AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER

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AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER

• Mary Anderson
• District Specialist-SELPA
• Autism Specialist

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Pervasive Developmental Disorder

• Autistic Disorder
• Retts Disorder
• Childhood Disintegrative Disorder
• Aspergers Disorder
• Pervasive Developmental Disorders-Not Otherwise
  Specified (PDD-NOS)

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• Autism is present from birth, or very early in
  development, and affects essential human
  behaviors such as social interaction, the ability
  to communicate ideas and feelings, imagination,
  and the establishment of relationships with
  others.

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Epidemiology

• Autism 1 out of 1,000
• Asperger Syndrome (AS) 1 out 150
• More boys than girls
• Genetic factors seem to be more common in AS
• No single cause has been identified
• There is no cure

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What is going on in our district?

• Population
• Programs
• Staff
• Ready or not here they come!!

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THINK OF AUTISM AS A SPECTRUM DISORDER

• Autism with normal non-verbal I.Q.
• Autism with some M.R.
• . HFA
• Severe Autism with ASPERGERS
• Mental Retardation

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Features and Suggestions

• Social functioning/social relationships
• Special interests
• Communication functioning
• Complex information processing
• Behavior regulation
• Motoric functioning
• Sensory processing

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Clinical Features of HFA/AS

• Social functioning and social relationships
• Many want to have friends but lack skills
• Miss subtleties of how rules change
• One-sided conversation (long winded)
• Doesnt seem to know how to join group
• Competitive
• Rule bound

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• Nonverbal aspects of social interaction
• Development of peer relationships
• Lack empathy
• Insensitivity to others feelings
• Emotions understand cognitively but not
  intuitively, formalistic
• Rigidity, moralistic, naïve, easy prey
• May isolate more to cope

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Help With Social Functioning

• General Ideas
• Interrupt situation for the student
• Explain why
• Explain it is not a personal issue
• Give suggestions of recourse

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Some Things We Have Had to Teach Some of Our
Students

• The rules of using a urinal.
• On an airplane, dont tell another person that
  they are too fat for the seat, even if it is
  true.
• Zapping or nuking something means to heat it
  up in the microwave, not blowing something up
  with an atomic bomb.

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• When there are just a few people in a whole
  theatre, dont sit right next to one of the
  people.
• Refrain from saying rude comments to teachers
  like You are old or Can I count your gray
  hairs?
• In Junior High and High School you will probably
  hear other students use curse words. Dont
  tell on them as you will get teased and/or kids
  wont like you. If you decide to curse make sure
  
• an adult is not around as you will get into
  trouble.

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• Following a girl around school because you like
  her will not make her happy. She will be
  bothered by it and you could even get into
  trouble. It is against the law to follow people
  around as it is called stalking.
• If you want to look at a pretty girls body do
  not stare. Sneak a peek when she is not looking.

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Communication Functioning

• Prosody
• Constricted range of intonation patterns
• Volume modulation, stress, rate and pitch
  quality.
• Tangential and circumstantial speech
• Monologues - verbosity

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• General Suggestions
• Use visual scales to teach classroom volume vs.
  library and lunch time.
• Teach get to the point

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Special Interests

• Unusual topics or unusual utilization of topics
• All absorbing preoccupation gathering facts

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• General Suggestions
• Explain why most people are not that interested
  in (telephone poles, grandfather clocks or
  different types of torture devices)
• Limit the time they can talk about that topic
• Use the interest to expand their interests

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• Motor Function
• Clumsiness
• Delays and deviance
• Acquisition of self help skills
• Gait patterns, posture, proximity

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• General Suggestions
• Writing demands (breaks, more time)
• Alpha Smart
• Oral tests or other adaptations
• PE might be very tough for these students

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• Behavior Regulation
• Easily upset
• Problems managing anxiety
• Difficulty modulating emotions
• Meltdowns/rages
• May not respond to typical interventions

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• General Suggestions
• Reduce anxiety by creating predictability
• Use a system that allows student a way out (break
  cards)

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• Complex Information Processing
• Remembers less information presented to them than
  age and IQ matched peers
• Remembers less information from recently
  experienced events
• Abstract concepts and reasoning
• Comprehension issues
• Understanding idioms and metaphors
• Organizational skills

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• Sensory Processing Deficits
• Hypo responsive
• Hyper responsive

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Words from Temple Grandin

• A teacher was my salvation.didnt see my
  labels, just the underlying talentshe channeled
  my fixations into constructive projects. He
  didnt try to draw me into his world but came
  instead into my world.