The General Education Teacher?s Guide to Autism: Essential Answers to Key Questions

Find the answers to all your autism-related questions in The General Education Teacher’s Guide to Autism: Essential Answers to Key Questions. From this informative, dynamic resource, you will collect practical strategies to address the common challenges facing these neurodiverse students in an inclusive environment, while also learning to celebrate the unique strengths and perspectives these students bring to the classroom.

Educators will:

• Learn to ease the anxieties that are present among students on the autism spectrum
• Discover ways to address executive function challenges that can contribute to disorganization, impulsivity, and learning difficulties
• Collect practical strategies for easing sensory stress in the classroom
• Gather strategies for capturing engagement and helping students assimilate knowledge in meaningful ways
• Understand speech, language, and socialization patterns and gather strategies for facilitating effective interaction
• Learn to decode disruptive behaviors and respond to them in differentiated ways that yield lasting change
• Cultivate ways to develop a classroom community that celebrates and embraces all kinds of diversity
• Explore the perspectives of parents and guardians of students on the spectrum to facilitate powerful partnerships and optimize outcomes for students

Contents:
Introduction
Chapter 1: Autism Overview
Chapter 2: Anxiety
Chapter 3: Executive Function
Chapter 4: Sensation
Chapter 5: Communication and Socialization
Chapter 6: Engagement and Cognitive Processing
Chapter 7: Disruptive Behavior
Chapter 8: Parents and Guardians
Epilogue
References and Resources
Index

Barbara Boroson, LMSW, has worked in autism education for more than 25 years. Before becoming a social worker, she worked in children’s book publishing. However, upon discovering that there were no actual children in the publishing office, Barbara went back to school to earn her master’s degree in social work. As a clinical social worker, Barbara specialized in working with students on the autism spectrum, and went on to become a school administrator.
Several years after specializing in autism education, Barbara had her own child on the autism spectrum. Today, Barbara brings her compelling dual perspective as an autism educator and autism parent to all the work she does, seeking to bridge the common gaps in understanding between educators and parents or guardians. She speaks regularly at national and regional conferences, including ones for the International Literacy Association (ILA), the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), the National School Boards Association (NSBA), and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). She also provides dynamic professional development to school districts and graduate schools across the United States.
Barbara is the author of several books, including Decoding Autism and Leading the Way to Successful Inclusion (ASCD, 2020); Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Inclusive Classroom: How to Reach and Teach Students With ASD, Second Edition (Scholastic, 2016); and a forthcoming book about partnering with families of children with special needs. She has had many articles published, one of which won the silver award from the Association of Media and Publishing for Best Feature Article in a Magazine (Educational Leadership, 2017).
Barbara holds a bachelor’s degree in writing from Cornell University and a master’s degree in social work from Columbia University. She and her husband have two fabulously fierce children and one truly timid rescue dog. They live just outside of New York City.
To learn more about Barbara’s work, visit barbaraboroson.com.