What IEP accommodations should I ask for to support my child with autism?

The most common accommodations that help students with autism achieve academic success include:

• Providing visual supports (schedules, first–then strips, checklists, visual models/directives)
• Limiting language when presenting directives (being concise and to the point)
• Embedding motivation
• Using reinforcement
• Priming
• Pairing verbal directives with visuals (modeling, written directives, etc.)
• Using visual schedules (picture-based, words)
• Building on behavior momentum
• Modeling and using Social Stories
• Incorporating mindfulness regarding sensory needs and embedding sensory strategies
• Providing social facilitation and social pragmatic supports
• Providing support for executive functioning needs such as organization systems and limiting distractors in the classroom (e.g., posters on the walls)
• Providing assistive technology supports and tools for access to instruction (low tech and high tech — for ideas, see IEP Assistive Technology Tools to Empower Students with Disabilities)
• Allowing the use of fidgets
• Allowing flexible seating options (standing, wobble chair/stool, rocker, etc.)
• Providing a calming corner and/or sensory room access
• Scheduling movement breaks
• Allowing extended processing time (specify number of seconds)
• Allowing extended time on tests/quizzes/assignments
• Chunking assignments
• Teaching self-monitoring systems
• Giving options to respond in a variety of ways
• Providing supports such as sentence and paragraph frames, an editing checklist, a transition word list, or a math operations word list

For more information about developing an IEP for a student with autism, see our article Getting a Child with Autism the School Supports They Need.