Autism+Spectrum+Disorders


 * Learning Traits/Behavioral Characteristics **

A neurological disorder that generally features difficulties in communication, socialization, and behavior

**The Autism Spectrum**: Autism is considered a spectrum of disorders. The term Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) refers to the "similarities of a number of disabilities that share a triad of social, communication, and behavioral impairments." -(Simpson & Myles, 2008).

**The Autism Spectrum Disorders are**:
 * Autistic Disorder
 * Asperger Disorder
 * Childhood Disentegrative Disorder
 * PDD-NOS (Pervasive Development Disorder)

What makes the Autism Spectrum particularly challenging is that not only is it a range of disorders, but students within certain diagnoses often display the characteristic behaviors on a continuum. Creating a range or spectrum within each of the ASD subtypes.

(Simpson & Myles, 2008) (Simpson & Myles, 2008) (Simpson & Myles, 2008) (Simpson, & Myles, 2008) (Myles, Trautman, & Shelvan, 2004) (Stitcher & Conroy, 2008) (Simpson & Myles, 2008) (Simpson & Myles, 2008) (Simpson & Myles, 2008) (Simpson & Myles, 2008) = Prevalence = For years students receiving a diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder has steadily increased
 * Strengths and Abilities **
 * rote memory
 * visual spatial abilities
 * attention to detail
 * driven to analyze and understand systems
 * enjoy and thrive within routines
 * Attention Difficulties **
 * Stimulus Over-selectivity: This term describes the phenomena of students with ASD responding to only a few cues available to them in a learning situation. They are overly selective in what they are attending to (identify person based on a irrelevant stimulus, over generalize characteristics, example: //the fact that a word is underlined as opposed to what the word actually is//). In short they are often “paying attention” just to the wrong thing.
 * Students with ASD often have attention difficulties during “fast paced” instruction because they are often asked to continuously switch attention to different stimulus.
 * Motivational Difficulties **
 * Because of the intense interest and patterns of behavior it can often be difficult to motivate students
 * Students with an ASD are often not motivated by what motivates typically developing peers
 * Motivation has to be explored thoroughly for these students
 * Without motivation it becomes increasingly harder to reinforce students
 * Theory of Mind **
 * An area of socialization that involves understanding what another may be thinking or feeling based on their social actions/interactions, expressions, intonations, body language, etc..
 * Learners with ASD have a marked deficit in Theory of Mind they are often lost as to others perspectives on things
 * Social Difficulties **
 * "Hidden Curriculum": This term refers to the nuances of social interactions that may be difficult for students with Autism to decipher. These are often things that are implied, but not stated specifically, examples of "hidden curriculum" scenarios are listed below:
 * Teachers have different rules, for example some teachers let you chew gum or talk to your friends, other teachers do not allow these things
 * Acceptable slang may be used with your peers, but adults may find it difficult to understand or offensive
 * People do not always want "the honest truth" even when they say they do.
 * Not all unkown individuals are "dangerous strangers" (substitute teachers, police officers, bus drivers) but some unkown individuals may be dangerous.
 * It is impolite to interrupt someone, unless it is an emergency, then it is ok
 * Notice that many of these have to do with exceptions to social rules.. Things are OK except for when they are not
 * Social Competence: As discussed social difficulties are a common problem with students on the Autism Spectrum. They generally demonstrate difficulties in the ares of social competence:
 * Reciprocal Conversation
 * Responding to Peer/Adult Initiations
 * Appropriate Commenting
 * Complimenting
 * Greetings
 * Asking/Answering Questions
 * Appropriate Social Proximity
 * Etc...
 * Language Development **
 * Students with ASD consistently demonstrate language development difficulties
 * Those with more classic Autism impairments this is usually seen in the development of receptive and expressive language
 * Students with High Functioning Autism (HFA) and Aspergers Syndrome tend to demonstrate difficulties in more pragmatic language
 * Generalization Difficulties **
 * Generalization involves the transferring of learned material to other settings.
 * Generalization in often very difficult for learners with Autism
 * Information or Behaviors mastered in one environment can be difficult for them to transfer to another environment
 * Behavioral Concerns **
 * Students with ASD may demonstrate "problem behaviors" in the classroom
 * This is may be due to: langauge processing difficulties, social interaction deficencies, stress or anxiety, or unclear behavioral expectations
 * Behavior planning should focus Functional Behavior Analysis and Reinforcement
 * Common Learning Profile **
 * Process information in a concrete and literal way
 * Often visual learners
 * Rely on rules and routines
 * Sensory deficits are common
 * Often exhibit stress and anxiety
 * Learn best when information is presented in an organized and predictable fashion and when taught using visually supported information.
 * In 1966 estimates indicated that about 4 or 5 individuals were born with Autism per 10,000 births (1 in 2,000) births
 * Today conservative estimates indicate that 10 individuals are born with a diagnosis of Autistic Disorder (just one category of the Autism Spectrum) per 10,000 births (1 in 1,000)
 * Moderate estimates for the entire Autism Spectrum (all 5 categories) indicate prevalence to be 60 individuals per 10,000 births (1 in 166 births)
 * From 1991-1992 school year to the 1999-2000 school year we saw a 1,108% percent increase in students receiving SPED services for an Autism Diagnosis.
 * The increase in prevalence increases the pressure on educational, home, and community settings to provide appropriate services for this population of individuals.


 * Strategies and Classroom Interventions **


 * Visual Suports: ** These strategies seek to capitalize on the learning strengths of individuals with an ASD diagnosis. A Visual Support is a way to provide information to the individual in a visual manner. Visual Supports take on a wide variety of stratgies, from visual schedules to picture prompts. The following is a brief explanation of many different types of Visual Supports:


 * **Visual Schedules**: these supports help students order events or tasks in an environment in chronological order. Visual Schedules often take on different forms, they can be pictures of events, icons, or even simple text. After events are completed the student can remove the event or cross the event off. This visual/concrete representation of events to come helps students predict situations, this can often meet the students need for structure and order. (Example of a typical visual schedule; example of a schedule for higher functioing students)
 * **Picture Prompts**: This visual support provides a visual prompt for students to follow. As students with ASD often demonstrate difficulty processing language we can use picture prompts to remind them of: necesssary steps, classroom rules/routines, social interactions, and/or communication cues. (Click HERE to see examples of picture prompts)
 * **Transition Supports:** These visual supports assist students during transistions. Students with an ASD diagnosis are often uncomfortbale with transistioning between environments, tasks, or social interactions. They may need additional supports during transistion times. The following are specific examples of transition supports.
 * Activity Completion Signals: Students with an ASD diagnosis may have difficulty predicting how long an activity will take, or the length that a class period will last (even if it a familiar task or a class they have every day). Providing signals as to when the current activity, task, or class period will terminate may help them transition more effectively. A countdown schedule, verbal statements such as "Five minutes until ___ is done", or a time timer, are all examples of activity completion signals.
 * Transition Routines: This strategy helps students create routines within unstructred transitions, for example it may provide a student with steps to complete during passing period or help a student structure time between activities by giving them things to accomplish during the transition. This strategy is basically a schedule for transition times.
 * ** Indicating Behavioral Expectations: ** Classroom expectations can be expressed visually. Students with ASD may benefit from visual displays of classroom rules and proceedures, especially nuanced procedures that may be specific to your classroom. ( Examples of Visual Expectations and Visual Routines)
 * ** First-Then Supports: ** These visual supports present expectations and reinforcement together (The expectation is the "First" and the reinforcement is the "Then"). So for example if you had a student in your classroom who neeeded additional motivational supports you could demonstrate the information like THIS. Setting up information in this way can be customized for each student and need not appear as elementary as the example provided. Keep in mind here that the idea is to structure the task for the student and provide the information that they will have access to a preferred item or activity AFTER they have completed the expectation. Some students may benefit from simply presenting the information in a verbal statement, "Johnny **first** finish your math sheet and **then** you can talk to Sally". This strategy works particulary well if the student has a pre-designed behavior plan with specific reinforcement schedules and routines.


 * Cognitive Behavior Supports: **
 * ** Power Cards: ** Power Cards use many of the tennants of visual supports and combine them with the self management of cognitive behavior supports. Power Cards generally use the perseverative interests of students with Autism towards an academic, social, or behavior outcome. they work similar to picture prompts in that they use a visual representation of a students' perseverativ interest to remind them of a specific rule or routine. (See Examples of Power Cards)
 * ** Social Stories: ** Social Stories are another powerful intervention that have been successfully used in many settings for students with Autism. Social Stories read like a story and highlight the many necessary steps to a certain situation or scenario. Social Stories are most often written for social interactions or structured routines. Social Stories often feature pictures of the subjects completing different steps of the routine, and are often written in the first person. Of all the many
 * ** Video Modeling: **
 * ** Consequnece Maps: **
 * Motivational Supports: **
 * Behavioral Supports: **

> = ﻿Multimedia = > = >

=media type="custom" key="9269974"