Early Years Team, Autism Services (South Lee)

Creating an environment that supports young children with Autism

Spectrum Disorder

Children with ASD are individuals whose condition tells us they share

difficulties in social communication, social interaction and social

imagination.

They may have sensory issues, gross and fine motor difficulties,

difficulty with attention and concentration, and they may present with

repetitive, routine and stereotypical behaviours.

Certain strategies and supports are strongly recommended for use with

children with ASD.

People with ASD tell us that what they need in social situations is

information. They can find it difficult to generalise from one situation

to another. They can find it difficult to make use of social cues in the

environment, such as other people’s body language, tone of voice or

facial expressions.

social communication

social interactinon

sensory issues

imagination /play/

stereotypical behaviours

Early Years Team, Autism Services (South Lee)

Children with ASD benefit from structure and clarity in their environment.

Visual strategies are recommended for a number of reasons: children

with ASD can be skilled visual learners; their comprehension of

language can dip when they are stressed and they may appear to

understand when they don’t; they may take a long time to process

language; they need access to the information that visuals provide;

they need the reassurance and consistency that visuals provide

(especially at stressful times); they need clarity around jobs that need to

be done; they need important information about social situations, for

example, what to do, how to do it, when to do it, etc.; they may need

prompts to start a task or stay on-task; prompts to take a break,

make a choice or ask for help.

A Child’s Eye View - it is worth taking the time to look at the child’s

environment - from their perspective - to identify the information they

need from the moment they enter a school, a class, a waiting room, a

public building, or somewhere new. If we imagine walking in their shoes,

at their level, we might be able to imagine how they feel, what they need

to know, and how we can provide the structures, supports and

information they need.

This information sheet has been prepared to highlight best-practice

strategies necessary for supporting children with ASD. While the basic

principles and concepts underlying the strategies below are relevant for

all children with ASD, strategies should be modified and adapted to meet

individual needs.

Early Years Team, Autism Services (South Lee)

Social Communication Skills

Most children with ASD need to be taught social communication skills

explicitly. We can use visuals to prompt and support children in

communicating with adults and peers.

We can alter our communication to support a child’s understanding, for

example, reduce our language and wait (times can vary) so children

can process instructions better

We can teach children to recognise body language by exaggerating our

tone of voice and gestures, by modelling and by role-play so they

begin to read other people’s non-verbal communication.

We can help children express their feelings by teaching feelings and

naming their feelings for them if they can’t.

We can call the child’s name, for example, “Cormac, and class …” to

let the child know they are included in the instruction.

We can use visual prompts to remind children to ask for help.

Early Years Team, Autism Services (South Lee)

We can use a change card to help children learn about the concept of

change and remain calm when a change is taking place.

We can introduce children to the concept of First/then visually and in

our language.

We can use visual schedules to let children know how their day is

going to go and what is happening next.

We can use timers to let children know a change is coming and help

them understand the concept of time.

We can use skill sheets and schedules to help people manage

sequences in daily living activities.

We can use a Finish card or sign to make sure a child knows when an

activity is finished. To give a child notice that something is coming to an

end, we can say “Last one, then finished”, or

“two minutes, then finished”, or use a visual timer.

Early Years Team, Autism Services (South Lee)

We can use gestures or sign language such as Lámh to provide visual

cues to support understanding.

We can use a home/school book or sheet to aid communication

between the two settings and to help prompt children to communicate

their news.

We can monitor children’s social communication skills to make sure

they are able to communicate adequately and understand other people’s

communication.

Social skills

Children with ASD generally have significant difficulties with social

interaction, particularly with same-age peers. They need to be taught

certain social skills explicitly. They may not pick up on subtle social

cues.

Typical difficulties that may need to be worked on explicitly include:

- Asking for help

- Making choices

- Taking turns

- Sharing

- Waiting

- Losing in games

- Understanding other people’s perspectives (mind-reading).

Early Years Team, Autism Services (South Lee)

We can use visual supports to help children learn social skills. We can

teach skills in small, structured groups and generalise to larger groups.

We can help children prepare for less structured settings.

We can monitor a child’s interaction with their peers to see what their

strengths and needs are.

A wait card can help children wait:

We can use Social Stories and visual prompts to support children in

learning skills such asking for help, sharing and losing in games.

We can teach children to make choices by teaching them how to

choose among items and activities. We can give them choice boards to

help them learn to make choices:

A turn-taking rota can help with turn-taking:

Early Years Team, Autism Services (South Lee)

We can use Comic Strip Conversations to help children understand

other people’s feelings and what is expected from them in different

situations:

Play and Imagination

Children with ASD may have difficulties with creative play, team games,

and activities involving imagination. Their play skills may be delayed

relative to peers.

We can observe the child playing and note their level of interaction:

- are they more interested in playing by themselves?

-are they watching other children at play?

- are they playing beside other children?

- are they playing with other children when asked to join in?

- are they spontaneously joining in?

We can structure play activities so a child knows how to play them

and can follow the rules of games.

Early Years Team, Autism Services (South Lee)

We can teach the child the rules of games to prepare them for playing

with other children.

We can use integrated play groups to help children learn from more

competent peers.

We can use buddy systems and adult support so children are helped

to join in and make links with other children in unstructured settings.

We can structure up the free play and the school yard using choice

boards, structured games and structured areas so children know what to

play, where to play and who to play with.

We can support the child in answering questions and telling their

news by providing visual prompts to help them remember.

Early Years Team, Autism Services (South Lee)

Routine, stereotypical behaviours

Children with ASD can present with a desire for sameness, difficulties

with transitions and change, and stereotypical behaviours and repetitive

interests.

We can help the child transition between activities and cope with

change using visual schedules, timers, finish cards and change

cards where necessary.

If the child has a special interest, we can use the child’s special

interest as a means of motivating the child to take part in learning

activities, for example, “First work, then computer”.

We can help the child cope with correction and perfectionism using

social stories and highlighting differences between people, and the

fact that everyone has strengths and weaknesses.

Early Years Team, Autism Services (South Lee)

Sensory needs

Many children with ASD have sensory issues which impact on their

ability to concentrate and attend. They can be over and under-sensitive

to different external and internal stimuli.

We can explore a child’s sensory needs with them and find out what

activities help them keep calm, attend and concentrate.

We can make sure a child has sensory breaks, for example, movement

breaks at regular intervals during the day.

We can teach the child to notice when they need a break and to

independently ask for a break. We can use a system, such as the ‘blue

break system’ to structure break times.

We can provide equipment, strategies and techniques to help the

child manage their sensory issues and become calm.

break

Early Years Team, Autism Services (South Lee)

We can provide a quiet area to help the child relax.

Organisation and self-care

Children with ASD can have difficulties planning and organising work

and materials. They may have difficulties carrying out activities with

specific sequences, such as dressing.

We can help a child learn to organise their own books and materials,

for example, colour-coding subjects, and providing visual clarity and

structure with materials.

We can teach the child to get their own lunch, put on their coat and

manage self-care using visual prompts, backward chaining and

rewards.

Early Years Team, Autism Services (South Lee)

Emotional Awareness and Regulation

Children with ASD can have difficulties with emotional regulation.

Knowing how to understand and label emotions in ourselves and others

requires a number of skills. If we don’t understand our own emotions, we

may have difficulty understanding emotions in others.

If a child can’t recognize a feeling in themselves, maybe we can ‘catch’

them having the feeling and name it for them. Model the appropriate

term or phrase if the child cannot, for example saying “I’m sad” as if the

child were saying it. We can label them while they are happening as this

makes the emotion more concrete and may help the child to understand

what’s happening.

We can label our own feelings to help children learn to recognise them

in other people and also to understand that everyone has feelings.

We can use social stories, skill sheets, visual prompts, and modelling to

teach children about emotions.

Early Years Team, Autism Services (South Lee)

A feeling line might look like this:

Start finish

Useful Websites

Tony Attwood: www.tonyattwood.com

ConnectABILITY: www.connect-ability.com

Do 2 learn: www.do2learn.com

National Autistic Society (UK): www.autism.org.uk

National Council for Special Education: www.ncse.ie

Picture Exchange Communication System: www.pecs.org.uk

Shine Ireland: www.shineireland.com

Social Stories: www.thegraycentre.org

Special Education Support Service: www.sess.ie

TEACCH: www.teacch.com

Visual Aids for Learning: www.visualaidsforlearning.com

Zones of Regulation: www.zonesofregulation.com

Carol Gray: https://carolgraysocialstories.com

Middletown Centre: https://www.middletownautism.com/