The basics of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Some children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are not receiving adequate education in our school system. One of the main reasons for that is a lack of teacher efficacy. Many teachers are not confident when educating children with ASD and not prepared in their teacher training programs. One of the main factors correlated with teacher efficacy is education and experience. Two areas that are lacking for the majority of teachers. For my project, I chose to create a workshop for elementary school teachers with the goal of raising their teacher efficacy when working with students who have ASD. The workshop will include an overview of ASD, discuss evidence-based practices that they can try in their classrooms, preventative strategies for behavior management, and important ways to improve engagement. The goal of this project is to improve teacher’s overall confidence level when interacting with children with ASD.