I firmly believe that a student with autism can learn almost any concept… as long as you present it in a way they can understand.
My “go-to” for this is always to add VISUALS! Visuals, Visuals, Visuals! Students with autism have the most difficulty with taking in and absorbing words. They are more likely to respond and understand better when paired with a visual.
I always tell my students that characters are people/animals and settings are places. I use these practice pages to help students differentiate between characters and settings:
Anchor charts are always handy for students with autism. I post an anchor chart with visuals for defining a character and setting.
Finally, the most exciting resource I use to help my students with autism identify the character and setting of almost ANY book we read in class are some keyring visuals. Here is one of them below. I have different pages of visuals I use. When we read a new book, I flip through the visual that includes the characters and setting I need.
These images are part of my Identifying Characters and Setting with Visuals resource in my TpT store. Click here to check it out 🙂 This has worked so well for my kiddos with limited verbal skills. Let me know how it works for your kids in the comment below!