Manaiakalani Toolkits

 Level Up on Autism

 

For our Term One Toolkits through the Manaiakalani Outreach Programme, I registered for the Level Up on Autism session hosted by Natasha Olsen.  I thought this would be helpful for me as I currently have some students who are on the Autism Spectrum and present with a range of specific needs and characteristics.  

Although the sound on the Meet wasn't working, I spent some time looking through the slide that was shared and the speaker notes which were really helpful. 

I think I am at the 'acceptance' level on the Level Up Scale.

The estimated population of people with ASD in NZ is approx 50,000-100,000 (1-2%).

An autistic person may have difficulties with social communication and social interaction skills. This means that a person with autism might have difficulties reciprocating in conversations and social interactions, engaging in nonverbal behaviours (e.g., eye contact, gestures), and developing, maintaining and understanding relationships.

People with autism may also demonstrate restrictive, repetitive patterns of behaviours, interests, or activities. This might include an insistence on sameness (e.g., rigid, black-and-white thinking, difficulties with change) or engaging in behaviours that may be perceived as unusual. Sometimes, a person with autism might also show intense focus on objects or interests and possess sensory sensitivities (e.g., hyper- or hypo-sensitive to sights, smells, touch, tastes, and sounds).

Executive functioning

Executive functioning is a set of mental skills controlled by the frontal lobe of the brain. It affects our ability in two key areas – organisation and self-regulation. People with autism often have problems organising, prioritising, problem-solving, accessing working memory, thinking flexibly and self-monitoring, eg, difficulty following more than one instruction.

Strategies:

• Use routines

• Use visual support to aid organisation

• Routine and predictability mean safety for someone with Autism

• Give one instruction at a time 

• Plan for transitions

• Understand children's signs of stress or anxiety

• Teach children strategies they can use themselves

• Make consequences clear. Explicitly lay them out

Anxiety

75% of children and 50% of adults with ASD experience intense anxiety.

Anxiety is an intense and often overwhelming feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain outcome. It also has varying physical effects on our bodies, such as increased heart rate and sweaty palms. Often it results in people avoiding situations, preferring sameness, rigid thinking, social withdrawal, repetitive movements or noises, and sometimes anger or meltdowns.

Many autistic children meet the criteria for an anxiety disorder. For those who don’t, anxiety is still a common experience in their everyday lives and can make it difficult to make friends, focus at school or complete daily tasks as it can show as being ‘difficult’.

Strategies for anxiety:

• Identity key stressors - environment etc

• quiet/low stimulation spaces available

• Keep your voice calm

• Teach self-calming strategies

• Build on strengths

• Limit choices

• Break cards

• Sensory box

Communication

Communication is a shared experience in joint attention and this is a common challenge for the neurodiverse brain.  

Strategies:

• Make sure you have the child's attention

• Avoid complicated instructions

• Keep up your language polite, clear and factual without being patronising

• Allow the child enough time to process

• Supplement verbal instruction with visual information

• Try to have important conversations in a quiet area

My next step is to attend the Term Two toolkit which will look specifically at interventions in the classroom that can increase engagement and help create an environment that best suits our learners.