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Home : 2007 : August : 9

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By NCteacher

I have taught 6 or 7 kids with autism- like the others said- for the most part they were a delight to have in class. The kids were very, very different. A couple of my boys did not like to be touched at all and had some self
stimulating behaviors (rocking, humming, moving hands). I had one boy who was ESL and autistic....he would get frustrated in class sometimes and stand up and yell, "You FIRED!! You FIRED!!!" . I was fortunate enough to work in a district that provided one on one aides for these kids. You truly get a sense of someone being trapped inside a body.

Ok- so none of that helps you

in class. Here are some things that helped me- having all of their notebooks, folders, book covers and pencils to be one color. Easier for them to find. I had a schedule (with pictures) on each of those kids' desks. The schedules were laminated and they used a vis-a-vis marker to check off each item. I tried to seat them away from air conditioning vents or high traffic areas, since some autistic kids can be extremely sensitive to noise. I always had a plan for what to do in case of a blow up- the autistic kids I had were all prone to having these blow ups when they felt very frustrated or overwhelmed. I talked to the class as a whole about what to do in that case- which was basically to ignore and stay away and stay quiet. We created a flip book for one kid who was nonverbal. It had pages with pictures for lunch choice, a page with happy, sad, mad, etc. emotions, a page with a kid with his hand up......my fella would point to the appropriate picture. It was quite effective. For example, if a teacher stopped him in the hall and said, "David, how are you?" David would whip out his flip book and point to the picture of the face that matched his feelings. We had a wonderful resource teacher who worked on communication issues with our kids. She would have them look in mirrors and practice showing different emotions on their faces. Autistic kids can have a very flat affect.

I hope this helps- it was a challenge sometimes, but I really enjoyed teaching my "artistic" kids (that was what my regular ed kids called them!) Good luck!