Resources Related to Autism Spectrum Disorder
I know that some of you are supporting children with an autism spectrum diagnosis or features that are consistent with ASD. I'm sending on a few resources for teachers that might be helpful. While some of these strategies and resources are specific to children who have an ASD diagnosis, many are appropriate for all preschool classrooms.
The Introduction to Autism Module and the other AFIRM modules are a great resource. The Intro module provides information about the characteristics of autism, including social, communication, repetitive behaviors, thinking and learning, and how to support learners. Follow-up modules offer a range of evidence-based strategies for supporting children in the classroom and at home. Toddler modules are also available.
The Advancing Social-Communication and Play site has information about encouraging social communication, including a handbook for families with ideas for promoting social engagement and joint attention through play and routines and a picture dictionary of social communication goals. This evidence-based practice is a great place to start with thinking about the next developmental step for a child and how to support it.
The Early Childcare Providers Guide to Managing Challenging Behaviors is a toolkit designed for children with ASD, but with components that will work for many children. It has three sections: an overview of autism and behavior, strategies and communication, and extra supports.
This video from UVM explains the ASD diagnosis process to families and would be useful for families who have recently been referred to the developmental peds clinic. The Vermont Family Network also has a comprehensive list of links to share with families. Finally, families may find the resources and tip sheets at Talking is Teaching helpful.
Visual prompts and scripted stories support preschoolers with and without disabilities. If you are building scripted stories, it is easy to do with Google Slides and you can use both stock images and pictures of your classroom/child. Stories can be printed or displayed. You can also record scripted stories on Zoom (share your screen and record yourself reading it) to create a video. Apps are also available that can help create scripted stories.
Through a Child’s Eyes: Using Floor Play to Connect with Children and Families from NAEYC is a nice place to start with families and staff who might otherwise struggle to engage in play with their child.
This 2010 article from Young Children, "Implementing Visual Cues for Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Their Classmates" describes how visual supports can be used in the classroom to help children learn to play with their peers.
The Stay Play Talk strategy is one such evidence-based tool that can be used to help children engage with their peers - promoting social communication and play. There is a quick introduction and some visuals available here, and a longer implementation guide on this site which also has guides to other evidence-based strategies.
And, of course, the child's special educator is the expert on supporting the child in the classroom. If you are wondering what else you can do to support the child in your program, I encourage you to reach out!
