Communication and Interaction

Why do we need to differentiate so specifically for students with autism?

Style of thinking tends to be visual and concrete
Planning, organising and sequencing thoughts are often weaker
They might not automatically focus on the same thing as others
Difficulty identifying and filtering the important information from an environment
Applying and generalising known skills often takes much more time
Difficulties recognising the “same work” in a different format or layout
Understanding and recognising their own emotions and those of others is often very hard
Difficulty evaluating their own progress
Might struggle to retail purely verbal information
Display a need to finish pieces of work/questions before being able to move on
Find thinking form other peoples perspectives very difficult

Strategies that may help

Limit the amount of irrelevant information used on handouts or power points
Use the students likely strengths (focus to detail, ICT, following rules)
Limit the amount in verbal or written information given
Support in order to help the student understand work surrounding emotions, relationships and other peoples points of view
Support in tasks where group work and discussion is required
Teach explicitly why they need to revise and how to do it