01 Nov Helping a child with Autism recall information

Helping a child with autism recall information can be aided by practice and also by using the “pegging” technique.  Children often have an understanding of a concept or subject but in little to no time they seem to have forgotten the concept.  Revision using visual cues and mental “pegs” can help the child recall information better.

When we refer to “pegging” we mean that we use a new concept with something that the child is familiar with, better explained as using a concept with a real-life object or event.  For example when learning to count a great example of pegging would be the rhyme:  One, two … buckle my shoe, three four, knock on the door ect.

Teaching the concept of time can be done by attaching the time to an experience and/or a place that the child can easily recall for example:  “yesterday at 13H00 when we stopped at McDonalds you got a burger, it was lunchtime”  This statement would then turn into:  “What time was it when we stopped at McDonalds?  13H00 means it is what time?

Use practice or repetition in conjunction with pegging.

There is no such thing as “over -learning” but make sure that you are not just mindlessly repeating items (rote learning).  Rather use visualization as it will achieve the same goals in a fraction of the time.  An example of rote-learning would be repeating your times tables over and over.  An example of visually learning your times table would include flash cards and counters and having the child solve the problem visually.

Never be scared to use picture or animations during your lessons.