How to Educate Autistic Children

With the passing of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1990, schools are required to offer "free and appropriate education" to any child with autism, a neurological disorder that affects social interaction and communication skills. Many schools may struggle with the financial burden of properly educating a child with autism, however, so early identification and intervention is the key to success.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

1. Identify the symptoms of autism early in a child's development. These symptoms may include a lack of socialization skills, hyperactivity, decreased verbal communication, a strong need for routine and a general lack of interest in outside activities. Often these symptoms are identified by parents within the first 3 years of the child's life, but in milder cases of autism, it may take longer for definitive symptoms to develop.
2. Develop an individualized education program (IEP) with parents, teachers, school administration officials and the school psychologist to educate autistic children. This plan should be implemented as soon as the autism is properly identified. Special consideration must be given to dedicating enough one-on-one time with the child and a trained therapist.
3. Use behavior modification techniques to educate autistic children, which will help them to develop more appropriate sets of responses in social interactions. A therapist must explicitly show the autistic child the correct response to every social situation and ignore all inappropriate behaviors. Once the right response is given by the child, she is rewarded and praised, reinforcing the correct set of behaviors.
4. Educate autistic children at home. Parents must dedicate themselves to maintaining an environment that is consistent with the environment in the school. This is important in cases where the school may not be able to maximize resources for the child due to a lack of finances or trained personnel.
5. Plan to educate autistic children beyond their school years, as they make the transition into adulthood. While many autistic children can succeed in an academic environment, some vocational programs can teach the child how to function in the world as an adult without constant supervision.

Tips & Warnings

• With Asperger's Syndrome, which is a milder, more functional type of autism, a proper diagnosis may not be obtained until the child is older, possibly as old as 7 or 8. Asperger's Syndrome can often be mistaken for another type of learning disability.