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Special education refers to unusual education services planned to cater to the requirements of individuals experiencing physical and mental problems such as mental retardation and autism, sensory impairments, speech impairment, learning disabilities, and individuals with behavior disorders. It pursues to deal with problems of the individuals, as well as provide useful solutions through a set of formulated instructions, service supports and aids, transitions services and learning techniques.

The primary objective of the special education is to address the needs of the special individuals and make sure that they gain equivalent access to quality education irrespective of their condition. Basically, it inspires them to keep up with the challenges of normal education and assist improve their chances for achievement in life.

Educating Autistic individuals is a two way process, the person needs the attention of the teacher and the parents must also be an active part of the learning process of the child. As there is no proven training method, education for Autistic individuals is often customized to suit the needs of different individual.

Chris Manente has been working with the autistic individuals for more than a decade now who says that a successful special education teacher should understand the unpredictable degrees of autism spectrum disorder, and by what means a student’s capability to reach their complete learning potential can be enabled. Listed below are the teaching strategies that a special education teacher usually carries out:

• Anger and frustration management skills
• Emotional regulation
• Time management skills
• Listening skills
• Mobility skills
• Phonological processing
• Fine motor skills
• Metacognitive skills
• Self-regulatory skills
• Personal safety
• Attention skills
• Verbal skills
• Organizational skills
• Self-esteem

As of now Chris Manente is working at Caldwell University as an Assistant Professor to provide special education to the individuals with autism spectrum disorders. Listed below are some of the tips provided by Chris, which would definitely help a special educator:

• Task analysis should be used which should be very precise and in a consecutive order
• Give smaller amount of choices for the autistic individual; as more number of choices will confuse the individual easily
• Refrain from using sarcasm as autistic individuals do not usually understand the actual meaning and also avoid using idioms as this will leave the individual totally puzzled and speculating
• Allow the autistic individual to avoid taking part in certain activities such as sports as the person may not understand or prefer
• Reiterate advices and check understanding. Always use short sentences to confirm clearness of instructions.

A former student of Rutgers University Dr. Christopher Manente has been a receiver of the Rutgers Presidential Scholarship, and has served at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education as an Adjunct Professor. He has also functioned at Caldwell University as an Assistant Professor not only in the field of special education but also in the field of general education. In addition to this, he has written numerous articles in peer-appraised periodicals on the issue of autism spectrum disorders and has represented these at both state as well as local seminars.