To those of you who are unaware of this disorder that our children are now being identified and labeled as, these disorders can be characterized as children with "difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors"(Autism Speaks, 2013).
As mentioned in my previous blog, expressive communication plays a big role in students IEP's, especially those children with Autism.
Expressive Communication involves sending a message to another person to make something happen or to STOP making something happen that is already happening.
While most students are aware of how to effectively engage in expressive communication with their peers, children with Autism, however, are not. As future educators in classrooms, we need to quickly become aware of the challenges that students with Autism might face in regards to how they interact with someone and use expressive communication as a means to do that.
Children that are Autistic can range in their personalities and dynamics Some may be non-verbal and have all kinds of challenges with many forms of expressive communication, while other students may be verbal but use language inappropriately or get confused by the language that their peers and others are using. Hence, conversation between a child with Autism and a child and/or adult without Autism can be quite awkward.
Some challenges that students with Autism may face during expressive communication can include but not limited to the following:
- delayed processing of language-Students may take a long time to understand and fully act on an instruction
- echolalia-Student repeats another persons speech/command including anything that can be heard on TV, games, movies, etc.
- difficulty understanding the spoken language of others
- different motivation to communicate. Children communicating about their wants and needs rather then about sharing information for social reasons
It may seem that due to all these communciation blocks that a teacher would have a hard time getting through to and reaching a student with Autism. That is not the case. Research has proven that there can be many effective teaching strategies to use in the classroom for students who display any of these symptoms and are labeled as such.
Some great teaching strategies to implement in your own classroom:
- For those non-verbal children, some type of augmentative communication device should be in place. The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) has been proven to be very effective.
- Voice output communication devices are also appropriate choices
- picture cards used for communication
- Using repair strategies-breaking down into steps to teach them persistence,, and then with "show me" cues
- Those students who do have verbal communication skills should have some backup augmentative communication device for when their expressive communication may fail. This can help to reduce aggressive behaviors that might occur.
- Motivating materials such as activities, objects, etc. can serve as a starting point to teaching the child the functions of communication
There are different types of activities that students with autism respond well too.
1. Break Cards-is a visual support which may be used by a child to communicate the message that they need some time away from an activity, task, or person. Typically used for children who are autistic that are non-verbal and have a hard time expressing themselves. In developing the break cards for students, a teacher must take into consideration the limits of their students as well as their goals and objectives. Here are a few examples of break cards that can be used:
1. Break Cards-is a visual support which may be used by a child to communicate the message that they need some time away from an activity, task, or person. Typically used for children who are autistic that are non-verbal and have a hard time expressing themselves. In developing the break cards for students, a teacher must take into consideration the limits of their students as well as their goals and objectives. Here are a few examples of break cards that can be used:
2. Choice cards-allow the child a degree of independence by indicating a choice from a pre-determined set of possibilities. The child is less likely to act out because he is allowed to make a "choice" of what he wants to do.
Here are some examples of what they make look like:
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