Strategies for Teaching Individuals With Autism from Seeing the Spectrum by Robert Rozema

I have mentioned my Professional Development text before, but Rozema’s book Seeing the Spectrum: Teaching English Language Arts to Adolescents With Autism is such a valuable resource that I felt it necessary to dedicate an entire post to evaluating these classroom strategies. Not only does the book describe the cognitive and behavioral aspects of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), but it has considerable resources for English teachers to use in the classroom. Even better, it approaches everything from an asset-based perspective, considering the ways that individuals with ASD are unique and skilled, rather than any struggles they may face in the classroom.

For a little introductory information, Autism Spectrum Disorder is “brain-based disorder characterized by social-communication challenges and restricted repetitive behaviors, activities, and interests” (Autism Science Foundation), and is described in two distinct categories: deficits in social communication and interaction, and “restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities” Rozema, 3). Seeing the Spectrum describes Autism as less of a ‘spectrum’ and actually a “cluster of associated conditions related to the two core diagnostic criteria–again, social communication challenges and restricted, repetitive behaviors” (Rozema, 4).

Emotional Dysregulation and anxiety: Many individuals with Autism experience a “loss of emotional control”, or “an impoverished ability to cope with and control intense, especially negative, emotions” (Rozema, 15), which is defined as emotional dysregulation. In the English classroom especially, this results in students’ inability to work with commonly used texts, as most works of literature feature emotional themes and negative events. However, Rozema presents strategies for teachers to use with these students, in order to help them access the material and benefit from their lessons. These strategies include:

• The use of “safe texts”, either using texts that are not upsetting to students, or allowing for non-fictional or graphic novel substitutes
• Working with students to develop positive coping strategies, for example working “with the student to establish a routine for releasing negative emotions and maintaining control. This routine should allow the student to move, discreetly, to a predetermined place in the room where [they] can practice stress-reducing activities” (Rozema, 20)

Perspective Taking: According to Rozema, many individuals with ASD struggle with cognitive empathy, defined as “how well an individual can perceive and understand the emotions of another… having more complete and accurate knowledge about the contents of another person’s mind, including how the person feels” (Lesley University). Within literature and most types of reading, the reader is required to do a certain amount of empathizing with the speaker and the characters. Individuals with Autism struggle with this “perspective-taking”, which results in difficulties understanding English classwork and reading assignments. Rozema suggests strategies to help students think about perspective, attempting to “pair visual and verbal elements, applying the thinking map method to the issue of perspective-taking” (Rozema, 28). These strategies include:

• Mind signs: In this assignment, the students use an index card for each character to create a ‘mind sign’, consisting of three statements about the beliefs of the character, using drawings or colors to differentiate between assumptions and emotions
• Symbolic storyboard: A method for keeping track of character’s shifting beliefs, the students use the storyboard to pair drawings and visuals with a storyboard that tracks each character’s beliefs
• Mind map: Students choose a character, then label their brain using categories of things that they are concerned with/any false beliefs they may hold

Writing and Executive Function: Writing can be especially hard for individuals with ASD, this is due to the fact that “the control panel of the autistic brain does not operate efficiently in carrying out executive functions, or tasks that require emotional, physical, and cognitive regulation and self-control” (Rozema, 61). This includes difficulties with planning, working memory, and central coherence, all cognitive abilities that are used in the writing process. Rozema’s strategies for helping students with ASD work through these difficulties in their writing include:

• Using high-interest topics, in order to motivate students to do the work that writing requires, it helps immensely if they care about their topics
• Explicit goals and small steps, breaking “the writing process into discrete, achievable steps with explicitly stated objectives for each stage” (Rozema, 71) allows students to understand what their assignments ask for, and waste less time trying to figure out what is required
• Using visual supports, including digital tools like tablets to show students the assignments in different ways, graphic organizers, to-do lists and check boxes for sequential work, and creative use of technology

Though these are only a few of my many takeaways from Seeing the Spectrum, I hope to utilize these strategies in my own classroom someday. Rozema’s text is highly practical, and should be a staple for any educator who wants to learn quick strategies for helping their students with ASD in the English classroom and beyond.

Works Cited:

“What Is Autism?” Autism Science Foundation, https://autismsciencefoundation.org/what-is-autism/.

“The Psychology of Emotional and Cognitive Empathy.” Lesley University, https://lesley.edu/article/the-psychology-of-emotional-and-cognitive-empathy.

Rozema, Robert. Seeing the Spectrum: Teaching English Language Arts to Adolescents with Autism. Teachers College Press, 2018.