Tips to help support students who might be autistic but do not have a formal diagnosis.
Simple adaptations in the classroom to support accessing whole class, group, and partner work.
1. Partner work: Craig Goodall (2018) researched autistic young people’s experiences in mainstream schools. Many said they were lonely, had no friends, and spent play times on their own. When teachers asked the class to find a partner, no one wanted to pair up with autistic pupils: ‘As usual, I had no one and I was made to pair up with the teacher. I felt so little having to stand there waiting to pair up with the teacher. It scars you. Mentally it didn’t help me. It was awful being left out and not having a partner to be with.’
Contrary to what might be expected, studies have found that many autistic people are more successful communicators with other autistic people rather than with people who are not autistic as they are the same neurotype, which means they understand each other more and feel more comfortable with each other. Talk to the young person about who they feel comfortable working with so that you can find a partner for them that they can work with. The young person will not find it easy to work with different people and they will not feel comfortable working with some of their peers, which will impact on the success of partner work. Pairing two autistic students together is likely to be more successful than pairing an autistic and non-autistic young person together.
Many autistic students will find the following difficult:
- Finding a partner on their own
- Working with lots of different partners
- Working with people who are very different to themselves
- Working with people they do not know, or they feel uncomfortable with
They are unlikely to tell you this.
2. Group work: Group work can be difficult for lots of different reasons, and these will vary from individual to individual depending on their profile of strengths and needs. Common difficulties are:
- Uncertainty about roles in groups, e.g., what each person should be doing. This can make group work seems unclear, chaotic, and stressful.
- Difficulties following people talking at once, saying different things, talking over each other, etc. This can make it hard to process what others are saying and difficult to follow discussions.
- Difficulties asking for clarification and help in a group setting.
Group work is unpredictable, it can be noisy, members might disagree, other skills are often needed, such as problem solving, negotiating, compromising, and these can be difficult.
Group work in schools is designed for one neurotype; neurotypical. ‘It [mainstream school] is not about them adapting to you, but you adapting to them.’ (Student in Craig Goodall’s 2018 research).
Talk to students about who they feel comfortable working with and put them in a group together. Put another autistic person in the same group for reasons discussed above. Write role cards for members of groups so that they know exactly what to do. Put instructions on the board to support memory, processing and understanding. Check groups to make sure that everyone knows what they are doing. Collect anonymous feedback on group working, e.g., students tick yes/no questions about group work.
3. Whole class work: Common difficulties include the following:
- The amount of language can be overwhelming and hard to process, which impacts on understanding what the teacher is saying and increases stress.
- Anxiety about being asked questions in front of the class.
- Feeling self-conscious about talking and presenting information in front of others.
- Fear of making mistakes.
- Difficulties formulating language, particularly when there are time pressures.
- Sensory factors, e.g., noise, lights, smells.
The classroom environment is for non-autistic students, and it can be very challenging for different neurotypes.
Tips:
- Use visual support to reduce demands on auditory processing and keep information on the board.
- Pause before you add more information to give processing time.
- Randomly choosing students to answer questions is very stressful as this is unexpected.
- Help students answer questions in class by using a hierarchy of support, e.g., yes/no questions – where the answer is very obvious so the student cannot get it wrong; offer a choice of two answers to a question, where it is obvious which answer is right – students might find it hard to talk in front of their peers but if the answer is obvious, it will be easier as they know they will say the right answer.
- Make sure the student is sitting next to a peer that they feel comfortable with, this will help them do pair work, ask for help, etc. Talk to student about the sensory environment, use a checklist to carry out a sensory audit and work with the student to make adaptations to make the classroom an easier environment:
https://education.gov.scot/media/i3nm5bkt/sensory-audit-tool-for-environments.pdf - Give students time to think about what they want to say.
- In whole class discussion work, working with a partner that the student feels comfortable with will help process information and plan what to say, and will reduce anxiety and increase confidence.
- Encourage non-verbal participation, e.g., thumbs up / down to say yes / no, to indicate for or against.
In Goodall’s research (2018), an autistic student described a supportive teacher as someone who does the following:
- Takes time to listen.
- Understands the difficulties and problems that an autistic young person faces in a school.
- Realises that an autistic person has sensory issues with noise, crowds, etc. and provides support and help when necessary.
- Realises that it can be difficult for autistic young people to make friends.
- Provides an alternative to playground activities, such as a quiet, reading/games room.
- Understands how to provide social activities to try to help an autistic young person to be an accepted member of the class/year group.
- Understands that planned activities might need changed to meet the particular needs of autistic young people.
- Provides a quiet area in class for autistic young people who need some time out.
- Takes time to explain activities.
- Listens to parental concerns.
- A good teacher is someone who is patient, kind understanding, helpful, considerate, calm and above all doesn’t shout a lot.
