April is Autism Awareness Month (Photo/CDC)
By Karen Stokes
April is Autism Awareness Month, a way to bring awareness, honor and to celebrate those on the Autism Spectrum and their support system.
It’s critical that a child on the autism spectrum has a strong support system and gets the best education possible tailored to his or her unique needs.
Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder can gain so much from their educators, from general education to behavioral tactics. Unfortunately, Milwaukee has a dire need for special education teachers, especially those trained to work with students with autism.
Kassie McOmber, School Psychologist Advisor at Blazerworks (Photo/Kassie McOmber)
“I do think that special education staff can have more of a background and some knowledge from college courses teacher preparation for working with students on the autism spectrum. I think that oftentimes our general education classroom teachers don’t have a background in that. I do think that there would be a benefit in giving more additional training around the basics in the spectrum itself, how the students have different strengths, different needs, and appreciating students for who they are,” said Kassie McOmber, School Psychology Advisor at Blazerworks.
Some of the ways autism can affect learning include impairments of social skills, difficulty processing information quickly or accurately, sensory processing difficulties, communication difficulties, and higher levels of anxiety than typically developing individuals.
School culture can make a difference in the educational experience for children on the Autism Spectrum.
“The biggest impact on having students be more accepting and show inclusion towards students on the Autism Spectrum really starts with school culture,” said McOmber.
“Having a positive school culture that promotes kindness and acceptance and learning about others knowing that we’re all different and accepting those differences, I think that really sets the tone for including others.”
Collaboration when teachers work with other professionals like therapists and speech pathologists can help support the students.
“I think collaboration is key,” McOmber said. “I think it’s important for everyone to be on the same page about what works for the student services being provided which is all part of that guiding individualized education program (IEP) document but I think each team member brings a different perspective in a different background and knowledge and expertise. I think it’s great to have regular collaboration.”
McOmber said having different individuals with different expertise, that you can also plan for services together and even do like co-treatment together to work on the students goals are important. Speech language pathologists can bring great social language skills and to be able to interact with other students and adults that way, the occupational therapist can help support sensory regulation. And then school psychologists and social workers can also support practicing social skills and can kind of work together and work towards common goals for the student.
“Make sure that any program that you implement is of course based on what the students’ needs and goals are also something that’s appealing to them,” McOmber explained. “We really want students to be engaged with whatever program that we’ve seen a lot of success working with students that are on the autism spectrum, if you look at what their interests are, and then use those to kind of help guide your intervention.”
“I think in a perfect world, having more time for educators to plan for students, I think with teacher shortages and having professionals in the school, being teachers and educators to smaller caseloads and being able to really focus on working with students. I know that so many educators have great ideas and like I said, collaboration as well,” she said.
The World Health Organization reports about 1 in 100 children are diagnosed with autism and while it’s been over 50 years since the Autism Society held the first National Autism Awareness Month in April 1970, one group of individuals is rarely celebrated when it comes to impacting the lives of those with autism their educators.