A bit more about ASD

1. Teacher info sheet A bit more about ASD • About ASD • At some stage in their teaching career, most teachers will have a student with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in their classroom. • Many students will experience delays or difficulties in one or two areas of their development, such as language delays or developmental delays. While such delays create challenges, these students can often compensate by using the skills and strengths they have in other developmental areas. • ASD is the medical name for a condition where a individual has delays or difficulties in three areas of their development. The inter-relationship and nature of these delays can mean that it is difficult for the person to participate, learn, and communicate. They may find a typically busy classroom very socially demanding. • The core characteristics of ASD are described in the booklet “ASD – A resource for educators” which is available online at the address in the box below. • What does ASD look like? • “If you have seen one child with ASD, you have seen one child with ASD.” There are some core characteristics that are shared by everyone with ASD, but the way the characteristics affect individuals can be very different. • Why is each student so different? • The cause(s) of autism are only just being discovered, and it is likely that there is more than one. The characteristics of autism appear differently when combined with such factors as personality, culture, and family preferences, and educational or intervention experiences. • Students will often have a very uneven profile of skills – one student might have no verbal language, but is able to produce appropriate written work on a topic of interest – and another might appear to have good language, but is actually just repeating words and phrases they have heard on television without understanding the meaning. • Before planning a teaching programme, teachers need to collect information and observations about this student from their family/whānau and other people who have worked with them. Try to understand the student’s perspective, their reactions to various situations, and what motivates them. Start to develop a relationship with them. • About this resource • This teacher resource follows on from the booklet ‘Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) - A resource for Educators’. The resource is one of a series for teachers and teams who work with students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). For information about other resources in this series go to http://seonline.tki.org.nz/asd. • Introduction and contents • About ASD • What does ASD look like? • Why/how is each student so different? • How does it affect families? • What about culture? • Working together • The voice of people with ASD • ASD in the NZ Curriculum • Links, references and further reading Autism is as much a part of humanity as is the capacity to dream. Kathleen Seidel ASD in Education – teacher resource

2. Teacher info sheet • How does it affect families? • Learning that your child has ASD is a difficult process for parents and there are many studies which show the social, psychological, physical and relationship effects on parents. By the time their child starts school, parents have usually developed a lot of knowledge and several years experience of what ASD means for their child. Here is one parent’s view of coming to terms with her child’s diagnosis. • Parent and family views about ASD are very diverse – ranging from those who wish their child to be “cured” through to those who accept their child and their unique differences and do not wish them to change. Many parents sit somewhere in the middle – valuing their child’s differences but wanting them to learn and develop skills which will help them to participate in their home, school and community. • What about culture? • Cultural and other family/whānau preferences are very important considerations when supporting students with ASD. Individual teachers and schools are only part of the student’s life for a short period but families support them from birth to adulthood and often beyond. • A high priority is to learn skills that help students to participate in family and community settings. Research into Māori perspectives of ASD showed that most parents wanted some degree of cultural content included in their child’s educational services. • Examples included supporting students and families to access cultural activities such as kapa haka, learning te reo and staying on the marae. Other culturally valued behaviours and practices included group activities and whakawhanaungatanga. • Working together • Parents and whānau are the most consistent presence in a child’s life and have • information to share about the child’s development, skills and interests • knowledge, experience and skills from living with the child • an authentic context for learning and generalising daily functional skills • the right to be a voice for a younger child. • The voice of people with ASD • The views of adults with ASD are very diverse – with a growing community of people with ASD advocating for acceptance and acknowledgement. Adults with ASD can give us insights into some of the challenges and inform us about what is possible. • Evidence to guide teacher practice • People who research ASD come from different backgrounds and have different philosophies and definitions of evidence. • As well as their professional backgrounds, there can be philosophical differences or views about disability within a professional group – with one viewing the child as disordered and needing to be changed or cured, and another seeing ASD as a rich part of human diversity which should be celebrated and accepted. • There is a lot of conflicting information with such an array of advice, therapies, papers, conferences, speakers and passionate people. Many disagree about what is important, what outcomes should be targeted and who is right! • The NZ ASD Guideline was published in 2008. It brings together the best evidence then available, and relates it to New Zealand contexts. • Although the evidence shows some practice trends, the NZ ASD Guideline concludes that there is no one intervention that will suit every child. The family preferences, settings, specific goals, and other considerations are all important in making choices about interventions. • The following key messages are adapted from Part 3: Education for learners with ASD - in the NZ ASD Guideline and are integrated into this presentation. • There is no single intervention or model that is effective for every child and every goal. • Any plan should include communication, socialisation (play), and thinking goals. • Goals should target learning opportunities which occur regularly in everyday situations. • Parent education and family involvement are essential. • Children with ASD all require structure, individualised supports and a functional approach to behaviour. • Transitions need to be carefully planned. ASD in Education – teacher resource

3. Teacher info sheet • ASD and theNew Zealand Curriculum • Teaching and learning for all students occurs within the New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa. Students with ASD access the same learning areas and key competencies as their peers. Sometimes adaptations and differentiations are needed to make the curriculum more accessible. (See the booklet ‘Collaboration for Success: Individual Education Plans’ for more information about tailoring teaching and learning programmes to individual students’ needs.) • Most of the difficulties for students with ASD affect everything they do. Rather than goals that target specific curriculum content, students with ASD need strategies and skills that will assist them right across the curriculum. For example, a student can successfully learn to use visual information – such as timetables or instructions – and then use them across all curriculum areas. • Sometimes it might be appropriate to teach a framework within a specific curriculum area (particularly if it is of special interest to the student), but then it is important to generalise the learning skills to other areas of the curriculum so that students can have successful strategies to use across their school day. Being able to draw on a known set of skills can help students to predict what may happen next, which in turn supports self-management and independence. • ASD and the Key Competencies • The skills in the key competencies are an excellent match with the learning needs of and the challenges for students with ASD, both at school and in the community. • The key competencies describe the developmental skills that students with ASD often find difficult. These are also the skills that students with ASD (like their peers) need to access all topic areas in the curriculum, to be present, to participate and to achieve. Other resources in this series will give examples of using the key competencies as a framework for student learning. • Students with ASD (like their peers) will learn best when the teaching is part of an every day, natural learning environment where they have multiple opportunities to practice. • There are many ways which teachers and students with ASD will share success by embedding evidence-based strategies throughout daily programmes. Many of these strategies will also have a positive effect for other students who may share some of the characteristics. • Links, references and further reading • New Zealand Guidelines Group. 2010. What does ASD look like? A resource to help identify autism spectrum disorder. Wellington: New Zealand Guidelines Group. • Silverman, C. (2008). Fieldwork on another planet: Social science perspectives on the autism spectrum. Biosocieties, 3, 325-341. • Bevan-Brown, J. (2004). Māori Perspectives of Autistic Spectrum Disorder: Report to the Ministry of Education. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Education. • Ministry of Education. 2011. Collaboration for Success: Individual Education Plans • http://keycompetencies.tki.org.nz/Why-do-KCs-matter. Accessed 1 November 2011. • Other teacher titles in this resource series: • Teaching students with ASD – a framework • Communication • Social Interaction • Sensory • Positive behaviour support • Thinking ASD in Education – teacher resource