# Understanding Autism: A Guide for Secondary School Teachers (Part 2)

**Channel:** Organization for Autism Research
**Source:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veQKDDE9C_w
**Transcript page:** https://www.withtranscript.ai/video/veQKDDE9C_w

## Chapters

- 0:17 — Understanding Autism in Secondary Classrooms
- 2:43 — Creating Structure and Accessible Lessons
- 4:36 — Core Support Strategies for Learning
- 7:51 — Visual Supports and Reinforcement Tools
- 11:59 — Managing Transitions and Final Takeaways

## Transcript

**[0:17] Speaker A:** The only way that they get fixed is by either bacteria.

**[0:36] Speaker B:** The secondary school environment can pose challenges for students with autism. The sights and sounds of the hallways, the noise and commotion are often overwhelming.

**[0:46] Speaker C:** Trying to get through all the crowds and everything and all the hordes and hordes of people, I just don't like crowds.

**[0:55] Speaker B:** By the time students get to a classroom, especially during the first days of school, there's a good chance they'll be struggling, stressed, unsettled, and preoccupied with one main thought.

**[1:05] Speaker C:** How can I figure out what it is I am supposed to do?

**[1:09] Speaker C:** What they're doing is looking around the environment, trying to pick out the important information. Hi, hurry up.

**[1:17] Speaker D:** Get to your seats.

**[1:18] Speaker B:** Make sure you get all your materials out. We're ready to go.

**[1:22] Speaker B:** Teaching students with autism requires creating a supportive learning environment where important information is accessible. That starts by first understanding the student's mindset.

**[1:34] Speaker C:** Think of the classroom as another country with a different culture and the child doesn't understand that culture or that environment. So quickly help the child navigate and understand. Here's where you're supposed to sit, here's where your supplies are.

**[1:52] Speaker C:** Here's what we're going to be doing today. When you're done with it, here's what you can do next. You are spelling out the structure.

**[2:01] Speaker A:** Mrs. Redfern is going to come at the end of the class because you're going to be doing research.

**[2:06] Speaker B:** For students with autism, structure in the classroom is critical.

**[2:10] Speaker D:** Most individuals with autism get extremely anxious and non productive in chaotic environments. They are much more organized themselves when they're in organized environments and when task expectations. Expectations are clear and can be laid out in front of them visually.

**[2:27] Speaker A:** When you walk in my classroom, I provide a list of goals on the board. The homework is very clearly listed. I give an opportunity for students to see that I talk a little bit about that. I talk about the homework.

**[2:43] Speaker B:** For most secondary school students, the classroom is a comfortable environment for learning. That's not always the case for students with autism. For them, the classroom may present a number of visual and auditory distractions.

**[2:57] Speaker B:** Teachers should be aware of this, particularly when deciding on a seating plan. Some students may struggle unless they sit near the visual supports at the front of the class. Others may find seats near the windows too distracting or may be bothered by the classroom lighting.

**[3:14] Speaker C:** One thing that makes it hard is my hypersensitivity. I have a low sense.

**[3:17] Speaker B:** I'm very sensitive to light and loud

**[3:19] Speaker C:** noises, which it seems a lot of

**[3:21] Speaker B:** kids my age like.

**[3:23] Speaker C:** Sometimes the child can have a support that makes fluorescent lights a little more Tolerable, such as, you know, wearing a baseball cap, wearing sunglasses, or even sitting in a certain area of the room.

**[3:37] Speaker B:** A well structured, predictable classroom can provide comfort for students with autism.

**[3:43] Speaker B:** This includes creating clear physical and visual boundaries.

**[3:48] Speaker C:** Art centers are a big idea, where you have the glue guns in a spot, that is where you go to use the glue gun. You have a saw in a spot,

**[4:00] Speaker D:** that is where you go to use the saw.

**[4:03] Speaker C:** And they like that kind of structure.

**[4:07] Speaker B:** As for course content, teachers can enhance learning by providing study guides that highlight the key points of a lesson.

**[4:15] Speaker D:** A lot of individuals with autism have difficulty when they read something, understanding what's the most important part of that sentence, what's the most important part of that paragraph. And we can assist them with things like highlighted text or study guides that have them fill in the blank in ways where they can go right back to where that answer is in the text.

**[4:36] Speaker B:** Students with autism can thrive when supports are in place to match their unique needs. Essential support strategies include priming, academic modifications, home base, visual supports, and reinforcement.

**[4:51] Speaker C:** Your teacher gave me the master copy

**[4:54] Speaker B:** and your note sheet so that you can fill it out beforehand and then

**[4:58] Speaker D:** she's going to call on you for the first one.

**[5:01] Speaker B:** Priming students means exposing him or her to course material before a lesson takes place. It gives students a chance to become familiar with the material and increases the likelihood they'll learn key concepts and details.

**[5:15] Speaker C:** The teacher who stands in front of her chemistry class and says, first we're going to read chapter seven, pages 19 to 25. Then I'm going to tell you what is important in those pages, and then you're going to do an experiment that's priming.

**[5:36] Speaker D:** What?

**[5:37] Speaker C:** Atoms?

**[5:37] Speaker D:** Exactly. Atoms.

**[5:39] Speaker B:** Priming is most effective when it's built into the student's daily routine. And teachers can work with parents to help reinforce this strategy at home.

**[5:47] Speaker C:** What happens if you don't like the food?

**[5:49] Speaker D:** I just don't spit it out.

**[5:51] Speaker D:** Thank you.

**[5:51] Speaker C:** What do you do?

**[5:52] Speaker D:** Just leave it aside. Okay, good, good, good.

**[5:55] Speaker C:** I would prime him about a week before he had something due.

**[5:58] Speaker C:** If he had a test on Friday, the teacher made sure I knew about it on Monday. If there's a big assignment, I had to prime him for about two months because out of sight, out of mind. If you do a little bit of the work one week and you wait two weeks, he forgets about the assignment.

**[6:16] Speaker B:** A second strategy for teachers is to make academic modifications, adapting the content or format of assignments to meet the student's specific needs.

**[6:26] Speaker A:** Academic modifications can range from read aloud

**[6:29] Speaker B:** directions on tests, extended time on assignments, long term assignments, if they're having trouble doing them at home, whatever they need, I'm going to provide for them and I'm going to be patient with them.

**[6:40] Speaker D:** It could also be the case that you might have a student who has tremendous difficulty with word retrieval. So maybe I present multiple choice questions, maybe I present a word bank.

**[6:54] Speaker A:** If there's a reading assignment of 30 pages, I do not expect a student with autism to do that unless that's their competency reading.

**[7:02] Speaker B:** Another support strategy involves designating a place where students with autism can go when they need to regain control in times of stress.

**[7:10] Speaker B:** It's called a home base.

**[7:14] Speaker D:** Home base is a strategy that's used to help individuals with autism to remain calm and stay in the environment when they might be feeling overwhelmed.

**[7:24] Speaker A:** What I'll do is if I feel

**[7:25] Speaker C:** like I have a student that's having problems, I will write a note and send them to a safe place and say please deliver the notes.

**[7:33] Speaker D:** And what we want to do is give learners with autism an out to get out of those situations in a safe and quiet way that doesn't disrupt the rest of the classroom or lead to a behavioral escalation that would also be very stigmatizing for them in front of their peers.

**[7:51] Speaker B:** A fourth and overarching strategy is to maximize visual supports, which come in many forms. For instance, labels can be helpful for identifying a drawer's contents or where homework should be placed.

**[8:04] Speaker C:** The first piece is to get your writing device out.

**[8:07] Speaker B:** So visual supports also take the form of self management tools that help students stay focused. These tools generally outline the steps needed to complete a task and students can check off each step as it's completed.

**[8:22] Speaker C:** You may have actually clock times written next to the activity so that the child looks at the time, looks at the activity, and is able to monitor what where he is. The independent math assignment should take 20 minutes, so you should be done by 10:20 check and on that visual support you may have written you know. If you are off schedule by more than five minutes, raise your hand. Ask the teacher for help.

**[8:52] Speaker B:** Because students with autism tend to be more visual learners, they may benefit from having a copy of their daily schedule or one posted in the room to help guide them through the day.

**[9:03] Speaker D:** I prefer a printed schedule because that

**[9:06] Speaker A:** way I'd remember things more clearly and that way I'd stay more organized.

**[9:15] Speaker B:** Another visual support graphic organizers present material in a way that makes it easier for a student to understand C I A n. They not only highlight important concepts and facts, but display the relationship between them, instead of this big piece of paper, it lists out all the different kinds of spaces. Another type of visual support is what's called a social script.

**[9:41] Speaker C:** Social scripts tell the student what to say in a particular situation.

**[9:46] Speaker C:** Quite often, the resource room teacher can write the scripts and the student can have them on note cards or on a piece of paper in his or her notebook. For example, for the student who has difficulty asking a question, you may actually have a script that says, I forgot my math book today. Can you help me figure out what to do?

**[10:10] Speaker A:** Sometimes it'll just be appropriate responses. Sometimes a student just might need an initiation statement.

**[10:16] Speaker A:** How do I join this group? What's an appropriate thing to say? So it's going to vary depending on how much the individual needs.

**[10:26] Speaker B:** If a student has difficulty mastering a recurring event or routine, the teacher can make a short video with a smartphone or video camera.

**[10:34] Speaker D:** Sometimes a way for them to really understand what it is about their behavior that needs to change or what it is about their behavior that really worked.

**[10:43] Speaker D:** So if you can capture that and then link it to self monitoring and say, okay, how did you do? Did you make eye contact with them? Did you listen when they had something to say? And many individuals with autism who could not have a conversation with you about that could look at a visual description of it and say whether or not that element was happening or needed to happen.

**[11:06] Speaker A:** What do you need for photosynthesis to take place?

**[11:08] Speaker D:** The sun. Very good.

**[11:10] Speaker B:** The final support strategy. Reinforcement rewards students for behaving in ways that are productive and support their continued personal growth. Some common reinforcers include verbal praise, additional break, or computer lab time, or homework passes.

**[11:27] Speaker A:** So reinforcement is simply something that you do that increases the likelihood of behavior. Great question. Yeah. And as far as I'm concerned, a good teacher uses reinforcement all the time. They're just using it naturally.

**[11:39] Speaker A:** The kid with autism, the teenager with autism, may need reinforcement for things that no one else does, like talking to your friends or not engaging in repetitive speech.

**[11:50] Speaker B:** Collectively, these five support strategies can help teachers provide the structure that students with autism need to learn effectively.

**[11:59] Speaker B:** But even when teachers devote their efforts to creating order, structure, and predictability in the classroom, changes and transitions are a part of daily life in school and beyond.

**[12:11] Speaker D:** Transitions are a very frequent and necessary part of every high schooler's life. And transitions, by definition, are difficult for learners with autism because it requires them to stop doing something that they're currently involved in and then travel to whatever they need to do next and then focus in on what that next activity is.

**[12:34] Speaker A:** I wanted to be sure that everyone was clear what we're doing today.

**[12:38] Speaker B:** Teachers can alleviate some of the anxiety transitions cause by having a clear agenda and making it accessible to students. However, no amount of planning can prevent sudden last minute changes from from disrupting a class schedule, activities, or a daily routine.

**[12:55] Speaker A:** You know, the predictable transitions are one thing. Okay, it's time to go to your next class.

**[12:59] Speaker A:** It's the unpredictable transitions. It's the there's a fire drill or somebody's parent dropped in. You know, those are the ones that where you hope the teacher knows the learner well enough to provide the supports necessary during those times.

**[13:15] Speaker B:** The learning environment that secondary school teachers create and the specialized supports they provide are integral to the success of students on the autism spectrum. There's no question teaching students with autism can initially be a challenge, but it's a challenge that promises great rewards.

**[13:34] Speaker A:** Teachers are in a very difficult place. They are responsible to having every student in their class with autism without autism pass. So they do have an awful lot to do. And you will never feel better than watching a child with autism make his first friend pass his subjects graduate from high school.

**[13:57] Speaker B:** You did a really good job today.

**[13:58] Speaker D:** Keep up the good work.

**[13:59] Speaker A:** When they've had a student with autism in their class and they've gotten the right kind of support from their school district, their school principal, and the special ed teacher and the family, they have never felt more rewarded.

**[14:13] Speaker B:** This segment focuses on the strategies and tools teachers can use in the classroom and to create a supportive learning environment for students with autism. The next segment, Practices for Challenging Behavior, offers guidance for handling difficult behavioral situations that may arise with students on the spectrum. For additional information and resources, please visit the Organization for Autism research website at www.researchautism.org.

**[14:43] Speaker B:** for answers to more specific questions, contact the head of the special education department at your school or your district's office of special Education.

**[15:10] Speaker A:** Sam.