100 Ideas for Supporting Pupils on the Autistic Spectrum

100 Ideas for Supporting Pupils on the Autism Spectrum (Francine Brower, Continuum Press) is a compilation of 100 "ideas", but this is more than a "tips and tricks" book. It addresses the important topics in a comprehensive though brief and to the point way. Divided into eight sections, the 100 ideas addresses many of the challenges specific to students with autism and suggestions to help meet them.

The 100 Ideas address challenges that students face in inclusive intermediate, middle school and high school settings. Brower offers suggestions to help high functioning students with autism and Asperger's Syndrome navigate the challenges of content oriented courses.

The first four sections address the challenges of students with autism spectrum disorder that most characterize them, including need for structure, difficulty with communication, difficulty with transitions and change, and sensory needs/sensory overload.

Section One: Enhancing Understanding lays out foundational practices: Good practices for all (successful strategies for students with autism are successful for all students,) routines (one of my favorites) and keys to not over reacting to the differences that are too typical of students on the spectrum, especially a lot more honesty than is good for social relationships.

Section Two: Enabling Communication Difficulty with communication is the greatest challenge for students on the spectrum, even students with Asperger's Syndrome who may present as if they were little professors. Their problem is that they have language but fail to understand the social information that is communicated non-verbally. They also often misunderstand because they lack the ability to understand symbolic language, idioms, or the emotional content of language. Ideas 13 through 21 cover everything from understanding idioms to creating opportunities to practice conversational skills.

Section Three: Developing social skills addresses an area of great need, and one that often impedes student's academic success. Ideas 22 through 32 provide timely and spectrum appropriate ideas. Unlike some authors with academic background, the ideas reflect someone who has dealt on a daily basis with the challenges of the spectrum. Take for instance Idea 25: the Eyes Have It. Eye contact is an ongoing issue with students on the spectrum: who do you give it to? When you do you break it? (So you don't freak people out?)

Section Four: Creating the Right Environment Okay, I like this book because Brower thinks like me. For me the emotional and physical environment are critical for success. I emphasize that my classroom first of all needs to be a safe place for my students on the spectrum. She offers lots of important ideas, especially about the ways in which a calm environment helps students on the spectrum feel safe in a classroom. I'm sure many content area teachers would never have thought of Idea 38: sensory overload, and how a smell might hinder a child with an autism spectrum disorder: a class near the kitchen might so seriously distract a student near lunch time as to make success impossible.

Sections Five Through Eight address challenges that are created for students on the spectrum just because of the kinds of institutions that are public schools. They way in which we move children from their homes into institutional settings, the way the setting are created to handle so many children, and the way in which we structure the assessment and feedback (marks in the UK an Canada, grades in the U.S.) often create problems specifically because of the challenges of Autism. Perhaps one of the gifts from this huge surge in diagnoses may be that it has made us modify and differentiate instruction in ways that are good for all children, not just children with disabilities.

Section Five: Coping Strategies Ideas 49 through 61 address specific school issues that are often problems for Students on the Autism Spectrum, like substitutes (my kids are a mess, even though I do prepare them when I know I will be absent.) Among the resources mentioned are Social Stories (TM) I love using what I call social narratives (as Carol Gray holds the trademark.)

Section Six: Establishing foundations for learning. The ideas here, number 62 through 76, provide strategies to help support students academic behavior, and address some specific issues, such as their difficulty in organizing ideas (as in Idea 64, Making Links) or the need to keep thorough records of progress (Idea 76,)

Section Seven: Tackling the Curriculum. This section is perhaps the most cursory and offers the least detail. Perhaps it's because Autism is a spectrum disorder, and children on the spectrum bring ranges of abilities and strengths in some areas with huge deficits in others. Still, Brower does a good job of pointing out some specific avenues of success, especially the arts, that have less to do with the specific content and more to do with ways that the subject area can strengthen skills.

Section Eight: Facing the Challenge of Change Students with autism have difficulty with change, no doubt about it. The last Ideas, 92 to 100, offer suggestions to help teachers support students with autism as they meet the challenges of making changes, of taking risks that are necessary to succeed in the wider world.

My new teacher mentor also mentors Alternate Route to Certification teachers, and asked me for recommendations for books to give to new teachers. I will be recommending this book, especially for middle school and high school autism teachers. In my district (Clark County School District) secondary autism teachers teach some students in self contained classrooms, but have others they coach in resource classes or general education classes. This book is a great resource for students entering middle school or secondary school.

This is a great book for new teachers of students with autism, especially in states where there is no special endorsement required, or where autism students are dumped indiscriminately into resource rooms or onto caseloads without any knowledge of the teacher's strengths or understanding.

Finally, this is a great book to share with general education teachers who either are co-teaching or who have students with Asperger's syndrome in their classes. Rather than just dump the accommodations page on them, maybe you could share this book with a general education partner.

Limitations: This is an engaging and well written book. Unfortunately, the editors of Criterion were a little loose with the UK specific terms and jargon: There were some abbreviations that were a little bit confusing, though I was able to decipher Supply Staff (substitute teacher,) staff room (teacher's lounge) and secondary school (high school,) but the abbreviations left me completely at sea.

The book is a bit pricey: at $20.95 it is a bit high a book of only 118 pages, but it is quality.

Okay, that's a little over the top, but I loved Idea 47:

Setting: "I would argue that the best place for a pupil on the autistic spectrum is in a class where the management is strong and the environment is conducive to learning."

In other words, the best place for a student on the autism spectrum is not in a leveled class with the disabled or the un-motivated. Amen. Brower recommends that the best place may be in an advanced class.

I have found that true: one of my guys is having and outstanding run in an accelerated 8th grade science class, because not only is it a well run class, the students have made an effort to help him, and he is doing well at his own level. Ironically, another reason it is successful for this student is there is a great deal of emphasis on collaborative learning groups.