Adapting Teaching & Assessment

Lessons and assessments which are planned for the rest of the class may not be appropriate for some students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Students may require lessons or assessments to be adapted in some way, or it may be more appropriate to provide an alternative activity within the same topic area (differentiation).

There are multiple ways to adapt lesson structure and delivery to support students with ASD. It may be that one adjustment is enough, or it may be that a combination of several adjustments is required to support learning. For a list of methods to consider, click here.

Assessment is undertaken for a variety of purposes, but all assessment is aimed at providing evidence of what the student knows and can do. Assessment design can have a huge impact on whether the results are a genuine reflection of the student’s abilities. ASD can make it substantially more difficult for the student to demonstrate their skills/knowledge. Remember that teachers are obliged to cater to the special needs of individual students – providing the same assessment method for all students may be discriminatory. Teachers must make adjustments for the special needs of their students. For a list of ways to adapt assessment tasks, click here.