1. The Basics of Autism
Spectrum Disorders
Training Series
Regional Autism Advisory Council of
Southwest Ohio (RAAC-SWO)
RAAC Training Committee 2011

2. Training Series Modules
 Module One: Autism Defined, Autism Prevalence
and Primary Characteristics
 Module Two: Physical Characteristics of Autism
 Module Three: Cognition and Learning in Autism
 Module Four: Getting the Student Ready to Learn
 Module Five: Structuring the Classroom
Environment
 Module Six: Using Reinforcement in the Classroom

3. Training Series Modules
 Module Seven: Autism and Sensory Differences
 Module Eight: Sensory in the Classroom
 Module Nine: Communication and Autism
 Module Ten: Communication in the Classroom
 Module Eleven: Behavior Challenges and Autism
 Module Twelve: Understanding Behavior in
Students with Autism

4. Training Series Modules
 Module Thirteen: Social Skills in the School
Environment
 Module Fourteen: Functional Behavior Assessment
 Module Fifteen: Working Together as a Team
 Module Sixteen: Autism and Leisure Skills to
Teach
 Module Seventeen: Special Issues of Adolescence
 Module Eighteen: Safety and Autism
 Module Nineteen: Special Issues: High
School, Transition, and Job Readiness

5. Training Series Modules
 Module Twenty: Asperger Syndrome: Managing and
Organizing the Environment
 Module Twenty-One: Asperger Syndrome:
Addressing Social Skills

6. High School
Adolescence is a challenging time for typical children.
It is especially hard for adolescents with autism. They
are:
 Socially sensitive
 Note differences with peers
 Time of great change and transition
 Peers are planning their futures
 Health risks include depression and seizures

7. Special Considerations
High school students with autism need:
 Structure and consistency but with some flexibility.
 Schedules – use notebooks or consider I-Phones or I-Pad to keep schedules –
we all use them.
 Teaching that matches their learning style.
 Preparation for change and transitions.
 Positive attention and acknowledgement of their special gifts; look for
specialized interest groups where they can show their talents or special
knowledge.
 Direct teaching of social rules and opportunities for practice.
 Encouragement for social interaction with options to work independently.
 Motivators that include things that interest them.
 Shared learning environments with peers as much as possible.

8. Big Idea
High School students with autism may
need the same level of supports that
they used in earlier grades. Just
because they are older does not mean
that supports (i.e. schedules, organizers)
should be taken away.

9. Special Issues of High School
Social Interaction with Peers
Bullying
Sexuality

10. Social Interaction with Peers
Individuals with ASD typically struggle to respond to
and understand the social aspects of a situation.
 Without intervention and support these challenges can result
in poor communication and strained social relationships with
teachers and peers, including bullying.
 Students may need time to learn the skills and rules, including
changes in routine and where to go for help.
 Need for social skills may range from basic skills, such as how
to have a conversation, to reading social cues and interpreting
another’s point of view.
 Social instruction needs to be directly taught since the
student with autism often does not learn social rules by
observation alone.

11. Bullying
 Bullying often begins in earlier grades but can
intensify in high school.
 Most people with autism report bullying experiences
in school.
 Some research indicates that 94 percent of
children with Asperger Syndrome are bullied in
school.
 Bullying further isolates high school students with
autism from their peers at a time when they most
want to “fit in”.

12. Key Components of Bullying
 Power imbalance – A bully may be stronger, have
better social awareness or social status, and have
other physical or psychological advantages.
 Intent to harm – A bully may take negative actions
with intent to generally cause physical and emotional
suffering or injury.
 Distressed target – A bully often focuses on a
person who is most different than most of the
others in the group.
 Repeated negative actions – Bullying is not a simple,
one-time event. It is a series of attacks that tens to
escalate over time.

13. Signs of Bullying
Consider the following signs or behaviors that a
student is the target of bullying:
 More scratches and bruises than usual – Other students may
be pushing, punching, or excessively roughhousing with the
student.
 School avoidance – Student may want to stay at home or have
school refusal, complaining of a stomachache or other illness.
The stress may even lead to real physical illness.
 Changes in character – Student may appear more sad or
depressed. The student may act out the behavior toward him
with becoming a bully to others or even pets.

14. What Can I Do About
Bullying?
 Don’t underestimate bullying’s effects on students, especially
those with differences. It leaves lifelong scars.
 Educate other staff about the serious damage of bullying and
openly discuss concerns that you may have for specific
students.
 There are specialized curriculums to teach students about
bullying and what to do. Awareness is a powerful tool.
 Bullying is a covert activity and bullies most often do not do it
openly, especially in front of adults. Give students safety
strategies, such as traveling in a group or hallway routes that
might avoid potential bullying situations.

15. Big Idea
Difficulties in reading nonverbal social cues
may be part of the reason why children with
autism, especially Asperger Syndrome, have
such a high rate of bullying. You must directly
teach social skills to students with autism and
practice them every day.

16. Autism and Sexuality
 Sex and sexuality is a hard topic, especially related to learners
with ASD, and one that we might rather avoid.
 Sexuality is an integral part of the personality of everyone.
 Avoiding discussion and active teaching about sexuality and can
hurt our students in the long-term if it is not addressed openly
and honestly.
 As with other social skills or interactions, the individual with
autism is not going to learn the cultural rules or norms about
sex without being directly instructed.
 Schools need to be in partnership with students’ families as
sexuality issues are addressed.

17. Myths About Sexuality and
the Individual with Autism
 Persons with ASD have little or no interest
in sexuality.
 Persons with ASD are hypersexual, or have
an higher than normal interest in sex.
 Persons with ASD are solely heterosexual.

18. The Truth Is…..
 Persons with ASD are sexual beings, as are all of us.
 Individuals with ASD may have sexual feelings that
are out-of-sync with their level of social
development and awareness.
 As individuals with autism grow older, their social
and sexual skills sets are likely to show a wider
difference from their chronological age and
appearance.
 Other people will base their expectations on their
chronological age, NOT their developmental age.

19. Guidelines to Teaching
Sexuality
 Think ahead and be proactive. Do not wait until the
student demonstrates an “inappropriate” sexual
behavior.
 Be concrete.
 Be serious, calm, and supportive.
 Break larger areas of information into smaller, more
manageable ideas.
 Be consistent and be repetitive.

20. Big Idea
What we do not know CAN hurt us. Be
proactive in teaching students with autism
about sex and sexuality before they
demonstrate “inappropriate” sexual behaviors.
These behaviors can target the student and
make them even more the brunt of peer
teasing or bullying.

21. Another Big Idea
Sexuality Education increases the
likelihood that people with disabilities
will either have the skills to stay safe, or
will be more likely to report victimization
after it occurs.

22. Transition Planning
 Transition planning requires making a plan for the
student with autism for life after school.
 Federal law requires that transition planning in
schools must take place by age 16 for students with
disabilities. Ohio law asks that this planning begin by
age 14.
 For students with autism, transition steps need to
be small and incremental.
 Transition skills cannot wait to be taught at age 14.

23. Transition Planning Priorities
 Solicit student and family input as to
where they want to be in 1 year, 5
years, 10 years.
 Survey current and future
environments.
 Assess the skill needs across
environments in terms of work, social,
and navigation skills.

24. And…..
 Prioritize skills that occur across multiple
environments.
 Attend to safety skills.
 Attend to skills that reduce dependence.
 Attend to skills that you will need to provide
future support persons.

25. Ultimate Transition Strategy
When speaking about skill development always
remember that for a specific skill:
1. If you can teach the skill, teach it.
2. If you can’t teach the skill, adapt it.
3. If you can’t adapt it, find some way around it.
4. If you can’t figure a way around it, teach other
folks to deal with it.

26. Basic Transition Skills for All
Students
1. The ability to assess themselves including skills and
abilities and the needs associated with their
autism.
2. Awareness of the accommodations that they might
need.
3. Knowledge of their rights to these accommodations.
4. The advocacy skills necessary to express their
needs across multiple environments.

27. Some Useful Transition to
Community Skills
 Personal Mobility  Safety Skills
 Seeking Assistance  Endurance
 Self Checking for Job  Functional
Quality Communication
 Self Monitoring for  Age-referenced
Behavior Clothing and Hygiene
 Social Interaction
Skills

28. Big Idea
Most people spend 75-80 percent of their
lives as an adult. Autism does not go away
when the child leaves school. We need to
give our students the skills and supports
that they will need to see success as adults
in the community, work, and college.

29. Job Readiness and
Successful Employment
 There is a need to redefine work readiness. We often
underestimate or create barriers for student’s work readiness.
Most job readiness is on the job training with sufficient
supports.
 Time needs to be spent on co-worker training to support the
individual with autism on the job.
 The need is to teach self-advocacy and the individual’s ability
to ask for help when it is needed.
 Autism awareness needs to promote competence over
disability.
 Must attend to the social dimension of the job and teach those
skills.
 Pay attention to job match considerations.

30. Job Match
 Job match is goodness of fit of person to the job.
This includes physical and social aspects of the work
environment.
 To the largest degree possible, job must meet the
individual’s needs of challenge, interest, comfort,
social supports, status, hours, pay & benefits.
 Teach the skills that are important to the specific
job and in that specific environment.
 This includes the social skills of the workplace. The
number one cause for job loss or inability to find
appropriate employment is lack of social skills.

31. Big Idea
Teaching wrong or inconsequential
skills well is no better than teaching
right or important skills poorly.