Starting Back to School: Setting up the Classroom
Before the start of the school year, I invite the high functioning autistic (HFA) students enrolled in my class and their parents to an orientation open-house in our room. It’s not just the students who experience anxiety and stress with the return to school, it’s also their parents.

Room layout, desk organization, homework station diagrams
and how to use them (for teachers and parents).

Establishing and Building Friendships
Most all humans crave and desire successful social interactions with others. The human brain is wired for us to be social creatures. We generally seek out those with interests similar to our own to establish friendships. A hallmark of autism is the lack of social skills, the inability to bond or engage with others, to be socially isolated. Autistic individuals are often labeled as eccentric loners. High functioning autistic students want to build friendships, but do not know how to go about the process because their social brain is wired differently than those of us who establish friendships easily.

Strategies to increase social interaction, honesty and tolerance
(for secondary students).

Sensory Processing:
Fingernails on the blackboard!
“The noise in the auditorium hurts up to my eyebrows!” “My skin feels like sandpaper!” These are only two cases of statements made by HFA students in my middle-school resource program. Sensory issues can be overwhelming for students with autism. Students can escalate agitated behavior, or withdraw and shut down, when exposed to sensory information that is not filtered efficiently in the autistic brain.

Typical manifestations of SID (Sensory Integration Dysfunction); evaluation and treatment activities (for home and classroom)..

Behavior Management
Autistic children see and hear the world in a very literal fashion. They often lack the social filter in their brains to screen comments that may be offensive to others. They simply call it as they see it. Their remarks are not meant to be malicious, but are usually just observations which are conveyed point-blank into spoken words. Children with autism may also be prone to have outbursts,tantrums, or meltdowns...

Strategies for behavior problems, tips, diagrams, and helpful insights
all tested with Laura Elliott's classroom experience.