Autism Acceptance Unit

4 Aug 2025 · 2 min

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2:01

In this presentation, the speaker outlines an updated Autism Acceptance Unit designed for use in general education classrooms. The unit, originally launched as an April Autism Acceptance Initiative about 15 years ago, has been refreshed with more inclusive language and imagery. The speaker describes how the unit was integrated into “Jenna” classrooms, noting positive teacher participation and student engagement that helped shift school culture toward neurodiversity and inclusion. The curriculum is organized into three tiered levels—Level 1 for younger grades, Level 2 for intermediate grades, and Level 3 for junior high/high school—each offering lesson recommendations, book suggestions, and a variety of activities. Core components include discussion prompts (e.g., ways to be a good friend to an autistic person, sensory facts, KWL‑style prompts), interactive symbols (the infinity symbol), and true/false myth‑busting items to correct common misconceptions. The overall aim is to provide educators with concrete, age‑appropriate tools to foster acceptance and understanding of autistic students throughout the school year.

Chapters

So we have recently updated our Autism Acceptance Unit with new, more inclusive language and more inclusive images. I'm going to share some photos of that in a second. This unit is really designed to use with general education classrooms. This was something I started doing probably about 15 years ago when I was in the classroom. I started doing lessons in gen ed classrooms, and this was something that really changed the culture and dynamic in my school. I started this as like an April Autism Acceptance Initiative. Um, you can do this anytime throughout the year, but it was a good like prompt and reminder to do this, and I absolutely loved doing this. So I actually offered to teach lessons in the Jenna classrooms. Jenna teachers jumped on this opportunity. I did a sign-up. I did this during my prep, and I loved having discussions with Jenna classrooms. Jenna students had great questions. Kids want to know what's happening. These are kids that are included within their day, and having these conversations and promoting ways to incorporate neurodiversity and inclusion And really acceptance is so important and this unit really teaches how to do that. I'm gonna show that in a second. Okay, so here's our updated Autism Acceptance Unit. There is a ton included, lesson recommendations, book recommendations, and there's a lot of different levels. So whatever types of grades you wanna teach, there are different types of activities included. There is kind of this level 1 that I would say is for younger grades. Then we get into kind of level 2, some more advanced facts, and then level 3 for maybe junior high and high school if you're teaching those lessons. Ways to be a good friend to an autistic person, different ways to look at sensory facts. Know, want to know, learn. These are great ways to just prompt discussions and ask questions. So all kinds of ways to include different activities with the infinity symbol, discussion prompts. So lots of different things included here. True and false things. I love including the true and false. Great way to catch those myths and facts and some things that people might think are true but actually are not.