As we develop an increasing awareness of the needs of our ASD learners, we find that the student-teacher relationship is of paramount importance, more so than for typically developing learners, largely because of their inability to regulate their emotions and communicate their feelings appropriately. Fundamental to this relationship is the way we, as educators, view the autistic child and our subsequent expectations of, and for, that child.
What we have found is that these children are intelligent: they can think; and they have minds of their own. They are also very sensitive and highly intuitive. As such, it is imperative that we start off by building a relationship of trust, safety and security with the child based on sensitivity (awareness of the child's needs) and intuition (being in tune with the child, anticipating behaviours/outcomes), respect (for the child's intelligence and feelings) and consistency ( the child must always know what to expect). We must also seek instructional content and strategies that continuously stimulate and appeal to these students, bearing in mind that each autistic child learns differently and the program must therefore be tailored to the learning style that best suits the child, be it auditory, visual or kinaesthetic.
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