Autism
By: Kathy Gacek & Andrea Ledesma
Summary
Autism is a development disorder that affects the brain’s normal development of social and communication skills. Doctors and scientists really don't know where autism came from and how people actually get it because it is different for every person. Some people might have gotten this from a genetic mutations or disorders. Autism will mostly be detected in the early years of a child's life. This disorder makes the kids uncomfortable with talking in public and having a one on one conversation. However even if their social and communicational skills aren’t that great, autistic kids are very smart and usually excel in visual skills, music, art and math.
Characteristics
People with Autism..
Have a resistance to be held or touched.
Tend to get too close when speaking to someone.
Have difficulty reading facial expressions or body language.
Doesn't respond to his/her name
Play with toys unusually
Repeat everything
Behavioral Characteristics
covers ears a lot
does not respond to noise or name (acts deaf)
Does not react to pain
Becomes stiff when held, doesn’t like being touched
hits or bites self
hits or bites others
has temper tantrums for no apparent reason at all and is very difficult to calm down.
Social Characteristics
Won’t look someone in the eyes while speaking to them
Use very little or no eye contact
Have difficulty maintaining friendships
Have difficulty understanding jokes, figures of speech or sarcasm.
People with autism don’t like talking with people because it makes them nervous
Physical Characteristics
Sudden muscle movements
poor hand-eye coordination
problems with intentional movements
unusual sweating
- difficulty chewing or swallowing
Cognitive Characteristics
lack the ability to recognise social situation and what is going on in those situations.
don’t know how to respond at times or what the right response should be.
- autistic people are really smart they just have a hard time communicating what they want to say
Classroom Modifications
They get their own personalised schedule to meet their needs
They have to have a lot of visual presentations
Provide a clear beginning and end to activities
Give the student choices and control
The student could get a classroom aid
The school and teacher has to change up the activities they to
Allow extra time for to student to respond to a question
Provide pictures that the student to respond with