What you need to know if you are going to teach autistic students

1. AUTISM
SPECTRUM
Challenges, strengths

2. "Popular
autism"
What comes to your mind first when
you hear the word "autism"?
1' Think/write: on your own
2' Share your ideas with a partner or
a small group
4' Let's collect ideas as a group

3. AUTISM IN POPULAR
CULTURE: CINEMA
CAN YOU THINK OF
EXAMPLES?

4. Autism in popular culture
Famous old example – 1988 Rain Man (w ith Dustin Hoffman): misleading - savant syndrome
Atypical – some misleading elements, often criticized, but has some realistic depictions of difficulties
Young Sheldon
Love on the Spectrum: "riddled w ith bad advice and frequently infantilizing"
Temple Grandin – authentic and accurate regarding that character
Dr Murphy – again, savant syndrome, but poses good questions and had a positive effect on the perception of
autism
Some less obvious examples (w ith arguably autistic traits): Sherlock Holmes, ?Dr. House, Spock from Star Trek in
Strange New World (S2/E5)
Well-known – probably autistic people include: Einstein, Michelangelo, New ton

5. Popular misconceptions
No, it is not the result of the way parents (or how mothers only) treat their children.
No, it is not the result of some sort of vaccine... (why would it be?)
No, not all autistic people have a special skill (not all of them are geniuses).
No, they are not psychopaths, and they have feelings, emotions and empathy, they just
find it more difficult to express it or they express it in a different way.
But yes, it is genetically predetermined (it often runs with the family, e.g., 2 -10% chance
that an autistic child will have an autistic sibling – higher than in the case of
neurotypicals).

6. What is it?
How frequent?
Autism – or autism spectrum
disorder – constitutes a diverse
group of conditions related to
the development of the brain.
It's a heterogeneous condition
with different biological
subtypes. (Shen, 2013)
We can see "an explosion of
autism" 1 in 55 and the number
is growing, ratio of boys:girls
4:1 (Susan Sherkow, 2015)

7. Characteristic
traits
Put your heads together
and think about what
traits you could list to
"define" autism as
different from
neurotypical?

8. Not linear... or is it? It's difficult to
say. Psychologists don't agree on
this either...

9. Characteristic traits (1)
• Single-mindedness combined with social isolation;
• Pedantic speech (monotonous), often consisting of lengthy
discourses on favorite subjects;
• Poor comprehension of other people’s expressions and
gestures (especially hidden meanings, irony, or idiomatic
expressions);
• Impairment of two-way social interaction (e.g.,
conversational cues, ambiguous situations);
• Inability to understand rules of social behavior (e.g.,
tendency of oversharing or becoming nonverbal);
• Difficulty sensing & expressing feelings of
discomfort (stomachache, headache, feeling hot or cold,
feeling thirsty or hungry)
Based on Lorna Wing's (1979)
description of Asperger's
syndrome to describe the
autistic personality

10. Characteristic traits (2)
• Intensely attached to certain possessions (e.g., sometimes
more than to people);
• Excellent rote memories and intensely interested in one or
two subjects;
• Better than typical ability to understand systems and
structures
• Absorb every available fact concerning their chosen field and
talk about it at length, regardless if the listener is interested;
and
• Thought processes are confined to a pedantic, literal, and
logical chain of reasoning.
Since 2013 the term "Aspergers"
is not used, it is covered by ASD
– autism spectrum disorder

11. About the
brain
- Quicker brain growth in infancy
- 65% more neurons in the
frontal cortex
- More short-range
connections (local airports)
- Reduced neural pruning, more
connectivity
- Stimming /executive
dysfunction

12. Hyperfocus
- trapped in his/her left frontal lobe, the intellectual, analytical, problem -solv i ng
part of the brain – with no abilit y to access the em otional/cr eat i ve processing right
f rontal lobe, which plays a central role in spontaneit y, social behavior, and
nonverbal abilit ies.
- autistic people, howeve r, are lef t brain exclusive . Being lef t brain exclusive m eans
that one can only process his/her emotions intellectua ll y, by deduction or
inference, a process than can take about 24 hours . Failure to process em otions
causes anxiety, which is an upsetting phys io log ic a l response (dif f erent f rom
em otion) that bypasses the intelle ct.
Hyperf oc us, the perpetual state of intense single-minde d concentrat io n fixated on
one thought pattern at a time , to the exclusion of everyth ing else. Hype rf ocus is so
intensely single -m in ded that an autistic person cannot divide attention between two
trains of thought.
A n a u t i s t i c p e r s o n t a k e s e v e r y t h i n g y o u s a y l i t e r a l l y b e c a u s e s / h e c a n n o t a l s o b e
r u n n i n g a s e c o n d m e n t a l p r o g r a m q u e s t i o n i n g h o w y o u u s e w o r d s .
W h i l e t a l k i n g a t l e n g t h a b o u t a f a v o r i t e t o p i c , a u t i s t i c p e o p l e a r e i n c a p a b l e o f r u n n i n g a
s e c o n d m e n t a l p r o g r a m a s k i n g h o w t h e y a r e b e i n g r e c e i v e d o r p e r c e i v e d b y t h e i r
a u d i e n c e .

13. Hyperfocus
• Autistic people require structured activities because they
cannot divide their attention between what they are doing
and tr ying to figure out what may be about to happen next.
Hyperfocus also causes various kinds of sensory overload.
• A sudden loud or high-pitched noise switches hyperfocus to
the noise, which the autistic person then experiences with
many times the intensity than does a neurotypical person.
• Seeing too many words on a page can cause cognitive
impairment whereby the autistic person’s mind goes
disturbingly blank.
• Too many products on shelves and overhearing unwanted
conversations in stores can trigger anxiety. Lighting displays
in hardware stores can trigger intense anxiety.
• For some, hyperfocus exaggerates the sense of touch,
making close fitting clothing irritating and hugs unbearable.

14. In early childhood
Some tell-tale signs that may suggest
that it's a good idea to seek
diagnosis.
"Pedant little professors"
No dramatizing or social games.

15. Other observations
- Less drawn to human faces and input; less
able to decode facial expressions compared to
a typical group
- Patterns are more interesting for them
- Get anxious from anything new or unexpected
(new places/people, schedule change,
seasonal changes, etc.)
- They are better at identifying details vs. the
big picture

16. Related
issues
COMORBIDITY / CO-OCCURRING CONDITIONS:
ADD/ADHD - attention-deficit (hyperactivity) disorder
OCD – Obsessive-compulsive disorders
epileptic seizures / absence seizures (even several times
a day: the child "turns off")
Anxiety
PDA: Pathological Demand Avoidance
Depression
Sleeping issues
Other: tic/stimming (self-calming repetitive behaviour);
pica (eating not food); selective eating (texture-based)

17. Think
With the above pieces of information in mind, can you think
of aspects of life that might be difficult for people on the spectrum?
Now think about education: what might be some difficulties in
mainstream education?

18. MASKING

19. AUTISTIC
MELTDOWN
• Autistic m eltdowns are intense,
uncontrollab le responses to em otional or
sensory triggers.
• Meltdo wns are caused by a central
nervous system overload in autistic
people / executive f unction f ailure
(planning , break ing activit ies down into
sm aller steps, getting started & switching
between activit ies )
• Autistic m eltdown states are one of the
m ost dram atic and aversive parts of
autism .

20. Autistic
meltdown
from the
inside
According
to
research
by Phung
et al.
(2022),
autistic
adults
describe
feeling out
of control
and they
feel this
with their
entire
body.
blurry vision, muscles getting hot, cheeks getting
warm, and shoulders bunched up
diminished ability to think, or remember basic
things
in adults, it can look like crying,
yelling, lashing out, suicidal ideation, self-harm,
inability to talk, lack of ability to think, or rage
a feeling of being completely out of control like
everything is fuzzy

21. What to do...
R e m a i n c a l m : t a l k a s i f e v e r y t h i n g w a s n o r m a l .
A v o i d t o u c h i n g a n d e y e - c o n t a c t ; h o l d i n g t h e p e r s o n t i g h t m a y h e l p , b u t d o n ' t t o u c h w i t h o u t p e r m i s s i o n .
M o v e s l o w l y .
I f t h e y c a n t a l k : A r e y o u t h i r s t y o r h u n g r y ? O f f e r w a t e r a n y w a y . D o y o u f e e l h o t ? D o y o u f e e l c o l d ? D o y o u h a v e a h e a d a c h e / s t o m a c h a c h e ? D o y o u f e e l i t c h y
( t a g s / l a b e l s i n c l o t h i n g , u n c o m f o r t a b l e i t e m s s h o u l d b e c h a n g e d ) ? D i s t r a c t t h e i r a t t e n t i o n : W h a t c a n y o u s e e ? H o w m a n y c h a i r s ? H o w m a n y w i n d o w s ? W h a t i s
t h e w e a t h e r l i k e ? W h e r e a r e y o u ? W h e r e w o u l d y o u l i k e t o b e ? W o u l d y o u l i k e t o b e a l o n e ? I f t h e y d o n ' t w a n t t o t a l k , s i t s i l e n t l y a n d w a i t . D o n ' t l o o k a t t h e m ,
s i t o r s t a n d n e x t t o t h e m i f p o s s i b l e .
T h e y m a y h u r t t h e m s e l v e s o r o t h e r s . S e p a r a t e t h e p e r s o n f r o m o t h e r s . G i v e s p a c e . P r o v i d e a p i l l o w o r s o m e t h i n g t h a t c a n b e b e a t e n / t o r n .
F r e s h a i r o r w a l k i n g o u t s i d e m a y h e l p – n o t a l w a y s , t h o u g h . S o m e t i m e s s i t t i n g o n t h e f l o o r o r i n a s a f e c o r n e r i s b e t t e r , i t d e p e n d s o n t h e p e r s o n . E a r p h o n e s
t o b l o c k o u t n o i s e o r l i s t e n t o m u s i c m a y h e l p .
V a l i d a t e t h e e x p e r i e n c e ( Y o u m u s t b e f e e l i n g t e r r i b l e . I t ' s t o o m u c h . T a k e a d e e p b r e a t h ) , d o n ' t p u n i s h t h e m , d o n ' t s a y e v e r y t h i n g ' s f i n e o r i t ' s o k , t h e y ' r e n o t
f e e l i n g o k . S a f e s m e l l s , s a f e o b j e c t s m a y h e l p .
A f t e r t h e m e l t d o w n , o f f e r a n o p p o r t u n i t y t o a p o l o g i z e a n d a c c e p t t h e a p o l o g i e s .

22. Autistic burnout
Phung et al. (2022) also describes a stage called burnout, which
can proceed meltdown in which the autistic person begins to feel
fatigued, overwhelmed, slowed down, and has difficulty
with cognition.
This is a period where continued pressure and overwhelming
sensory and emotional stress begin to erode the autistic person’s
ability to function and perform daily tasks.
Encouraging autistic people to decrease emotional and
sensory pressure at this point can prevent meltdowns.

23. WHAT CAN
TEACHERS /
PARENTS / FRIENDS
DO TO HELP?

24. Autism from
the outside /
in the
classroom
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
Try to put yourselves in the
shoes of an autistic student.
How do you experience the
world?
What would be helpful?
Provide a list of suggestions.

25. Clear, predictable, stable
- Make the environment predictable, with as many stability
as possible (e.g., same pair to work with, same place in the
classroom, no moving around, an opportunity to avoid
groupwork if needed, allow them to put on earphones or
simply to "log out" sometimes)
- At their own time and pace: don't jump from one topic to
the next (e.g., 90-minute lessons are better than 45, longer
non-stop projects are better than multiple at the same
time)
- Make the lessons predictable, indicate IW, PW, GW; if
possible, provide a weekly plan a week ahead
- Instructions should be clear and straightforward

26. Avoid sensory overload and
ambiguity
- Noise/stimulation-free stages / a stimulation-free resting
room (a hiding place) in the building is useful (e.g., library)
- If possible, have an assistant teacher 24/7 with them
- Not more than 4 contact lessons a day (preferably
fewer); online is usually less stressful
- Don't use intense perfumes, air the room frequently
- Not too many posters, lights, sounds, etc.
- Always give enough information about extra programs,
exams, tests (enough means that the situation can be
imagined with all the details)

27. References
To read:
• Attwood Tony The Complete Guide To Aspergers Syndrome : Free
Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
• Home - Attwood and Garnett Events
• Volkmar, F. R. & Wiesner, L. A. (2009). A practical guide to
autism – What every parent, family member and teacher needs
to know.
• Shen M.D. et al. Brain 136, 2825-2835 (2013) PubMed
• The Neurophysiological Cause of Autism (iomcworld.org)
5 Important Classroom Accommodations For Children With Autism
– Caring 4 Our Kids

28. References
V i d e o s :
M o s t e x h a u s t i v e , f r o m a l l a s p e c t s : A u t i s m : A n e v o l u t i o n a r y p e r s p e c t i v e , P r o f e s s o r S i m o n
B a r o n - C o h e n , 1 s t S y m p o s i u m o f E P S I G , 2 0 1 6 - Y o u T u b e
M o s t o f P a u l ' s v i d e o s , s t a r t i n g : I s n ' t E v e r y o n e A L i t t l e B i t A u t i s t i c ? - Y o u T u b e
O v e r s h a r i n g : A u t i s m a n d O v e r s h a r i n g : H o w t o a v o i d s a y i n g t o o m u c h ! ( a n d r e g r e t t i n g i t
l a t e r ! ) - Y o u T u b e
S m a l l t a l k i s d e a t h s e n t e n c e : S m a l l T a l k I s A D E A T H S E N T E N C E ! ( W h y i s S m a l l T a l k s o
d i f f i c u l t ? ) | P a t r o n ' s C h o i c e - Y o u T u b e
F r e q u e n c y a n d h o w t o a p p r o a c h c h i l d r e n :
h t t p s : / / y o u t u . b e / J Y P e O m 5 A 8 X Q
T h e c o m p a n y t h a t o n l y e m p l o ys p e o p l e w i t h A s p e r g e r ' s s yn d r o m e a n d t h e r e a s o n : E m b r a c e
t h e p o t e n t i a l o f A u t i s m | L a r s J o h a n s s o n - K j e l l e r ø d | T E D x A r e n d a l - Y o u T u b e
S e n s o r y a s p e c t s : A u t i s m : g i v e m e a c h a n c e a n d I w i l l c h a n g e e v e r y t h i n g | N o a h B r i t t o n |
T E D x N e w E n g l a n d C o l l e g e - Y o u T u b e

29. Problems