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An Author and Teacher’s Tips on Motivating Autistic Learners

{Guest post from Author Joan Ramirez }

Jamie is the story of a young girl’s struggles as an Autistic learner. Through support from parents, teachers, and a school counselor, she is able to learn and make friends.

This book was inspired by the desire to share exercises that could help Autistic learners while also creating a story of a young girl who is struggling with that part of her life. While this story was written for Autistic students, it will also show all children the importance of acceptance of others and learning in different ways. In addition to being a great motivator for Autistic students, Jamie is also a help with English as a Second language Autistic students.

Tips on Motivating Autistic Learners

From a teacher’s perspective, motivated students should be able to do the following: Participate in class. Express interest in the subject matter. Spend time studying for a test.

From a learner’s perspective, they are entitled to the following content instruction: Interesting content that is meaningful and age-appropriate to the reader. A supportive atmosphere in which the teacher takes the learners’ needs and not just his/her own agenda into consideration when making lesson plans.

Teachers should assess the comprehension levels of content that has been presented before moving on to more challenging material. In all lessons, students should be encouraged to participate in their level of understanding in an anxiety-free environment that fosters learning. Students who have a positive mindset will elicit more positive feedback than those with a negative orientation.

Encourage the following learning concepts:

• Take your time and think about your response.
• This information will be of use to you in the higher grades so we’re here to learn and we can help each other.
• Good, you tried. You’ll do even better next time.
• Once you’ve mastered these thoughts, you’ll be able to read and learn even more.

You can motivate elementary Autism/ESL students to learn. A teacher can memorize every pedagogical technique in the library and the class still might not learn.

The only way to ensure comprehension is to give a lesson followed by an assessment, but the beginning should include a visual narrative. It plants a picture in the students’ minds and it is true that one picture is worth a thousand words. After the handouts are put away and the students leave the class, what they will remember the next morning are the posters on the walls and the visuals that leave images in their minds.

Joan  Ramirez, the author, lives in the New Jersey/New York Metropolitan area and has an M.S. in Journalism, an M.S. in English as a Second Language, and an M.S. in Elementary/Special Education (Autism). She has given creative writing and photojournalism workshops to students in South Africa, in Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Seoul, Korea.