The Texas Statewide Leadership for Autism Training, with a grant from the Texas Education Agency (TEA), created this mentoring guide for the specialist or mentor supporting special education educators and other school district and charter school staff working with students with autism in the various settings.  

How can this guide help me?

For mentors, finding or creating appropriate training for LEA staff can be time-consuming.  This guide, created to accelerate this process, will help you:

• Select and tailor training assignments based on the individual needs of the educator
• Support the educator through a discussion around the follow-up questions provided in the guide
• Track educator progress through certificates of completion and digital badges.

What's in this guide?

This guide has three main chapters: Preparation, Behavior and Communication, and Academics and Social Skills.  Each chapter has two recommended tracks: Foundational and Extended.  Each track provides you with the following tools.

• Scope and Sequence: Lays out the recommended training and suggested timing. 
• Key Points: Are taken from the training in each chapter to help you prepare for the follow-up discussion with the educator to check for understanding. 
• Vocabulary: A list of the specialized vocabulary used within the trainings of each chapter.
• Questions:  Questions you can use to help guide the discussion after the educator has completed the training.  These questions serve as a guide to support a robust conversation and allow the educator to plan for individual implementation of the newly learned information.
• For the Mentor: This section was designed to support the discussion by giving you further information and potential responses to the questions should the educator need additional guidance. You can use this information to provide additional information and redirect any misunderstandings.

How can I use this guide?

This guide can be 

• Used with individual educators
• Used in a professional learning community (PLC)