This is a scientifically based method of teaching students with ASD. It is effective in promoting social communication, and trainings to learn the strategy take 1-2 hours of instruction. 

Grinnell College

Studnets with ASD that have limited speech can use an augmentative and alteernative communication system, or an AAC, to use signs, gestures, pictures, and speech-generating devices to communicate in an educational environment. Learning pads, ipads, and phones are all options of AAC systems.

Augmentative and Alternate Communication

Responding increases the students' motivation to communicate during class and with the teacher, leading to better educational outcomes. Responding can be done by verbalizing the behavior of the student with ASD, expanding on communication that they started, seeking clarification, and extending communication. 

Respond to Communication

Lessons should be set up with areas for the student to communicate built into the lesson plan. There should be an AAC system available to assist in communication, with lesson-related functions programed in beforehand. This includes items related to the student's skills, interests, communication methods, and what they need to get out of the learning experience. Children with ASD tend to use multiple modes of communication, and any individual child might only use a few of the modes that other students use. Vocabulary used should include the full range of speech, such as nouns, verbs and adjectives, and should have phrases that promote communication with a partner.

Prepare the Learning Experience and AAC system for children with ASD

Students need to have the opportunity to communicate through questions, comments, and picking choices. This allows the student with ASD to beocme an active participant in the activity and to improve their communication. Opportunities can come in the form of asking for the student to pick a choice between two or more activities, asking for a comment on the material, asking questions, or commenting on the material yourself. Peers can also engage the student with ASD by asking them questions, providing choices, or commenting themself.

Offer opportunities for communication

After offering the opportunity for communication, the teacher needs to wait for the response from the student with ASD. Generating a responce using an AAC takes more time than it would to give a verbal responce by a child with typical development. If the child is experienced with their device, wait at minimum 5 seconds for a response. If the child is not sppearing to create their responce after 5 seconds, regain the student's attention by offering another opportunity to communicate. If a student is new to their device or has inhibited motor abilities, longer than 5 seconds will be necessary. Peers should also be advised to wait for a responce from the student with ASD.

Wait for Communication

This effect pertains to how students' memories and evaluation of prior challenging experiences impact their motivation to engage with similar challenging experiences in the future. Research has shown that after taking both a longer and shorter difficult math test, students prefer and will choose to repeat the longer test if it included a number of only moderately difficult problems that students could answer successfully. This pattern of preferences is known as the "remembered success effect".

Remembered Success Effect

Douglas, S. & Gerde, H. (2019). A Strategy to Support the Communication of Students with Autism Spectrum disorder. Hammill Institude on Disabilities, 55(1). 32-38. doi.10.1177/1053451219833021

A Strategy to Support the Communication of Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

POWR Teaching strategy for students with ASD

Preverbal children with ASD tend to show fewer gestures compared to children with typical development. They are less likely to use pointing gestures to direct attention to objects or areas of interest, though they are able to make requests using gestures. Older children continue to show difficulties with gesture, either with timing or rate of use. People with ASD tend to use fewer metaphoric and beat gestures compared to typical development people, though their rates of iconic, deictic, and emblem gestures tend to be similar across the two groups.

Gestures in ASD

- time of year (fall semester vs spring semester) had no distinct effects
- every participant showed social isolation in comparison with neurotypical peers during the baseline measure, including low engagement levels
- ultimately each participant improved with interest-based intervention
- findings did not hold for many participants after the study most likely because they did not have educated individuals facilitating and intervening in club activities, or the clubs themselves were discontinued

Improving Socialization for High School Students with ASD by Using Their Preferred Interests: Results

Research illustrating the remembered success effect suggest that task design can influence memory of previous (challenging) experiences, and thus can lead to students being more likely to engage in learning processes involving desirable difficulties while simultaneously sustaining motivation. 

Remembered Success and Desirable Difficulties

Having a mobile platform is best, so a phone app would be the best choice Reading and writing lessons should be limited based on current language ability to prevent overwhelming the user The app should build confidence through positive reinforcement Catering to a diverse group means multiple languages need to be programed in.

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