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Autism Education: What More Do School Districts and Parents Need to Do?
If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a country to provide lifelong supports for someone with autism. Parents, school districts, and local, state and federal governments need to collaborate to ensure that individuals on the autism spectrum are provided with programs designed to meet...
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Organizing Virtual Learning Materials for Students with Autism
Due to COVID-19 pandemic, many K-12 schools have implemented virtual instruction and/or hybrid instruction for all students including students with disabilities. For students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), lack of organization and inability to stay focused may impact their success in...
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What Happens When the Teacher Is on the Spectrum? An Interview with a Pre-Service Teacher with ASD
With more and more people with ASD becoming adults, enrollment in higher education is also increasing for this population. Science, technology, engineering, and math majors are popular with students with ASD but what about education? An undergraduate education major with ASD was interviewed about...
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Transitioning Back to School During COVID: Using Visuals and Other Evidence-based Strategies for Children with Autism
To say that schools have changed a lot in the past few months is an understatement. And, as a result, our students need to learn new rules and routines before they can start learning about academics. At the beginning of each school year, you typically teach this information. This year, it is much...
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Giving Girls a Chance: Educating Females with Autism
While autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is more prominent in males, females are also diagnosed at much lower rates (Autism Speaks, 2019). Females diagnosed with ASD require similar services in addition to diverse gender specific supports from their special education teachers and related service...
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Using Summer Programming to Prepare for Post-Secondary Education
Each year 50,000 young adults on the autism spectrum turn 18 years of age (Roux et al., 2013). How can parents and educators ensure that these young people are ready for the transition to post-secondary life? A good number of these young people are academically ready and prepared for the...
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Learning Neurodiversity in a College Program for Middle / High School Students with ASD
College students without disabilities are not cognizant enough of the different needs of neurodiverse students. The commonality concept of neurodiversity, of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) being deserving of equal opportunity (Silberman, 2015), is not evident frequently with students...
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Scaffolding Communications Skills for Elementary Students with Autism
When I decided to teach elementary Autistic children, my first task was to query many teachers as to their students’ learning styles. One size doesn’t fit all. Some students with autism learn visually, others need to listen intently, some draw, and others need to write things out. In most...
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Back to School Tips for Parents of Children with Special Needs
As families soak up the last few weeks of summer vacation, they may be starting to think about back to school tips for the new school year approaching. For parents of children with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities, it can take a significant amount of preparation to create a seamless...
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Communication Challenges in College Students with ASD
In addition to the typical challenges faced by young adults pursuing post-secondary education, those with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis face unique challenges related to deficits in social communication. These include deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, such as taking turns in a...
