Teach Secondary 13.8

DIFFERENT FOR GIRLS? Hannah Day highlights the lesson adjustments that teachers can provide for students with autism – and girls, in particular W e frequently don’t understand how autism impacts upon the daily lives of 50% of those affected by it. That’s because autism in girls and boys looks different, with the most commonly understood traits being found in boys. To put it another way, autistic behaviours in girls don’t always look to us like typical autistic behaviours. As a result, a significant proportion of girls aren’t diagnosed until their late teens, often after experiencing severe mental health issues. Inmany cases, had their autistic status been known sooner, these challenges could have been lessened, if not avoided altogether. We must do better. By understanding how autism is more likely to manifest in girls and picking up on signs sooner, we can adapt our teaching to ensure more supportive and inclusive classrooms. While each person, autistic or not, will have their own mix of the behaviours discussed below, they’re among those that girls with ASD are more likely to experience. So what can we, as teachers, do to help? Perfectionism It’s wonderful when students want to work hard, but perfectionism can cause unnecessary stress. Autistic girls are more likely to want order; a need for control and a desire to avoid confusion or uncertainty can feed into perfectionism. Factor in the way in which they’re also more likely to have black and white thinking, and you have a student who will work until a simple task has turned into a week-long endeavour – often at the cost of rest and good mental health. Introducing time limits or word counts to tasks can help to prevent this kind of burnout. By referring to work in progress as a ‘draft’, we can also show how learning is a process , thereby lessening the pressure further. It can also be helpful on occasion to highlight mistakes of your own – either as they occur, or when errors from your past might be relevant to the situation at hand. This lets all students know that you’re learning and reflecting too, alongside them. Responding to change Consistency helps people with autismmanage the world, which is why sudden changes can throw them. If we can somehowmanage that change, and show how elements of it can still be controlled, then those stress-related changes can be shown as being not so scary after all. Give students all the information they’ll need to do this in advance of any major changes. Walk them through it, covering what they’ll need to do themselves, and what will be done for them. Be clear as to what is and isn’t their responsibility, and give them clarity on precisely what they’ll need to do. They’ll need to get themselves to a new room, but you will have the space set up and ready for them. Involve them. Ask if there’s anything in particular that they’re concerned about, and work though how you can potentially lessen those worries. Could a new room be visited beforehand? Can photos taken at a planned trip destination be viewed online in advance? The process of considering how they will navigate their new surroundings or arrangements will serve to empower them, and make the change itself easier to adjust to. Difficultywith instructions Autistic girls generally fall into one of two extremes – very compliant, or very oppositional. ODD “Defiance canbe the result of frustrationat not understanding instructions” 66 teachwire.net/secondary