Interpreting and Leveraging Neurodiversity Strength: Understanding Autistic Experiences Within General Education Mathematics Classrooms

Authors: Nicole Sparapani, Nancy Tseng & Charles Wilkes

Background. Autistic students offer unique strengths, perspectives, and cognitive abilities to the classrooms they enter when they are accurately understood and supported, such as strengths in nonverbal reasoning and heightened sensitivities. Rather than viewing autistic features as advantageous, however, studies examining autistic students in classrooms are often grounded in deficit-based framing, conceptualizing individual differences as problematic behavior. This has created negative preconceptions and false narratives about autism that permeate classrooms, limiting students’ access to high-cognitive mathematical learning opportunities. We begin to address this problem by identifying “mathematics teaching and learning that humanize and empower [autistic learners] in ways that draw on and sustain (for them and all of us) their uniqueness and the richness they bring to schools” (Tan et al., 2019, p. 5).

Examining Interactions as a Measure of Classroom Community: Insight into the Inclusion of Autistic Learners within General Education Mathematics Lessons

Authors: Nicole Sparapani, Nancy Tseng, Emilio Ferrer & Peter Mundy

Developmental and Skill Profiles of Autistic and Nonautistic Learners in General Education Classrooms

Authors: Nicole Sparapani, Jamie McCauley, Sandy Birkeneder, Nancy Tseng, Jennie Bullen & Peter Mundy

Background. Education systems have critical gaps effectively identifying and serving autistic students in general education classrooms. This may, in part, be due to problems identifying students who do not exhibit ‘enough’ academic or behavioral need in the early years (Reynolds et al., 2009). Sociocultural factors such as race and ethnicity, sex, and socioeconomic status also contribute to under-identification or misidentification. Recognizing patterns of students’ developmental and behavioral characteristics may, alternatively, outline the important information teachers need to effectively support the autistic students in their classrooms. Objectives. The current study investigated the heterogeneity in developmental and behavioral skills within a neurodiverse sample of students in general education classrooms. (This work was presented at the 2024 INSAR annual meeting).

Teachers’ Perceptions of Executive Functioning and Challenging Behaviors in a Sample of Autistic Students and Their Peers

This study examines group differences in teacher-reported executive functioning (EF) and challenging behaviors between their autistics and non-autistic students (with and without other disability classification). Teachers reported EF challenges in their autistic students and students with other disability classifications. These EF challenges were associated with challenging behaviors for all students but strongest for students with other disability classifications.

Authors: Amanda Nunnally, Sandy Birkeneder, Jennie Bullen, Johanna Vega Garcia, Cindy Parks, Nancy Tseng, Peter Mundy & Nicole Sparapani

Math Achievement in Autistic Students and the Impact of Teacher Instruction

Authors: Jennie Bullen, Nancy Tseng & Nicole Sparapani

Differences in Instructor Responsiveness and Student Participation between Special Education Teachers and Classroom Paraprofessionals Serving Preschool-3rd Grade Students on the Autism Spectrum

This study utilized an archival dataset of classroom video observations of paraprofessionals and teachers working with preschool-3rd grade students on the autism spectrum. Videos had been coded for student and teacher behaviors as part of The Classroom Measure of Active Participation (Class-MAP; Sparapani et al., unpublished manual). A subset of 30 observations were examined to investigate the responsive language that teachers and paraprofessionals used during classroom activities. We found that teachers used significantly more responsive language than paraprofessionals.

Authors: Laurel Towers & Nicole Sparapani