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them to the individual student.

Praise success

More than anything, an autistic child needs to know when they get it right; to know that they can and do succeed, just like the other members of the class. This does not have to be effusive or continuous. A simple "good job" for completing a task that has been difficult, or displaying an understanding of a previously missed concept goes a long way toward building their confidence and helping them get to the next plateau.

Get to know the student

Even on the good days, the days without a meltdown, or an incident, children with high-functioning autism can feel overwhelmed. There are things many of them may never be able to do or grasp as a concept the way other children their age do.

For Joshua, who has a problem with recognizing letters in the proper order to form different words, reading is a struggle. For example "saw" is saw whenever he reads it. "Was" is also saw, because it has the same letters, and "has" is occasionally saw because it meets most of the memorized criteria for him: three letters and an "a" after an "s". Left to right for words is a concept he readily grasped. Left to right for letters within words appears to be an unrecognizable pattern to him thus far.

Though he enjoys working with numbers, the principles behind some mathematical concepts have remained a mystery to him, as well. Three plus four is seven, but four plus three requires counting fingers to get the answer. Five plus five is ten, but five plus four, or five plus six are answers that require time to decipher.

Joshua's smile reaches every inch of his face and reflects from every extremity of his body. His fingers twitch, his feet stutter up and down, and then his gaze slides off sideways, the bars crash down against outward sharing and the radiance blanks away. He can travel from "I did it!" to "I guess I'm not smart" in an instant. His smile is often shattered by tears from a simple misunderstanding, or a perceived disapproval of his actions. It is only a small wonder that he sometimes complains "But this is hard!"

Children with developmental disabilities like Joshua, can succeed in school with some attention to the details. Provide a structured environment; give them a sense of consistency. Involve them as part of the group and find creative ways to keep them focused and on task. The rewards are in their smiles, in seeing them reach a level of understanding. Or, like Joshua says: "Hey, I did it!"

Learn more about this author, Michael Raymond.
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