Autism Spectrum Disorder

Characteristics and Needs:

Educational Characteristics:
 Communication verbal and nonverbal
 Repetitive behavior, interests and activities
 Demonstrates difficulty with gross motor skills, poor balance, or difficulty
coordinating motor movements
 Demonstrates difficulty with fine motor skills, such writing

Educational Needs:
 Use visual reminders such as visual scripts or Social stories prompt social skills
and to pre- pare for changes in routines
 Teach cause and effect concepts
 Provide a predictable and safe environment in a manner that avoids triggering
rages and guards the student from bullying and teasing
 Gain the student’s attention before giving brief and concrete instructions
 Use direct instruction to teach multiple meaning words
 Check for understanding. Do not assume comprehension just because the
student parrots what has been heard or because child can decode words.
Comprehension skills are frequently not as strong as decoding and verbal skills
 Limit opportunities for excessive talk about perseverative interests by allowing
specific times during the day and a limited amount of time to verbally share
special perseverative interests
 Provide accommodations in physical education class for gross motor skill deficits
and offer adult supervision on the playground to assist student with less well
developed motor skills to be a part of group games
 Allow students to use keyboarding if handwriting is too laborious, Some students
perform better with cursive writing than with printing.

Social/Behavioral Characteristics and Needs:

 Behavioral deficits
 Inability to relate to others
 Lack of functional language
 Sensory processing deficits
 Cognitive deficits
 Lack of joint attention in infancy
 May not respond to name and may appear deaf
 Oblivious to others and appears to be in own world
 Little or no eye contact
 Few or no reciprocal friendships
 May treat people as objects (e.g., use another person’s hand to reach an object
up high)
 Resistance to being cuddled or touched
 Does not understand give-and-take of social interaction and instead monologues
or lectures
  May not understand nonverbal cues such as eye gaze, facial expressions, and
body language
 May not spontaneously seek interactions with others because of not knowing
how to interact or having no interest in interacting
 May display socially inappropriate behaviors because of not understanding social
conventions

Social/Behavioral Needs:
 Provide opportunities for direct social skill instruction in the following areas:
interpreting non- verbal communication and responding to social cues, making
friends, dealing with frustration, and learning how to participate in a
conversation
 Teach appropriate play skills with peers and object uses through direct
instruction
 Teach students to focus on multiple cues

Article Summary:

When working in an inclusive setting there are many pros and cons to using

paraprofessionals. When a student has a disability, a one on one paraprofessional is often one of

the first steps towards inclusion. Inclusion for students with ASD comes with many benefits and

is becoming more and more popular within the schools. Paraprofessionals provide much needed

educational, emotional, and social support to students with ASD.

In the article, “Holding on to Their Kitestrings: Paraprofessional Support in Inclusive

Settings,” author Jan Blacher discusses the pros and cons to having paraprofessionals. Among

the many pros, Blancher states that, “academically, the paraprofessional can provide additional

instruction to follow up the teachers lesson” (Blacher, 2007). Often times the classroom teacher

is so busy that making extra time for students who need it may be hard to squeeze in. The extra

instruction is a huge benefit. Other benefits Blacher discussed were that parapros can often

foster peer interactions, they may have a better understanding of working with a child with a

disability or a specific disability, and that they can also provide relief to an overwhelmed gen ed

teacher.
 Along with the obvious benefits comes disadvantages. Blacher states that, “parents and

teachers do not always realize that a child’s reliance on a one to one aide can potentially

negatively impact the child’s socialization, self-concept, and overall quality of education”

(Blacher, 2007). The child may become over dependent on the parapro which can be

counterproductive. The author goes on to list other disadvantages such as: having a less

qualified person doing the majority of instruction, physical separation from the class,

interference with peer interaction, and the teachers becoming overly reliant on the

paraprofessional. These are all valid concerns.

This article did a great job summarizing the pros and cons of having a paraprofessional.

These are all things that should be considered when deciding whether or not a one on one aide

would be beneficial to an ASD students in a gen ed classroom. If the goal is inclusion, will a one

on one aide provide that for the student or would it prevent the student from full inclusion?

Parents. Teachers, and support staff must look at both the pros and cons before deciding if a

paraprofessional is the right move.

Instructional Strategies, Accommodations, and/or Modifications needed for successful

progress in the General Curriculum:
 Provide a predictable and safe environment
 Minimize transitions
 Capitalize on student’s visual strengths and provide visual supports to aid in
transitions
 Provide assignments that will help expand or broaden the current perseverative
interest
 Use priming to increase familiarity with materials before introduced at school
 Provide structure through visual supports
 Modify the environment by changing antecedents that may trigger problem
behavior