Academic Supports
Calvin WH.pdfWH visual story map.pdfsight word mats - edmark through 24.pdfsight word mats - edmark with pictures.pdfEdmark 1-12 circles CD.pdfUtilizing a student's learning style or cognitive profile in individual academic tasks also increases joint attention in a way that is strengths-based and neurodiversity-affirming. If a child can only attend to circular or spherical items, for example, make all of their work circular or sphere-shaped! So many skills can be incorporated and taught using a child's learning style and interests.
Edmark 1-20 FlashCards.pdfEdmark words and pictures 1-8 - Google Docs.pdf114 DC Count Fish put on task.pdfcolor sorting - CD.pdf
Use student interests and learning style to naturally increase engagement; this can be super helpful when introducing new skills as well, such as matching, which requires the ability to visually discriminate, which requires joint attention!
Using interests within academic work is also very regulating for our children, since many have shared that their passionate interests help to regulate their nervous systems. Using passionate interests in individual academic activities increases intrinsic motivation, natural engagement, and joint attention to the tasks, in a way that is neurodiversity-affirming and strengths-based.
Cognitive overload can easily happen for our autistic students due to their differences in cognition, literal thinking style, sensory differences (too much visual stimuli, auditory processing), visual learners (for some) over verbal processing, etc. It is important to find the barrier(s) to the academic activity in order to avoid cognitive overload and relieve stress! Here is an article by Affect Autism with more insight on how cognitive load affects our autistic children, and strategies to support:
Davey-GAP-May-2020.pdfSome ideas to incorporate passionate interests to facilitate engagement and learning.