Effective Teaching Resources and Strategies
Instructional Strategies
1) Provide visual support: Students often demonstrate relative strengths in concrete thinking, rote memory and understanding visual-spatial relationships, and difficulties in abstract thinking, social cognition, communication and attention.
- Advantages: Students can use them for as long as they need to process information. It is often difficult for students with autism spectrum disorders to attend to relevant information and block out background stimulation. Using visual supports enables students to focus on the message.
- Visual supports can be used to:
· depict scheduled tasks and activities
· encourage independence
· facilitate organization
· teach social skills
· promote communication
· encourage appropriate behaviour
· make expectations clear
· depict choices.
2) Structure the environment and instructional tasks: consider the use of structure in the organization of the physical environment and in the design of specific activities.
The physical environment of the classroom can be structured by:
· Establishing specific areas that are associated with certain kinds of activities (e.g., quiet work area, group work area, consistent area for snack, etc.). Rugs, taped lines and signs can be used to create physical markers to separate instructional areas.
· Clearly mark materials and store in an organized fashion.
· Cover or screen desirable activities and/or objects when they are not available to the student.
· Mark the student’s storage areas with his/her photo or some other easily recognizable cue.
· Use different coloured folders, binders or bins for different subject areas or tasks.
· Create “start” and “finished” boxes, bins or folders for the student’s independent work.
· Store all materials for a specific task together, e.g., store worksheets, pens and visual instructions in a laminated file folder.
Incorporate structure into specific teaching or independent learning work tasks:
· Remove extraneous materials from desks or tables before attempting to teach a new skill.
· Present only the text you want read, rather than the whole book. Highlight key words in the text.
· Create a set of sequenced pictures illustrating the steps involved in completing an important self-help task.
· Make sure that all tasks have an easily recognizable beginning and ending. For example, if the student is required to complete a partial page of calculations, mark the first question with a green marker and the last with a red marker.
· When asking a student to complete a project, provide a model or illustration of what the task should look like upon completion.
Effective Teaching Strategies
1) Use Task Variation: Vary tasks to prevent boredom, and alternate activities to reduce anxiety and inappropriate behaviours.
2) Use Task Analysis: Task analysis involves breaking large tasks into small, teachable units. Teachers often need to break complex tasks down into sub- skills to ensure students are successful. Life skills, social skills and academic skills can also be broken down into teachable components.
a) Forward chaining: Emphasis is placed on the first behaviour or skill in a "chain" that the student has not yet mastered. This step can be as simple as turning on the computer
b) Backward chaining: The last skill or behaviour that the student has not mastered is taught first. The advantage with backward chaining is that the student experiences the task completion immediately.
3) Provide Precise, Positive Praise: Students with autism spectrum disorders may acquire new skills based on a single learning opportunity or trial, so directing praise to specific behaviour is important.
4) Use Meaningful Reinforcements: It is important to be aware that students with autism spectrum disorders may not be motivated by reinforcers that work with other students.
5) Plan Tasks at an Appropriate Level of Difficulty: Students with autism spectrum disorders may become anxious and frustrated if they cannot perform assigned tasks. Teachers should support students through instructional adaptations. At the same time, teachers should use materials designated for the age of the student, even if they must be modified.
6) Provide opportunities for Choice: Because students with autism spectrum disorders are frequently frustrated by their inability to make themselves understood, they need instruction in communicating choices. Many parts of their lives are necessarily highly structured and controlled by adults.
7) Introduce Unfamiliar Tasks in a Familiar Environment: When that is not possible, prepare students for new tasks and environments using pictures, videotapes and/or social stories.
8) Pay Attention to Processing and Pacing: Students with autism spectrum disorders often need more time to respond than other students and may need to process each discrete piece of a message or request separately. Provide extra time.
9) Use Concrete examples and hand-on activities: Use varying concrete examples to teach abstract ideas. This shows that the concept can be used in a variety of ways.
10) Break down oral instructions: Oral instruction is difficult for students with autism to absorb. Instead, support oral instruction with visual cues and representations.
11) Direct and broaden fixations into useful activities: Use a students fixation on objects, topics, colours, etc to teach concepts
12) Maintain a list of individual strengths and interests: Talk to the family for information on what the students know and do at home and in the community. Use those interests and skills for instruction and positive reinforcement.
13) Develop talents and interest ideas: If a student has interest and strengths in specific areas, ensure opportunities to further develop in those areas
Often students with autism will begin to get anxious or frustrated. It is important to pay attention to those cues and provide relaxation methods. This will allow students to deal with any changes that may occur in the classroom. Some relaxation strategies include:
• listening to music with headphones
• moving to a quiet environment
• having a deep pressure massage
• sucking, e.g., drinking from a juice box
• playing with favourite objects
• breathing deeply
• tensing and relaxing muscles
• sitting quietly and looking out the window
• engaging in a repetitive behaviour
• rubbing lotion on hands or arms
• reviewing a calming story or script
• using weighted vests or blankets.
- Advantages: Students can use them for as long as they need to process information. It is often difficult for students with autism spectrum disorders to attend to relevant information and block out background stimulation. Using visual supports enables students to focus on the message.
- Visual supports can be used to:
· depict scheduled tasks and activities
· encourage independence
· facilitate organization
· teach social skills
· promote communication
· encourage appropriate behaviour
· make expectations clear
· depict choices.
2) Structure the environment and instructional tasks: consider the use of structure in the organization of the physical environment and in the design of specific activities.
The physical environment of the classroom can be structured by:
· Establishing specific areas that are associated with certain kinds of activities (e.g., quiet work area, group work area, consistent area for snack, etc.). Rugs, taped lines and signs can be used to create physical markers to separate instructional areas.
· Clearly mark materials and store in an organized fashion.
· Cover or screen desirable activities and/or objects when they are not available to the student.
· Mark the student’s storage areas with his/her photo or some other easily recognizable cue.
· Use different coloured folders, binders or bins for different subject areas or tasks.
· Create “start” and “finished” boxes, bins or folders for the student’s independent work.
· Store all materials for a specific task together, e.g., store worksheets, pens and visual instructions in a laminated file folder.
Incorporate structure into specific teaching or independent learning work tasks:
· Remove extraneous materials from desks or tables before attempting to teach a new skill.
· Present only the text you want read, rather than the whole book. Highlight key words in the text.
· Create a set of sequenced pictures illustrating the steps involved in completing an important self-help task.
· Make sure that all tasks have an easily recognizable beginning and ending. For example, if the student is required to complete a partial page of calculations, mark the first question with a green marker and the last with a red marker.
· When asking a student to complete a project, provide a model or illustration of what the task should look like upon completion.
Effective Teaching Strategies
1) Use Task Variation: Vary tasks to prevent boredom, and alternate activities to reduce anxiety and inappropriate behaviours.
2) Use Task Analysis: Task analysis involves breaking large tasks into small, teachable units. Teachers often need to break complex tasks down into sub- skills to ensure students are successful. Life skills, social skills and academic skills can also be broken down into teachable components.
a) Forward chaining: Emphasis is placed on the first behaviour or skill in a "chain" that the student has not yet mastered. This step can be as simple as turning on the computer
b) Backward chaining: The last skill or behaviour that the student has not mastered is taught first. The advantage with backward chaining is that the student experiences the task completion immediately.
3) Provide Precise, Positive Praise: Students with autism spectrum disorders may acquire new skills based on a single learning opportunity or trial, so directing praise to specific behaviour is important.
4) Use Meaningful Reinforcements: It is important to be aware that students with autism spectrum disorders may not be motivated by reinforcers that work with other students.
5) Plan Tasks at an Appropriate Level of Difficulty: Students with autism spectrum disorders may become anxious and frustrated if they cannot perform assigned tasks. Teachers should support students through instructional adaptations. At the same time, teachers should use materials designated for the age of the student, even if they must be modified.
6) Provide opportunities for Choice: Because students with autism spectrum disorders are frequently frustrated by their inability to make themselves understood, they need instruction in communicating choices. Many parts of their lives are necessarily highly structured and controlled by adults.
7) Introduce Unfamiliar Tasks in a Familiar Environment: When that is not possible, prepare students for new tasks and environments using pictures, videotapes and/or social stories.
8) Pay Attention to Processing and Pacing: Students with autism spectrum disorders often need more time to respond than other students and may need to process each discrete piece of a message or request separately. Provide extra time.
9) Use Concrete examples and hand-on activities: Use varying concrete examples to teach abstract ideas. This shows that the concept can be used in a variety of ways.
10) Break down oral instructions: Oral instruction is difficult for students with autism to absorb. Instead, support oral instruction with visual cues and representations.
11) Direct and broaden fixations into useful activities: Use a students fixation on objects, topics, colours, etc to teach concepts
12) Maintain a list of individual strengths and interests: Talk to the family for information on what the students know and do at home and in the community. Use those interests and skills for instruction and positive reinforcement.
13) Develop talents and interest ideas: If a student has interest and strengths in specific areas, ensure opportunities to further develop in those areas
Often students with autism will begin to get anxious or frustrated. It is important to pay attention to those cues and provide relaxation methods. This will allow students to deal with any changes that may occur in the classroom. Some relaxation strategies include:
• listening to music with headphones
• moving to a quiet environment
• having a deep pressure massage
• sucking, e.g., drinking from a juice box
• playing with favourite objects
• breathing deeply
• tensing and relaxing muscles
• sitting quietly and looking out the window
• engaging in a repetitive behaviour
• rubbing lotion on hands or arms
• reviewing a calming story or script
• using weighted vests or blankets.