Middle school students diagnosed with autism often display particular interests or strengths in certain fields, subjects or things and teachers should take advantage of these strengths and interests to teach them academic concepts. If an autistic student is particularly gifted in carving out models from wood, teachers should give him plenty of opportunities to read up on wooden craftwork, write on this topic and share his interest on it through expressive communication. The autistic student can learn several chapters in ancient world history by exploiting his interest in wooden craftwork.
In middle school, students with autism should be placed on a functional curriculum to enable them to work and live independently at adulthood. The functional curriculum should concentrate on vital life skills such as employment skills, leisure and recreational skills, community skills and daily living skills. Students with autism also need to take up functional academics where they will be taught money skills, time skills, basic math, writing and reading. Older middle school students should be provided with formal employment opportunities besides being taught domestic and self care skills.
A middle school student with autism should be helped to see with clarity and understand what is required of him by placing him in an environment that has been structured visually. Teachers must define separate work stations. Some autistic students can work comfortably in open areas while others require three-sided work stations. Environmental considerations include separate chairs for each autistic student in the classroom with name tags on them or floors with taped outlines. To minimize the need for auditory directions, classroom activities ought to be laced with conspicuous visual cues. The autistic student should know his time limits for doing certain assignments, the nature and quantity of his assignments and what his next assignments are by looking at his work station.
Non-verbal autistic students who suffer from impairments in expressive communication should be placed in the augmentative communication system. A few effective sensory strategies include voice output communication devices and the picture exchange communication system. Autistic students can often lose their verbal abilities during periods of extreme stress. Aggressive behaviors in this case can be minimized with backup visual communication modes; the latter also aids expression.