Helping Pupils with Autistic Spectrum Disorders to Learn

Mary Pittman

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9781412919661, 9781412919654
• eBook ISBN: 9781446229545
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Medical Theory, Practice & Reference

?The reader can gain a good overall understanding of autism and the issues which arise in teaching and learning across the spectrum but can also focus on and apply sections of the book which are specific to his or her own situation. I feel that this book is relevant to all school staff involved in educational planning for children who have autistic spectrum disorders? - REACH

`The reader will be left feeling challenged to rethink the learning experience of the child with ASD in their class, more clearly attuned to the child?s voice and with an armful of ideas to try out in the classroom? - TES Website

Are you looking for caring and creative ways to support pupils on the Autistic Spectrum?

By encouraging everyone to view the triad of impairment as a triad of opportunity, this book gives the reader guidance on how to become an autism-friendly professional. With chapters on structuring a meaningful classroom, understanding and improving behaviour, and looking at transition through the eyes of pupils on the spectrum, the book provides valuable insights gained from the author?s many years of practice

The book includes:

- visual resources for supporting learning and behaviour

- photocopiable activities for staff training excercises

- practical ideas to try out in your setting

- case studies to illustrate best practice

- answers to frequently asked questions.

This is an essential read for all teachers in mainstream and special schools, and everyone who supports pupils on the autistic spectrum.

1

Interpreting Autism as a Triad of Opportunity

---

People on the autism spectrum have difficulties in three areas, social interaction, communication and flexible and imaginative thinking, referred to by Lorna Wing (1996) as the triad of impairment. There has been a lot of very thorough and helpful information written about the three key areas of difficulty which define autism. This chapter provides an overview of the characteristics of autism and portrays some of the numerous ways in which children on the spectrum present their unique autism profile.

This chapter looks at the following:

• What do we mean by the autism spectrum and the three key areas of difficulty that define autism?
• How do we see individuals with autism behaving across the spectrum?
• How can we create teaching and learning opportunities from our knowledge and understanding of autism?

---

This chapter explores the three key areas of difficulty for children on the autism spectrum and the range of responses that individual pupils present. The chapter provides professional development activities to enable us to reflect upon our understanding of autism and consider how we can match our teaching approach to each child’s unique presentation of autism. The chapter challenges us to think creatively about how we can make the ‘triad of impairment’ a ‘triad of opportunity’ by using our knowledge of autism to plan effective teaching and learning opportunities.

To help us understand and empathize with children on the autism spectrum this chapter asks us to reflect on some of our own experiences and behaviours, which sometimes give us insights into how individuals with autism may respond. However, it is important not to trivialize the impact of autism through our own insights into one or two of the behaviours that we can personally identify with. The chapter considers the social interaction skills, communication skills and the flexible imaginative thinking skills which most of us can access easily without much conscious thought, in an effort to try and appreciate how complicated apparently simple interactions and communications are, if like children on the autism spectrum we do not possess such skills. The chapter also highlights that, in addition to the three specific areas of difficulty, the interrelationship of these areas further complicates the way each person on the spectrum thinks, acts and understands the world around him.

What do we mean by autism and the autism spectrum?

Autism is a communication difficulty, which makes it difficult for children on the autism spectrum to:

• Listen and relate to others.
• Recognize and understand the meaning of facial expressions, gestures, body language and the emotions that they signify.
• Interpret social signals, and understand what others want from you.
• Work out what others are saying.
• Imagine what to do in unfamiliar situations.
• Be clear about fact and fantasy.
• Think about things from the perspective of others.
• Think flexibly and accept changes.

Autism is a neurological developmental disability which, say Mesibov, et al. (2004), ‘affects the ways that individuals, think, eat, dress, work, spend leisure time, understand their world, communicate, etc’. Mesibov et al. (2004) provide a very useful analogy in that autism is seen to some degree to be a ‘culture’. Although they recognize that autism is not in actuality a culture, the predictable patterns of thinking and behaviour that people with autism share provide a clear commonality. As autism is a spectrum there are numerous factors which contribute to the uniqueness of each individual with autism. The term ‘spectrum’ reminds us to respect the individuality of each person with autism. This includes understanding the mild, moderate or severe degree of their autism, recognizing the cognitive abilities of each person with it, and setting this alongside a whole range of other distinct factors including particular skills, interests, age, personality, etc.

Throughout this book, the phrase ‘children on the autism spectrum’ is used to refer to all children with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This includes children with Aspergers Syndrome, high functioning autism (HFA), as well as pupils who have autism with or without learning difficulties or co-occurring difficulties, at varying degrees from mild to severe.

Introducing the triad of impairment

This chapter focuses on exploring, across the spectrum, the range of behaviours which characterize autism, within each area of the triad of impairment: social interaction, language and communication and inflexibility of thought and impairment in imagination. However, before doing so the chapter asks us to reflect upon the usual range of responses that neuro-typical people demonstrate in terms of these three areas, before continuing to explore the difficulties which children and adults on the autism spectrum have in relation to these areas of development.

Each area of the triad of impairment will be considered in turn. Firstly the way autism affects how a person understands and uses interaction skills as a means of building relationships with others and making social judgements will be discussed. Secondly, how autism affects the way a person processes and uses language along with the whole range of non-verbal communication skills such as gestures, facial and body language. Thirdly there will be a focus on how autism affects a person’s perception of what is happening and limits their range of imaginative responses.

Each area of the triad of impairment causes real difficulties in itself, and many of the behaviours that we see in autism can be exhibited by children with a whole range of other learning differences. For a child to be diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum, he must show characteristics from each of the three key areas of difficulty. The interrelationship of the features from all the areas results in a person being unable to understand the often covert and subtle messages or meanings that guide our usual social communications and behaviour in relation to our age, gender, culture and other factors. Each person with autism will vary in the extent to which they are affected and the cognitive skills they have to enable them to learn coping mechanisms or social understanding.

Figure 1 The triad of impairment comprising the spectrum of autism

The word ‘spectrum’ helps us to understand that there are a variety of factors affecting the unique presentations of autism that each child displays. A primary factor is the severity of the autism itself. Children can be affected by autism in a mild, moderate or severe way and may additionally have other learning differences contributing to their own individual autism and learning profile.

It can be helpful for teachers and teaching assistants to be able to identify the full range of behaviours that they may see different pupils on the autism spectrum exhibiting, understanding that they arise from features within the same three key areas of difficulty. This enables us to recognize how the triad of impairment is impacting on each individual child and how important it is to our teaching approach that we plan successful learning activities by taking account of the individual autism characteristics, cognitive abilities and personalities of children on the spectrum. Teachers and TAs can really benefit from a full ‘spectrum’ knowledge.

Before considering how people on the autism spectrum may interact, communicate and think it is important to consider how most of us usually operate within these areas. By doing this we can gain insights into the very skills, behaviours and understanding that children on the autism spectrum do not acquire easily. Many of these interpersonal skills are used by most of us without much conscious thought and these are often the very skills which children on the autism spectrum find difficult to understand or use.

How do we see individuals with autism behaving across the spectrum? Let’s look at the triad of impairment – social interaction; language and communication; mental inflexibility – more closely.

Social interaction

For most people, interacting is part of our everyday experience. Most people are able to initiate interaction, position themselves in relation to others in terms of personal space, use and read eye contact, facial expressions and gestures to clarify and add meaning to their spoken communication. There are some variations in how effective and perceptive people generally are in social settings but on the whole people tend to share an understanding of non-verbal clues. Children usually learn with indirect teaching, experience and sometimes direct explanation about where and how to read and use a range of signals and acquire a knowledge of developmentally appropriate social conduct. As children grow older and mature they often update their knowledge of social expectations, whereas children on the autism spectrum struggle with understanding or using social interaction skills and then struggle with how they update and change according to their age or the circumstances they find themselves in. This often leaves them misunderstood and isolated.

In order for us to really consider the skills involved in social interaction the staff training activity on the next page may be a helpful starting point. This activity highlights how important an understanding of personal space, eye contact, facial signals and body language are to our interactive communication with others and how these intertwine with what we hear in conversation or say as part of our back-and-forth reciprocal communication with others.

---

...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• About the author
• About this book
• How to use this book
• 1 Interpreting Autism as a Triad of Opportunity
• 2 The Autism-friendly Professional
• 3 Making Sense of Changes and Transitions
• 4 Structuring a Meaningful Classroom
• 5 Behaviour: Simplifying the Problem-solving Process
• 6 Frequently Asked Questions
• Useful websites
• Bibliography
• Index