High Functioning Autism: Tips for Teaching a Secret Genius

You hear the term autism and think of a child who cannot or will not speak and shows signs of various other social and developmental disorders. A high functioning autistic child may show none of these signs and could even seem almost "normal." I call them (children who are diagnosed as having high functioning Autism) secret geniuses! When you look at the world through their eyes you can quickly begin to see why these children are actually geniuses trapped within themselves.

Teaching Tips for Autistic Children

The first and foremost thing you have to remember when teaching a high functioning autistic child is that the more comfortable you can make the child, the better your results will be. These children want to come out of their shell and they want to communicate but the disorder creates difficulties for them in communication and socializing. Think of a really shy child-make them comfortable and they aren't so shy anymore.

Encouragement for autistic children is quite different than what you would do to encourage most children. This is because an autistic child-even a high functioning autistic child-doesn't respond well to overly done or played out encouragement the way that most children do well with. You must find a way to encourage your highly functioning autistic child without scaring him into further seclusion. I find that many autistic children respond well to soft spoken words of encouragement. Do not be overbearing or too loud.

The world is such an interesting place and if you can manage to get a high functioning autistic child to begin viewing the world as an interesting place and not a scary place then you are already a step ahead. Paying close attention to the signals and signs that your autistic child shows you regarding his perspective on the world can give you some clues as to how to teach him. For instance, I once cared for an autistic child who's parents just didn't know what to do with him-they always spoke to me about how much different he was at home versus when he was at my house. After making my way to their house to observe the differences I was able to quickly determine that the reason he was so different was very much due to the difference in the way that he was cared for at both houses.

I payed attention to the way that he learned (through interaction and constant attention which was kind of uncommon for an autistic child but he was a high functioning autistic child) and I taught him with the techniques that he was comfortable with. The best tip that I can give for teaching a child who is high functioning autistic is to pay attention to the child and learn the child.

No two children are the same, no two learning styles are identical, and no two types of autism are the same. What works for teaching one autistic child may be completely useless for another! High functioning autistic children, when nurtured and given a learning environment that embraces their senses and abilities, can learn to be social just like the average child.

Most of all-high functioning autistic children have a small sense of genius behind them. They think totally different than you and I but this doesn't make them any less than us. Once you find out how to think the way that they do you can really go places together!