1. Teaching Students With Autism Spectrum Disorders/Pervasive Developmental Disorders
Vaughn, Bos, Schumm

2. Focus Questions
What are autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and what disabilities are included in this category?
What are the most prevalent characteristics of children with ASD?
What types of assessments are done to identify students with ASD?
What general instructional accommodations would you consider for students with an ASD?
What might you do to assess a student with ASD who engages in severe challenging behavior?

3. Definitions of ASD and PDD
Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) is a diagnostics category used by the APA to describe five related disabilities:
Autism
Rett Syndrome
Childhood Disintegrative Disorder
Asperger Syndrome (no longer a category)
Pervasive Development Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a term to describe a subgroup of PDD, namely autism.

4. Autism
Autism is a developmental disability that typically appears during the first 3 years of Life.
In order to diagnose a child with autism features must be documented in three areas:
Six or more of any combination of the following:
Impairments in social interactions
Impairments in communication
Stereotypical behavior
Onset before age 3
Note: Changes to the DSM Criteria in 2013

5. High Functioning Autism (formerly) Asperger Syndrome
High Functioning Autism syndrome is the next most common PDD. These students have impairments in social skills, abstract thinking, and the ability to relate to and identify emotions but have normal IQ’s and extensive verbal abilities.

6. Diagnosis
Disorder is diagnosed by documenting behaviors in six different areas:
Qualitative impairments in social interactions
Stereotypical behavior such as abnormal preoccupation with one or more areas of interest or focus, inflexible adherence to routines or rituals, and stereotyped motor mannerisms.
Presence of an impairment in a social, occupational, or vocational area.
No clinically significant delay in language.
No clinically significant delays in cognition, self-help, adaptive skills, or curiosity about the environment.
Must not meet the criteria for schizophrenia.

7. Loss of social engagement
Rett Syndrome
A child diagnosed with Rett syndrome must have normal prenatal and perinatal development, normal psychomotor development for the first 5 months, and normal head circumference. Child must exhibit normal development in the following areas until a loss of skills occurs between 5 and 48 months:
Deceleration of head growth
Poor gait or trunk movements
Loss of hand skills
Severely impaired receptive and expressive communication
Loss of social engagement

8. Childhood Disintegrative Disorder
Child must have a normal pattern of development through age 2
Between age 2 and 10 child demonstrates a regression of skills in two or more of the following areas:
Language
Motor skills
Social skills
Delay in social interaction
Adaptive skills
Delay in communication
Bowel or bladder control
Delay in stereotypic behavior
Play Skills

9. Characteristics of Students with ASD/ASD High Functioning
Social skills:
Do not interact with other people in a typical fashion (National Research Council, 2001)
Have difficulty seeing the world from the perspective of another person (Theory of Mind)
Have difficulty regulating their emotions

10. Characteristics of Students with ASD/ASD High Functioning
Communication skills:
Many children with autism do not talk at all (National Research Council, 2001)
Those who develop language use it in unnatural ways
Body language rarely matches what students are saying
Have difficulty expressing wants and needs

11. Characteristics of Students with ASD/ASD High Functioning
Repetitive behaviors and Routines:
Many students with autism engage in repetitive behaviors and routines (National Research Council, 2001)
Some tend to insist on sameness or consistency in the environment
May be preoccupied with very specific interests

12. Identification and Assessment of Students With ASD
Most are diagnosed in early childhood
Teachers will be involved in initial evaluations and assessments as well as ongoing assessment and reevaluation
Assessment of contextual variables are important, many students may only exhibit skills in one context

13. Curricular and Instructional Guidelines for Students With ASD
Assess preferences
Get a “picture” of the student’s likes and dislikes in terms of activities
Assess contexts students find difficult
Assessments should be conducted two times per year
Establish a classroom routine
Organize classroom activities
Communicate daily routine to students
Involve student as much as possible in routine development
Consider students high- and low preference activities in design
Establish routine early

14. Curricular and Instructional Guidelines for Students With ASD
Teach Communication Skills
Develop a comprehensive plan of skills to be taught
Daily schedule should involve massed trials strategy
Teach communication skills as part of natural context
Collaborate with Speech and Language Pathologist to identify best Augmentative or Alternative Communication (AAC) device

15. Curricular and Instructional Guidelines for Students With ASD
Teach Social Skills
There is a great deal of overlap between communication and social skills
Teach skills to initiate appropriate social interactions, respond to social initiation from others, and termination of social interactions
Teach students how to use social skills in appropriate contexts
Social skills targeted for instruction include:
Initiating conversations with others
Maintaining conversations
Responding to initiations
Responding to criticism

16. Social Problem Solving
Social problem solving involves teaching social skills you want students to perform
Skills taught include: maintaining appropriate distance from others when initiating and interaction, and strategies to monitor and manage behavior

17. Social Story Interventions
Social story interventions are based on premise that children with ASD are unable to interrupt the social context or imagine the perspective of others in social interactions.
Social Story is an individualized short story designed to clarify a particular social context, the perspectives of others in that context, and the social skills to be performed.

18. Guidelines for Developing Social Stories (Gray, 2000)
Stories should be tailored to student’s comprehension level.
Stories may consist of a series of simple sentences and/or picture cues that describe the context and provide examples of desired responses, explain perspectives of others, and explain rules of social engagement.
Stories should provide a description of social context and social exchange and directive in telling the student how to behave

19. Addressing Challenging Behavior
Challenging behavior is defined as behavior by a child that results in self injury or injury to others, causes damage to the physical environment, interferes with acquisition of new skills, and/or socially isolates the child (Sigafoos, Arthur, & O’Reilly, 2003)
Challenging behaviors can be a form of communication for students with disabilities

20. Addressing Challenging Behavior
Ways to address challenging behavior include:
Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA)
Indirect assessment
Direct assessment
Functional analysis
Positive Behavioral Support (PBS)
Based on sound behavioral science of human behavior
Interventions must be practical and based on FBA results
Consider the social value during assessment and intervention process