David Celiberti, PhD, BCBA-D, Kate McKenna, MEd, MSEd, BCBA, Kaitlyn Evoy, MS, LBS, and Sarah Cummins, MA, BCBA
Association for Science in Autism Treatment

How ASAT can help teachers and educators

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The Association for Science in Autism Treatment (ASAT) strives to promote evidence-based practices for autistic individuals across all areas of their lives, including in educational settings. Teachers play a central role in the lives of students with autism, supporting their learning and development across academic, social, behavioral, communication, and daily living domains. However, even highly skilled and dedicated educators may have limited access to specialized training and practical resources related to autism and evidence-based practice, particularly when supporting students with complex and diverse needs.

Special education preparation programs are required to prepare teacher candidates for a wide variety of teaching positions and to support and teach students with an array of needs, abilities, and required accommodations. As a result, such preparation cannot always provide educators with in-depth training in every area they may encounter during their careers. This, however, raises important questions about how well-prepared new teachers are to educate students with complex needs and what additional training, resources, and support they will need as they enter the profession. It also raises an important question for schools: What level of autism-specific education and training can employers reasonably expect new teachers to bring with them?

Teachers are expected to meet the varied and often complex needs of their students while navigating competing demands, including limited staffing, supervision of paraprofessionals, curriculum requirements, administrative responsibilities, and limited planning time. These challenges may be particularly pronounced for special education teachers, who must also coordinate individualized instruction, manage specialized supplies and resources, and collaborate with support personnel while ensuring that instruction is responsive to the diverse needs of individual students. To best support their students, many teachers seek additional professional development, guidance, and resources on their own. Yet, the vast array of information available about autism, interventions, approaches, and therapies can be overwhelming. Resources may be difficult to understand, challenging to locate, unsupported by evidence, or simply unavailable. Combined with the considerable demands and stress associated with the profession, these realities can make an already challenging job even more difficult. Students with autism are educated in a variety of settings, and teachers are consequently expected to work across a wide range of educational environments. General education teachers may support autistic students in their classrooms, with or without the assistance of another adult in the room.

ASAT supports teachers

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Special education teachers often are required to work collaboratively in general education classrooms, provide instruction in resource rooms, or may also teach in self-contained classrooms. Some teachers may work without paraprofessional support, while others may be responsible for supervising and supporting a team of classroom staff. Teachers working alongside paraprofessionals may also be expected to provide guidance regarding autism and specific intervention strategies, despite having limited formal preparation in staff supervision and training. Compounding these challenges, many teachers supervise multiple staff members (often with little to no training in how to lead and manage other adults) while retaining direct teaching responsibilities. Ongoing staffing shortages may then require them to make difficult decisions each day to ensure that students receive adequate support.

Beyond these responsibilities, teachers in both general and special education settings may find themselves encountering difficulties that were not addressed in their college or university coursework or their student teaching experience. For example, snacktime and lunchtime may be complicated by feeding challenges or food refusal. Teachers may also be called upon to support toileting skills or school attendance concerns. Problematic behavior may disrupt lessons and cause issues during transitions. Teachers can be expected to incorporate the use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices into the curriculum and daily routines of the classroom. These are only a few examples of the many challenges educators may encounter as they strive to meet the individualized needs of their students. This is where ASAT can help.

With the explicit goal of offering resources for a wide variety of professionals, including educators, ASAT provides comprehensive, accessible information grounded in science. Teachers should not have to rely solely on informal advice, social media, blogs, or other sources of information that may not be supported by evidence when seeking guidance about autism and intervention strategies. ASAT gathers and develops information about data-driven approaches and presents it in a language that is accessible and, on a platform, designed to make resources easier to find and use. Best of all, such articles are freely available.

It is our hope that this article provides teachers with an introduction to the broad array of resources ASAT offers to support their important work with autistic students. These resources address a variety of topics, including increasing independence, developing meaningful skills, supporting communication, expanding opportunities for inclusion and community participation, preparing for adulthood, and many other areas relevant to educators, students, and the families they serve. ASAT is committed to continuing to develop and share practical, accessible, research-based information to help educators navigate the many questions and challenges they encounter. We hope teachers will find these resources useful as they make informed decisions, support individual students, collaborate with families and colleagues, and create meaningful educational opportunities for autistic learners. This collection will continue to grow as we identify additional areas in which science-based knowledge can support educators. We look forward to sharing new resources developed with the needs, experiences, and priorities of educators in mind.

Before highlighting resources specifically for teachers, we would first like to introduce three broader ASAT initiatives that may be particularly valuable to educators:

  1. Science in Autism Treatment: ASAT publishes a monthly newsletter, Science in Autism Treatment, featuring reviews of published research, books, and consumer resources, including training videos, websites, and resource lists on safety products, promoting awareness and acceptance, and on promoting success at the dentist. The newsletter also features interviews with leaders in the field of autism treatment for older children and adults, as well as parent advocates; answers to questions about important clinical issues related to education and treatment; tips to help readers differentiate evidence-based options from approaches marketed as panaceas; and more. Current and past issues are available through the Science in Autism Treatment newsletter and Archived Newsletters You can learn more about Science in Autism Treatment and its diverse content and features here and subscribe for free.
  2. ASAT’s Website: ASAT’s website (asatonline.org) offers a broad range of resources for teachers and other educational personnel, as well as resources for parents, medical professionals, and other audiences. Resources relevant to educators include strategies for promoting acceptance, bullying prevention resources, and lists of print resources such as resources to help classmates learn about autism. As part of our commitment to providing accurate information, we regularly update our content to reflect current research and evaluations of new treatments. Our website also features interviews that reflect the perspectives of different stakeholders, including parents. We are also pleased to offer a dedicated page for teachers that organizes relevant articles by topic, making it easier for educators to find information related to common questions and challenges encountered in educational settings.
  3. ASAT’s Externship Program: ASAT also offers a 150-hour Externship program that provides students, professionals, and family members with an opportunity to gain experience working with a not-for-profit organization while deepening their knowledge of autism and evidence-based practice. For educators, the Externship can provide an opportunity to build on their existing knowledge and experience, explore questions related to autism and evidence-based educational practices, and become more directly involved in the development and dissemination of reliable information. Many past and current Externs are teachers or hold degrees in education, including the second, third, and fourth authors of this article. Furthermore, many members of ASAT’s Board of Directors and Professional Advisory Board possess teaching degrees and certificates. These connections with educators help inform ASAT’s work and strengthen our ability to develop resources that are relevant to the experiences and needs of teachers. You can read more about the Externship experience here.

In the remainder of this article, we highlight a selection of ASAT resources that may be particularly useful to teachers and other educational professionals as they address the diverse needs and challenges of supporting autistic students in school settings.

Science Corner

Science Corner offers user-friendly information about scientific concepts and research to help readers become savvier consumers of autism-related information. For teachers, these resources can provide a foundation for evaluating research, claims, and educational interventions and for discussing questions that may arise with colleagues and families. Recent installments have addressed topics such as making sense of the evidence, retraction of published research, pitfalls of circular reasoning, and conducting a comprehensive literature search. Understanding the differences between science and pseudoscience is particularly important when evaluating research, claims, and educational interventions for autistic students.

Science Corner includes a series that examines whether specific treatments, approaches, and fads are supported by evidence, titled “Is There Science Behind That?” Teachers may encounter these options in their work or be asked about them by students’ parents. Examples on intervention discussed in this column include Facilitated Communication, sensory diets, service dogs, Brain Balance, Social Thinking, and Camel milk.

We also have published dozens of treatment summaries on a wide array of interventions some of which include ABA-based approaches such as Direct Instruction, Early intensive behavioral intervention for autism, Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS), Self-Management Interventions, Visual Activity Schedules, as well as Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), Treatment Summary: Craniosacral therapy, Dolphin Assisted Therapy, Natural Language Acquisition Protocol for Gestalt Language Development, Rapid Prompting Method (RPM), Relationship Development Intervention (RDI), Sensory Integration Theory and Ayres Sensory Integration®, and Dietary interventions for autism. Keep in mind that the examples listed above are just a small sample of what we have available on our website and new summaries are added each month.

Research Synopses

Research Synopses, as its name implies, contains reviews of relevant studies related to autism. There, teachers can find quick summaries of complex research, helping them to save time in their review of literature on their journey to use evidence-based practices in the classroom. There is a growing list of specific psychological, educational, and therapeutic interventions. Some interventions have multiple studies referenced and reviewed. If teachers are looking for more information on specific interventions, including the evidence or lack thereof, they can find those as well. Applied behavior analysis has dozens of studies linked, given the tremendous body of literature, including classroom applications of functional analysis, using an applied verbal behavior model in the classroom, a meta-analysis on TEACCH, supporting appropriate transitions, and early intervention in public preschool and kindergarten, to name a few. A section on effective procedures for teaching specific skills to individuals with autism covers studies ranging from the challenges and possibilities of teaching reading skills to students with autism, to communication interventions for minimally verbal children with autism, to promoting physical activity and dental visit participation. Because teachers often encounter stakeholders interested in non-evidence-based, therapeutic, or biomedical treatments, ASAT addresses issues like the lack of evidence supporting the rapid prompting method, and the results of a controlled trial regarding hyperbaric treatment for children with autism. Find the full gamut of research synopses available here.

Clinical Corner

Clinical Corner addresses frequently asked questions about autism treatment and education. This section of the ASAT website covers a broad range of issues relevant to teachers and other professionals, including the use of reinforcement, building rapport and promoting pairing, early intervention, effective interventions, behavior management, and issues that may affect families such as supporting the sibling relationship. Examples of questions addressed include the importance of early diagnosis, setting up an evidence-based program, addressing emotion regulation, teaching children social skills including telephone skills, and helping families prepare for holiday celebrations.

Clinical Corner also includes questions submitted by teachers and other professionals working in educational settings. Topics include teaching WH questions, preparing students for fuller inclusion, promoting retention, and teaching safety skills. Explore the full collection of Clinical Corner installments here.

Research Synopses

Research Synopses provide accessible summaries of complex research, helping them save time when reviewing the literature and seeking information to inform evidence-based practices in the classroom. The collection includes a growing number of psychological, educational, and therapeutic interventions, with some interventions represented by multiple studies that can be reviewed individually.

Teachers interested in learning more about specific interventions, including the strength of the evidence supporting them or the lack thereof, can find relevant research synopses on the site. Applied behavior analysis, for example, is represented by numerous studies reflecting the extensive body of research in this area. Topics include classroom applications of functional analysis, a meta-analysis on TEACCH, supporting appropriate transitions, and early intervention in public preschool and kindergarten, among others.

A section focused on effective procedures for teaching specific skills to individuals with autism includes research on topics ranging from the challenges and possibilities of teaching reading skills to students with autism to communication interventions for minimally verbal children with autism. Teachers may also encounter questions from families, colleagues, or other stakeholders about interventions that lack an adequate evidence base, including therapeutic or biomedical approaches. ASAT’s Research Synopses address these topics as well, including the lack of evidence supporting the Rapid Prompting Method, and the results of a controlled trial regarding hyperbaric treatment for children with autism. The full collection of research synopses is available on the ASAT website here.

Book and Resource Reviews

On the ASAT website, you will find reviews of books and other resources related to autism and its treatment. For teachers, these reviews can provide a useful starting point when considering resources related to teaching, behavior management, evidence-based practice, and other issues they may encounter in educational settings. In addition, you will find summaries of some available resources listed below, topically. Many of these reviews are for books and resources that are also available free of charge.

Reviews Related to Autism Educational and Treatment Considerations

Reviews Related to Early Intervention

Reviews Related to Parenting and Family Resources

Reviews Related to Skill Acquisition Efforts

Reviews Related to Behavioral Intervention

Reviews Related to Transitions

Media Corner

ASAT’s Media Corner monitors media coverage to identify information about autism and its treatments to promote accurate, evidence-based reporting. Recognizing that media coverage has the potential to reach thousands of families, educators, professionals, and other consumers, ASAT supports accurate portrayals of autism and evidence-based interventions. When media coverage includes inaccurate or misleading information about proposed treatments, ASAT may respond directly to the publication or outlet.

To date, ASAT has published more than 200 letters addressing issues related to autism, education, and treatment. Many of these letters address topics relevant to schools and teacher preparation. We have compiled a selection of letters from the past decade that may be particularly relevant to teachers and have organized them topically below.

Early Intervention

Supporting Students

Family Experiences

Outcomes

Employment

Community Opportunities and Needs

Transition Concerns from School to Adulthood

Teachers should not have to navigate the complex and evolving landscape of autism education alone. ASAT is here to help educators find reliable information, ask informed questions, evaluate claims critically, and translate research into meaningful support for their students. We invite you to explore the other sections of our dedicated pages for teachers, including our topical list of resources, and to check back often as we continue to add new content. We hope these resources become a useful part of teachers’ ongoing professional learning and, ultimately, help more autistic students experience classrooms in which they are supported, understood, included, and given meaningful opportunities to learn and thrive.

Reference for this article:

Celiberti, D. A., McKenna, K., Evoy, K., & Cummins, S. (2026). How ASAT supports special education and regular education teachers: A look at ASAT’s evidence-based resources for educators. Science in Autism Treatment, 23(9).

 

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