Using Structured Teaching to Support Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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April 9, 2019

Resource: Blog Industry: Education, K12
Tags: K12 Education, Special Education

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Key Practices of Structured Teaching

  • Individualized Visual Daily Schedules - Teachers design the schedule to fit individual student skills and needs. When practiced consistently and creatively, that schedule becomes the foundation to help students organize their internal experience and perceive the big picture of each day. The specific directions make expectations clear, and the daily visual reminder helps the student remember the expected routine. The schedule helps students experience transitions with greater ease, handle changes in the anticipated routine, and gain overall meaning from daily activities.

 

  • Organized Physical Environments and Work Systems -Organizing the physical environment involves identifying distinct areas by visually clarifying where specific activities take place and making accommodations for sensory sensitivities. Organized work systems teach students to complete activities and assignments independently, without constant prompting from teachers and paraeducators. Organized work systems provide answers to four key questions in a visual manner:
    1. How much work am I supposed to do?
    2. Which work am I supposed to do?
    3. How do I know when I'm finished?
    4. What comes next?

 

  • Structured Tasks and Activities - When teachers create specific structure within tasks and activities, they help students with ASD acquire and practice independent work skills. This is also a way to help tailor each student's academic experience to his or her unique abilities. There are many ways to contain tasks, organize materials, keep students engaged in activities, and provide visual instructions that, when used together, help students work independently, relying on their own abilities and strengths.

Learn More about Structured Teaching

Exceptional Child includes a new three-part series of courses on structured teaching, authored by nationally recognized autism expert, Catherine Faherty.

  • Part 1: Individualized Visual Daily Schedules
  • Part 2: Work Systems
  • Part 3: Tasks and Activities

Click here to view the full course list, including the 13 other courses in our Autism Spectrum category.

Request a demo to learn more about these, and all of Exceptional Child's online special education-related professional development courses for teachers and paraeducators.

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