Using Time Warnings To Help Students With Autism.

Giving students warnings about time remaining in an activity can provide a helpful frame of reference. Time limit warnings should be paired with an auditory or visual cue, such as a bell or card. Towards the end of the work activity, the teacher should verbalize, ‘five minutes left’—‘two minutes left’. For students requiring additional support, the verbal que can be paired with the gestural pointing to the timer and manually signing ‘finished’ using sign language. When preparing students for the end of an activity that has a natural ending point, such as a game or timed tests, the teacher should alert students that a transition is approaching by making such a statement as, ‘only a few more cards in the game is over’. Finally, time warnings or making transitional cards as part of the student’s routine can also help students with autism develop the capacity to be flexible on change. Additionally, teaching students to put away materials in the completion of an activity can function as a natural queue that one activity is ending, and that another is beginning. For example, the teacher can say, ‘once you finish that problem, you can begin to get ready for recess.  All of these simple, yet very effective support strategies are easy to use, and help both students and teachers during everyday classroom activities.

Tags: ABA In Schools, applied behavior analysis in school settings, supporting students with autism in schools