Recommendations

Developing Skills

Academic and Personal Goals

Recommend:

• Working with (not against) a child's developmental trajectory, as well as with their natural way of learning (Fletcher-Watson, 2018). For instance Hyperlexic students often learn most easily through the written word.

• Giving adequate time to switch gears and to process.

• Tailoring subjects to a student's interest. An example would be getting a child who is interested in dinosaurs, books about dinosaurs, to make reading more fun!

• Consider learning methods that are a good fit for individual students including the Montessori Method (Martin, 2020).

• Access to special interests/SPINs.

• Access to inclusive arts (including music, dance and visual arts).
  

Communication

All types of communication should be accepted and valued including physical, written, visual, and sound based communication.

Recommend access to:

• Dual language instruction (including American Sign Language).

• Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices, which are useful for many non-speakers.

• Keyboards and not just handwriting.

• Voice to text (some can speak but do not have the motor control to type).

• Written and closed captioning supports available for students with auditory processing challenges and/or hyperlexic learners.

• Both low and high tech communication options (to be responsive to daily levels of need and preference).

Avoid:

• Asking students to “use their words.” For instance if a student is situationally mute, or maxed out, allowing for communication through pictures, gestures, or writing could be more effective and kind.

• Forcing “eye-contact” and “ being still" to communicate. Even if students are running around or not looking at an adult, sound can still be heard.

• Attempting to stop echolalia (repeating words). Because this is a natural approach for autistic people to learn language, it comes more easily, and therefore can be more effective. 

Resources:

• “Would You Accept This Behavior Towards a Non-Autistic Child?” (LoStracco, 2014)

• “‘Anything but the phone!’: Communication mode preferences in the autism community.” (Howard et al, 2021)

Supporting Quality of Life

Mental Health

Recommend:

• Being responsive and supportive of a child’s natural coping strategies
  and valuing their well-being (Leadbitter et al, 2021).

• Creative based therapies including art, music, dance and narrative therapies.

• Mindfulness therapy and talk therapy.

• The Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS) Model which focuses on learning the needs behind distressed behavior and then looking for solutions that meet those needs.

• Yoga (but not necessarily useful for those who are under-sensitive to touch).

• Acupuncture, for depression (Yang et al, 2022) and anxiety (Yang et al, 2021) if this works with a student’s preferences.

• Exercise.

• Access to animals including horseback riding, service animals, visiting animal shelters and having a pet (O'Haire, 2012-2015).

• Access to nature.

• Recognizing that the causes of depression and autistic burnout are different (Tavella et al, 2020) and have very different treatment approaches. Burnout largely needs rest and often private time to recharge and special interests often help. Activities and socializing could make burnout worse, not better.

• Addressing the increased risk of suicide in autistic people. Some areas to target include loneliness, and perceived quality of life (Bentum, et al, 2024).

• Support positive identities related to being autistic (Cooper, et al, 2017).

Consider Avoiding:

• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) as it has some overlap with ABA and some autistic people have found it abusive (Attwood et al, 2024 ; McCarty, 2021).

Resources:

• “The Autistic Burnout Symptom Checklist” (Nicholas, Dr., 2024).

• Autism and the double empathy problem: Implications for development and mental health (Mitchell, et al, 2021).

• Autistic Grief Is Not Like Neurotypical Grief (Fisher, 2012).

• “Searching for What Really Matters: A Thematic Analysis of Quality of Life among Preschool Children on the Autism Spectrum”. (Lichtlé, et al 2022).

• The “Autism Checklist of Doom” is a list of possible triggers of autistic meltdowns and shutdowns (Rosa et al, 2022).
  

Physical Comfort

Recommend:

• Addressing chronic physical pain (Asztély et al, 2019).

• Time to rest especially after a school day or a social event, including with naps and tubs. 

• Preferred foods (including same foods and beige foods) ideally covering all food groups. Vitamins can be supplemented to make up for any nutrition gaps.

• Classroom accommodations for sensory comfort if needed including for light, sound, and touch.

• Occupational therapy which supports sensory comfort and learning life skills when not tied to behaviorist approaches.

• Ensure that emotional distress does not have chronic physical pain as a cause, through medical checkups to consider this possibility (Asztély et al, 2019).

• For those who need to move more - equipment for sensory seeking at home (including trampolines, swings, climbing spaces, slides, places to hang, and sensory squeeze bags).

• Sensory kits can be created for self regulation that can be portable. Spaces can also be created in schools and in homes to decompress and regulate.

• Access to necessary sensory movement breaks and stim tools as needed, because they help with self regulation, and focus.

Avoid:

• Using sensory movement breaks and tools as a reward, or removing them (like recess) as a punishment.

• Do not use “exposure therapy” which can cause dissociation or endurance of pain (Heidel, 2020)
  

Nurturing Relationships

Socializing

Recommend:

• Social skills training and speech therapy can help autistic students learn the social rules of those who are not autistic. Innate autistic communication is just as effective (Milton, 2012, 2022) as non-autistic communication. Because of this, information about non-autistic social skills should be taught to autistic students not as an intervention but as a second language.

• Because autistic students are in the minority, how they communicate and socialize are often misinterpreted negatively by those who are not autistic (Mitchell, et al, 2021). Because of this it is also wise to teach social skills to non-autistic students so they don’t misjudge their autistic classmates.

• An emphasis on appreciating the beauty of autistic styles of communication (so autistic students can know themselves and also explain how they communicate best to others).

• Access to social groups for autistic students that do not push neurotypical socializing in any way. 

Avoid:

• Ban any friendship interventions that pair a child who is non-autistic with an autistic child for “friendship” or to teach autistic children how to socialize in a non-autistic fashion. Children can sense that these friendships are fake and feel humiliated.

• Gaslighting students about being disliked by peers or adults  (Alkhaldi et al, 2021).

• Putting the majority of blame of bullying on a student who is bullied. Many IEPs and 504 plans have goals for students to be more able to deflect and avoid bullying without a plan for stopping the students who are causing harm.

• Social groups that make students socialize in medium size to large groups without any common interests. One on one or very small group socialization is easier and less overwhelming so it is often preferred. Also neurodivergent students often prefer to make friends with other students with similar interests.

• Speech Therapy that includes ABA interventions.
  

Acceptance

Recommend:

• DIR Floortime can help caregivers connect with an autistic child if they are not also autistic (and don’t intuitively “get” their child). A caveat is that this service doesn’t include ABA.

• Authentic relationships where students are accepted for being themselves in their neurology, gender, race, ethnicity, etc.

• Access to a welcoming community of the student’s interest. This could be a church, a special interest group, etc.

• Allow neurodivergent students access to students with similarities (common interests or neurology) to allow for authentic friendships where they are cared for, for being themselves (Keates, et al 2022).

• Allow authentic friendships in school to continue by ensuring that a child is placed in the same classroom as their friends from semester to semester, and year to year.
  

Strengthening Autonomy

Masking

Recommend:

• Masking can be exhausting especially if done for long periods of time, and can increase the risk for burnout, and mental health issues. Because of this students should be made aware of the personal risks to masking and educators should endeavor to create school environments that are safe spaces for students to be themselves.

• Allow students to choose when and if they mask autistic traits to appear more neurotypical (Mandy, 2019).

• Access to acting lessons and/or improv classes. These can teach the ability to mask when necessary or when desired, but in a safe space where a person’s identity and self esteem is not lost.

Consider Avoiding:

• Acting and improv classes marketed specifically to autistic students, as these classes may include a social skills training component that has a goal to minimize neurodivergent socializing and communicating. Instead consider choosing inclusive classes that are open to all students and/or that are led by neurodivergent teachers.

Resource:

•  A Conceptual Analysis of Autistic Masking: Understanding the Narrative of Stigma and the Illusion of Choice (Pearson, et al, 2021).
  

Stimming

Recommend:

• That educators share with students that they recognize the value of stimming. (Jacques et al, 2018; Kapp et al, SK, 2019).

• Students who have been pushed to stop their stims over the years, may want help to relearn how to stim. Resources on how to do this can be shared with students and/or discussed with an occupational therapist.

Resource:

• How to Stim (Rose, 2023).
  

Self Advocacy

Recommend:

• Respect the child’s autonomy (Leadbitter et al, 2021).

• Support a student’s self advocacy skills (Cohen et al, 2022). This can include allowing a student the right to choose and refuse services as well as decide their classroom placement. This can also include asking a student what they need and being responsive to that ask (Bonnello, 2021).

• For older students who are under a conservatorship, their caregivers can learn about “Assisted Decision Making” which is a growing movement to offer disabled people more control of their lives, while receiving support from trusted advisors.

• Include the history of the disability rights movement, including the neurodiversity movement in school curriculum for all students. This allows students to see their lives in the context of the larger world and be aware of the advocacy for greater human rights for everyone.

• Seclusion, restraint and aversives have been proven to be ineffective in modifying behavior. In fact, they actually increase behavior in many children and have the potential to cause physical and long-lasting trauma to the child (Jones & Timbers, 2002). These practices should be proactively avoided.

Resources

• Neurodivergent Spoons & Forks: How to Explain Autism and Fatigue (Sullivan, 2020).

• “My autism is my own”: Autistic identity and intersectionality in the school context. (Cohen et al, 2022). 

Image Credit: Modified from Freepik.com