Support processing and organisation
Provide a range of supports and visuals to help ākonga to be independent.
On this page:
On this page:
Current page section: Support processing and organisation
Go to top of current page: Support processing and organisation
Go to top of current page: Support processing and organisation
Go to top of current page: Support processing and organisation
Provide structure for task completion
Provide structure for task completion
Give autistic ākonga the time they need to succeed.
Consider reducing the quantity rather than the complexity of the learning for students.
- Provide instructions in short segments, for example, teach → student activity → teach → student activity.
- Provide students with a checklist with tasks broken into smaller segments.
- Highlight key parts of the task.
- Before beginning a task, have students explain their understanding of expectations. They can do this with a buddy.
- Give positive feedback to students who start promptly.
- Check on student progress frequently.
- Ensure that all materials and resources, including digital resources, are accessible.
Use a task board
Use a task board
Break tasks into manageable pieces so ākonga can understand what to do and complete one step at a time.
Support thinking and pattern recognition
Support thinking and pattern recognition
- Use visuals — graphics, photos, cartoons, pictures — to support text and talk when explaining anything.
- Offer 3D virtual and physical models and real objects to help students identify critical features.
- Use mind maps, flowcharts, and outlines to help students unpack big ideas and relationships.
- Give students multiple opportunities to engage with new ideas and concepts.
- Provide extra time for students to think and process before they need to respond in a discussion.
- Use mindmaps to brainstorm ideas.
- Support group and class discussions with visual annotations to prompt later recall of key ideas.
- Make thinking tools and approaches available across all curriculum areas.
Support concept development
Support concept development
- Check to ensure that students retain and can demonstrate previously-learned skills before beginning new learning.
- Teach new skills using a variety of methods, materials and contexts and using concrete, practical and visual materials.
- Reinforce abstract concepts with visual and concrete materials.
- Make explicit connections between new knowledge and previous experience.
- Make connections to high interest and practical everyday situations.
- Offer multi-sensory explanations and demonstrations.
- Provide extra time and opportunities for additional repetition and reinforcement – where applicable, involve a buddy, parents, or a support teacher.
Use graphic organisers
Use graphic organisers
Break tasks into smaller pieces and highlight patterns with graphic organisers.
Free graphic organiser templates – Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Closed Captions
Useful resources
Useful resources
Popplet
Popplet is a tool for the iPad and web to capture and organise ideas.
Publisher: Notion
Classroomscreen
Classroomscreen is a simple online tool that can be displayed onscreen as students complete tasks. The free version includes 19 widgets.
Publisher: Classroomscreen
Next steps
More suggestions for implementing the strategy “Helpful classroom strategies years 1-8”:
-
Current page Support processing and organisation
Return to the guide “Autism and learning”
How to use this site
Guide to Index of the guide: Autism and learning
Understand:
Strategies for action:
-
Identify needs and how to provide supportShow suggestions for Identify needs and how to provide support
-
Key areas to supportShow suggestions for Key areas to support
-
Helpful classroom strategies years 1-8Show suggestions for Helpful classroom strategies years 1-8
- Support participation and confidence
- Present information in different ways
- Support processing and organisation
- Provide options to create, learn and share
-
Helpful classroom strategies years 9-13Show suggestions for Helpful classroom strategies years 9-13
