What is ASD?
- Frequent in males than in females
- 10,200 people with ASD in Hong Kong (0.1% of total population)
(Hong Kong Monthly Digest of Statistics, 2015) - Condition which influences communication, behaviors and interest
Features / Challenges
- Difficulty in social communication and social interaction
- Poor understanding of others’ facial expressions, body language and non-verbal communication
- Struggle with understanding their own and others’ feelings and emotion
- Struggle with forming relationships
- Hard to express themselves
- Avoid eye contact and want to be alone
- Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests or activities
- Repeat actions
- Like to follow same routine
- Obsessive with number and pattern
Possible support for students with ASD
Learning support
- Provide supervision and set priorities
- Provide study room in library exclusively for students with special needs with less distractions
- Allow extra time for tests and examinations
- Allow extra time to complete assignments
- Provide special examination venue with less distractions
- Allow individual work instead of group work when necessary
Tips for peers
- Give them chance to initiate communication
→Be patient and being “face to face’ for inviting eye-contact
→Help them to interpret non-verbal communication- e.g. Be aware of your facial expressions
- Help them to understand the conversation
→Use concise wording in the conversation and avoid using metaphors
→Be aware of your tone of voice in the conversation - Try to give them more time to finish the jobs
→Set clear and break down instruction- e.g. Use concrete wording or list out requirement
