When educators found out the beginning of school was going to be all online, teachers became very stressed on how this would work, but especially inclusion special education teachers. My interviewer, Joanne Spino, quickly began to plan on how she would teach her 7 students virtually. As stated by Donald Stenhoff (2020), many online schools use learning instruction websites such as Canvas, Google Classroom, Schoology, Webex, and Zoom. Her school chose to use the Canvas platform. After researching Canvas, it became known Canvas wasn’t going to be an option for her students. Mrs. Spino created content-filled binders: Math, English, History, and Science. She personally delivered these to her students. As students with ASD learn best with visuals, she even created these visuals, all different to fit their more favorite things, and placed them in each of their binders (J. Spino, personal communication, February 12, 2021).

A major topic arouse while interviewing Joanne Spino; this was how to create an easy routine for her students with ASD to follow. She shared that in person, in the classroom, there were plenty of visuals around the room prompting and reminding the students of classroom routines, rules, and expectations; all things ASD students thrive on. In the classroom, they also have social stories. These explain what to do in case of an emergency (fire/intruder drill, lunch procedures). Inside these social stories, gives the students proper instruction on what is happening and suggests different ways to handle this situation- by providing different options, hopefully preventing frustration and outrage when an unexpected situation occurs (J. Spino. Personal communication. February 12, 2021). In the virtual learning environment, she would share visuals they would normally see in the classroom. Although it was very different to not have the consistent reminder of routines, rules, and expectations of the student, she felt she needed to review these everyday to keep her students in this new normal routine.

In school Occupational Therapy and Speech and Language are a big part of ASD students weekly routine and with the pandemic this brought a long conversation as to how this was being approached and handeled. The takeaway here for Speech and Language and Occupational Therapy services was unfortunate for these students. These services were presented weekly via Microsoft Teams, with a heavy amount of assistance from family members to help assist and monitor while these services were provided.