Teaching little children is a difficult task in itself and when it comes down to teaching autistic children, special care needs to be taken. The teachers need to adopt some special techniques and methods to improve these children’s level of cognizance. Listed below are some of the useful tips that will help to make the job of the teacher easier:
1. When the matter of teaching autistic children is concerned, the most basic rule is to keep the instructions as simple as possible. Try to convey your orders in fewer words.
2. When giving them any task, arrange it in sequence.
3. Teach any particular social rule and skill like turn taking.
4. Provide them fewer options to choose from. If they are offered lots of choices, the child will end up being perplexed.
5. If you ask a question and you are met with a blank stare, you can be sure that they could not understand it. So an effective practice is, after you tell them something, ask them to tell you what you have just said.
6. Never use sarcasm, as they tend to take it literally. If a student does something wrong and you ironically say ‘Great’, and then you can be sure that there will be a repeat of that action.
7. Also never use idioms while speaking with autistic children. Such expressions can only add to their state of confusion. You also should not ask them open-ended questions. Always try to be specific with them.
8. Always remember where the teaching of autistic children is the issue, repetition plays a vital role. They are slow learners and they can learn only through repetitions.
9. Autistic children love to stick to their daily routine. So if there arises any situation that necessitates the change of their daily routine, inform them beforehand, otherwise it might upset them.
10. Finally a rule of thumb for teaching such children is to make extensive use of the teaching learning materials and visual aids. These teaching-learning models will help them understand the concept more quickly and effectively.
The tips mentioned above will help the teachers greatly who have newly started to work with autistic children. So put the tips to use to see the result they yield.
