Caring for autistic students in the educational environment

Currently, teachers face the challenge of teaching in a classroom with a wide diversity and often lack strategies and resources to support all students.

The prevalence of autism is estimated at 1% of the population, which shows a high presence of autistic students in classrooms, with needs that, due to the specificity of their condition, often cannot be addressed due to a lack of resources and knowledge.

Below, we propose some tips and recommendations to provide adequate care for autistic students and create a learning environment in which everyone can participate to the extent of their abilities and needs.

Environment and space

• Provide a structured and predictable environment in the classroom.
• Signpost the different spaces of the center in an accessible and understandable way.
• Define and clearly mark the different spaces within the classroom.
• Put a sign with the rules in each space. We can't assume that they have to keep them in mind because we've already explained them.

Sensory protection and emotional regulation

• Try to avoid unnecessary and overstimulating stimuli , as much as possible.
• Schedule relaxed moments in activities, even if they don't seem to need them, to avoid an accumulation of sensory stimuli.
• Offer spaces or rest areas where they can stay relaxed for a while, if they need to.
• Provide supports: noise-canceling headphones, calm box with sensory regulation objects, etc. All materials must be previously evaluated by the relevant professional, since not all supports work for everyone.
• Teach them emotional regulation strategies and how to use relaxation spaces and sensory regulation objects to regulate themselves.
• Ask the family what emotional and sensory regulation strategies help their son or daughter.

Adolescents with autism: challenges in the school environment

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Anticipation

• Create visual agendas, calendars and schedules that allow you to know what is planned to be done at any given time.
• Use images, pictograms or words, depending on what each student may need.
• Report changes as soon as possible; for example, if the tutor will not be there that day.
• Anticipate outings , festive school activities, festivals, etc. It is recommended, if possible, to do this by showing images of the place that will be visited or the activity that will be carried out.
• Provide visual material (photos or videos) of the spaces.

Communication

• Give information slowly , ensuring that the explanation is followed before continuing.
• Use everyday language and avoid abstract concepts.
• Avoid metaphors, double entendres, irony, sarcasm and clichés. If they are used, they must be explained.
• Be flexible with the proposals and possible responses that each person can give.
• Respect the response time, as some people may need more time than others.
• Adjust the workload and respect the breaks.
• Teach social skills. We cannot assume that they will assume them naturally, they need explicit teaching and that we facilitate interactions to carry them out and learn them.
• Offer alternative communication tools, such as pictograms or images to enhance student communication.
• Provide support: visual material that contextualizes the explanations to facilitate understanding, for example, images, graphics, manipulative material to explain content or diagrams.

Other strategies

• Use their interests to motivate learning and peer relationships.
• Offer them positive reinforcement for small milestones , as they are students who often receive reprimands and little positive feedback.
• Maintain close communication and coordination with the family , to share strategies, challenges and progress through a shared agenda and regular meetings.
• Propose different ways of doing the same task (writing, recording an audio, making a drawing, etc.), according to each student's strengths.