Recommended Educational Practices for Students with ASD

Week Three Assignment: Handling Students With ASD
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Week Three Assignment: Handling Students With ASD
Part One
Recommended Educational Practices in the Video
The video Turning Impediments into Opportunities: Tim Chan at TEDx Melbourne reveals the story of Tim Chin, an individual diagnosed with severe autistic disorder at age three. Tim Chin reveals several practical instructional strategies for individuals with high needs, precisely those diagnosed with autism. One of the strategies that assisted in his learning is assistive technology, where he was introduced to an electronic voice-output machine. The device provides an interactive platform where an individual with autism disorder can learn through the speech output mechanism. Using such techniques is among the efficient educational strategies for individuals struggling with autism (Friend, 2018). In the video, Tim Chin learned different concepts through assistive technology and is indebted to his mother, who always supported his learning process. Since Tim Chin was non-verbal, integrating the tool was an excellent approach for acquiring communication. Multiple digital tools are available for autistic students, and a diagnosis is necessary before recommending one tool over the other.
Besides assistive technology, social support is another recommended educational practice for students with autism disorder. Tim Chin notes how his mother supported his learning, justifying the relevance of social support among autistic individuals. Friend (2018) notes that social skills interventions are helpful to autistic individuals since they improve social interactions, assist in managing behavioral problems, and improve quality of life. Although Chin’s mother was socially supportive, she did not integrate some approaches. Educators have various strategies to choose from when working with autistic students. One of the techniques is telling social stories that improve the learner’s social interaction behaviors. Friend (2018) notes that social accounts should be crafted to reveal a social concern from the autistic student’s perspective. When students have little understanding of social situations, SOCCSS interventions are recommended. Through this approach, a teacher helps students appreciate a social situation through the cause-effect relationship. Also, it helps autistic students understand they can dictate the outcome of situations in social settings.
Case Study Analysis: Casey
The case narrates the story of an autistic teenager, Casey. Casey could communicate, as evidenced by his response to Matt, a college student and a member of the drama course. However, his response indicates that more attention through integrating evidence-based instructional interventions was necessary since his social skills were wanting. Thus, social skills support techniques would be efficient for Casey. Precisely, the integration of social stories would be helpful. Friend (2018) confirms that such stories address social circumstances through the autistic student’s approach. The teacher should write the tale documenting Casey’s interactions with Matt and peers in the drama course. The story should reveal why Matt called him a dog with an explanation of the normalization of the language in the school culture. Accordingly, the narration should document the occurrence of the situation, the reaction of others, and what prompts such responses. Although telling social stories is commonplace when working with autistic students, its reliability is controversial; hence further research is necessary.
Besides the stories, SOCCSS intervention would be helpful when working with Casey since he cannot address social problems effectively. As the acronym indicates, the approach is a teacher-based strategy that involves six steps (Friend, 2018). The first step is helping the student identify and understand the situation. At this step, Casey will determine the case where his peer, Matt, called him a dog. The other step is evaluating the available options to respond to the problem effectively. Here, Casey will brainstorm alternatives for responding to Matt after his utterance evoked discontent. The third step is identifying the consequences of responding through either of the available options. In this activity, Casey will be guided to determine the implications of all available options to respond to Matt. The other step is identifying choices by comparing and rating the consequences of individual options. After choosing an option, Casey will be guided in selecting different strategies for addressing the social problem. The approach is the basis of the fifth step in the proposed intervention. The final step is a simulation activity to recognize the effectiveness of implementing a specific strategy.
Prevalence Of Autism Diagnoses
Globally, the prevalence of the autism spectrum is an emerging concern. According to Maenner et al. (2018), the majority of the disorder has increased significantly over the past few decades. The authors note that one in every 54 children aged eight years meets the diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder. The prevalence of the disease raises equity concerns in the classroom setting since the children will find themselves in ordinary classrooms. Thus, curriculum developers should recognize this concern and spearhead the development of an inclusive curriculum. Such a curri...