LINKS – A Peer to Peer Approach Turner Howson Elementary School Community Night - May 1, 2013

1. LINKS – A Peer to Peer Approach Turner Howson Elementary School Community Night - May 1, 2013

3. T r u e o r F a l s e ? • Autism is a neurological disorder that affects a person’s ability to communicate and socialize. • There are 10 students with ASD that attend school in Rudyard. • Only certain students interact with students who have ASD. • Your child’s involvement with the Rudyard LINKS program is being recognized at the State level. • LINKS benefits all of the kids involved. TRUE FALSE FALSE TRUE TRUE

4. Eastern Upper Peninsula Intermediate School District A look at the data trends in the incident of Autism Spectrum Disorder Prepared by Carrie Carr ~ ASD Specialist EUPISD

5. About 1 in 88 children have an ASD • Exact cause is unknown – strong genetic basis • Males are four times as likely to have it • Characteristics are evident by the age of 3 • Historically 70-75% were thought to have • some degree of intellectual impairment; • recent estimates closer to 40-50% - • testing of cognitive abilities continues • to be a challenge.

7. A Walk In tHeir shoes…

10. Evidence-based practices for students with ASD Functional Communication Training • 24 identified evidence-based practices: Social Skills Groups Parent-Implemented Intervention Social Narratives Antecedent-Based Interventions Computer-Aided Instruction Functional Behavior Assessment PECS Self-Management Differential Reinforcement Extinction Pivotal Response Training Discrete Trial Training Visual Supports Structured Work Systems Peer-Mediated Instruction and Intervention Reinforcement Prompting Speech Generating Devices Naturalistic Intervention Task Analysis Time Delay Response Interruption/Redirection Video Modeling

11. What are LINKS? LINK mentors help the students with ASD just like they would help any peer. The difference is they understand the unique needs of the student with ASD so they know why the student may react different in different situations. The LINKS program lets the adults talk with the peers so we can take away the fear of not understanding.

12. Why is a Peer to Peer Model Beneficial?

13. Who can best model age appropriate social and communication skills? • It’s not that kids with ASD don’t want to be social…just sometimes lagging the skills on how to be. • Kids with ASD have qualities that make for excellent friends! • Adults just aren’t cool! • LINK Benefits, too!

14. Components of LINK Programs

15. When Are LINKS Utilized? Music * Lunch Assemblies Recess P.E. General Education Classes Special Education Classes Library Bus

16. What our LINKS Had to Say… Loren finally started to raise his hand for help instead of yelling "help, help, help" I like playing with Loren at recess. ~Nina Alpers I think Links is a good program because it teachers others people what Autism is and when they learn about it they will make friends. ~AlaniGermain My Links greatest success is he has a whole bunch of friends that he made! He's super good at Reptiles and he is improving in Math! ~Isabella Hickman The best experience being a link is seeing Loren getting better at pronouncing peoples names, he's saying hello to us and he's getting better at reading and writing. He's using upper and lower case letters now instead of just capitals. ~Kaitlyn Folkersma If we didn't have Links we would not know about Autism or understand Loren. It would not be doing as good. ~Amyla H The best experience with my Link is just being friends with him. ~Hunter Peterman. I think it is fun, it's feels like being your being helped out, but with your friends. ~Jimmy M.

17. LINKS – A Peer to Peer Approach Our Video Debut!!!

18. Rachel Byma Special Education Coordinator Ann Carey Speech and Language Provider Carrie Carr Autism Spectrum Disorder Specialist Jessica Clark Special Education Teacher Angela Craven School Social Worker