Interventions

Poor coordination

Dyspraxia is a motor co-ordination difficulty that used to be called clumsiness and is often associated with learners with Asperger Syndrome. It is related to a difficulty in motor planning in that new movement and actions that have to be concentrated on will be difficult. In collaboration with the PE specialist in the school and with advice from an occupational therapist, activities and games might be employed to develop ball and co-ordination skills. As would be expected, they may find PE difficult and team games perplexing. They are likely to have difficulty in getting changed before and after PE. Support systems such as visual prompts and social stories may be useful here.

Handwriting may be difficult and the learners with ASD tend to have good ICT skills so consider how the learner will have access to a word processor to overcome this barrier to writing. Having legible handwriting may be a noble aim but that should not cause extra frustration when the task in hand is to present ideas and when the majority of the world uses computers or mobile phones to communicate. Support for structuring their work can also be put in place by the use of headings and subheadings or writing frames which contain key questions alongside key words and concepts. Clicker by Crick Soft is a frequently used supportive word processor.