Strategies for Working with Students with Autism in the General Education Setting
About this Series
If you only have 30 minutes for professional development, this series is for you! Presenter, Dr. Amanda Boutot, BCBA-D, is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) and an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Texas State University. Her research is in the areas of assessment and treatment of children with autism.
Dr. Boutot has over 20 years of experience working with children and youth with autism and their families. She began her career as a public school special education teacher, working with children with special educational needs from early years through high school. Dr. Boutot earned her Ph.D. in special education from the University of Texas at Austin.
Courses
Understanding Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Assessment/Getting to know the student
Learn about the primary, behavioral, and learning characteristics of ASD.
Participants will be able to discuss:
- the primary characteristics of ASD: what it is and its prevalence
- the behavioral characteristics of ASD
- including social characteristics, communicative characteristics and restrictive and repetitive behaviors
- the learning characteristics of ASD, including executive functioning, Theory of Mind, joint attention, and auditory vs. visual processing
Get to Know the Student
Assessment/Getting to know the student
Dr. Boutot address the importance of getting to know your student with autism. This is key to developing a trusting, respectful relationship with that person and their families. The better you know the student the better you can help meet their needs.
Participants will be able to discuss:
- the need to prepare before school begins, including talking to previous teachers, reviewing the student's IEP and reviewing the student's portfolio
- the need to get to know the family
- the need to get to know the child
Create Predictability
A common characteristic of autism is an insistence on sameness and/or a resistance to change. Dr. Boutot provides tips on how to help create predictability for learns with autism to help reduce challenging behaviors and help students flourish.
Participants will be able to discuss:
- an individual's need for predictability
- the need to establish consistent routines for schedules, activities and expectations
- the need to use visuals to support predictability
- the need to prepare for changes
Developing Social and Behavioral Expectations
Dr. Boutot discusses the Hidden Curriculum, these are the unwritten, ever changing social and behavioral rules/expectations of situations. To meet these expectations, students with autism need explicit teaching in these areas. Learn about specific interventions that can be used to provide this instruction.
Participants will be able to discuss the hidden curriculum and how it impacts students with autism and three interventions that can be used to provide social and behavioral support to students with autism.Establishing Clear Expectations: Academic
The better students understand what is expected in your classroom the more likely they are to be successful. Dr. Boutot tip here includes how to develop academic expectations for your students with ASD. She provides specific information on supports that can be put in place to help your students with ASD meet academic expectations.
Participants will be able to discuss how developing academic expectations helps a student with ASD, and discuss workload supports, accommodations, and assistance supports.
Create a Positive Learning Community
Teachers have the ability and the responsibility to create a positive community of learners with in their classrooms. Students with autism need to know that they belong in your class and that they are contributing members of its academic and social success. In this tip, Dr. Boutot offer practical strategies to help you achieve this goal.
Participants will be able to:
- explain the need for fostering a sense of community within the classroom
- identify 3-4 ways you can promote acceptance and awareness in your classroom
Promote Positive Peer Interactions
Research has shown that when students with autism have the opportunity to interact with their typical peers both benefit. Students with autism improve their social skills and typical peers become more accepting of each other’s differences. In this tip, Dr. Boutot discusses various strategies to promote positive peer interactions.
Participants will be able to:
- discuss the importance of providing opportunities for students with autism to socialize
- describe some sample activities that support socialization and peer-mediated instruction
- create a plan to provide opportunities for students to work together on academics, including peer groupings and peer-mediated instruction
Use Instructional Strategies that Promote Successful Learning
Students with autism may struggle with learning material in the same way as their typical peers. Like other students, their learning needs will be unique and varied. In this tip, Dr. Boutot describes an information processing model showing how students learn. Breakdowns in the process can occur along any part of the model and she shares strategies to improve each part of the model to improve student output.
Participants will be able to:
- describe how students learn, including the information processing model presented and where breakdowns occur in that process
- name 1-2 supports for improving attention, short-term and long-term memory, and output
Use Behavioral Strategies that Promote Successful Learning
Behavior management is key to successful learning for all students including those with autism. Learn from Dr. Boutot about creating clear, reasonable and consistent behavior management systems in your classroom that will support student learning.
Participants will be able to discuss how a good behavior management system supports student learning and at least three behavior management strategies that can be implemented.Develop a Plan to Address Challenging Behavior
Despite your best efforts to provide a good behavioral management system in your classroom, students with autism may still engage in challenging behaviors that disrupt their learning or that of others. Dr. Boutot describes how these challenging behavior can be prevented and managed with the appropriate pre-planning work.
Participants will be able to define challenging behaviors and to discuss ways that challenging behaviors can be prevented and managed.Borrow From the Special Educator’s Toolbox
Some students with autism will have more intensive needs and require more intensive supports than others who attend general education classes. Learn strategies from the special educator’s toolbox that you can implement to benefit your students.
Participants will be able to describe 1-2 evidence based strategies they can implement for students in their class.Respect Each Student’s Dignity and Need for Autonomy
Public schools are often the first place that typically developing peers encounter individuals with different abilities. In your classroom you can make the life of student with autism more meaningful, by being an example and teaching others that most import life skill, how to treat others with dignity and respect. In this tip, learn Dr. Boutot’s principles of teaching students with autism.
Participants will be able to discuss the importance of treating students with dignity and the principles of teaching students with autism.