Areas of Focus When Planning/Teaching Lessons

As stated below, there are three categories that teachers should always consider when programming for students with ASD: social skills, communication skills and behaviour. 

CHARACTERISTICS OF ASD AS SEEN IN THE CLASSROOM

Social skills

• demonstrates difficulties interacting with peers and adults

• has difficulty reading and understanding social cues or situations

• withdraws from or provides unusual responses in social situations

• engages in play that is lacking in the imaginative qualities of social play

Communication skills

• has difficulty communicating thoughts and needs verbally and non-verbally

• has difficulty with non-verbal communication, such as use of gestures, pictures, eye contact, and facial expressions

• uses speech that includes repetitive, echolalic, or unusual language

Behaviour

• displays obsessions or preoccupations with specific themes or objects

• likes order and may line up toys repeatedly

• engagesinunusualbehaviours,suchasrocking,spinning,or handflapping 

• gets extremely upset with changes in routine or schedules

• has an unusual response to loud noises or other sensory stimuli

Chart from (3, 16)

Reading- Many students with ASD struggle with sentence construction (3, 60). Therefore, provide students with software, highlight connections between words, use literacy games with them and bring items directed towards their interest (3).
Behaviour- Show them what is acceptable behaviour and let them aware of the consequences that will follow if they misbehave. Use positive reinforcement when you see good actions and deal with misbehaviour as soon as it happens and with the appropriate consequences. Also, make sure you observe when and where undesirable behaviour happens, how often and what is the reaction (3, 74). Therefore you can analyze these observations and develop behaviour plans to help the student.
Writing- Some students with ASD have difficulties with their fine-motor skills (3). Therefore, give them opportunities to use keyboards, word processors, graphic organizers, word banks, and a reduction in the length of the response (3).
Social Skills- Looking at the chart above, there are a few great strategies to develop their social skills of a child with Autism. This would include: getting them to greet others, having them learn how to wait for their turn, share, play games with the other students, initiating and closing interactions (3).
Mathematics- Some students with ASD struggle with the verbal component of mathematics, along with the terminology (3, 64). Therefore, possible accommodations would be to create a personal mathematics dictionary for them, break down concepts with them and provide many scaffolding sheets to give them more help with each lesson (3).
Communication-Possible suggestions for developing a students communication skills would be to use sentences when talking to the the student (role modelling), and use vocabulary that they would understand (1). Also, make sure you're clear and simple and allow them time to process what you're saying (1, 39). Furthermore, promoting integrated play groups can provide students with ASD to interact with their age peers and allow them to imitate social interactions and develop communication skills (1, 50).