Differential Skills Curriculum

Attention skills for Autism:

Students who are in need of acquiring more appropriate attention skills may often be off topic, have difficulty attending to a task or assignment and struggle with sitting still.  They may also be disorganized and have trouble controlling their impulses, resulting in frequent calling out or off topic talking in class.

Primary Level Strategies:

1.  Pair oral instructions with visuals.

2.  Provide a list of tasks that need to be accomplished during a set time frame, and allow student to decide the order.

Activity:

Use string and clothes pins to hang a visual schedule in the classroom.  Allow students to remove, and change the order of the tasks that must be completed.

 

 

1.  Provide frequent physical breaks and avoid sitting for long periods of time.

2. Alternate between sitting and engaging in classroom activities

Activity:

Use a visual timer such as a digital timer or egg timer to time activities.  Once the time for the activity is finished, allow the students to get up and " shake out their wiggles".  Once all the giggles and wiggles are out, start the timer again to start a new activity or return to the old one.

                                                                     
Junior/ Intermediate Level Strategies:

1.  Use graphic organizers for the student to collect or interpret information.

2.  Post the daily schedule and review it with the whole class.  For children who require more of a visual schedule, they can be given a picture exchange communication (PEC) board of the same daily schedule.
 
Activity:

1.  Reward on-task behaviours.  When a student is able to stay focused and complete a task, reward them with something they enjoy.  Perhaps time on the computer, doing a puzzle, colouring, listen to music, or a mobile activity like rolling a ball in the hallway.

2.  Give few instructions at a time; use numbering or cueing systems for instruction.  "First you, second you, third you" or " First...and then....." or " Do A and then B and then C and then FINISHED!        

Activity:                     

         
Secondary Level Strategies:   

1.  Chunk assignments into parts and provide feedback when each step is finished.

2.   Provide a "leadership" role for the student in class, so that he or she are responsible for repeating instructions or writing them on the board.  The student could also be given the opportunity to create tasks on the computer for the teacher.

Activity:
Have the student write on the board at beginning of the class,  tasks that need to be completed.  When the tasks are done, the student could return to the board and write the next set of instructions that need to be followed.

                                                                      


1.  Use various technology tools so the student can better follow the lesson.

2.  Use differentiated teaching methods frequently, with various media forms.

Activity:
Use the computer as a means for students to create videos and pictures with cameras and audio through microphones.