Autism is a lifelong, developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with other people and their experience of the world. Autism can present uniquely in different people. However, there are three signifying areas that are looked for when making a diagnosis.

1. Social Communication.
This can be seen as having difficulty understanding language or expressing their needs. Having trouble understanding jokes or taking very literal meanings of what people say.

2. Social Interaction
This can be seen as having difficulty understanding why social relationships are important, or how they work. Perhaps seeming insensitive to the emotions of others. Preference to spending time alone, or wanting to form friendships but not understanding the social constructs.

3. Repetitive Behaviour & Routines
Routines or repeated behaviours can provide a degree of safety for a person with autism. They may have certain foods they eat or need to walk a specific route. Dealing with change can be very challenging day to day.

A few facts for you from the National Autistic Society about autism, did you know there are around 700,000 autistic people in the UK; that’s close to 1 in 100. In education 34% of children on the autistic spectrum say the worst thing about school is being picked on and an astonishing 63% of children say that they are not in the kind of school that they believe best supports them.

I had the privilege of working within a school that prided themselves on supporting those with autism and enabling main stream education to be an accessible and positive environment for them to learn.
In this post I aim to share a few of the tips and strategies I learnt when working with autistic students.

1. Having Autism Friendly Lessons.

A teacher that is aware of autism friendly strategies will be a better teacher. Looking at cognitive concepts like how we utilise our working memory and its capacity, using techniques that simplify explanations and providing memory aids can greatly benefit your teaching for all students. An autism friendly lesson, should be paced well and include visual reminders of routines or task, so that the student doesn’t have to try and keep all that information in their working memory. Lessons should have clear instructions and have opportunity for the student to catch up or process information given if needed.

2. Say what you mean.

Students with autism are quite literal. In fact if you google search how to teach metaphor to a student with autism it tells you not to. A wonderful trait of those with autism is they will tell you how it is and they will expect you to be clear in your communication too. This can be as simple as how you give instructions. For example this probably wouldn’t work: “Simon, would you like to come up and answer a question?” The student would probably just say no. Whereas, “Simon, come up to the board and answer question B.” is far more likely to receive a positive response as there is no room for mis-interpretation of what you want them to do.

Another tip, is to use their name first before an instruction. This can make social queues easier to read and pick up on once it has been identified it is aimed at them.

3. Introduce and prepare students for change

In our school we were very intentional and aware of changes within the school that could affect our autistic students. We would often introduce a conversation about change a few days before it was going to happen so the students had a chance to voice their concerns and prepare themselves for the change.

For example, I was due to take over an extra study class with our Y9 support group. In preparation for me taking over after half term, I sat in for two weeks and helped around the class and got to know the students, I saw how the lesson was taken so I could re-create their routine and the student were given an opportunity to ask their questions.

4. Using Checklists

A strategy we used with our students, was providing checklists. These were really simple tools they could use on a mini whiteboard or in their school planner for recurring processes or sequences. This would keep them motivated and help them remember what to do. You can write down the steps that they can tick off. For example, you might have in order:

1. Get planner and pencil case out of bag.
2. Open exercise book and write date and title.
3. Complete questions on the board.
4. Answer a question.
5. Complete classwork.

This is just a short example you could use. However, it can be massively effective with students who struggle with attention span or memory deficit.

5. Taking breaks

A good strategy for allowing students with autism to reset is by offering them a break. Some students can find the demands of the classroom overwhelming at times, and so offering a 5 minute break each lesson with something like a break card is a fantastic way to allow your student to reset themselves either emotionally or behaviourally so they can enter back into the lesson.

6. Social Stories

At our school we used Social Stories these were created by Carol Grey in 1991 and depict a situation or event which includes information about what to expect and why. Social stories have a range of benefits in an educational setting, they can develop behavioural strategies that allow the student to cope with emotions or behaviours. They can help them understand the perspective of others and how they may respond in a certain situation.

These were effective as they allowed the student to visually see a situation they may have experienced and develop an understanding of why that situation unfolded the way it did. It can provide them with strategies they can use if that situation arises again. We would often use a mini white board to draw the story as we told it, making it a fun exercise to have the conversation around.

7. Emotional Visualisers

This is a great tool to help students manage and regulate their emotions enabling them to identify what they’re feeling and labelling that feeling to a colour. We used The Zones of Regulation by Leah Kuypers; aimed at helping students consciously gain skills and regulate their social actions. The students would recognise when they were in a specific zone and would have strategies based on what zone they were in to get back to being in the ‘green zone’ and ready to get on with their learning.

We found this a really useful tool within our SEN department, we had coloured lanyards labelled with the different emotions,, that students could use to identify their emotions. Student were able to explain how they were feeling even though they might not be able to voice it, which enabled us as staff to utilise the most effective strategy for them.

8. Maintain Patience and Calm

I never thought of myself as a patient person, but, working with our SEN students I found a whole level of patience I never believed I had. I learnt very quickly through observing various interactions that the best way to approach and deal with frustrating situations was to maintain a calm and patient demeanour.

You aren’t only managing your emotional state, but you’re managing theirs. People with autism have more difficulty managing their own emotions and navigating social encounters, so how you respond is often how they will respond, and even worse than them getting angry is when they shut down.

9. Routines

Our school was great at implementing routines. The classroom had a specific structure to the lesson which made it autism friendly. It would start with student coming in, there would be an exercise to get on with straight away. There would then be some explanation and then an activity to finish off such as a writing exercise or some maths practice questions. The lessons followed a similar routine through every subject. This also went for their timetable and the general school day. Routines provide a level of safety for autistic students, knowing and being comfortable with what will happen and enabling them to navigate the day better.

10. Talk

The mind of an autistic person is rich and creative. I loved the snippets of free time in which we could have non-specific conversation. I loved hearing about their thoughts and opinions, or their wonderful ideas. There was so much talent, creativity and humour. If you want to do one thing, get to know your students better, what do they like? What do the they struggle with? Not only will you be able to better teach them, but they will definitely surprise and teach you something too.

I hope you found some of these tips helpful. I would love to know in the comments what works at your school.