Anyone have or know children with autism?

Question

I'm a teacher and I believe a student in the grade below mine is on the Autism Spectrum...I am a new teacher, but I know that he will be in my class next year. I just wanted to get all information I could to make his transition a good one (for both of us). I teach in a private school, with no special education in the building, but I want to do well for him.

Answer 1

My son has PDD-NOS, which is on the spectrum, but not bad enough to be autism or aspergers. You probably want to talk to the family and ask them for hints on how to make it a good year for him. talk to the teacher he has this year, and see if they have any hints.

a very good book that I read is called "a parents guide to aspergers and high functioning autism" it is written by 3 people, and very friendly to read. It has charts, case histories, and all kinds of stuff to help in it. He might also just have a sensory disfunction. A good book for that is "the out of sync child".

Answer 2

My son has high functioning autism.  He has accommodations to help him in the classroom.  He has preferential seating, a corrale around his desk, a timer, a pointcard, sticker reinforcers, a breakcard, earmuffs, a slantboard, a weighted pencil, highlighted paper, a schedule on his desk and locker, grotto pencil grip, material is sent home for pre-teaching. Many of these things you can do with no special materials.  The slantboard can be a 3 ring binder.  You can take a highlighter and highlight the lines where the lowercase letters go, a weighted pencil can be used by adding an eraser on the top, the corrale you can make out of cardboard the break card is just a red laminated card that he can use when he needs to regroup with the right approach these kids excel, but with the wrong teacher they drown!

Answer 3

I used to be a nanny for two autistic kids. their family has a website called www.autismnews.com. you can get a lot of info there. they were very sweet kids and it was very rewarding to work with them. good luck!

Answer 4

My former stepfathers nephew, Andrew, (guess that makes him my former cousin) is autistic. I havent seen him in over 8 years (when my mother and stepfather separated). He was very bright, could name all the presidents in order and the years they were in office, birth dates and death dates. Autistic kids tend to have a lot of meltdowns, but usually it is due to an upset in scheduling. If you can keep a routine in your class room, he should be fine. They thrive on routines. If something unexpected is to come up, you should take a few minutes to explain what is going on so that he can have a few minutes to adjust to it.

Dont treat him any different than the other kids. He just wants to fit in with everyone else. Include him in things that you are doing with the other kids. Help him out when he asks, or offer some help if you see him struggling. But let him attempt to figure things out on their own. Andrews parents' used to have this motto that they would repeat when Andrew would start to have a melt down. It was "Andrew needs to be more mellow". Im not sure how severve his Autism is exactly, but it was pretty prominent.

Last time i spoke with my stepdad, he informed me that Andrew is doing very well. He just recently graduated from High School with a near perfect GPA. He has an awesome memory, and can tell you stories of when he was younger and me being at his birthday parties and always spending alot of time with him there.

Autistic children have awesome memories, so be extremely careful with what you say around him. Even one time of saying that you are disappointed in him, or you are angry with him will be a memory that will be imprinted in his brain for a very long time. He may resent you for it and make the school year difficult. Check out websites and see what you can learn about the boy now. This way, over your summer break from school, you can plan accordingly. Find out what he likes, what he doesnt and things that he can, and cant, stand. Andrew used to hate sand and other grainy textures and he would throw a fit if he touched or ate anything that was grainy. He also didnt like the color red and therefore refused to play with, wear, and eat, red things.

So my best advice for you is to talk to his teacher now and find out what kind of sensory, and auditory, issues he has, if he has any. Good luck and i wish you the best of luck! Autistic kids are wonderful kids and very very loving.