Inclusive Pedagogy: Rethinking Autistic Students’ Behavior Using Motor Planning and Sensory Regulation

Main Article Content

Sara Scribner
Chelsea P. Tracy-Bronson

Keywords

autism, disability studies in education, disability studies, motor planning, sensory regulation

Abstract

Research suggests that sensory regulation and motor planning are differences for students with autism (Hilton et al., 2012; Moran et al., 2013; Paton et al., 2012), but so often the first approach to supporting students with autism in schools, comes from an understanding routed in behavior. Grounded in a critical disability studies in education theoretical framework (Ferguson & Nusbaum, 2012; Goodley et al., 2019), this article centers the voices of self-advocates with autism to understand their perspectives related to how their sensory and motor needs have been misunderstood as behavior. Counter-narratives provide the foundation to illustrate critical reframing of behavior, and then the authors provide implications for educational practice for both pre- and in- service educators, with pedagogical strategies that accounts for sensory-motor perspective of understanding autism.

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