Study of the cognitive characteristics of students with autism spectrum disorders that are essential for mastering natural sciences

Introduction. The article examines the specifics of cognitive activity of students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in the course of mastering natural science disciplines, including the process of performing mathematical tasks. The necessity of a differentiated approach in teaching, taking into account the cognitive sphere of this category of children, is substantiated in order to increase the capabilities of each student in mastering the program material. Categories of errors and difficulties are identified, reflecting the special problems that arise in the educational activity of children with ASD and requiring systematic pedagogical work.
Materials and methods. The theoretical part of the study is based on the analysis of scientific publications devoted to the peculiarities of the development of natural sciences by students with ASD. The data of own empirical research based on the analysis of the results of annual control works in mathematics performed by students with ASD, studying in the fourth, sixth and eighth grades of a general education school, are given. The works of 55 students with ASD aged 11-16 years old, studying according to the variant of the adapted educational program 8.2, intended for children with ASD, who do not have intellectual disabilities, are considered. The study also used data from questionnaires filled out by teachers who conducted the tests. Thus, the study is based on a synthesis of scientific literature and a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the results obtained through empirical research.
Results. A summary of current research data has identified two main categories of cognitive challenges faced by children with ASD that must be taken into account when teaching them science: difficulties related to executive function deficits and difficulties related to verbal comprehension and social perception deficits. These two categories account for almost half of the errors made by students with ASD in math tests. The article provides an overview of the main types of errors in each category. In addition, the results of an empirical study showed that the proportion of errors related to executive function deficits decreases over the course of education, as does the proportion of "non-specific" errors for children with ASD, which are related to a lack of knowledge and computational skills. However, the proportion of errors caused by deficits in verbal comprehension and social perception increases from year to year.
Discussion and conclusions. The data of the empirical study based on the assessment of errors and difficulties in the performance of students with ASD of control works in mathematics, allowed to analyze their specificity and assign to different categories. At the same time, the difficulties of one of the identified categories, associated with the deficiencies of verbal understanding and social perception, were the most stable and, accordingly, require special attention of teachers at all stages of education of children with ASD. By summarizing and analyzing the data obtained from the teachers' questionnaires, it was possible to identify a set of methods and techniques aimed at systematically addressing the challenges faced by children with ASD in the process of learning science subjects. The results of the study indicate that methods and techniques aimed at improving verbal understanding and social perception are the most relevant, as these specific problems for students with ASD are the most resistant to pedagogical interventions in our study.

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