Autism

​ Alison's stuff

**__Autism Spectrum Disorder__ **


 * RESEARCH:**

Autism is a type of developmental disability that will usually become evident within a child’s first three years of life. The earlier the diagnosis, the early the intervention, and the less severe the affects will be on the child’s life. There is a great range of characteristics displayed by children with autism and a range in severity.

There are three characteristics that a child must display to be diagnosed with Autism: Conventional means of teaching do not always work for children on the Autism Spectrum Disorder, which maybe because they have difficulties with concentration, processing and anxiety. They also struggle greatly when their daily routines change. Any sort of change can cause great anxiety within the child, making it nearly impossible for them to learn in that environment.
 * 1) Any combination of impairments in social interactions, impairments in communication, echolalia, robotic speech, use of gibberish or making up words.
 * 2) Stereotypical Behaviors, which consist of body rocking, hand flapping, finger movements or fascination with objects or their patterns.
 * 3) Onset by the age of three.

Children also have a difficult time with any type of imaginative play. Play to them tends to be more geared towards dealing with factual information than pretend play. For example, playing robots would not be as appealing as putting together a puzzle.

Because physical appearances usually do not suggest if a child has autism or not, and the severity of symptoms range so greatly, it can be difficult to identify these children. What is even more challenging is making accommodations for these children within the classroom. What might have worked well for one student may not be nearly as effective for another.

However, since about 50 percent of children with autism do not talk, and for those that do, have great difficulties with communication, creating a static environment that is welcoming and open for all students to freely communicate is key.


 * PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:**

I worked with one student during his math class last semester and found that his biggest struggle was his inability to focus. The teacher in the classroom kept her lessons short to help with that, but more often than not, I found myself having to constantly remind the student to pay attention. This often led to problems because he did not hear the instruction, so he did not know what to do. Fortunately, because he thoroughly enjoyed math and numbers, briefly talking to him one-on-one after the teacher’s lesson, helped him greatly with figuring out what to do.

Additionally, any sort of quiz or test caused this student to have great anxiety. He was always allotted more time to complete the exam, but even with that provision, he had such a difficult time with it that those were not accurate assessments of his mastery of the material. As I worked with him, I found that simply giving him a quiz or test, but telling him that it was just a worksheet that he had to work on independently was a much better approach for assessing him.


 * RESOURCES:**
 * Autism Society of Wisconsin: []
 * Wisconsin's Department of Public Instruction Site: [|Wisconsin's Department of Public Instruction Site:]
 * Article dealing with strategies for teaching students with Autism: @http://0-proquest.umi.com.libus.csd.mu.edu/pqdweb?index=0&did=1825245041&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=6&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1256146568

Math