For the Love of Special Interests

A common worry of educators and parents of students who have autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is that the incorporation of special interests into the daily routine will increase dependence or cause problem behavior. In the online Autism Internet Modules, training module, “Using Special Interests in the Classroom”, Huffman shares that over the past 20 years studies have shown that incorporating special interests into daily activities and instruction can increase desired behaviors (Huffman, 2019). In addition, research has shown that when special interests are embedded into interventions, the incorporation of special interests does not increase the intensity with the engagement of the special interests

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