1. Autism

2. Autism – what do you know?

3. Valuing the learner’s voice
“I have Asperger's Syndrome, a 'milder' form of Autism, (yeah right!). That means that I have difficulties with social interaction, communication and imagination. Of course you could say that that is a matter of opinion because after all, interaction and communication are a two way thing - maybe I have it right and others have the difficulties!!”
(Luke Jackson, aged 14)

4. The learner’s voice
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5. Background
Autistic Spectrum Disorders: communication, imagination and socialisation. We are all on it -AQ
First described by Leo Kanner in 1943.
ASD affects 1 in 100 people, approximately and is more prevalent in males (National Autistic Society).

6. Some brain-based explanations
B) The limbic system
The cortex
C) The cerebellum
Diagram Source:

7. What might it mean in your lesson?

9. Literacy and language difficulties
Some learners on the autistic spectrum may have particular difficulties with:
Speaking and listening – following ‘conversational maxims’, using/recognising paralinguistic features, prosodic features, functions of speech, adopting different registers.
Reading - understanding any ‘non-literal text’, inference, de-coding unfamiliar words, idioms or figurative language, unfamiliar typeface, using semantic reading cue.
Writing - about other people, re-presenting information, understanding text genre, phonically irregular spelling, handwriting.