Simple Strategies that Work
Description
The Simplest Strategies Can Be the Most Effective!
Autistic children, as well as those with related challenges, all have great potential. However, all too often they don't reach it. In Simple Strategies that Work, the authors provide easy-to-implement ideas and suggestions that teachers can use to guide students on the road to success.
Simple Strategies that Work discusses how teachers can adjust the classroom to meet the needs of individuals with autism, while not interfering with the usual routines. Not bogged down with jargon, this book includes tables and boxes for quick reference and clear meaning for autism-related information. Also included is information about what can cause anxiety for the student on the spectrum, how this can lead to decreased academic and social performance, decreased attention to task, increases in behavior problems, and what the teacher can do to help. With easy-to-implement suggestions, these strategies can help all kids to learn and succeed.
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Manage the Environment
In order to learn, the brain requires instruction, practice, and supports that match how it processes information. Because there are more neuromajority1 folks, society automatically uses instruction, practice, and supports that are neuromajority friendly. Thus, they are taught the way they learn.
What about autistics? Does society automatically match instruction, practices, and supports to the autistic neurology? The answer is a resounding no! And this is wrong-on so many levels.
The following easy-to-implement strategies help autistics manage their environment successfully:
- Routines
- Choices
- Home base/calming area
- Frequent check-ins
- Preparation and recovery time
- Balancing preferred activities
The ability to manage our environment is considered a hallmark of success for everyone (cf. Burden 2025; Kayalar 2024). Resulting difficulties cause stress and anxiety, which results in lower academic and social performance, decreased attention to tasks, and dysregulated behavior, including meltdowns.
The Autistic Neurology Is Valuable
Remember, the autistic neurology is a valuable neurology. It is different, not less than the neuromajority neurology. It's sad that we have to say this, but ... some of us in the neuromajority require more instruction and practice to understand this important concept.
Routines
Routines help people move through their environment efficiently and effectively. Once a routine is mastered, little thinking is required to use it. The concept of routines is compatible with the autistic neurology: they are sequential, visual, and consistent.
Routine cards should be created, taught, and practiced for commonly occurring activities across the school day. Any regularly occurring direction that begins with "Get ready to" or "Clean out/clean up" should have a routine card.
Teaching the following routines using routine cards may be helpful.
- How to ask for help
- How and when to sharpen pencils
- When and what to throw away and where to discard
- How to ask to go to the bathroom
- How to obtain school supplies when they did not bring them to class
- How and when to hand in homework
- How to pass out papers
- How to organize materials on their desk
- How to place school supplies in a locker, backpack, or desk so they are easily accessible
- How to make up missed work due to absences
- How to line up for lunch, recess, etc.
- How to walk down the hall in a line with other students
- How to get ready to transition to another activity within the same class
- How to get ready to transition to another activity that is not within the same class
- How to get ready for recess
- How to get ready to go home
- What to do during free time
- How to navigate lunchtime
The following is an example of a pencil sharpening routine. Its explicitness prevents uncertainty and countless questions.
Pencil Sharpening Routine
It is always good to have more than one pencil sharpened. Use this routine when it is not a "sharpening emergency":
- Wait until students are quietly working independently or in small groups or until there is a break between classes or activities.
- Bring your pencils to the pencil sharpener. If you have two pencils to be sharpened, bring them both.
- Without talking to your neighbor, sharpen each pencil.
- Quietly return to your desk.
If you do not have a working pencil and need one immediately, always request permission to sharpen your pencil.
The pencil sharpening routine for tests may be different. Ask your teacher.
Routine cards should be readily accessible to students at all times. They can be placed in a student's notebook, be posted on a bulletin board, or be placed on a keyring that is displayed at the back of the room. When routines are taught to the entire class, everyone will benefit, not just the autistic student.
Choices
Another simple way to support students as they attempt to manage the environment is to offer choices. The opportunity to make a choice provides the student more control, and when the student feels in control of a situation, they are less likely to be anxious or upset. Choice making also increases attention, promotes independence, and reduces challenging behaviors (Deel 2021).
Because a verbal presentation of choices is often not effective for highly visual learners such as autistic students, one way to make choices more visual is to create a choice board or list. A choice board typically identifies the reason for the choice-calming, recess, and so forth-and the choice options use pictures, words, objects, or a combination thereof.
Choice boards/lists aid and support the student's comprehension of a verbal message and indicate what options are available. This type of visual display affords the student time to (a) process the possible choices, (b) consider a response, and (c) check choice options as frequently as needed before making a decision (Chen & Kreibich 2023; van der Plas et al. 2023).
Choice boards/lists are also helpful in communicating acceptable options for a situation, such as available indoor recess activities or supports that can create a sense of calm. This Early Finisher Choice Board helps the student decide what to do after finishing an assignment.
Adapted from www.weareteachers.com/choice-board-template/.
Home Base/Calming Area
A home base/calming area is a quiet place in the school where students can go to (a) plan or review information or (b) cope with stress and behavioral challenges. It also serves as a place the student can go if (a) the classroom is becoming overwhelming, (b) a teacher thinks a meltdown may be on the way, or (c) the student otherwise needs a place to calm (Myles & Adreon 2025).
Home base is not a time-out, nor is it somewhere a student goes to escape work. Primarily, it should be a positive place for the student that is located anywhere that is quiet and comfortable, such as a resource room, a favorite teacher's classroom, or an ancillary staff member's office.
Use of home base is individually determined. Some students primarily use it to deal with stress and behavioral challenges, whereas others use it on a regular basis to plan and review information. Time in home base can be scheduled into a student's school day. For some, it may be especially helpful if a home base is scheduled immediately following a class period or activity that is stressful. For others, a home base scheduled before a stressful activity is most supportive. A hall pass is often used to prompt the student to go to the home base/calming area.
Frequent Check-Ins
Check-ins are brief, regular interactions between educators and students that allow for quick, informal feedback and the gathering of student information that supports learning. Implementing frequent check-ins does not typically require intensive time or materials.
Making frequent contact with the student helps them know that (a) their behavior matches the environment and (b) progress on activities is suitable. Frequent check-ins can be helpful in:
- Supporting the student's well-being by letting them know they are valued
- Offering the student opportunities to share their feelings and experiences, which may improve mental health
- Developing a relationship with the student
- Identifying potential academic or social challenges
- Helping the student learn to reflect on their behavior/performance through the use of carefully worded questions.
There are two types of check-ins: the momentary check-in and the long-term check-in. The first, the momentary check-in, includes monitoring the student while they are participating in an activity. As the teacher circulates through the classroom, they stop by students' desks to see how they are doing academically, behaviorally, and/or socially. Direct instruction, a learning tip, redirection, or questioning can be used if the check-in reveals that the student requires additional support.
The Momentary Check-In
Keenon's paraprofessional, Ms. Otto, used frequent check-ins with him and other students throughout the day. She tried to be specific. "Keenon, I like the way you are working on your book report. I'm going to hand in the...
