We are excited to release this new 3-part online professional development course series, created in partnership with expert-author Catherine Faherty. These courses will help teachers and paraeducators working with students with autism spectrum disorder better understand and implement structured teaching best practices! Watch this short overview video to learn more!
Students with an autism spectrum disorder – or ASD – think, learn and process information very differently from most of their peers. Beyond the facts and figures of classroom subjects like math and language arts, there’s an enormous amount of subtle and not-so-subtle data that students must pay attention to, interpret, organize and act upon. Students with ASD also need to observe what’s going on around them and plan and monitor their own actions and responses – while functioning in an overwhelming sea of sensory information.
But students with ASD may have more difficulty pulling the most important information from the chaotic environment of that sensory sea. It can be a struggle to make sense of the moment – to make decisions about what to do and then to act on their decisions in that moment. Structured teaching is a key evidence-based intervention strategy designed to address these issues.
Structured Teaching – Part 1: Individualized Visual Daily Schedules
The goal of this course is to explain the positive effects of the schedule for students with ASD, and how school staff can develop and use it with their students.
Topics include:
Structured Teaching – Part 2: Work Systems
The goal of this course is to explain the positive effects of organized physical environments and work systems for students with ASD, and how school staff can develop and use them with their students.
Topics include:
Structured Teaching – Part 3: Tasks and Activities
The goal of this course is to support increased independence and greater accessibility and engagement for your students through the use of structured tasks and activities.
Topics include:
Catherine Faherty has worked in the field of autism for over 25 years. She wrote the book, “Aspergers…What Does It Mean To Me?” which provides children with high functioning autism and Aspergers, and their families and teachers, a method to understand the effects of autism in their daily lives. She worked with the TEACCH® Autism Program in North Carolina for more than 20 years, where she did diagnostic evaluations, was a parent consultant and child therapist, consulted with school programs, and trained teachers and other professionals locally, nationally, and internationally. Catherine Faherty’s website is www.catherinefaherty.com. Her books are published by Future Horizons, Inc, and the titles are: Autism…What Does It Mean To Me?; Communication…What Does It Mean To Me?; and Understanding Death and Illness and What They Teach About Life.
