According to the website for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recently, Autism Spectrum Disorder has grown more pervasive leading to one in every sixty-eight children being born with characteristics somewhere on the spectrum whether it is more severe or just a mild case. Given the social and comprehensive impairments that accompany this diagnosis, my goal is to figure out whether any progress is being made in educating this expansive population. In order to determine this, I must look into the current state of research in educating children with ASD.
Children with ASD have trouble understanding emotions which can affect their learning processes and in many cases, these children are minimally or non-verbal. The current state …show more content…
Instead, they concluded that a combination of technology and face-to-face interaction is a more effective method of teaching. Going back to the previous studies, one method may be better for a certain skill, but that just provides evidence that more than one way of teaching information is essential. Marder & deBettencourt (2012) mention that “school districts have struggled with finding properly trained teachers because there aren’t a lot that are highly qualified and there is a deficit in state funding” (p.13). Better trained teachers may be able to yield better results in teaching this population regardless of whether it is face to face interaction, implementing technology based instruction, or the combination. Sufficient training can be the solution in minimizing task refusal and behavioral issues. The persisting problem across these studies is that technology can be a biased instrument in holding the attention of children with ASD. As was mentioned earlier with Ganz et al. (2015), the technology is not as important as the preference for it. There is also no way to accurately measure learning if children only enjoy manipulating the features of the device. The trend across these studies is similar. It is assumed that since this population’s attention span may be short they may be better taught with visual stimuli, however, there is more evidence that supports the hybrid model than any model for strictly technology or strictly face-to-face interaction. Children are more likely to resist in face-to-face situations, but there is no evidence that determines why this is likely. Children could simply be shy and not willing to interact with strangers or it could be attributed to the lack of professional educators. Also, across these studies, greater sample sizes would be more interpretive and
Children with ASD have trouble understanding emotions which can affect their learning processes and in many cases, these children are minimally or non-verbal. The current state …show more content…
Instead, they concluded that a combination of technology and face-to-face interaction is a more effective method of teaching. Going back to the previous studies, one method may be better for a certain skill, but that just provides evidence that more than one way of teaching information is essential. Marder & deBettencourt (2012) mention that “school districts have struggled with finding properly trained teachers because there aren’t a lot that are highly qualified and there is a deficit in state funding” (p.13). Better trained teachers may be able to yield better results in teaching this population regardless of whether it is face to face interaction, implementing technology based instruction, or the combination. Sufficient training can be the solution in minimizing task refusal and behavioral issues. The persisting problem across these studies is that technology can be a biased instrument in holding the attention of children with ASD. As was mentioned earlier with Ganz et al. (2015), the technology is not as important as the preference for it. There is also no way to accurately measure learning if children only enjoy manipulating the features of the device. The trend across these studies is similar. It is assumed that since this population’s attention span may be short they may be better taught with visual stimuli, however, there is more evidence that supports the hybrid model than any model for strictly technology or strictly face-to-face interaction. Children are more likely to resist in face-to-face situations, but there is no evidence that determines why this is likely. Children could simply be shy and not willing to interact with strangers or it could be attributed to the lack of professional educators. Also, across these studies, greater sample sizes would be more interpretive and