Autism Spectrum Disorder is a brain disorder that
comes on at a very early stage in life. This disorder is usually diagnosed by
the age of 4, and is a lot more common in everyday life than most people think.
There is a great deal of research on what actually causes Autism, but
truthfully the cause is still unknown. One common characteristic of this
disorder is that children have a hard time socially interacting, and expressing
what they want verbally. To improve this interaction, teachers across America are
implementing a strategy called social peer training or (peer buddying) and the
results have been phenomenal. The objective of this strategy is to teach
children with Autism social ques to better help them respond appropriately to
situations and conversation. By placing an autistic child with one or two
non-autistic children, it not only helps the autistic child better develop
social skills; it helps the non-autistic children learn how to socially
interact and assist children with special needs. This will also develop children's 21st century skills by allowing them to interact together using different forms of technology. Student learning is greatly
affected by this strategy, and I really wish someone would have thought of this
idea sooner. I believe that I could
greatly benefit from using this strategy in my classroom. Not only will my
students be learning with each other, but I will also be learning from my
students. Autistic children require a lot of intervention, and this is a way to
let students help students instead of fully relying on the teacher. Students
learn so much more from their peers sometimes than we could ever wish to teach
them!
This link shows a study done in an inclusive classroom on peer buddying!
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