12 Ideas for Supporting Students with Autism in Virtual Classrooms
Creative supports are key to helping learners succeed in distance education. Try these 12 ideas to help students on the spectrum feel connected, stay engaged, and learn effectively in the virtual classroom and beyond.
Accommodations
Provide sensory support
Do your students need adapted seating? Handheld fidgets? A calming jar? These types of sensory tools are commonly found in physical classrooms and must be provided in virtual spaces as well. Work with your school’s occupational therapist to give students the support they need when they are learning at home.
Technology and Multimedia
Build great slideshows
Slideshows are the centerpiece of lessons in virtual classrooms. They need to be engaging and accessible for a wide range of learners. Make sure your font style and size are easy to read and add visuals (for example, diagrams, photos, and cartoons) to presentations to make them appealing to all.
Student engagement
Partner with paraprofessionals
In face-to-face learning, paraprofessionals are often critical to the success of an inclusive classroom. The same can be said of virtual education. If you have paraprofessionals on your team, consider all the ways in which they can support students, teachers, and learning experiences.
Technology and Multimedia
Record your lessons
Well-crafted instructional videos may not replicate the experience of sharing a physical classroom, but they can help students feel more connected to teachers and boost learning at the same time.
Accommodations
Accommodate them
Student accommodations need to be reexamined in the virtual classroom. Some remain unchanged when learning moves online, but others will need revisions. Work with students and their families to determine if supports from face-to-face instruction are still required and if any new accommodations will be needed.
Student engagement
Give your students choices
What do you want to read? What type of poem do you want to write? What app do you want to use to study your sight words? What podcast interests you? Use questions like these to give students opportunities to make choices every day.
Student engagement
Add toys and props
Do you want to breathe some life into a dull lesson? Are you noticing that your students need a comprehension boost? Would you like to increase student engagement? If so, introduce a magic wand, a stuffed toy, or even a houseplant into virtual learning experiences! Don a cape to transform into a superhero who is capable of solving any problem or decoding any word.
Student engagement
Give kids a break
Movement is a key strategy for supporting learning, boosting engagement, promoting retention of material, and preventing challenging behavior. Model movement breaks (e.g., exercises, dances, quick games) during daily instruction and introduce students to on-line resources that they can access during asynchronous learning experiences.
Social and Emotional Learning
Be mindful
Breathe. Reflect. Listen. Mindfulness strategies can be used and taught in virtual classrooms especially — but not exclusively — during stressful times like a pandemic. There is so much that is novel and potentially frustrating in distance education; use mindfulness supports to address challenges and create a sense of calm each day.
Technology and Multimedia
Add captions
Are you looking for a quick and easy way to make your lessons for accessible to all learners? If so, turn on the live captioning feature on the tools and platforms you are using and teach students to access captions on apps such as YouTube and Flipgrid.
Student engagement
Give students participation options
Some students with autism may feel comfortable unmuting their microphones to share comments and questions, but others will need other participation options. Teachers can provide choices to some students with identified needs or simply allow all learners in the classroom to contribute in ways that feel most comfortable for them.
Student engagement
Support special interests
Use student fascinations and special interests to inspire, comfort, challenge, and support students in virtual lessons, therapy sessions, and beyond. Favorite topics, items, and things can be integrated directly into lessons or they can be used to inspire conversation, encourage engagement, or build community.
