Instruction for Children with Special Needs

I have a student who sits in class and never seems to be paying attention. He doesn’t take notes during the lesson and when test time rolls around; he seems unprepared and ends up doing poorly on the exam. How can I help him follow along with the lesson in class?

I have a student who has difficulty working in groups. He either moves away, tries to work alone or he is giving “orders” to everyone. Inevitably the group falls apart with arguments or work uncompleted. How can I help this student work positively in groups?

I have some students who have a difficult time attending during longer teacher/student discussions. They are playing with items in their desks, talking to other students, doodling, or looking around. What can I do to help them focus longer on the topic at hand?

I have a student with Autism Spectrum Disorder. He has difficulty with his math facts but refuses to ‘be taught’. He likes to be ‘in charge’. He gets frustrated with his math and wants to know the answers but refuses to sit in a math group or even individually when I am teaching methods for learning the facts. He also loves creating power points in Language Arts. He will insert his favorite character in each one as an image. But what can I do for this student in math?

I teach a gifted class and have a student on the Autism Spectrum. We work on many creative and imaginative projects that have Open Ended Questions or Abstract Prompts. My student has great difficulty getting started on these projects and doesn’t seem to understand how to begin. What can I do to help her?

In my Language Arts classes students must look up 15 vocabulary words and write the meanings. I have such a variety of learners that I don’t think this is the best method to teach the words anymore. I have students who are bored, students who have difficulty locating the words, or difficulty summarizing the definition. When it is homework it is rarely completed well by many students if completed at all. The entire task is laborious, what else can I do to teach these words and ensure the students are learning and not groaning?

I have a student with Asperger Syndrome in my regular education classroom. So many workshops indicate we should be teaching social skills in the environment. There is so little time during the day. What is a quick and doable way to provide social skills instruction in the crunched time we have?

I am using a prompt hierarchy from most to least with a student to teach eating with a spoon. But whenever I do hand-over-hand he jerks his hand away – how can I teach him?

I am a middle school Learning Support teacher and have 2 very bright students (above average IQ) with Asperger’s Syndrome that surprisingly have a tough time understanding some of the words or concepts in our reading selections, even though their expressive vocabulary seems pretty “profession-like” at times.  Any ideas of how I can build their receptive vocabulary?

I am a Learning Support teacher and have a 5th grade student with High Functioning Autism. He has been putting his hands down his pants while in the classroom. It appears that he is masturbating and I am not quite sure how to handle this…any ideas?