Neurodiversity:

For my personal learning objective: I decided to focus on managing neurodiversity in the classroom. With this learning objective in mind, I attended a training presentation on the topic Helen Cooke and recorded my notes that I plan to implement during my sessions. Although the training was more focused on Autism at University, it really helped me better asses how I could improve my learning environment to be more inclusive.
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Communication:

• Provide extra positive reassurance (in whichever way the student prefers to receive this e.g. email, verbally, text etc)

• Talk about social expectations of lectures/seminars etc.  Do you encourage students to participate or stay quiet?  Would you prefer them to email you questions after the lecture? What is expected in terms of participation?

• Check in with their social situations.  Are they isolated?  Have they joined societies?  Is there a barrier that you could help them with? Remember without this, they may drop out.

• Have you checked whether they are happy to share their diagnosis with others? Don’t assume that they are.

• Have you double (and triple) checked that they have understood the expectations?

• Do they know how to ask for help? Do they even know that they are allowed to?

• Make reasonable adjustments e.g. providing written advice about assessment requirements as well as verbal, repeating instructions where necessary

• Provide support around oral presentation skills and be prepared to discount autism-related difficulties such as lack of body language, eye contact, speaking very fast or slow

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Group work:

• Provide clear guidelines for group work

• Allocate specific roles and make expectations clear

• Decide on group allocations before the lesson

• Explain why group work is important

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Different communication styles:

• Encourage different ways of communicating: speech, writing, video

• Provide opportunities for one-to-one discussion, not always group or class discussion

• Provide regular opportunities to learn social communication skills

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Sensory processing:

• Ask the students

• Think about the environment.  Can you reduce/eliminate visual and auditory distractions that may prevent the student from focusing?

• Can you use online meetings to avoid the student having to cope with unfamiliar sensory overload?

• Have you considered sensory impacts during exams?  Think about seating, temperature, noise, smells etc.

• Make it clear that during teaching sessions any student can leave the room if they feel anxious or overwhelmed, and that they will not be criticised or penalised for doing so

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Strengths:

• Focus on their strengths and how to use them

• Identify the student’s strengths and what they can contribute to study situations; many autistic students have a strong dedication and focus on their chosen study subject, attention to detail and a high work ethic.

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Further resources:

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NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently by Steve Silberman

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Uniquely Human: A Different way of seeing autism by Barry M, Prizant

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Explaining Humans by Dr Camilla Pang

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