School and Teachers...what made a positive difference?

Post Reply New Topic

As a teacher, I would really value some insight as to what (if anything) made a positive impact to the learning styles / personalities / overall experience for students with ASD.

a.) Can anyone share with me what worked for them in the classroom that their teacher provided for them to help them be successful in school?

b.) I know that everyone learns differently, but were their any teaching techniques that worked better than others?

c.) What (if any) were the positives that you got from teachers / classrooms?

Any insights would be appreciated! Thanks for sharing!

The thing that made the most impact for me was learning separately from others (most of the time I had to learn the things at home alone after school because school was just... too much. Too many noises and stimuli etc.

Also, being able to discuss the topic with knowledgeable people, rather than my peers, and I think most importantly for maths - which I am horrifically bad at on an elementary level but find the more complex stuff easier - letting me work at my own pace. Sometimes I'll get thinks before you even try and explain them to me, and sometimes I'll need you to spend days or weeks explaining things that seem basic. Don't assume because I can't get the little things (with me it's mental maths and times tables) that I can't get the big things (like algebra, trig and calculus).

For example with my educational system we do GCSEs (I don't know where you're from, so I'll just briefly outline encase you're not English) which are a two year qualification that you do between the ages of 14-16 and while it's not always the case they pretty much determine what you can do afterwards further education wise.

You need to pass maths GCSE to get into a lot of universities, and it was a worry for me with my hit and miss skills. I managed to get a C because I got A's in the calculator papers and D's in the non-calculator papers. This, of course, is not your typical student. But with atypical kids you have to consider that skills might not stack, if you see what I mean. Just because the base abilities aren't there doesn't mean the higher ones aren't. My teachers realised that about me before I did, and it really was the most important thing in regards to educating me.

As a teacher and a parent, I have found it beneficial to make sure I am allowing enough processing time before assuming that the child is unable to respond. This is the main trouble I am having with my son's teachers at this point. When I was working at one of the major education research centers in the US, they taught us to make sure we were counting to 10 silently before allowing another child to answer or rephrasing the question. Some kids need even more processing time that that! My son is currently placed in much lower math and reading levels than his capabilities, all because of his processing time (yes, I have measured his skills in these areas objectively, not just wearing my biased "mom" hat: math 5th grade level and reading 4th grade level in 1st grade). He also routinely gets in trouble because he doesn't react to commands quickly enough. It is sooo frustrating to see no accommodation being made because he appears to be NT, in spite of his PDD-NOS diagnosis. The low processing time showed up loud and clear on the testing they did, and they STILL don't have him working at his level!

As for me, when I was in school, I think having a safe, quiet place to go was very helpful. I wasn't diagnosed back then, but I was able to hang out in the gifted room for a little while each day and that made me much more able to cope.