Autistic and Attentive

"Whiteboards Engage Autistic Students"

by Kathleen McClaskey and Randy Welch

So how do you engage students with disabilities? What about autistic students? Autistic students have little interaction with other students and lack social interests. Getting their attention is a challenge. Spaulding Youth Center in New Hampshire has created the project to engage these students in a classroom. This project is known Autism, Communication, and Technology (ACT) where autistic students were served with interactive whiteboards. The whiteboards allowed these students to express themselves visually. Instead of writing out answers, they were able to draw out pictures with Kid Pix. Participation and interaction increased with the use of the whiteboard because students would take turns and make it a daily routine in the classroom. These whiteboards was known as "training the students' attention". The whiteboards can be used with the whole classroom to ease in the autistic students to interact with the other students.

I really enjoyed reading the article. As teachers, we should know the will have to encounter differentiation in a classroom. We have to be aware of instructional strategies to make the classroom inclusive. I want to have whiteboards in my classroom because I believe it reaches the needs of students in order to learn.