Academic and classroom strategies for children with autism

By: Ms Kinshuk

Autism is a Spectrum Disorder with no two children being the same. The varied needs of a child with autism require child-specific strategies.These include remedial teaching, concretization, simplification of content and teaching of concept through individualized/personalized instruction, training and activities of daily living, adapted teaching learning material, activity based teaching, physiotherapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, mobility and use of assistive devices.

Adaptations and accommodations are needed in the teaching strategies. These include use of signs, gestures as well as use of teaching learning materials depending on the needs of the child. This availability and accessibility to learning material within the classroom as well as motivation of the children in curricular and co-curricular activities needs to be ensured. Peer support encourages active participation of the child in curricular and co-curricular activities.

Teaching children with Autism

Structure gives a child with autism the framework to perform better in day to day life. A structured schedule has been proved to facilitate learning in a child with autism. Being visual thinkers they think in pictures and thus the use of visuals forms their first language while the use of words is their second language. The classroom should be well equipped with activities, materials and objects which support learning according to the cognitive skills of the child.

Teaching Strategies

Teaching Strategies that encourage learning new concepts include:(1) Modelling:Modelling the new skill to the child; (2) Leading:Teacher and the student do the task together; (3)Imitation:Student imitates the teacher;(4) Instructions:Verbal instructions given to the student; and (5) Fluency:It can be build up by repeated practice, feedback and paired with rewards to sustain the child’senthusiasm.

It is imperative to keep the following in mind while planning to teach a child with Autism:

Generalization: The child need to use the learnt skills in all environmental settings.This can be done by teaching from simple to complex,known to unknown, concrete to abstract and whole to part.The steps for teaching a concept could be matching,discrimination and recognition. This could be taught by modelling and imitation.

Prompting and Fading: Prompt is a temporary assistance to help the student perform in a desired manner when is unable to perform.There are different types of promptsi.e verbal request, gestural prompt, modelling and physical prompt.

Task Analysis: Breaking the task into small simple steps helps the student to progress. A systematic analysis is done to organize the sub-tasks in a hierarchy. A sub-task is mastered one -at-a time until the task is completed.

Drama and Play

 The triad of impairments puts children with autism at a disadvantage in developing play and in the process leading to impairments in social interaction, communication and flexible thinking.Drama helps a child on the Autism Spectrumon many fronts by increasing awareness of the implications of play and experiencing the joy derived from the concept of role playing. It gives them the choice of deciding to continue with the act by keeping it going or extending it or opting not to do it at all.

Dance and Autism

The body is the child’s instrument with the help of which he learns to express and communicate. Music and dance are powerful tools for development and growth especially for a special needs child. Many people with autism have benefitted by the use of music therapy, musical interaction therapy and music assisted communication therapy.

Dance increases body as well as self awareness. It helps in developing imitation skills and awareness of other members in the group to work cooperatively, sharing and also accepting ideas with others. It involves listening, following instructions and concentrating. It enables extending communication beyond the use of words/pictures through the use of gestures and body language.

The expressive use of eyes, which is an integral part of dance, works as a strategy to develop eye contact with functional and communicative purpose. Dance prepares the children with different responses which can be used in real life situations and an opportunity to understand people who have different ideas about the same experience.

Social Story

Many children with autism struggle to read, interpret and respond to a situation effectively. Hence statements and actions of others, at times seem meaningless to a child with Autism.A Social story describes a situation, concept or social skill that might be confusing to the child. It is often written in case of a specific situation giving a cue to the appropriate response to that troubling situation.

Inclusion

Inclusion is a process that involves restructuring of the curriculum and classroom organization. This is different from integration which places the student into a social system and expects to conform what the school offers.

The individuals with autism benefit from the specialized services for education and support. The school staff should be trained and should have expertise to support the child. As autism is an umbrella term and range from uneven abilities, the child should be in a class where the children are of the same functioning skills. Basic life skills are important for the child and inclusion will not be there if the approach is purely academic.

General curriculum does not help much for the educational needs of  a child with autism. Curriculum has to be adapted to meet the differing learning needs of the child and due weightage has to be given to social and life skills.Early intervention, change in attitude of people and increased awareness help in making education effective.

Early Intervention

Early diagnosis and intervention for autism have long term positive effects on the symptoms and on the skills to be acquired by the child. They can be diagnosed as early as 18 months of age. At this time the young child’s brain is still forming. It is due to the plasticity of brain at an early age that the child has better chance of intervention  being effective in the long term. It helps them to develop their full potential.Recent studies give emphasis on starting integrated developmental and behavioural intervention as soon as the child is diagnosed with autism.

Individualized Education Program(IEP)

Individualized Education Program is a written document describing the educational objectives for the child and the special services to be provided. This includes a statement of the child’s present levels of performance, statement of annual goals, including short term objectives, special education and related services to be provided to the childand the extent to which the child will be able to participate in regular educational programmes. It also includes the projected dates for initiation of services and anticipated duration of the services.

IEP is needed to unite those directly involved with the student by sharing information,identifying outcomes,selecting priorities,planning actions,agreeing on responsibilities, determining teaching and support strategies, deciding on the resources. IEP is a tool for collaborative planning between schools,parents,caregivers, students and other paramedical staff who are involved with the child.

Team consultation and collaboration result in completion of the written plan.Emphasis need to be given in selecting the focus areas identified by the team in the light of long term aims.There should be recording of the present skills and needs.Need is the gap between what the student can presently do and what he/she needs to be able to do.The teacher adapts the programme by adjusting the delivery and design of the lesson or adjusting the demands of the curriculum by allowing more time for the task, pacing the lesson differently, setting up structures that enable achieving smaller steps to goals,ensuring variety of ways of processing information, giving more frequent feedbacks and simplifying the solutions.

Structured Teaching

Structured Teaching is a system of organising the environment, time and activities that help children with autism to understand what to expect and what is expected from them. This was developed by Eric Schopler who was the founder Of Division TEACCH. Components of structured teaching are physical structure, visual schedules and teaching methods which includes work systems and visual support.

Physical structure refers to the arrangement of furniture and materials to add meaning and context to the environment. It also provides clarity about what and where is it to be done. This helps the child understand where the area begins and ends with clear physical and visual boundaries. Providing physical structure in classroom, playground, meal areas and toilets help.

Organising and placing furniture strategically to visually define specific areas using book shelves, room dividers, cupboards, file cabinets, curtains, tables, rugs etc. Use of visual cues such as an object, photograph, picture associated or denoting a specific activity are used to focus on relevant details and to address the challenging behaviours in a proactive manner.

Visual schedule is a type of visual prompt used to predict and understand upcoming events. It tells the child what, where and when and how to move through physically structured environment purposefully, calmly and independently.

Fading the adaptations when possible: Adaptations are short term solutions to allow classroom learning and participation until the skills are taught. Once the student learns it adaptation should be faded gradually when the student is able to complete the task independently. For some students an adaptation may be required for several months, while for others it may be maintained for years.

Some links-

https://www.erinoakkids.ca/ErinoakKids/files/64/640519bf-6497-4f20-a341-7c36e334a731.pdf

Functional Reading

The primary goal is the development of their ability to read for independence which can be sign boards, labels and directions. The next is to teach them reading for information and instruction which can be newspaper, job application etc.Later  they can also be taught to read for pleasure which may be magazines and books.

Teaching Reading

Among the various approaches used for reading the whole word approach or the sight word is a widely used method in teaching functional reading. The students learn to recognize and read words and later spell them. Pairing of words with concrete objects facilitates high imagery in the child.

Functional Writing

Written expression is an important mode of communication. It demands eye hand coordination, motor coordination, recognition of symbols and a sense of direction. Some written tasks demand horizontal writing, vertical writing as in arithmetic and in some a combination of both.

Teaching Writing

Teaching writing involves tracing, joining the dots, copying and writing from memory. The teacher needs to be aware of the child’s hyper and hypo sensitivity of children with autism.

Functional Arithmetic

Child should be aware of pre-math concepts such as big/ small, more-less, etcbefore the introduction of numbers. Understanding of basic concepts of counting followed by addition, subtractionand later on to multiplication and division.

Teaching Money and Time

Time and money are simple applications of mathematical concepts in daily living and hence very essential. Money can be taught by practical and real life experiences. Banking skills which involves depositing and withdrawing money and maintaining a savings account should also be taught directly.

Sensory Needs

Sensory, emotional and physical deficits cause discomfort and pain to the child with autism. Sensory needs can involve both hyper-sensitivities (over-responsiveness) and hypo-sensitivities (under-responsiveness) to a wide range of stimuli. This can involve sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touch, balance and body awareness. Awareness and accommodation along with sensory integration therapy helps to ease related discomfort.Pleasant and appealing environment help the child to optimise his abilities. Some sensory items which can be used are: earplugs, pencil grips, weighted blanket or jacket according to the sensory need of the child.

Behaviour Management and Challenging Behaviours

Due to the impairments in autism a child often exhibits behaviours that are challenging as well as perplexing to their families as well as their teachers and peers. These behaviours hamper the learning of the child demanding modification before commencement of learning.  These behaviours can be measured and have an antecedent and a consequence. In order to modify the behaviour it is imperative to identify the behaviour and keep a record of its frequency as well as the antecedent and consequence. This aids in understanding the behaviour and its function The premise of function behaviour process is to focus on the reason for the behaviour rather than the behaviour. Behaviour occurs as a means to get attention from parents, teachers, siblings, peers or to escape an activity or a situation. It can also be to obtain tangible item or for self stimulation or a sensory need. As each child is different, differentstrategiesneed to be applied.

Once the behaviour is recorded keeping in mind the method and time. It is followed by setting a goal (deciding in what way or how much it needs to be changed) and the applying the method to achieve it. Monitoring the target behaviour and later comparing the changed behaviour with the goal set, helps to find if the behaviour management was effective. When the behaviour is followed by something pleasant it increases the frequency of the behaviour.Therewards (reinforcer) chosen should be given immediately accompanied by a social reinforcer or praise.

Well structured and organised programmes help to control difficult behaviours. Evaluation of each child’s strengths and weaknesses is the guide for a teacher to plan the activities and setting to be able to obtain success.Smaller groups are better for teaching as the child gets more opportunities for interaction and fewer distractions.