I have a single student in my class with Autism Spectrum Disorder. This student demonstrates needs in developing empathy. At this time, I do not have outside support in addressing these needs for this student so any efforts will be my own, alone (hoping to look into additional services soon). My content area is language arts and finding time to address these specific needs is a challenge.
How might I support this student’s social emotional needs with so little time to invest?
Talk to the parents and have them list points of interest. Find ways to incorporate those into the language arts lessons. I would also speak to the guidance counselor about giving a lesson to the class. Find a peer to help the student at times to increase social aspects for the student.
Do you have access to any PECS or picture prompts to help them in different scenarios? This is one of the sites our resource room teacher often shares
https://autismteachingstrategies.com/free-social-skills-downloads-2/
You need to be very specific with your student. Avoid using sarcasm - they take everything literally. I'm not sure what age your student is, but you might consider a social story. I always found that if you incorporate the social story with something that they are interested in. For example, I had a second grade student who loved robots so he had a social story that had robots as the characters. Carol Gray is a leader in social stories and you can read more about them here: https://carolgraysocialstories.com/
