Autistic supports and visual cues for autistic children

Children with autism spectrum disorder do not naturally learn social or communication skills, whether verbal or non-verbal. As typically developing individuals we use expression and body language to convey information sometimes without even realizing we are doing so.

Using facial expressions we can portray love, happiness, sadness, contentment and fear. Social and communication skills are learnt through our environment, peers, families and from the other people we come into contact with.

Without social and communication skills we would be left confused and inevitably social mistakes and blunders would be the norm. Our interpretations of how or what others are thinking or feeling gives us the ability and knowledge to read what comes next, this ability is missing in autism.

For the child with autism the world around them is confusing, the inability to verbally and non-verbally communicate can make it even harder to express them selves and be understood.

Our social functioning skills develop over time; we learn through social prompts and cues for example how to share, express our emotions, understand humor, be sympathetic and have relationships.

However for the autistic child these abilities are not naturally learnt and direct teaching of social skills is needed. Autistic supports and visual cues for autistic children are used to help re-enforce and teach social and communication skills to autistic children.

As generally children with autism spectrum disorder may not be very verbal, but most are often surprisingly good at following and using autistic supports and visual cues for autistic children.

Images and pictures are powerful re-enforcers for children with autism spectrum disorder, and as such are probably the most significant resource used for teaching appropriate social and communication skills to children with autism spectrum disorder.

Visual supports such as social skills stories for autism provide visual cues and representations along with appropriate text. The social skills stories for autism also provide support and understanding using appropriate language, written for the autistic person, from their point of view using easy to follow specific sentence types.

Research shows us significant numbers of children with autism spectrum disorder benefit from the implementation of social skills stories for autism and therefore many teachers, parents and other professionals now rely on this autistic resource to help with all autism social skills teaching.

To get more information on this autistic resource and gain downloads of social skills stories for autism that will help with all autism social skills teaching by using appropriate autistic supports and visual cues for autistic children.

Visit www.autismsocialstories.com

OR: www.autismsocialskillsstories.org.uk