to overcome the challenges. By giving children the opportunity to take part in a discussion, it will help your class gain more awareness of autism and offer neurodivergent children the support to feel included amongst their peers.
You could share the experiences of famous faces who live with autism. Children could investigate the challenges these people face and ways they overcome them. It’s a great way to show children the things they could achieve.
Another way of raising awareness and encouraging acceptance is to ask children to share their special interests with their peers. This helps neurodiverse children with their communication skills and offers their peers an insight into what interests them. It can help to build friendships and shows children they are a valued member of the class as well.
Further help and advice:
To find out more about any of the topics covered in this blog, here are a few of our favourite websites that can offer you further support:
National Autistic Society (autism.org.uk)
Teaching Autism - Curriculum Resources for Autism and Special Ed
