Supporting Students with ASD: An Information Booklet for Educators

This report serves as an information booklet designed to equip teachers with a comprehensive understanding of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and effective strategies for supporting students with autism in the classroom. It begins by defining ASD, highlighting the core challenges in social interaction, communication, and behavior that students with autism often face. The report emphasizes the importance of teacher education, encouraging educators to deepen their knowledge of ASD through workshops, seminars, and collaboration with parents and experienced colleagues. It stresses the significance of building strong partnerships with parents, fostering open communication, and valuing their insights into their child's unique needs and strengths. Furthermore, the report details practical classroom adaptations that teachers can implement to create a more comfortable and supportive learning environment for students with autism, addressing potential sensitivities to sounds, lights, touch, and smells. Finally, it discusses strategies for managing challenging behaviors by understanding their underlying causes and developing proactive interventions. The report underscores the need for teachers to cultivate empathy, patience, and a commitment to creating inclusive classrooms where all students can thrive. Desklib provides a platform to access similar solved assignments and resources for students.

Running head: INFORMATION BOOKLET
INFORMATION BOOKLET
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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INFORMATION BOOKLET
Autism spectrum disorder:
Autism can be explained as the neurological disorder that appears in individuals by three
years of age. Symptoms of autism mainly comprise of defects in three major development areas
among children and impact their abilities (Laghi et al., 2016). The issues are found in
successfully engaging in reciprocal social interactions, effective communication with different
other people in a developmentally appropriate manners and participating in range of activates as
well as behaviors that are typical of the age and the stage of development of the child. It must be
however remembered by every teachers that no two children with autism would be similar. More
boys are affected than girls with autism and the ratio mainly follows a value of about 4.1.children
with autism can be found in all cultures, societies as well as economic groups.
The term autism spectrum disorder is not a medical term but is mainly utilized for
describing three types of disorder. These are Autism, Asperger Syndrome, and PDD-NOS. these
are mainly because all these disorders share some of the most common characteristics that can be
manifested on the continuum from mild to severe (Sparapani et al., 2016).
Common characteristics present in children with autism:
Different challenges during social interactions:
 Children may face challenges in interpreting various non-verbal languages
 They may have difficulty in pretend playing
 They may have poor eye gaze as well as avoidance of eye contact (Laghi et al., 2016)
 They have difficulty understanding the perspective of others or how their behavior affects
others

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 They have few facial expressions and face issues in understanding the facial expression
of others
Communication challenges faced by the individuals:
 They face delay in different expressive as well as receptive language and may not speak
at all
 They also have very literal understanding of speech and they are also found to face
difficulty in picking up on the different nuances (Stokes et al., 2017)
 They may suffer from echolalia where they may have to repeat last words heard even
without providing any regards to the meaning
Behavioral differences that are faced by the individuals:
 They show unusually intensified as well as restricted interests in a number of objects like
maps, dates, coins, numbers and others
 They show unusual repetitive behaviors that may be both verbal as well as non-verbal
and are seen to include hand flapping as well as rocking (Morgan et al., 2018)
 They are found to unusually sensitive towards various sensations and might be more or
less than any typical students
 They may face issues with transitions and need for sameness
 They may also exhibit aggressive and even disruptive self-injurious behavior being
unaware of any possible dangers.

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Important steps that can help teachers to become masters in educating children with ASD:
 Educating oneself:
Every teacher needs to have a working understanding of the disorder in details
and the associated behaviors that the children display. When children with ASD do not
respond to the use of language or cannot act out their responsibilities in class
successfully, a teacher should never think that the affected individuals are trying to
ignore them or trying to clown around or are wasting time in the class. Teachers should
understand that they are displaying such behaviors as they might be facing difficulty in
interpreting language as well as in expressing their need in socially acceptable ways
(Wong et al., 2015). At that time, teachers need to find proper ways in developing a
comfortable environment for such students so that they can participate meaningfully in
classroom. For that they need to be educated about every aspects of managing autistic
children.
Teachers are advised to allocate enough time to learn about autism not only in
general but also about specific characteristics of the students. This would help them to
manage the behaviors of the students in class successfully and teach the class. Taking
workshops, attending seminars, communicating more with parents, going through
information booklets, discussing with experienced senior teachers, following evidence
based articles are some of the best ways to gather knowledge about effective
management and providing education to autistic children (Cadette et al., 2016). Hence,
educating oneself is the first step towards success in handling children with ASD.

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 Reaching out to the parents:
It is extremely vital for the teachers in developing a partnership with the parents
and close members of the student with autism. They act as one of the first and the best
source of information about their child as well as autism as it manifests itself in the
behavior of the child and the daily activities of the child (Pas et al., 2016). The
partnership needs to be started with meetings much before that school year of the child.
Following that, they need to establish mutually agreed upon modes as well as patterns
for the communication with the family throughout the school year.
The teachers need to focus on the conversations with families that include
discussing about the individual characteristics of the students along with effective
identification of the strengths as well as areas of the challenge. In such scenarios, the
families might have suggestions for the teachers for different types of practical
accommodations which can be made in the classrooms for helping the child to functional
his or her highest potentials. In these form of conversations, the teacher should focus on
the establishment of the tone of mutual respect while managing the realistic expectations
of the course every year (Cai et al., 2016).
The teachers should also prioritize building trusts with the parents and should
communicate with the parents regarding the progress made by the child. The teachers
should also try to schedule monthly meetings so that they can discuss about the progress
of child with their parents and to know about any problems that the child is facing. Open
and ongoing communication with that of the families helps in creating a powerful
alliance. The teachers need to be aware that some of the families might have negative
experiences with others schools or teachers in the past. Therefore, it is the responsibility

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of the teachers to help the parents in working through that. It has been found that when
teachers make efforts in communicating with the family about the progress of the child
and listen to their advices ad suggestions, the parents would accept the teachers as the
advocate of their child and they would be providing complete support to the teacher
(Solis et al., 2016).
 Preparation of the classrooms:
Different ways can be adopted by the teachers for manipulating the physical aspects of
the classrooms and the different ways, a teacher can place children with autism within
the classroom for making them more comfortable without sacrificing the teacher’s plan
in the general classrooms.
Characteristics of the autistic
children
Adaptations in the classroom
Difficulty with the
transitions as well as the
need for the sameness
 Defining the classroom work like creating
individual work areas along with free time areas
and open areas for discussing using cabinets and
bookcases
 Keeping the classrooms consistently organized
and choosing designated seats for the student
 Keeping daily schedules to only one place in the
classrooms as well as developing a visual agenda
for helping the student in understanding the
agenda in advance (Rubble et al., 2018)
Students getting easily  The student should be made to sit in a low traffic

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distracted by sounds and
sights
are within the classroom
 The desks should be faced away from the
windows and doors and using of carpeting
 Helping the children in learning about the ways in
handling distractions over time and making the
children sit away distractions (Knight et al., 2015)
 Designating a home base arena for escaping
classroom stimulation for a while and teaching
child when he or she can or cannot use the
computer, teachers may cover the computer in
indicating that it’s not the time to use it
Students who show
sensitivity to touch
 Avoiding touching to students
 Teaching them tolerance towards touches
Students who develop
sensitivity towards smell
 Teachers should avoid using perfumes or heavy
lotions
 In rooms which have heavy smells like in art
rooms, individuals should be made to sit near
open doors and windows (Yakubova et al., 2016)
 The custodians should be advised to use only
unscented cleaning supplies
Students who show
sensitivity to sounds like
that of Air conditioner,
 Students should be moved away from sounds
 Have the students use comfortable headphones or
earplugs

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scratching of pencils,
shuffling of feet, certain
tones of music
 Using soft voices when possible
 Materials should be put under desk legs and
carpets and carpeting remnants should be installed
 Students should be gradually taught tolerance to
students and prepare them for sounds before they
need to learn fire drill or ringing of bells.
Students who show
sensitivity to light that like
the fluorescent light
 The teacher should lower the level of light and
turn off overhead lights
 Trying different colors of lights and having
students use sunglasses or that like the baseball
cap (Syriopoulou-Delli et al., 2019)
 Moving the seats of the students from reflections
on that of the wall and using the bulbs that do not
flicker.
Students showing
problematic or acting out
behaviors
 If the escape is the function, then the teacher
should not allow the child to escape without
having accomplished something first or the
teacher might also express importance to
communicate appropriately the need for some
self-down time. The teachers should preferable
use a break area before blowing up (Diener et al.,
2016).
 Having the recreation area as well as the

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playground nearby so that the student can let go
off-steam
 The teacher should arrange for a home base area
do that students can escape classroom stimulation
for a while
 Managing different behavioral challenges of the students:
Students with autism might have different problematic behaviors that can get
triggered because of variety of reasons. These type of behaviors can include temper tantrums
as well as running about the rooms as well as loud vocalizations along with self-injurious
activities and different types of other disruptive and distracting behaviors. Researchers are of
the opinion that as the children face difficulties while communicating in socially acceptable
manners, they may exhibit such behaviors when they get confused, frustrated as well as
fearful of something. This can be explained with the help of an example. A student with
autism might start pacing the room when there is disruption in their normal daily routine as
this is the method of the child to express confusion when he cannot understand what is going
on in their environment (Szidon et al., 2015). The child with autism might also begin
jumping because such movements might distract him or her from a bothering noise and there
is need of the teacher to understand and relate the cause and outcome of the children’s
behaviors.
The most significant action that the teacher can take is to help in the reduction of the
frequency as well as the intensity of the behavior for deciphering the cause and learning to
distinguish the behavior of the child that stem from autism. The teacher should develop the

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thinking capability about the different characteristics of the autistic children and how such
features might be resulting in the behavior of the question like whether the behavior occur
around the same time of the day or certain activity acts as triggers or does they how these
behaviors when they are sleepy or tired and several other cues (Bambara et al., 2016). The
teacher can communicate with family members or other team members and thereby observe
the behavior in the context during which the behavior of the student takes place in examining
the behaviors. The next step would be testing the hypothesis about why the behavior
happened. In addition, the teacher should use consistent as well as positive behavioral
reinforcement techniques for promoting various types of positive and pro-social behaviors of
the child with autism. It is best for the teachers to undertake training or workshop sessions
about how to manage such behaviors in classes so that they can handle the issues
successfully. Many of these workshops have experiences mentors who use real life case
scenarios and practical assessments for helping the teachers to develop hand-on experiences
on such management of behavioral issues on autistic children
Some of the important facts that teachers need to keep in mind:
 It should be remembered that children with autism are first and foremost children and
they are much like the other children in various types of ways
 The autistic children are seen to experience the world quite differently than that of the
normal children. Sight, scenarios, smell, touch, lights and others that might seen
normal to a children might be considered scary as well as overwhelming for a student
who ahs ASD. Conversely, they might not be able to realize and recognize dangers as
well as experience of fear unlike that of the normal children. Hence teacher needs to
be very careful while managing and educating them (Yakubova et al., 2015)

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 Children with autism are often seen to be in need and want of friends
 Understanding the disorder of autism is considered to be the main key for the teachers
in order to establish connections
 Teachers should know that children with autism has their own ways of
communication which almost might look like a different language
 Autism is not at all contagious and no one captures it and neither do anyone die from
the disorder of autism
 Children with ASD are also seen to have their own feelings and they are also seen to
understand more than they can express. Teachers should be careful that no one ever
teases or make fun of someone with autism (King et al., 2016)
 It has been found that when a child having ASD feel included in the classroom, every
children in the classroom can learn or grow.
Advice to teachers to support students’ academic, social and behavioral learning:
Creating a structured environment: studies have shown that children with ASD feel
satisfied and comfortable when they can follow a routine that have clearer structures
along with scopes of minimal deviations from that of their predicted schedules. Teachers
need to make sure that the learning environment for such children as well as lesson plans
are developed and structured in ways that tells students what needs to be dome, how they
are needed to be done, when they need to be done, what would come next and then not
deviating from them.
Communications need to be made clear: teachers can use different communication
techniques to teach the students. Some of the centers are seen to use sign language who
have low speech skills. Many suggest that facilitated communication can prove to be

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better where the arm or hand of the child needs to be hold and encourage them to press
appropriate keys on portable communication devices
Utilization of the visual aids: studies opine that visual can prove to be important in
teaching children with autism. The teachers can utilize line drawings, photographs as well
as Language Builder Picture Cards. They can also use “if/then” cards and stickers can be
incorporated within various daily activities, while mini-schedules and picture schedules
may provide structure
Encouraging different types of social interactions: teachers need to help children with
ASD to develop knowledge as well as skill important for social interaction both in school
and at games. Such children might not feel interested in interacting with other children,
peers, teachers and others but it is important to involve them in interactions to help them
learn social skills teachers need to develop classrooms where they would be building an
environment that encouraged children to communicate and develop communication
skills (Knight et al., 2015)
Activities need to be structured as well too: teachers should be providing structure among
different types of activities as that can prove to be effective in helping such children to
learn better. Using of the visuals can help in providing the child with different
information for each activity or task like as in the same way as lesson plans and daily
schedules. For example, a timer can help the children in understanding how long the
activity will take place. Teachers should include opportunities for the students to increase
their interaction and help them to improve their social skills
Using of direct languages: children with autism might not understand figurative or
abstract languages. They are seen to take most of things literally. They might not be able