First time storytime for autistic tweens

I did a storytime to a room of about 15 autistic preteens which was one of the hardest things for me from my perspective being the presenter. I had been researching the autistic spectrum, and what signals to look for, or what to do when something becomes a trigger. Mainly, I was trying my best to be observant. I had two in wheelchairs, one with a cane, and many nonverbal. There were caretakers with them which are regulars in the library, so I felt I had support in the room. I also brought 2 therapy dogs, which I think helped the preteens relax a bit. The ones in the wheelchairs I couldn’t tell how they were feeling because they were motionless, and I did have one girl who started crying, but then she focused more on the dog, and then started laughing after so I was relieved.

Then I took them on a tour of the library. This was no easy feat. I showed them the Teen Zone, which is a space with lots of materials just for them. As I was talking about the music cds we carried, I decided to throw out some names, and one girl asked if we had Taylor Swift which made me smile. That same girl asked some good questions about what else we carried, and asked me if I liked Taylor Swift, and if other librarians liked her. I told her that my teens like Taylor Swift so much that they put up pictures from her latest album 1989 up all over the Teen Zone. This answer seemed to satisfy her.

Continuing our tour, I wanted to make sure they knew what we had on our second floor. As I was leading the pack, one boy was scared to use the stairs. I offered to go slow alongside him until we made it up together. His caretaker was there, too, but I wanted to make sure the group knew we were going to do this together. I asked the rest of the group to wait for us until we got to the top. Then after the group in wheelchairs made it upstairs in the elevator, we checked out the computer lab, and there were some good questions about if all this was free. I asked few questions of the group, since I had been reading that asking too many questions, or giving choices might be too confusing to some. I had them set my pace. In the end, I wasn’t sure how I felt about how effective I was. Usually in storytime, kids will laugh, or smile, or play simon says, or answer my questions while I read to them, but with this group I couldn’t get that kind of a response. But what I did learn from this experience is to be even more patient with pre-teens.