Accommodating Behavior Characteristics of Autism
Part (or most) of your role as someone who supports a person with autism is finding accommodations that work for that person to help them function despite the behavior characteristics of autism. Think about what it feels like to be over-stimulated and trying to focus on direction or specific task. Pretend that you are in a room with a high school band all warming up playing different notes and being asked to finish a math problem. Do you think it would be easy to do it? Do you think that you would even be able to complete the task? This is what people with autism face on daily basis. Many things that we find in our day to day lives as mundane are incredibly over-stimulating for individuals who display the behavior characteristics of autism. This could be something like a fluorescent light.
Accommodations means to do what is necessary to enable the individual to be successful in any given area. Refer to the list of behavior characteristics of autism get an idea of what types of things are challenging to this particular individual. Once you understand what some triggers may be you can start to develop ideas about what possible accommodations you can use to address each behavior characteristic of autism.