Teaching Tips for Working with Students/Children on the Autism Spectrum:
- Be aware of the difficulties your student may have processing language. Give extra wait time.
- Do not assume your student understands or will pick up on body language or figurative language. Explain yourself and any figurative language.
- Apply direct teaching methods (e.g. teach the student the meaning of idioms, one by one, literally–“Let’s hit the road” means “Let’s go”).
- Tap into the student’s interests when teaching (e.g. teach math using Thomas the Train or write a sentence/paragraph about Thomas the Train, etc.).
- Understand your student may need many different examples before generalizing a concept.
