Autism Spectrum Disorder - Essay Example

I. Introduction This paper discusses Autism Spectrum Disorder or ASD, how it is defined in the literature and what the symptoms of the condition are, and what interventions by way of teaching strategies can be recommended to teachers and teaching assistants to help and improve the learning outcomes of students with ASD in the classroom. ASD is said to refer to a class of brain disorders that are developmental in nature, and which are tied to a wide-ranging child conditions related to impairment levels, disabilities, skills, and symptoms. The DSM-IV-TR, also known as the Fourth Edition of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, classifies five kinds of so-called pervasive developmental disorders or PDDs as being forms of ASD. These are Asperger's syndrome, Rett syndrome, non-specified PDD, autistic disorder, and childhood disintegrative disorder or CDD (National Institutes of Health 2013). ASD is said to afflict one out of every 88 children in America, and the condition is skewed towards males having the condition more than females. One of the current issues with reports of the increase in the number of cases of ASD is that there is a lack of clarity as to the cause of the rise. This is because it is unsure whether the rise is attributed to a greater incidence among children today of the condition, or whether the rise versus historical averages is due to advancements in screening (WebMD Medical Reference 2013; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2013). II. Autism Spectrum Disorder The difficulty with ASD with regard to diagnosis is that there are no markers from biology to identify the condition, and so clinical interviews are the primary means of diagnosis (Skafidas et al. 2012). Moreover, as with other mental health conditions, the definition of the condition has been shifting, leading to changes as well in the way some of the conditions associated with ASD are viewed, diagnosed, and treated (Carey 2012; Wallace 2012). Be that as it may, there are universally accepted key markers for autism in general and for ASD in particular, including an inability to function well in social settings, due to shortcomings in skills tied to communication and general social skills (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association 2013). Moreover, the qualifications above notwithstanding, the medical literature is clear as to what the symptoms and signs of ASD are. Some of the literature classifies the symptoms along three categories, social skills, communication skills, and reacting to the general outside reality. With regard to the third category, people with ASD show a lack of fear when facing danger, object attachments of unusual intensity, difficulties adjusting to routine alterations, sleeping and eating problems, and movements of self-stimulation, such as rocking. Communication skills symptoms include problems with articulation of needs, difficulty in being able to address questions, and echoing back words said to them. Social skills symptoms include inability to make eye contact, difficulties in making friends, aversion to touch, and ill-timed and mismatching emotional reactions (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association 2013). Another set of literature meanwhile focuses likewise on the inability of children with ASD to develop imagination in the social sense, such as an inability to participate in what is known as pretend play or social play (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association 2013; The National Autistic Society 2013). Then too, there are aspects of ASD associated with children regressing in terms of the skill sets identified above, from a point of prior more advanced proficiency or level of development (National Institutes of Health 2013). III. Teaching Strategies The literature describes many teaching strategies and interventions that have been known to be effective in improving learning and life outcomes for children with ASD, developed over decades, and with many of them basing their rationale from a field of study known as Applied Behavioral Analysis, or ABA. ABA applied to classroom settings involves directly linking desired educational outcomes with the design of the environment around which the child learns. In practice, ABA involves novel teaching methods, such as linking lessons with rewards to reinforce language learning. A simple example involves the child being given the reward of ice cream if the teacher wants the child to learn how to pronounce the phrase ice cream. These are targeted interventions in short that are tied to modifying the learning environment in order to improve learning outcomes (Wilson 2010). Other references refer to this as structured environment interventions, even as the scope of ABA and its applications are said to extend beyond structured learning environments per se. These interventions are used in conjunction with other strategies for teaching students with ASD, including involving parents in the learning process, the use of visual aids, and dealing with specific deficits in social and communication skills via direct, tailored interventions specific to particular student cases. In particular, apart from ABA, strategies related to differentiated instruction makes use of such specialized, specific interventions to improve ASD students' learning outcomes, and such include a host of teaching tools, such as the use of groups, venues where students can rehearse and review the day's lessons to master them, matching student interests with the materials for instruction, and making use of various methods for learning assessment that go beyond normal testing as administered to students without disabilities, such as role playing games where students are given the chance to demonstrate what they have learned (Ontario Ministry of Education 2007). The literature also offers a wide variety of practical interventions that can cue teachers and teaching assistants to what can work with regard to teaching methods for students with ASD, including unconventional educational tools such as video games that have been shown to effect therapy for students with ASD; the use of routine in the classroom to give students with ASD a chance to be comfortable with the pace of learning and the classroom as a whole; and making sure that they are given the same kind of respect and consideration that are given to students without disabilities. These are not so much specific teaching strategies so much as inputs to crafting environments that aid in improving the possibilities for learning for children with ASD (Heick 2013). References American Speech-Language-Hearing Association 2013. Autism (Autism Spectrum Disorders). ASHA.org. [Online]. Available at: http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/Autism.htm [25 November 2013] Carey. B. 2012. New Definition of Autism Will Exclude Many, Study Suggests. The New York Times. [Online]. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/health/research/new-autism-definition-would-exclude-many-study-suggests.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 [25 November 2013] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2013. Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs). CDC.gov. [Online]. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/facts.html [25 November 2013 Heick, Terry.2013. Autism Awareness Month: 6 Strategies For Teaching Students With Autism. TeachThought. [Online]. Available at: http://www.teachthought.com/teaching/autism-awareness-month-6-strategies-for-teaching-students-with-autism/ [25 November 2013]] National Institutes of Health. 2013. What is Autism Spectrum Disorder? NIH. [Online]. Available at: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/autism-spectrum-disorders-pervasive-developmental-disorders/index.shtml [25 November 2013] Ontario Ministry of Education. 2007. Effective Educational Practices for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Edu.gov.on.ca. [Online]. Available at: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/general/elemsec/speced/autismspecdis.pdf [25 November 2013] Skafidas, E. et al.. 2012. Predicting diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder using gene therapy pathway analysis. Molecular Psychiatry. [Online]. Available at: http://www.nature.com/mp/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/mp2012126a.html [25 November 2013] The National Autistic Society 2013. Recognizing autistic spectrum disorder. Autism.org.uk. [Online]. Available at: http://www.autism.org.uk/working-with/health/information-for-general-practitioners/recognising-autism-spectrum-disorder.aspx [25 November 2013] Wallace, B. 2012. Are You On It?. New York Magazine. [Online]. Available at: http://nymag.com/news/features/autism-spectrum-2012-11/ [25 November 2013] WebMD Medical Reference. 2013. Autism Spectrum Disorders Health Center. WebMD. [Online]. Available at: http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/autism-spectrum-disorders [25 November 2013] Read More