1. The Use of Portfolios for
Students with Autism
Written by Douglas E. Carothers and Ronald L. Taylor
Presented by Audrey Edwards

2. Using Portfolios to Display Student Work
• Reflects:
• Achievements
• Attitudes about learning
• Skills acquired
• General interests of the learner within the school setting

3. Using Portfolios for Autistic Spectrum
Disorder Students
• Carothers and Taylor, define the benefits of using portfolios
for students with varying degrees of autism as a way to:
• Better reflect academic development
• Better reflect behavior development
• Better reflect goal achievement
• Why? Traditional assessments (paper/pencil tests) may not
truly reflect learning or achievement of goals

4. What do Portfolios Typically Include?
• Portfolios typically include information about student growth
and development as well as learning goal achievement
• This information can be exhibited:
• Videotapes
• School projects
• Formal and informal testing
• Teacher and parent observations
• Student self-assessments

5. What do Portfolios Typically Include?
(cont.)
• In addition, portfolios often contain information on a
student’s ability to:
• Engage in cooperative learning activities
• Self-monitor behavior
• Uses a critical thinking approach to learning
(Carothers and Taylor, 2003)

6. Purposes Portfolios Can Serve for ASD
Students
• Portfolios can be tailored to show many aspects of growth toward
achieving benchmarks and IEP goals that standardized assessment
methods cannot.
• Used to showcase a student’s best work
• Reflect on learning from the parent and teacher point of view
• Reflect student’s point of view
• Used as a timeline of student academic growth over time
• Used to record progress toward achieving IEP goals and objectives

7. What Kind of Information is Contained in
Portfolios of ASD Students?
• Development of communication and social skills
• Cooperative learning skills
• Fine and gross motors skills
• Day-to-day life skills
• Behavior information and supports
• Academic information.
• Information on how to “better understand and serve the student”

8. Artifacts Displaying Information…
• Artifacts can be collected in the form of:
• Photos of student interactions with others
• Videos of student interactions with others
• Audio recordings of the student interaction with others
• Anecdotal notes from parents, teachers, therapists, speech and
language specialists
• Behavioral data
• Authentic work samples

9. What does using portfolios for ASD students
allow teachers, support staff and parents to
do?
• Using portfolios allows:
• Better documentation to review in order to assess an ASD
student’s progress toward IEP goals
• Better documentation to review in order to assess an ASD
student’s progress toward academic achievement
• Allows for drafting of a more accurate design plan to continually
meet the needs of the student both academically and beyond the
scope of school

10. In Conclusion…
• Overall, Carothers and Taylor provide the reader with sound information
clearly establishing support for the use of portfolios for ASD students in
order to help define achievement toward intended goals (whether
academic or IEP related)
• I believe using portfolios in the manner discussed would not only be
beneficial for students with autism but would benefit students struggling
with attention issues and those who are considered “at-risk” as well
• Having data to support the use of portfolios to show progress, effort, and
achievement for ASD students would provide deeper credibility to the
argument presented in the article

11. References
• Carothers, D. E., & Taylor, R. L. (203). The use of portfolios for
students with autism. Focus On Autism and Other Developmental
Disabilities, 18(2), 125-128. Retrieved from
http://foa.sagepub.com/content/18/2/125