Five Pointers for Accommodating Students with Asperger Syndrome 

In this Kappan article, Minnesota teacher Martha Palm describes how she learned to accommodate Tom, a boy with Asperger syndrome, in her combined 4^th-5^th grade gifted classroom:

• Go visual. For example, Palm posted each day’s schedule on the wall, and found that Tom went straight to it when he entered the room each morning. She also displayed diagrams and graphs from teachers’ manuals using a document camera, and made packets with daily instructions.

• Scaffold instruction with strengths in mind. Tom was brilliant at solving 3-D SOMA cube puzzles, so Palm had him create a plot chart for books or stories with the cubes in mind (versus the usual introduction, rising action, climax, and denouement). To help Tom get into books, she had him read a summary or watch a movie. She let Tom (and other students) spend extra time pursuing a passionate interest – in his case, the weather. And sometimes when Tom wasn’t showing growth, she gave him harder assignments.

• De-clutter the environment. “Make the physical classroom look calm,” advises Palm. To accommodate Tom, she removed some posted material, simplified the classroom jobs to one person each day, organized material into bins on shelves, and left white space on worksheets and packets. She also worked hard to keep the noise and activity level down.

• Be predictable. Tom liked the posted schedule, and reminded Palm to change it if there were unexpected alterations. It was important for him to know that there was a basket in a specific place to put completed work. And he worked well with a structure to writing assignments – for example, the “hamburger paragraph” with a one-sentence introduction, three reasons, and a conclusion. 

• Find things to like and appreciate. Palm acknowledges that Tom’s needs could be irritating, but she tried to laugh at his idiosyncracies and find qualities and skills that she truly enjoyed – including his ability to find information.

“First, Do No Harm” by Martha Palm in Phi Delta Kappan, December 2012/January 2013 (Vol. 94, #3, p. 13-15), www.kappanmagazine.org; Palm is at mecom@tpfjunk.org. 

From the Marshall Memo #465