Spark Learning Hub

Spark Learning Hub Bridging communication between autistic children & their parents to build confidence+self expression

Distraction is a natural part of being human. We all have days when staying focused feels difficult, yet children are of...
07/29/2026

Distraction is a natural part of being human. We all have days when staying focused feels difficult, yet children are often expected to remain attentive throughout an entire lesson or activity, even when many adults struggle to do the same!

For autistic students, it is especially important to remember that attention may not always look the way we expect.

A student who appears distracted may be:

• Processing information
• Solving or calculating something in their head
• Making a meaningful connection to the current task
• Following a connection that began with the current task but led to several additional thoughts
• Thinking about something unrelated to the current task

Before immediately redirecting, pause and consider the student’s perspective.

A student may need more processing time, help organizing their thoughts, an opportunity to share their connection, support with how to communicate a connection, a movement break, or support returning to the task.

The goal is to help students understand their own attention, communicate their needs, and develop strategies that work for them.

How do you support student focus?

Not every autistic person experiences perfectionism, but for those who do, new tasks or work that feels permanent can be...
07/22/2026

Not every autistic person experiences perfectionism, but for those who do, new tasks or work that feels permanent can be especially difficult.

Perfectionism does not always look like carefully working to make something perfect. It may also show up as avoidance, anxiety, or even anger.

Here are a few other ways perfectionism can appear:

Avoids new activities or unfamiliar tasks
Avoids writing on worksheets
Throwing work away, even after spending a lot of time on it
Asking an adult to do any writing/drawing so it looks “perfect” or has the “same font”

These can all be signs that a task feels high-pressure, not that a student is simply refusing or being uncooperative.

For my students who avoid worksheets or writing because they feel their writing isn’t ‘good enough’ I often incorporate wipe off boards or ‘scrap paper’. These options feel less permanent and lower the pressure.

Does your child struggle with perfectionism?

3 things to do during science experiments to support reading and writing for autistic students:1. Take photos and videos...
07/17/2026

3 things to do during science experiments to support reading and writing for autistic students:

1. Take photos and videos: use them later to support writing/expression! It’s often easier to utilize photos and videos while writing about something we've done, especially if we are writing a how to story or describing an experiment on a new day.

2. Create custom instructions that fit students’ needs and interests. Some instructions that come in kits have text that is too small or too long, don’t have any pictures, etc. Some kids working on reading need less complex text and more images, others are hyperlexic and need clearer images with the text, etc. etc. It can also help to add visual vocab!

3. Connect the concepts to the students life and interests when doing an experiment, to support comprehension of the concepts. This looks different for every kid/experiment!

07/15/2026

Round 2 of the K Squared Show! Have you read any of the A to Z Mysteries books? 📖

Do you remember your favorite subject in school? No matter what it was, it was likely something that came more easily to...
07/10/2026

Do you remember your favorite subject in school? No matter what it was, it was likely something that came more easily to you. Now think about the subject you least liked in school. Did you drag your feet or struggle through homework assignments? That’s hard to feel excited about.

What happens when you have both struggles and successes within one subject? Many autistic students have spiky learning profiles- very advanced areas paired with big difficulties in others.

Students may excel in word reading/decoding but struggle with comprehension. Over time, a heavy focus on comprehension for everything they read could lead to students avoiding reading altogether.

A student may love story telling and be super creative but struggle with handwriting. A heavy focus on making them write all their stories can lead to avoiding their creative ideas altogether.

Figuring out WHY a student “doesn’t like” a certain activity is crucial. Once we pin that down, we can find ways to support any difficult aspect of the activity and hopefully build back the excitement!

07/08/2026

One of our new favorite things: The K Squared Show! Where we practice writing reviews for books or games, teach how to play games, and even create video scripts!

Anaphora is when one word or phrase refers back to another word, phrase, or idea. Think: 'this,' 'they,' 'it,' etc.). Th...
07/01/2026

Anaphora is when one word or phrase refers back to another word, phrase, or idea. Think: 'this,' 'they,' 'it,' etc.). This is a big part of our language and an element of comprehension that is often taken for granted.

Students need to recognize when a pronoun in one sentence refers back to a specific noun from another sentence in order to fully comprehend the text.

For example, "Mom and Max mixed up the ingredients for their cake! They fixed it and then put it in the oven."

To understand this, we have to recognize that 'they' refers to Mom and Max, the first 'it' (fixed it) refers to the mistake of mixing up ingredients, and the second 'it' (put it) refers to the cake.

A student struggling with anaphoric cueing may not make all these connections right away, especially when the pronoun refers to an idea rather than a person or thing. Without understanding what those pronouns stand for, the second sentence does not fully make sense or help the student understand the story.

Many hyperlexic and autistic students benefit from support with this skill.

Try asking your student to replace pronouns with the noun they stand for. If they can't, start simple. One pronoun per sentence first. Pronouns for people and things first. Then, build up to more complexity (multiple people, multiple pronouns, pronouns standing in for ideas, etc.)

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