LESSON PLANS FOR AUTISM INCLUSION STUDENTS FOR FOSTERING IMAGINATION AND CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS
Files
Master's Research Project
Date
2011-12-20
DOI
Authors
Frechette, Karen
Version
OA Version
Citation
Abstract
Developing creativity at the middle school level is a challenge as at this time many
changes are occurring developmentally, personally, and socially. With the addition of a
diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to a student’s developmental ability an art
teacher is met with his or her own challenges within the curriculum. Understanding ASD
is the first step in developing a comprehensive unit that encourages all levels of students
to succeed in developing creativity that is personal and meaningful. Utilizing a student's
interests, strengths and dislikes will help an art teacher to assist an ASD student to foster
imaginative and critical thinking skills for developing creativity. This study showed that
when ASD students are challenged to think creatively with support from aids (para’s)
and this researcher they were able to create a personality plaque that showed their
positive attributes (good qualities) using clay. With this information the researcher was
then able to develop a unit of lesson plans on Community that fostered imagination and
critical thinking skills while developing creativity.