Autism Spectrum Disorders

1. Autism Spectrum Disorders By Latrica Kestner

2. What is Autism? • General term to describe complex developmental brain disorders known as Pervasive Developmental Disorders. • Pervasive Developmental Disorders include; Asperger’s Syndrome, Rett Syndrome, and Childhood Disintegrative Disorder. • http://www.autismspeaks.org

3. Characteristics of Autism • LEARNING CHARACTERISTICS OF AUTISM • Concrete- difficulty thinking abstract (autistic children typically can’t pretend or imagine something that isn’t real or couldn’t really happen) • Over selectivity- cue in or attend to irrelevant detail miss the main point of task/activity • Lack of generalization- learn in one place, can’t do in another • Same content/same context- learn skill in one environment/place change aspect of place, can’t do task • Distractibility- easy to tune into something else • Visual/spatial- learn by seeing and doing rather than hearing; difficulty processing language • Ritualistic- learn pattern one way, hard to change • Motivation- Different from peers or what others would want

4. Classroom Strategies • Social stories • Visual Aides • Visual Schedules • Power Cards

5. Visual Schedule • Visual Schedules provide daily schedule in visual format to help with transitions. • http://www.child-autism-parent-cafe.com/bathroom-visual-picture-schedule.html

6. Visuals • Other types of visuals include; • Posted rules • To do checklists • Cards with visual cues

7. Social Stories • Can be utilized to present socially appropriate social behavior in form of a book. • Specific situations; ex: dentist visit, crossing the street, etc.

8. Example of Social Stories • Social Story for Being A ‘Good Sport’ • I like to play games. • My favourite games are _______ • When we play ____________ one team will win, and one team will lose. • It will always be this way, unless both teams have the same number of points. • This is called a tie or draw. • When my team wins a game, I feel very happy. Sometimes I dance, cheer or yell out. • When my team loses, I feel sad. Sometimes I feel angry. • When my team loses, I will not hit, punch or yell mean things when I am angry. • I will not stomp off the ground, throw things, swear or kick the ground. • When I do these things, people will call me a ‘bad loser’. • I will try to be happy for the other team when they win. • I will try to shake the winning team member’s hands and congratulate them, just as they congratulate me when my team wins. • They worked hard to win, and they are happy! • There will be other times when my team can win. • Being nice when my team loses is called being a ‘good sport’. • When I am a ‘good sport’ I will have fun playing games with my friends! • It will not matter who wins or loses. • I know that I did my best.

9. Power Card The power card strategy is a visual aid that incorporates the child’s special interest in teaching appropriate social interactions including: • routines • behavior expectations • the meaning of language • the hidden curriculum. The Power Card Strategy consists of presenting on a single sheet or in booklet form a short scenario, written in the first person, describing how the child’s hero solves a problem and a small card, the POWER CARD, which recaps how the child can use the same strategy to solve a similar problem himself.

10. Resources • www.scautism.org • www.autismspeaks.org • www.futurehorizons-autism.com • www.teacch.com/welcome.html • www.paulakluth.com • www.tonyatwood.com.au • www.thegraycenter.org/