Teaching Autistic students

[MemphisMeli]

Has anyone had an autistic student in their classes? Do you have any suggestions for how I might better teach a student with Autism? They have an assistant with them, so I imagine they will be able to assist me as well. I was only able to meet her in passing as I had to leave for another class.

 

BTW, I am an undergrad doing the job of a TA teaching breakout sessions for a General Psychology class. This is my second semester teaching these sessions but the first time I've had a student with Autism. Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.

[kyjin]

Have you spoken with the professor for the course about this student? They may have already been contacted by your university's disability service office (or equivalent office) about the student's aid and accommodations that may need to be made. I would then speak with the student and the assistant directly to discuss if there is any support they might need. As a TA, this information should be shared with you. I would suggest contacting your university's disability service as well with any advice they may have for your teaching with this student.

Best of luck!

[heyDW]

Unless it's been discussed with accessibility services or the aid/student has talked with you, treat the student as you would any other student. If accommodations are requested by any of the above or the professor for the course, be flexible as needed.

[Asperfemme]

On 2017-01-25 at 2:55 PM, heyDW said:

Unless it's been discussed with accessibility services or the aid/student has talked with you, treat the student as you would any other student. If accommodations are requested by any of the above or the professor for the course, be flexible as needed.

I second this. I also suggest making some accommodations as you go along. For instance, if you have any group activities in your seminar, perhaps arrange a 1:1 conversation with her (potentially in the presence of her assistant) and ask her what arrangement she would be most comfortable with. She might need some help with group facilitation, although if she has an assistant who is with her in class, that is potentially already taken care of.

[rising_star]

If you really want to know more about teaching a student with autism in general, there are tons of resources online, often on the website of various university disability offices. 

That said, if the student hasn't requested accommodations, then I'd be concerned that offering them overtly will make the student feel more out of place and/or less like everyone, which is never a good thing when you're teaching. Do your best to treat them like all other students until told otherwise.

[Asperfemme]

@rising_star I was thinking accommodations could be made, if needed, after first having a private discussion with the student. However, taking the initiative to offer such a meeting might be crucial, because some people on the spectrum might be okay with something that would potentially be beneficial for them but would not ever consider it (let alone ask about it). From my experience, some people on the autism spectrum are super open about it and do not mind outing themselves if that means they would more respect and support in the classroom, while others prefer to stay secret about it at all costs. 

I have met 100s of people on the autism spectrum so I am speaking from direct experience. I also have been diagnosed with Asperger's and have always spoken very openly about it in my classes, because it is the only way I ever have been able to get people to accept and collaborate with me. Without this visibility, I would get overtly shunned from any groups. I never wanted to socialize but I did want to be academically successful, so I would do whatever it took to get to that point.

If you have any other questions about this, please don't hesitate to ask me!

[rising_star]

@Asperfemme, I totally get what you're saying. However, typically university regulations prohibit instructors from offering anything which could be perceived as an advantage to one student over others. Asking the student what they need and not extending that same offer to all other students could be (mis)perceived this way by others in the class, potentially leading to a formal complaint against the instructor. I could give any number of examples but I doubt they'd be helpful overall. Let's just say it's similar to planning a field trip which involves walking a mile and asking the entire class whether anyone will need assistance (whether that's a golf cart, car, alternate assignment, etc.), rather than only offering such accommodations to the person who is obviously in a wheelchair. There could be any number of other students who would have an issue walking a mile for all sorts of invisible reasons. If the instructor only offers alternate arrangements to the person in the wheelchair, then they're discriminating against everyone else in the class (even if this happens unwittingly). This is why I don't recommend singling out one student for extra assistance. If the OP wants to make a statement about accommodating disabilities, they should make it to everyone, ideally earlier in the semester, and invite any and all students to let them know of issues/problems and assistance they might need.

If I were in the OP's shoes, I'd ask the student and their assistant if any they've spoken with the university's disability office and, if so, to let me know what accommodations were recommended by them. There should be paperwork on file. At the same time, I wouldn't assume the student wants any additional assistance or special treatment because I've taught a number of autistic students who would've been offended by the suggestions or question. Again, this is why I recommended working with the university disability office. They exist for a reason and have personnel trained in these matters. They'll also be able to give the OP more specific advice about teaching a student with autism and may even have specific advice for working with this student based on past experiences.

[Asperfemme]

19 minutes ago, rising_star said:

@Asperfemme, I totally get what you're saying. However, typically university regulations prohibit instructors from offering anything which could be perceived as an advantage to one student over others. Asking the student what they need and not extending that same offer to all other students could be (mis)perceived this way by others in the class, potentially leading to a formal complaint against the instructor. I could give any number of examples but I doubt they'd be helpful overall. Let's just say it's similar to planning a field trip which involves walking a mile and asking the entire class whether anyone will need assistance (whether that's a golf cart, car, alternate assignment, etc.), rather than only offering such accommodations to the person who is obviously in a wheelchair. There could be any number of other students who would have an issue walking a mile for all sorts of invisible reasons. If the instructor only offers alternate arrangements to the person in the wheelchair, then they're discriminating against everyone else in the class (even if this happens unwittingly). This is why I don't recommend singling out one student for extra assistance. If the OP wants to make a statement about accommodating disabilities, they should make it to everyone, ideally earlier in the semester, and invite any and all students to let them know of issues/problems and assistance they might need.

If I were in the OP's shoes, I'd ask the student and their assistant if any they've spoken with the university's disability office and, if so, to let me know what accommodations were recommended by them. There should be paperwork on file. At the same time, I wouldn't assume the student wants any additional assistance or special treatment because I've taught a number of autistic students who would've been offended by the suggestions or question. Again, this is why I recommended working with the university disability office. They exist for a reason and have personnel trained in these matters. They'll also be able to give the OP more specific advice about teaching a student with autism and may even have specific advice for working with this student based on past experiences.

I do agree; ideally, the student would be registered with the disability office. I have a student I am taking a class with, though, who cannot organize herself properly to get set up with disability services. There have been some other students in the past who simply did not take the initiative to set themselves up with the services.

I guess there is only so much you can do about this as a TA. I don't see why any TA would not offer assistance at the beginning of the semester to begin with. It might generally be a good idea to say at the beginning of the semester, "if anyone needs any additional support from me in order to succeed in this class, please email me at ...". I've also encountered a lot of peers on the spectrum who would also be offended by the suggestion of getting assistance. It's an individualized thing. Perhaps the best thing a TA could do is to make sure that the student is set up with disability services to begin with (via talking to the professor first)? In this case, though, I suspect that someone would approach the OP if any accommodations are called for, given that this student already has someone helping her out. If I were a TA, I would also likely ask the professor first as to whether anything needs to be done on my part and take it from there. It is tricky because usually disability services are in touch with the instructor and not the TA. However, if the student reaches out to me, I would have the accommodations conversation with the student directly.

Also... If a student DOES say he/she would like specific assistance that others do not need, would you say it is not ok for the instructor to provide that assistance even if it has been requested?

Edited January 29, 2017 by Asperfemme

[rising_star]

17 minutes ago, Asperfemme said:

Also... If a student DOES say he/she would like specific assistance that others do not need, would you say it is not ok for the instructor to provide that assistance even if it has been requested?

No. Did I ever say that anywhere? I'm saying that it's unfair to offer one student special assistance and not make that offer to the class as a whole. But, to be quite honest, I very rarely offer assistance outside of what the disability office at my school recommends. For example, if they were to say the student should have 1.5 the usual amount of time on exams, I'll grant them that but not also decide they can use their notes on the test if that option isn't available to the rest of the class too.

[Asperfemme]

28 minutes ago, rising_star said:

No. Did I ever say that anywhere? I'm saying that it's unfair to offer one student special assistance and not make that offer to the class as a whole. But, to be quite honest, I very rarely offer assistance outside of what the disability office at my school recommends. For example, if they were to say the student should have 1.5 the usual amount of time on exams, I'll grant them that but not also decide they can use their notes on the test if that option isn't available to the rest of the class too.

Okay, I was just trying to make sure I understood what you were trying to convey. I think when it comes to formal academic accommodations, it is definitely necessary to stick to what the disability office recommends. I find that, as a student who has been in the system and did not always need academic ones as much as informal social ones, it is much tricker to arrange the latter than the former, not because of legal limitations but because of structural/communicational ones between the disability and academic departments.

Usually, it ended up being up to me to approach the TA/prof directly and ask for those, after discussion and approval as reasonable by my disability counselor. I often actually did not take the formal extended time/separate room accommodations (I did not need them unless it was a writing-heavy exam - I am a slow writer) and have always advocated against asking for accommodations unless absolutely necessary. However, having to do informal group work sometimes created so much distress that it made me avoid the course material by association as a result, rather than sparking my interest in learning.

I usually had to advocate for myself to be able to do an assignment independently or to have the TA offer an option to the whole class to do some in-seminar activities rather than in group. The latter option was always offered to the entire class, but I had to advocate for it at the start behind the scenes. Perhaps it would help to look into strategies like this that might be helpful to implement into your general seminar structure when you have a student with autism? That is, there are many potential ways that a regular seminar could be structured, but you would pick a variation that is more "autism-friendly" - does that make sense?

Just something to consider.

Edited January 29, 2017 by Asperfemme
clarification