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Definition of Autism Students diagnosed with high functioning autism (HFA), to include Asperger's syndrome, present issues that need special attention in any educational setting. This web site is designed to address these issues and to provide support to adults assisting these students. ICAN proposes to teach to the strengths of HFA while acknowledging and providing remediation to the behavioral, academic, social, and communication challenges of late elementary to secondary students. Much is available for younger children, but is not as plentiful for older students, thus an impetus for this web site. Topics will relate to characteristics described as follows and personal anecdotal information will frequently be used to illustrate how teachers have used methodologies with autistic students. These students may be viewed as eccentric, socially inept "little professors," due to stilted, pedantic language and odd presentation. Interests are generally limited and obsessive, some of my students love collecting and papering their walls with maps. World War II history and its famous leaders have been a favorite topic to one student who now keenly collects information about Marvel comic characters. When these students are younger, favorite topics may include cartoon characters (Blues Clues, Thomas the Tank Engine, and Barney) or collections of favorite fire trucks and super heroes. While enthusiastic, persistent interests may continue throughout a lifetime, collections tend to evolve and reflect a HFA student's growth and maturity. My programs use these favored topics to motivate and reinforce students to complete school projects. Schedules, checklists, and work systems ease the anxiety that HFA students experience due to their resistance to change or insistence on sameness (TEACCH, 2003). Up to 74% of HFA individuals suffer from significant anxiety, causing stress, fatigue, and sensory overload (Tsai, 2001). Consistent routines, warnings of changes, and minimization of transitions, supported by visual schedules and checklists help to reduce significant anxiety and organizational difficulties (Williams, 1995). Not only do caregivers want to reduce stress and improve organization, but want to teach HFA students how to become independent, functioning adults by using visual structures such as schedules. How many of us would become desperate and disoriented without our day timers, calendars, schedules, or itineraries. Social skills are particularly difficult for HFA students. Their social nature is egocentric and naive. Because they do not "mind read" others' thoughts or reactions (Baron-Cohen,) these students are often perceived as rude, insensitive, inappropriate, or tactless. Physical boundaries are lacking or inappropriate with poor eye contact. Comprehended jokes are literal, slapstick, immature, or not understood by the HFA population. They often become the butt of jokes or teasing, but do have a desire to be social with others. These students just do not know how to enter the social world. The good news is that even though they lack social knowledge, these children can be taught how to be appropriate and operate socially. They can learn to recognize when they have been unintentionally rude, insensitive, or tactless (Williams, 1995). Even though HFA individuals generally possess normal intelligence, higher-level cognitive skills (executive functioning) are affected. Because they are often off task, have poor organizational skills, daydream, focus on irrelevant stimuli, or withdraw into their own inner world, students may have a diagnostic history of attention deficit/hyperactivity, learning disability, and non-compliance, before receiving the diagnostic label of HFA or Asperger's syndrome. Often eccentricities and delays are so subtle that many of these children do not receive a HFA diagnosis until later childhood or early adolescence. Learned maladaptive behaviors may have evolved as a result of academic difficulties, anxiety, poor self-esteem, and their own intolerance of making mistakes. Depression may be common and students can easily become overwhelmed because their rigid views or the world are not congruent with the environment. Not all recommendations from this web site will be necessary or appropriate for all HFA students, but there are some tried and true concepts that are beneficial for all. Use the characteristics of autism to understand learning styles and behavior. Use visual information to assist students with their schedules, academic concepts, and behavioral expectations (TEACCH, 2003). The four basic concepts of the TEACCH philosophy ring true: what work am I to do, how much am I to do, when do I know I am finished, and what do I do next? Within a safe, structured, predictable environment, HFA students can learn strategies to cope with their difficulties. The ICAN web site will provide programming suggestions to assist with the difficulties experienced by high functioning autistic children and adolescents. |
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