Teacher hoping to learn more about ASD

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Hi Everyone!

I'm relatively new to the site, but learning quite a bit from what I've found so far.

I'm a teacher currently working on my Masters in Education at the University of Ottawa. My main interest is in learning more about how ASD affects students' experiences in the classroom and how teachers can work better with students with ASD.

I'd love to hear from someone with ASD (or parents of a person with ASD) about their experiences during school - how has ASD affected your school experiences, how do you learn best, what can teachers do to help you).

Anyways, glad to meet everyone. I hope to keep learning and become a better teacher!

Allie

Hi,

Maybe you could post your questions direct in the forum via survey monkey/google forms you may get more replies this way instead of people having to ask you for them. Just a thought

Do you have the relevant permissions from your university to ask the questions? I made this oversight when doing my dissertation/thesis. I also had to make them tick a box saying that they give consent to take part as well.

Like this (not my course, just and e.g.)
Link

Moderator comment:

To the poster: please don't solicit unauthorised research here via private email - you would need the permission of the site owner Alex and to obtain that I suggest at the very least that you would need a bona fide research proposal and a bona fide institutional address that can be verified as authentic, the name of your supervisor and so on, though provision of authentification in itself does not mean Alex will automatically grant permission AFAIK.

I have deleted your email address, please don't re-post it in any forum.

Hey there.

here are some of the biggest issues i had in schol that were seldom adressed

- Reading Comprehension issues
- verbal information processing issues
- not enough time to finish homework
- could not retain notes during a lecture
- focus issues

all these problems were just labeled as 'uninterested' and 'lazy', it took 12 years for doctors to finally realize that this was not the case and had me tested for learning disorders.

My biggest problem in school was that the teaching process did not cater to my needs and i was forced to have to keep up with students that learned easier than me (in the public school setting). I even told teachers that i could not understand what i was reading, i did not remember what they said, the homework was too difficult and i needed more time, i cannot write as fast as they spoke and i lost focus only because i cant understand a word they are saying, all these issues were not heard and instead were met with poor grades and judgement.

Just listen to your students and you will get by.

I have a very good microphonic memory. I can recall much of what I hear in incredible detail, which is very useful because I have a bit of a buffer whenever someone talks to me so I can store the raw audio and comprehend it at my own pace. I also have a fairly good photographic memory, although the audio and video are stored and recalled seperately and independently most of the time. I am able to use this to take really good mental notes in a class, which is helpful because my handwrighting is sloppy and slow 'cause autism. It does take a decent amount of mental energy to properly process and file away everything, and ordinary note taking actually interferes with that on top of not being nearly as effective for me. I absolutely hate it when teachers grade notes, because taking paper notes lowers my comprehension.

Focus can be a probelem sometimes. I need to be in the right recording and processing mode to do my note taking process, and the focus it takes to be in that mode makes it more dificult in classes that I am not as interested in. Also, sometimes in classes I do enjoy the teacher starts talking about something I already know and I exit note taking mode which causes me to miss a few important things sometimes. That's really my probelem though and there is nothing that the school system can do about it.

The classes I had the best experience in were ones where the teacher tries to make use of every learning style (auditory, visual, tactile, ect...), bases the grade off of how much is known instead of how much work is done, lets people rely on their own methods to learn rather then forcing some method on them, and is willing to make exeptions for students with special needs. Everyone is not the same and should therefore not be expected to learn in the same way, if more teachers allowed for more versatility in this respect then the school system would be vastly improved.

I'm not autistic, nor did I attend school before college, so I'm not really contributing, just talking.

Grading notes is stupid. I had one or two professors make me do that, so I had to take notes for that reason. Ordinarily I would spend all of my time LISTENING and asking questions.

Another horsesh** thing is the participation grade. I've never had any problem running my mouth, but I'm usually friends with the quiet people in class, who would lose points over this. If you want people to participant, you can directly ask the quiet person if they don't seem shy, or you can leave them alone and wait to read their work.

Thanks for all your help everyone!

One of my biggest problems in college is attendance. I have a few classes where if you have more than one or two unexcused absences or sick days the teacher fails you for the whole class. "Mental health" apparently is unexcused, and since I'm not seeing a psychologist at the moment (money issues) I don't have anyone else to stick up for me. Even in the ones that give a few more days (four or five tops), they still take off points from my total grade. Gives me serious anxiety. And then if I'm having a day where I just need to shut down, I have to either take negatives to my grade or deal with it - which will usually result in a full blown meltdown when I get home that night if I go for the latter.
And I can't really talk to most teachers about this, I've gotten some very cold responses in the past from "Not my problem" to "don't be so stupid." So, if you have a ASD student and they skip a class or two, please be understanding. Same with homework - give an extra day or two if they say they need it instead of saying anything like "Sucks, manage your time better. You get an F for this assignment." It adds to overall stress/anxiety of the student because they're probably really trying the best they can. It really strikes me how heartless some teachers can be...
I also prefer taking notes on my computer. I'm a really good typist and rereading/retyping those notes is how I learn. I have countless teachers who think computers are the devil or something and forbid it from their class, and I do significantly worse in those classes (up to two or three letter grades worse). So I'd suggest not mandating note taking methods.
Oh, and class participation. Almost every teacher hinges 10% to 20% of the total grade on it. Surprise! The Aspie girl fails every time. I have two classes right now where the teacher knows about it, makes me talk during class, and still grades me badly for it. I get such bad anxiety before going into that class every time... don't do that to your students.

A lot of professors forget about whatever your deal is because they think you don't look disabled. I have spinocerebellar ataxia, which is kind of like ALS or Parkinson's. I always tell the professors about it and give them an accommodation letter, but they're always forgetting and asking me to stand around and talk at the same time, or read/speak when I'm tired.

They love to ask the aspie students to talk about things randomly just because this one time the student volunteered something eloquent and the professor thinks more jewels will come out if they just poke and prod the student enough.

Your autistic students very often will have trouble with group projects, be overwhelmed by the classroom noise and will often be very bothered by the flourecent lights.

Be hypervigilent about bullying in your classroom.

Do not judge your autistic students by thier body language, facial expressions, tone of voice as we present very differently.

Do not expect your autistic students to just get what you mean if you use indirect language.

Do not have low expections of your autistic students because they are autistic. Accommodate but do not patronize them.

Look for your autistic students having unrealistically low expectations of themselves because of the label and associated stigmas.

One issue I can recall during school that kept coming up over and over was the way that I would interpret questions on a test or assignment differently from my peers. Often I would have the answers marked incorrect until I brought my test/exam/assignment to my teacher/professor and explained to them how I read the question. After hearing my explaination the teacher/professor would tell me that they had not heard of any other student interpreting the question that way, and would usually award me the marks. I struggle to know intiuitively how the person who designed the test or assignment had intended the questions to be intrepreted. I would see many different interpretations for each question, with no one interpretation having any more likelihood of being the correct one over one another, an issue that wasn't a problem for my neurotypical peers.

When it came to completing homework in class with other students talking it was impossible for me to concentrate. I couldn't filter out the irrelevant sensory information(particularly sound) to be able to complete work, so I would always complete it all at home on my own in complete silence.

What I struggle with the most is understanding directions, especially written. I don't always understand what is expected of me when I read them, and sometimes I misunderstand what I'm supposed to do and do the wrong thing. If an ASD student doesn't seem to understand the directions, try being more clear and concise when explaining it to the student. Also, try explaining it one step at a time rather than a series of steps.

Look at the student, not at the label. Look at what they can do. Do not lower your standards on them and not expect much out of them and let them do things they want to do like if they want to do a class let them. I had to deal with this a lot in high school, I had to fight to take driver's ed, fight to take drama, etc. and I didn't like how they were trying to set limitations for me and telling me I can't do that job because it will be too fast pace and too loud and telling me what jobs I could do that don't deal with lot of people.

Don't assume the student doesn't want to participate when there are group projects. This was very difficult for me and I can't just join in and get to it. I need to be told what to do and need help joining a group to work on something. I was not being lazy or refusing to participate. I didn't know how. I only needed someone to tell me what to do and what to work on.

If a student leaves the classroom, don't assume they are wanting to skip out. I was in a class where kids would get real loud and rowdy so I would take a step out in the hallway to get away from it all. I eventually brought ear plugs because the floor was too dirty for me to sit on and they didn't have any chairs out in the hallway. Luckily the teacher didn't stop me or tell me to get back in class.


I couldn't listen to lectures, they would make me fall asleep and I zoned out and I couldn't take notes because I didn't know what notes were important to take. But I could take notes if you wrote them on the board. But I would need to know if I am supposed to be writing them down.

I couldn't correct the papers fast enough when the whole class would be correcting them. The teacher went too fast for me so another student had to do it for me.

I couldn't understand what I was reading in English because the books were too hard so I was given easier books to read that were more concrete and I was able to visualize.

I couldn't answer questions from a textbook if there is no direct answer in what I read in the section. I was able to do driver's ed on my own easily because it was all concrete and the questions and multiple choice answers at the end of each chapter, they were all directly in the chapter.

I had a great education through school with very little difficulty. My work was modified if it was too abstract for me and I had an aide and she helped me with my school work. I was taken back to the resource room whenever I would have an episode in class. It was other students who didn't understand so they assumed I wouldn't pay attention and they expected me to remember everything the teacher said during their lecture. They would get upset with me for asking too many questions. My aide never explained it to them so I guess I was supposed to but I never felt comfortable talking about my disability. But one of my biggest difficulties was not falling asleep in school and my pacing bothered lot of the students and teachers and then they would wonder why I was sleeping. I needed movement and activity and I wasn't allowed to play my Game Boy or listen to music so what was I going to do when I had no school work to work on? I was bored so I would fall asleep and I couldn't use the computer unless it was school related (new policy they installed for all students).

I have quoted Noca, as I had endured the same issues...

I think you need a balance between freedom of choice and direction. If you tell the student that he/she is free to do anything in a project, it will be VERY confusing for him/her. Also, if you only give one option which is unfit for the student's individual abilities, then you're going to stress him/her out with the work. It will feel like a burden. The solution is (in my opinion) to show appreciation towards the student's unique abilities, and to give clear and concise instructions that are either fit for the student's personality, or are available as a small range of choices. If the student has own ideas (for example a theme for a paper), don't say that it's wrong, except if you can give very good reasons for thinking that. Instead, try to think of its positive aspects, and give clear, factual, step-by-step instructions on how to make it better.

In your feedback, I suggest to be clear, and to-the-point. Don't say something like "your essay was good, but you could have done better", or "too many mistakes". Explain the good points and bad points individually, and offer suggestions. Tell the student why you think what you think, but be precise and factual. Don't bother applying abstract thinking and complex metaphors, just simple logic.

Last but not least, I think tests should be corrected objectively, while papers should be judged by the students' own merits.

What I wrote here is based on my own experiences, so not everyone may agree with me.