Educating Your Autistic Child

It can be challenging to get the best education for a child with Autism. Many times, parents must advocate getting proper teaching for their special-needs child. There are different education strategies that work well. Here are some of the considerations parents make.

Visual Strategies

Visual teaching strategies are often productive with Autistic children. This means that instead of relying primarily on auditory teaching methods, there need to be many visuals used to support the learning process. Some of the resources that can be very useful include flashcards, calendars, books, videos, and visual aids. Even the newspaper and magazines can be very effective visuals.

Music

Many times, children with Autism do respond well to music. Some even participate in Music Therapy. They like to beat a drum and involve themselves in percussion activities. Some enjoy singing and clapping along with music. This is not universal, however, because sometimes they will cover their ears with their hands.

Tactile Objects

Children really like to do things with their hands and use their hands to explore their world. This can be done through a variety of activities like puzzles, blocks, and items to manipulate. Some of the children are really outstanding at doing puzzles. There are a wide variety of tactile items for sale that can be useful in classrooms. Many of these educational toys can be found in the STEM sections of catalogs and online resource websites.

Special Needs Classroom with Small Classroom Size

It can be very advantageous for children to be in classrooms with fewer students. In the case of Autistic students, that can often mean classrooms that seem like small groups. There is often a teacher, a second teacher, and an aide per classroom. Sometimes, the students are pulled out of the class to receive individual therapy or treatments and then returned to the small group class.

Mainstream Class with an Individual Aide

Some kids have progressed to the point where they can be included in mainstream educational courses. However, they do still need some help keeping up with the others. In this case, it can be really useful to have an individual aide assigned to the mainstreamed child. This aide can "catch" any assignment details that the child may not have paid attention to.

There are many ways a child with Autism can be effectively educated. Visual strategies, tactile teaching tools, and music all work well to instruct the students. Some do best in special needs, small instructional groups, whereas others perform best in mainstream instruction. The most important thing is that parents know their options and try things in a flexible way until they get the best outcome for their child.