Do's & Don'ts when Teaching Learners with Autism

This video offers practical do’s and dont’s when teaching learners on the autistic spectrum disorder. Bearing in mind the complexity of the disorder, it is important to support teachers by giving them a list of things that they should encourage in the classroom as well as things that we should avoid when they include the child on the spectrum.

• Do: Choose visuals.
• Don’t: Talk with hidden meanings.
• Do: Be prepared.
• Don’t: Ask children to change activities suddenly.
• Do: Prepare a visual schedule.
• Don’t: Push for sensory overload.
• Don’t: Generalize children with autism.

The following transcript is auto-generated from Youtube

Professor Eman Gaad the Dean of the
Faculty of Education at the British
inverse in Dubai I’m also a professor of
special and inclusive education today
we’re talking about do’s and don’ts when
it comes to teaching children on the
autistic spectrum disorder one of the
things I always advise teacher to do
when it comes to teaching children on
the spectrum is to use visuals although
some of them can read for example they
still would appreciate a good visual
material always focus on the visual
material one of the things we also try
to avoid is to avoid things like
symbolic and hidden meanings people and
learners with autism they tend to take
face value whatever you tell them they
actually believe it so whatever you do
in a conversation avoid things like oh
I’m the Queen of Sheba or oh when the
cows come home because they literally
think that you are the Queen of Sheba
and that the cows will come home so
please avoid hidden meanings go straight
forward with things that they can relate
to and understand also I advise teachers
to prepare be prepared
preparedness is very important do not
ask children suddenly to change or
transit activities children with autism
tend to get anxiety and that may lead to
some of the behavior unpleasant behavior
that we don’t want to see in the
classroom which you may affect their
social and educational development
therefore use scheduled visual schedule
written scheduled whatever works for a
child on the spectrum it’s always
helpful to prepare to transit from one
activity to another avoid sensory things
were actually a child overload with with
sensory issues that can make the
children not aware of other things so
for example make sure that you avoid
sensory overload touching feeling
lighting any small thing in the
temperature in the room can actually
affect the child mood once the child
mood is affected that can basically
result in unpleasant behavior children
often
are mistakenly taken for bad behavior
while they are simply not dealing well
with their sensory issues avoid
generalization make sure that you deal
with every child as an individual there
is a good say that always says that when
you meet a person which is you’ve met
one person with autism we do not
generalize although they may share some
of the characteristics they are very
individual just like all of us happy
teaching everyone