Supporting Autistic Learners in Specials Classes

Specials classes such as gym, music, art can sometimes be the most challenging time of the day for students with autism. Today I'm going to be sharing 3 simple strategies that you can embed into specials classes to prevent problem behaviors, help students communicate effectively, and help students feel more calm and happy during those specials classes. I'm Sasha Long. I'm a former special education teacher and board-certified behavior analyst and the founder of The Autism Helper. So let's jump into those 3 strategies. First up, use predictable routines and schedules that communicate those predictable routines. This is a must-have strategy for every setting in your school, meaning the cafeteria. We always wait in line, we always go sit down, we always clear our tray and clean up. We need those predictable sequences to be successful. We also need that in our specials classes. Along with that predictable routine, we need accessible and understandable schedules to communicate those predictable routines. This is a game changer strategy for preventing problem behavior. Unknown changes and having this anxiety about what's coming next can be a huge trigger for all kids. When we don't know what's coming, we feel stressed and nervous. We want our kids to be entering the gym, the music class, the art class, feeling calm, feeling happy, feeling ready to engage in that class. Schedules can really help make that possible. Schedules can have pictures, they can have words, they can have photos, they can have little drawings, whatever you want, but they have to be visual. So many of our students with and without a diagnosis struggle with receptive language processing, meaning they struggle to understand all of that verbal language we give them. When we give them the verbal schedule of, "Hey class, today in music we're gonna get in our groups, We're gonna get out a new instrument and then we're gonna play a game. Some of our kids have trouble processing that verbal language that we're giving them. Instead, let's use visuals to support that schedule. Visuals means pictures or text. Text is a visual too. So you want to think about where your kids' skill sets are at that are in your specials classrooms. Are they readers? Do they communicate via pictures and can they understand that more easily? Utilize something that is accessible for them. Pictures or photos is an awesome way to to communicate the schedule. Here we have an art class schedule. We're gonna do a teacher activity, then we're gonna paint, and then we're gonna do clay. What's great about this one, when we're done with each piece, we take it off so the student sees that they're getting to the end of the class. Okay, we're on our last activity, we're almost about to go. You can make something just like this with real photos, which I love. It's so easy to make real photo schedules. You grab your camera on your phone, take a bunch of pictures of the things in your class, and print it out like this. Awesome. Perfect for our older students, very age-appropriate and really concrete. It can be something something in this kind of setup where you have multiple activities, or it could just be a simple first-then. First we're gonna do group singing, then we're doing the drums. This is especially helpful if the student prefers the drums and they like are dying for that, right? If we can use this to explain that, hey, we're gonna get to the drums, don't worry, but first we're gonna do some singing together. So first singing, then we're doing drums, and this is their schedule. So these are evidence-based proactive strategies for preventing problem behavior that we have to invent. The last way that we can use visual schedules is just with text. Text is a visual, right? And we want to remember that with all of our students. I spend a lot of my time training teachers, both special ed and gen ed, on executive functions. And something that I talk about all the time, especially with gen ed teachers, is that you should write your agenda on the board at the start of the class period. For students that struggle with sustained attention and flexibility and receptive language processing, this is helpful for all of those students. So if you have a dry erase board in your class, or you don't, grab a clipboard like this, you're gonna write out what you're doing that day, right? Be like, alright guys, today in gym class we're gonna do warm-up, we're gonna get to our stations, we're gonna walk 2 laps, and then we're gonna stretch. So for our kids that need that extra processing time, they now have this visual to come back to. I mean, think about it for a second. When you go to a training, when you attend a presentation, typically that presenter has slides, right? The slides are typically text-based and they reinforce what the presenter is saying. That helps you process and engage with the content and increase your level of understanding. Same thing with these schedules. So schedules are a must-have. Alright, strategy number 2 for our specials classes for supporting our students with autism is to have communication visuals accessible, meaning these visuals are out, they're Velcroed to the wall, they're on the desk, they're there ready to go, not tucked away in a little file cabinet somewhere. They're out and ready to go. So a lot of students with autism may struggle with expressive or receptive language, meaning they struggle to verbally express themselves. They may use an AAC device or some other types of communication systems, and they may struggle to understand all of the verbal language that we're giving them, which we just talked about. So we want to have communication visuals accessible to support both expressive and receptive language development. So we want to have tools that can support our kids in answering questions when they may have limited verbal skills. Like maybe we do something in gym and you might say like, "Oh, how does this activity make you feel?" to make sure that, you know, it isn't something that they're uncomfortable with or they're bored, "Oh, this is super fun. You know, I love playing basketball," if we're doing something new. Having tools out that allow a student to say, "Hey, this is too loud." Remember, some of these spaces that our kids are in for specials can be a source of sensory overload. The gym, the music room, the art room. There are a lot of new smells, new sounds, new things happening there that could be overwhelming. So, we want to be able to give our kids tools to express that. That, "Hey, you know what? I don't like this right now. I don't want to do this." And have this accessible that they can hand it to you. Be modeling and allowing for that. Visuals don't have to be clipart. Again, as we said, visuals can also be real photos. So maybe you have real photo visuals that give options on how to feel or using a calming strategy. This is going to tie into our next set of strategies in a minute. But have these visuals out in your classroom. If you are a special ed teacher, if you are a gym, music, art, library teacher, and you're like, "I don't know how to make all these," go to your special ed teacher and they can help you, and they will know what visuals will be a good fit for the students in your class. This will help your students feel more comfortable comfortable, more confident that they can accurately and appropriately express their wants and needs. All right, we talked about schedules, we've talked about communication visuals. The last set of strategies for supporting students with autism during specials is allowing and offering breaks. So as I just mentioned, some of these settings may be challenging for our students. Think about it— the gym, it's big, it has fluorescent lights, it echoes, there's maybe multiple classes in there at one time. Some schools have two classes having gym class together. Together. There is unfamiliar activities. All of these can be triggers for some kids. It is a sensory overload for them, and they may need a break to regain composure, to de-escalate, to utilize those calming strategies. So we want to allow and offer those breaks always. I would much rather have my student ask for a break, leave the setting, take an appropriate break, and come back to rejoin the room versus pushing them past the point where they feel safe and causing a meltdown or a major behavior incident. None of us want that to happen, the child or the educators, right? So we want to allow those breaks. This does not mean they're getting out of class, "Oh, they're just escaping." This is something that they truly need. So we want to have tools available in those settings, in the gym, in the music class, in the art class, that students can appropriately ask for a break. Break visuals like this are great because it shows maybe how many breaks they can get. If a student has limited verbal skills, they can easily go ask the teacher for this. They can hand this to the teacher or the aide and allow them to take that break. When they use this tool, we are reinforcing it and we are going to give that break right then. This is a nice one, checking off when we take a break. We could have different cards available for the type of break. Hey, I'm gonna go for— get a drink of water, or I just need a break. Sometimes walking out of the setting, getting a drink of water, and coming back is enough to regain that composure. So tools like this are great. You can have this set of visuals on your lanyard with you all day so you don't to think about, oh my gosh, this class is coming, I need to be ready with visuals. You can have this right here. And when you see a child starting to escalate, we know those precursor behaviors, right? Maybe they start rocking more, start getting louder, start fidgeting. We all have precursor behaviors when we start to get anxious or upset. When you see that, as the, as the educator, swoop in and be like, how we doing? Do you need a break? And be right there with your visual. And if they say, yep, I need a break, point to it. Great, let's get out of here. Let's go take a few minutes in the hallway. And a paraprofessional can support that child going to the hallway and then resuming and coming back to class. Alright, for our specials classes— gym, music, library, art, technology— our 3 sets of strategies for supporting our autistic learners are using schedules and predictable routines, having communication visuals accessible, and offering and reinforcing those breaks. Honestly though, these strategies are helpful for all learners with or without a diagnosis. So many students are struggling with executive functions, are struggling with behaviors, are struggling with impulse control, and these strategies will help all of those learners and help your specials classes be more successful, more engaging, and have less negative behaviors. I'm Sasha Long from The Autism Helper. Click follow for more behavior strategies.