Taking Learning Style into Consideration

In the past, educators often responded to difficulties and challenging behaviors in the classroom by developing behavior plans to remediate the perceived problem. This may have been helpful temporarily, but it did not get at the core issues of many of the difficulties. Even though ASD is defined by a set of core characteristics that may be observed in many individuals with ASD, no two individuals present exactly the same. Thus, it is important to recognize individual differences. Let’s review what we know about autism learning style and needs:

• Individuals with ASD typically have difficulty with organization and initiation of activities and interactions. Generally, to approach a task and attempt it, one must be able to understand what the task is, what components are involved, and be able to plan how to go through the steps to complete the task. What may look like a simple task is actually a complex, multistep sequence of activities that requires a variety of planning and organizational abilities. Often individuals with ASD become overwhelmed when a new task is introduced and have no idea of where to begin. Think back to Mark, the 4-year-old we met in the introduction. Mark would run past tables of activities and dump out toys, but was not able to plan how to put objects to use, such as putting pegs in a pegboard. Mark had no idea of how to start and follow through with a seemingly simple task.
• Individuals with ASD often have sensory systems that respond differently to the surrounding environment. Some react very strongly to certain types of lights or sounds; they may perceive smells or sensations differently. Some individuals seemingly overreact to a sensation while others underreact. These reactions will result in distractibility and an inability to start or complete tasks. For Jakob, the sound of a fan in a ventilation system was enough to distract him from attending to what was requested of him. Most individuals can hear a sound such as the fan in the environment, recognize it as a fan, and acclimate to it by attending to more relevant details. But for Jakob, the sound of the fan was amplified by his sensory processing difficulties, to such an extent that he was not able to tune it out. Sensory processing differences must be taken into account when structuring the classroom.
• A hallmark of ASD includes discrepancies in communication. Receptive language difficulties are common. Often, a student may appear to understand, or have seemingly high abilities in other areas that a teacher assumes the student understands more than he really does. Some students, particularly those with Asperger Syndrome, are quite verbal, so teachers sometimes mistakenly assume that they understand more than they do. On the other hand, those individuals who are limited verbally may not be able to let teachers know when they don’t understand or end up misinterpreting situations. Their limitations in how to initiate interactions or respond to interactions can result in unsuccessful interactions as demonstrated by their joint attention deficits. They may have difficulties attending to what another person is trying to communicate and participating in the "give and take" communicative interaction.
• Individuals with ASD may focus on insignificant details, which inhibits their ability to process meaningful cues. They may be unable to look at parts of tasks and understand how they can be done to complete a whole task. This results in difficulty in understanding how to sequence tasks to successfully complete them.
• Individuals with ASD may learn one skill well in one situation, but have difficulty understanding that with slight modifications and alternations, the skill can be used in another situation. This difficulty with generalization makes it necessary to develop strategies and techniques that help individuals recognize how to use the same sequence in different situations.
• Individuals with ASD demonstrate varied patterns of strengths and weaknesses. For example, a person may have an uncanny memory for recalling the exact setup of a room and recognize when one item has been moved. Yet that same individual can approach a table that has five different activities on it, remember where all the objects are, but be unable to sit down, start and complete even one task The difficulties with organization and communication impact the actual understanding of how to go about doing a task.
• Individuals with ASD often have difficulties with changes and transitions. Such difficulties can result in extreme anxiety and stress that may make it impossible to introduce activities successfully.
• Most individuals with ASD learn and interpret information by what they see rather than by what they hear. Their areas of high interest may be strong motivators to begin and follow through with a task. Thus, it is important to recognize their high interest areas and incorporate them into learning routines.