Autism paper 7: Mediated Learning Approach for Working with Children with Autism, Feb/2011

AUTISM: Practical Tips on Teaching Children with Mild/Moderate Autism in Mainstream Schools

This is a series of ten papers written by three experienced special education professionals who have worked directly with individuals with autistic learning and behavioural difficulties. Presented in an easy readable style, the authors have provided essential know what, know why and know how when teaching children with mild/moderate autism in mainstream schools.

Beginning with defining autism, identifying and profiling autistic learning and behavioural difficulties through planning lessons, conducting learning/behavioural support activities, counselling, intervening through video games/drawings/peer support, parental involvement to teaching mathematical concepts, operations and applications, the authors hope to share with their readers the practical tips on how they can go about teaching these exceptional children.

Paper 7: Mediated Learning Approach for Working with Children with Autism

Highlights: Children with autism have impairments in social communication and will thus not be able to naturally learn from social interactions with others. Moreover, as they generally exhibit a narrow field of interest, they will lack the necessary exposure to wide spectrum of social knowledge and skills needed for normal functioning in society. They will need human mediators to make sense of the social interactions. Societal rules and expectations are socially constructed and appreciated through multiple social interaction and experiences which children with autism lacks (Grandin & Sean, 2005). A significant and knowledgeable other is needed to adopt the child with autism as an apprentice and patiently guide the processes of construction and enculturation for acceptance into society. This paper serves to address this need of being effective mediators of the child’s learning from the perspective of a parent with children diagnosed with autism. It will be guided by evidenced-based research findings and pragmatism. The focus is essentially for parents and caregivers to be effective mediators of learning for their child with autism.

About The Author:
Norman Kiak Nam KEE, M.Tech, M.Ed., a former secondary school teacher, is a lecturer with the Early Childhood and Special Needs Education Academic Group at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Prior to this current appointment, he was a specialist writer/project leader with the Curriculum Development Institute of Singapore (CDIS), Ministry of Education, to develop the Dynamic Mathematics Series (a computer-based learning software) whose Jungle Survival with Quadratic Equations (a CD-ROM) has won three international awards in 1997: the Macromedia People's Choice Award for Educational Multimedia in San Francisco, USA; the International Digital Media Award for Best Educational CD-ROM Overall in Toronto, Canada; and the International Digital Media Award for Best Educational CD-ROM in K-12 Category in Toronto, Canada. Later, he left the CDIS to join Singapore Polytechnic to set up and maintain its e-learning infra-structure.

A former Ministry of Education scholar (1993) at the SEAMEO Regional Education Centre for Science and Mathematics (RECSAM), Penang, Malaysia, Mr Kee was an evaluation panel committee member at the National Infocomm Competency Centre (NICC), Singapore, from 2003-2006, contributing to the development of professional certification in IT education. Currently, he is pursuing his PhD research study on autism spectrum disorders at the National Institute of Education.

Mr Norman Kee is married with three sons.