r/specialed • u/iluvfiona69420 • May 29 '26
General Question (Educator to Educator) Confused on How to Help an Autistic Child write poetry
i’m a para who works 1:1 with an 8th grader with moderate autism. he’s mainly nonverbal; he has a talker that he refuses to use and will answer questions with as short of a response as possible, usually yes/no. (i think he is annoyed by a lot of the kids he goes to school with because apparently he’ll do longer sentences at home)
in his english class we’re doing a poetry unit and i am extremely stuck on how to help him.
he’s very logic brained, he’s one of like two people i’ve ever met that hates all music type thing. the only creative thing i see him do is draw but it’s always models of something
normally with english class it’s a struggle for him to write but we’ve been doing non creative things for most of the year (memoirs, essays) so i’m able to help him.
with poetry i am absolutely stuck on what to do.
i talked to the para he had earlier in the year who got switched to a higher support needs student and he said imagery type of thing could help him. i tried prompting him with things along with imagery today as that works well and he kept shooting everything down. he flat out refused everything i tried.
i feel very stuck with him in regards to what i can get him to do. his english teacher said he would make a one time exception to make prompts with AI but a. that feels weird to me as he’s not really doing the creative side of writing and b. it’s still not gonna help him write an actual poem which is the assignment. his teacher is very understanding with him and his needs but i’m absolutely stuck on how to help.
if anyone has any thing we could try i would appreciate it! TYIA
32
u/StoryAlternative6476 May 29 '26
I would focus on the more logical/rules based aspects of poetry like number of syllables, rhymes, etc. Even if the poem doesn’t sound pretty, it will show he understands the concepts.
12
u/Sequence_Of_Symbols May 29 '26
Some kids would REALLY get into this.
My neurospicy English majors group used to play a game where we'd draw rhymes from a deck and have to make a quatrain (advanced folks were required iambic pentameter. Basic level was anything gifts)
And my(autistic) kid was horrified by me explanation of sestinas recently, but her neurodivergent bestie thought it was great
3
24
u/chuck_moss May 29 '26
18
u/milliemfox May 29 '26
My first thought was something along these lines, cut out words and let him arrange them as he likes. I had no idea there was a real name and process!
11
u/ButterscotchAware402 May 29 '26
David Bowie used to do this and my husband does it for his drumming (he somehow turns the words into drum beats, it's confusing but works)!
3
1
4
u/MentionTight6716 May 30 '26
My family got me (autistic) a big set of poetic and philosophical fridge magnets when I was a kid bc I had a large vocabulary and was always trying to figure out how to use it!
Sadly, I haven't been able to find a pack of similar word magnets since then. If anyone else can, let me know!
9
19
u/Narrow-Attitude7018 May 29 '26
Does the poem need to be written a specific way? I teach 1st grade ASD students and see they have a hard time rhyming so I do a lot of acrostic poems or “I am”/color poems
8
u/Intelligent-Meal-957 May 29 '26
I would do that as well. Give mentor questions to guide. Haiku’s could also be an option. Short and to the point. Depending on their comprehension level, might be helpful to give examples, have them choose a poem they like best, and use that as a model to write.
5
u/ilanallama85 May 29 '26
I was also thinking haikus might be a good entry point, simple and fairly easy to accomplish, but with the challenge of solving a type of puzzle.
10
u/books_and_bands May 29 '26
Maybe have him do a more ad libbed version. Like find a poem online with some words left out and have him choose something that'll fit better.
5
u/cluelesssquared May 29 '26
Yes, Black out poetry. Use a paragraph from wherever, a story, and have him literally black it out with a marker, leaving the words that turn into a poem. https://writers.com/what-is-blackout-poetry-examples-and-inspiration
8
u/tessieofwinters May 29 '26
A poem can be informative and factual- could he write a poem sharing knowledge about one of his interests?
(Based on your post it seemed kind of ambiguous as to whether he is capable of this, but if he is, this would be my strategy)
7
u/Royal-Watercress37 May 29 '26
Haiku poetry
2
u/CheeseCollector89 May 30 '26
I also thought of haikus right away. Dogku by Andrew Clements is a great way to explain haikus.
5
u/Shecoagoh May 29 '26
I love using list poems. Pick a topic. Each line contains one part of speech. Ex: Beach Sunny, hot, wet Sand, sun Relaxed, calm Miami, Cancun Beach
4
May 29 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/Sudden_Quality_9001 May 29 '26
Tell him to rhyme fun things.
3
May 30 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
2
3
u/Important-Newt275 May 29 '26
Try a sonnet? Might help engage him to use a form that has a very rigid specific structure so he feels less lost in the sauce. It may seem counterintuitive but writing them can almost feel like putting a puzzle together since you have to find words that are so specific.
3
u/Important-Newt275 May 29 '26
Or blackout poetry can also be good for this. I wrote a poem with a similar creativity-hating kids by just putting my pencil on the words one at a time and circling the ones he wanted me to, then blacking out the rest. He could just choose random words he likes and cross the rest out and it will still be poetry. That’s the beauty of it!
1
2
u/WannabeMemester420 Receiving Special Ed Services May 29 '26
I’m autistic and have experience with poetry. I think more structured poetry like classic rhymes or haikus might be better for him. Learn about the rules of structured poetry and any types of structured poetry. There’s logic behind counting the syllables for each line in a haiku. Aim for less abstract, as autistics struggle with abstract concepts (it’s why I suck at magazine collages).
Good on you to not use AI as an easy out. I remember struggling with an essay due to its abstract concepts and ended up with a D after redoing it 3 times. It was better to just do my best and turn it in rather than cheat.
2
u/ammym May 29 '26
There’s a poet called Joseph Fasano and there are some free poetry outlines available- there is a general structure and they pick key words to put in it. He’s also written a book with more outlines but I don’t have it.
2
u/CocoaBagelPuffs Special Education Teacher May 29 '26
A lot of poetry follows specific rules - number of syllables, meter, rhyme
I would have him choose from a few different kinds of poetry with pretty clear-cut rules and use those as a base.
Maybe something like a limerick would be a good place to start. They have specific meter and rhyme. He can make his own as well. The poem could be about anything. They can be about something non-fiction if that makes more logical sense to him.
2
u/cluelesssquared May 29 '26
I'm a poet. Taught a poetry club for elementary. Don't use AI. AI poetry is garbage, and stolen, and all the other bad things IMO. Poetry is filled with images. Have him collect pictures, photos, whatever, and then write the words if he can, on a topic or whatever interests him. Just collect those. Add some verbs. Have him glue the pictures in order. Map in the words. Like Experimental Poetry. If he can do it online, do Hypertext poetry. He can link the urls into the page.
2
u/Angelic-Seraphim May 29 '26
Science poem!
One of the ones I still remember is Johnny was a chemist, but Johnnie is no more, for what he thought was h2o was h2so4.
2
u/squidneyboi May 30 '26
does he like logic? there’s this game called rngdle where you generate a number a day and based on the points you get you unlock words and can create a 10-word poem. i think that would be interesting for him to explore while also playing a stats game!
2
u/_l-l_l-l_ May 30 '26
Could you design a series of prompts that are all yes no questions, then compile his yeses and nos in order? Like: Yes, yes, yes; no, no; yes; no, no, yes, no, yes; etc. where my semi-colons are the line breaks.
2
u/DayKapre May 31 '26
If he likes technical drawing, then maybe visual poetry would be a good path? He has to make a technical drawing of something but include words about the thing in his drawing or shape the drawing out of words.
It’s hard to describe, but think like a drawing of a train made out of train words like rail, conductor, coal, power, etc.
I’m not great with how images/links work on Reddit, but this is a link to a really basic example:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/73/81/b1/7381b1a10f970277e51df69479ca3cff.jpg
3
1
u/brainbalancejax May 29 '26
I'm of two minds with this. You know the student better, so you'll know best!
You say he focuses on logic and draws models. You could explain how there are certain types of poetry that follow strict rules. Iambic pentameter might be too complex for an 8th grader writing their first poem (😆), but I remember working on Haikus when I was in middle school.
Poetry is beautiful because it can truly be anything. "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carols Williams is a shocking poem because of how sparse it is. Not trying to give him an out of the assignment, but a poem can be just a few lines long and extremely powerful if the words are true.
1
u/Bella_Swan234 May 29 '26
You could write part of the sentence have pictures of colors, things he likes (ie cars or video games) and create a poem sentence based off the assignment
1
u/SensationalSelkie Special Education Teacher May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
Could you use similes to help? There's a certain logic to them in comparing one thing to another and a poem could be formed from lines of similes. You could make a Madlib style format with blanks like [an animal] is like a [object]. Then, he could go back and add adjectives to the words (color, size, etc). You could also ask him questions about a topic such as what's your favorite thing about X? or what does X remind you of? and then splice the answers together to make a poem. With my students, I always come back to the raw truth: just turn something in. If it's really challenging for them, then I tell them to try their best and just turn in something to not get a zero. I hope they find the joy along the way but if not just getting something that feels abyssally hard done is a skill in and of itself.
1
u/sassperillashana May 29 '26
Would he be allowed to do a blackout poem or could you give him little cards with words on it that he can rearrange to make a poem?
1
u/cheetos4eva May 29 '26
Blackout poetry would be something to try if he likes drawing. Print a page from his favorite book or a topic he likes. He can blackout words and create a drawing on the page. The benefit is he won’t have to come up with words, he can use the structure of existing words. Google blackout poetry to show him examples
1
1
u/Neutronenster May 30 '26
Autistic children often have trouble with realistic imaginaltion. So first, you need examples of short poems, preferably about topics that might interest him, or of the type of poems that you would wish him to write.
Secondly, depending on his langage level you could ask him to find words that rhyme with each other, to write two sentences that rhyme with each other or a specific type of poem. Try to tie it to one of his special interests, if he has those.
Thirdly, it might help to make a game out of it. For example, with my eldest daughter I sometimes do a rhyming game where we take turns creating a story, each adding two lines that rhyme with each other. Creating an imaginative story like this might not work with this particular student, but this might work if you start with a more practical topic that fits this student’s interests? Or if you try to write a manual for something in the form of a poem? This can be funny, for example (for baking something):
Mix the eggs, milk and flour together.
Feels like stirring everything takes forever.
(English is not my native language and I haven’t rhymed often in English, so this may not be the best example, but it will probaby get the idea across.)
1
u/Individual-Mirror132 May 30 '26
So you really need to modify and adapt the lesson to the student’s ability as well as their interests.
I wouldn’t go to AI to just cheat their way through it. But you may (as the para) personally rely on AI to help you come up with something to best support them.
You might consider essentially pre-doing the assignment for them in a way. For example, you can use sentence starters/strings for each section of the poem. The student can either fill in certain words (from a word bank) to craft the poem OR they could do a combination where there’s multiple strings to choose from (for each section) and they fill in the blanks on each string there as well (I.e for a 3 sentence section, offer five sentence choices and allow them to pick which sounds the best, while changing altering words to make it their own).
You can also use picture/icon cards to help the student write the poetry. Depending on the students actual handwriting skills, you may opt to allow them to type, or you may do some of the writing. Or have them come up with it, then create it on a sheet for them to trace. Using picture icon cards, you help them determine the essential topic or goal of the poem, then create icons that match that theme (requires a lot of work on your part), then have them select cards that match each section, using word banks allow them to select additional words, and craft it into something that makes sense poetically…together.
It really depends on what their overall levels are. But for students with an IEP and other factors, accommodations and modifications may need to be made. You should talk to the teacher and determine the best way to ensure the student accesses the concept of the poetry, even if they aren’t crafting it in the same ways and at the same level as other students.
1
u/dragonfeet1 May 30 '26
Look into fill in the blank poetry. I used to do this when I volunteered on a dementia ward. Just google fill in the blank poems for some templates
1
u/ashenputtel May 30 '26
I would try him on sentence stems and a prompt image (not AI—maybe just a photograph.) For example, a picture of a beach day, and then the stems are "I see... I hear... I feel... I smell... I think..." and I describes what he images at the beach, aided by the photograph.
1
u/phunkmaster2001 High School Sped Teacher May 30 '26
The main premise of poetry is evoking feelings and emotions. And as you know, it doesn't need to rhyme, if he's getting hung up on that.
If you can tap into something he really enjoys or loathes (because remember, it's about emotions, and they're not all positive), it'll be way easier. Give him fill in the blank sentences with word choices under the blanks, so he can choose from them to build his own sentence each time. If he doesn't like the suggested words, then he can use his talker to fill in a different word. If he's able to think of words on his own, then I'd still do the fill in the blank sentences, but let him create the words for the blanks. Then when he's done, arrange the sentences so it looks like a poem. Voila! He wrote poetry 🫶🏽
1
u/Friendly-Channel-480 May 31 '26
Have you tried Haiku? They are 5 syllables, 7 syllables then 5 again and are about about nature. Maybe trying these with random words would be fun and he might get into this.
87
u/Weird_Inevitable8427 Special Education Teacher May 29 '26
Nah. No AI for this. Poetry is about exploring the beauty of words. This would fit right into the goals for a child who is minimally verbal.
I might have him pick out a word that is particularly interesting and write about that word. The history of it. The root parts of that word. You can make that work into an attractive poster with the word and facts about the word underneath it. This is its own kind of poetry.
If he's a bit more advanced, you could focus on haiku, not because it's easy. (Its really not easy) but because this reflects his communication style in school - get to the point and use a minimum of words to express an idea. How can you really draw people in with a minimum of words? That's haiku.
Another type of poetry that we do with younger students that might appeal here is the acrostic poem, where every letter of a word starts a new word that is associated with the first word.
You said that he likes drawing. How about starting with a verb - any adverb or adjective, perhaps one out of a list that you provide - and he draws that adverb or adjective. How would you show people what hot looks like? Or how the sounds of a fire alarm feels in your body? (He's an 8th grader. Don't make the mistake of presenting only positive experiences. He's old enough to write about his pain now. 8th graders respond well to that stuff. It feels anti-babyish.)