How would you organize the classroom for autistic kids? How it (the classroom) should look like?

Question

How would you organize the classroom for autistic kids? How it (the classroom) should look like?

Answer 1

I guess the think that distresses me about this question is that there appears to be the assumption that all autistic students are the same or have the same needs. That is a misnomer. That being said, I wouldn't organize any classroom for autistic kids. I would look at the student population for that classroom (regardless of identification or diagnosis) and organize the classroom for that group of kids.

Every student is more successful if (1) the classroom is physically organized, cleaned, and decluttered, (2) there is a routine and schedule that is followed, (3) the teacher is well prepared with more than enough activities for the time allotted, (4) the rules and procedures are fair and fully communicated, (5) the personnel within the classroom really care about the students.

Answer 2

While all autistic kids are different, they share certain commonalities. They have a very hard time predicting the future, they get most of their information through visual channels and they have severe anxiety in social situations that they don't understand.

Hence, due to these commonalities, the classroom should be highly structured with visuals only of those things that will help the students understand their day. Here are some things that I would do:

*Have a visual schedule of the day and go through it each morning and as you proceed throughout the day. You can also use matching cards for centers they need to go to.

*Avoid teaching whole group. This gets a lot of people in trouble because autism classes tend to have kids of vastly different abilities and needs. Teaching to the whole group tends to cause behavior problems because some kids will not understand what is being taught and others will be bored.

*Make teaching communication your priority. Consider using some of the applied behavior analysis techniques for teaching these skills. If you research verbal behavior on the Net, it should give you some good ideas.

*Practice and reinforce any routines that you plan to use through out the year. Also, make sure you bring your students back the their personal seating areas before releasing them to line up or whatever. This imposes more structure on leaving the classroom.

*Use a centers approach to teaching academics, with the students moving between a high interest center, yourself and your assistant. Remember to group by ability and practice this routine. Visuals of how to do it would be very helpful.

*Teach social behaviors! This will lessen your student's anxiety when going to specials or lunch. Again, do small group because different children will have different needs.

Try reading Temple's Grandin's book, "Thinking in Pictures," to truly understand your kids.

Answer 3

Assuming that all the kids in the class are somewhere on the spectrum, a few things to keep in mind might be:

1. Minimize the use of decorative posters, cute bulletin board cutouts and holiday decorations, at least at first. All of these can be very distracting and may make it tougher to hold the student;s attention.

2. A large chalkboard and/or whiteboard are invaluable. Keep the chalk and/or markers in a container, not on the tray.

3. A large daily schedule, including the use of pictures representing each subject and activity should be at the front of the class. Ideally, the calendar should have three colums. The first shows the activities as they are scheduled to happen. As you work on an activity or subject, you move the label and picture to the center colum. When the activity is completed, move it to the third colum marked "completed". Students should have smaller, individualized versions of the schedule at thier desk and move the items as needed. Be sure to include things that an individual child may have that the class does not (such as speech) on the child's calendar.

3. Keep the room organized. Label shelves, with words and pictures, so students know where things belong. If possilbe, each student can have a set of three plastic drawers. One can be for things like pencils, crayons, etc (having to pass out these items can be distracting and lead to conflicts over who has what). Another drawer can have workbooks, folders with papers that you are working on,text books, etc. The final drawer is the personel drawer...books the child likes to read, stim objects if the child is allowed to use them, etc. You should use notebooks to communicate with parents and have folders for sending home notices and homework. From day one, students should be taught to put these items in thier backpacks at certain times of the day and to place them on the teacher's desk as soon as they enter the class.

Really, the key is orginization and keeping distractions to a minimum.

Answer 4

I seen this link left by someone on another question I answered and I checked it out a few days ago and I think it will be useful to you. It's 12 Tips For Setting Up An Autsim Classroom.

Answer 5

It all depends on the kids in the class. There are various sensory issues that you will need to take into account. Those kids that are light sensitive seat away from the windows, those that are sound sensitive seat away from electronic equipment or anything else that emits sound no matter how quiet it may seem. Don't seat them in clusters as these kids tend to have a fairly large personal space. And may not be able to work if some one is too close to them.