CEP 802A October 28, 2011 Ashley Shahidullah

1. CEP 802A October 28, 2011 Ashley Shahidullah 1

2. "Autism is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and is the result of a neurological disorder that affects the normal functioning of the brain, impacting development in the areas of social interaction and communication skills.” Autism is defined by the Autism Society Of America (ASA) as: 2

3. Fails to respond to his or her name • Has poor eye contact • Appears not to hear you at times • Resists cuddling and holding • Appears unaware of others' feelings • Seems to prefer playing alone — retreats into his or her "own world" Social skills 3

4. Starts talking later than age 2, and has other developmental delays by 30 months • Loses previously acquired ability to say words or sentences • Doesn't make eye contact when making requests • Speaks with an abnormal tone or rhythm — may use a singsong voice or robot-like speech • Can't start a conversation or keep one going • May repeat words or phrases verbatim, but doesn't understand how to use them Language 4

5. Performs repetitive movements, such as rocking, spinning or hand-flapping • Develops specific routines or rituals • Becomes disturbed at the slightest change in routines or rituals • Moves constantly • May be fascinated by parts of an object, such as the spinning wheels of a toy car • May be unusually sensitive to light, sound and touch and yet oblivious to pain Behavior 5

6. Any children in your current placement diagnosed with Autism? 6

7. Jim Henson - puppeteer • George Orwell – writer, journalist, novelist • Charles Darwin – naturalist • Henry Cavendish – scientist • Charles Schulz – cartoonist • Hans Christian Anderson – author, poet • Beethoven – composer • Dan Ackroyd – comedian, actor • Bill Gates – chairman Microsoft • Emily Dickinson - writer • Einstein – theoretical • physicist • Jane Austen – novelist • Sir Isaac Newton – physicist, • mathematician… • Alfred Hitchcock – director, • producer • Mozart – composer • Thomas Jefferson – political • philosopher • Woody Allen – actor, • director, comedian, playwright • Thomas Edison - inventor Famous People with ASD 7

8. Researchers have documented that students with disabilities, including students with ASD who are fully included: • display higher levels of engagement and social interaction • give and receive higher levels of social support • have larger friendship networks • have developmentally more advanced individualized education plan goals than their counterparts in segregated placements (Fryxell & Kennedy, 1995; Hunt, Farron-Davis, Beckstead, Curtis, & Goetz, 1994) 8

9. A 1990 study conducted by Harris et al. comparing 5 students with ASD enrolled in a segregated preschool classroom, 5 children with ASD in an inclusive classroom, and 4 typically developing peers found no significant differences in language ability between the children with ASD in either setting. What does this mean? Typically interpreted as supporting inclusion b/c segregated placements have historically been reported to provide more intensive educational opportunities… 9

10. Educators must have knowledge of and access to empirically validated strategies that will assist inclusive efforts (scientifically based interventions) • Most research has been conducted with young children • There is a lack of pertinent research on including students with ASD at middle and high school levels For inclusion to be successful… 10

11. “The level and intensity of supports required for a given student with autism will depend largely on the characteristics of the student’s functioning.” 11

12. The following strategies have been documented as effective in supporting students with ASD in general education: 1. Antecedent Procedures 2. Delayed Contingencies 3. Self-Management Strategies 4. Peer-Mediated Interventions 5. Multi-component Interventions 12

13. Can be designed to prevent and reduce challenging behavior • They are proactive – address challenging behavior prior to its occurrence • Involve altering routines or environments • Include priming, prompt delivery, and picture scheduling 1. Antecedent Procedures 13

14. Also called pre-practice • Consists of previewing information or activities that may be considered challenging before the child actually engages in that activity (Wilde, Koegel, & Koegel, 1992) • Ex: Fire drill, substitute teacher, field trip, rainy day schedule, academics • Links individual instruction to larger classroom group activities Priming 14

15. Has been used to improve social interactions and proven effective in increasing initiations of social interactions with typical peers (Zanolli, Daggett, & Adams, 1996) • Two priming strategies that may be used to assist in preparing for novel events: • Social Stories • Video priming Priming 15

16. A method for explaining what is happening and what is expected across environmental settings • Typically written in first person • Include illustrations • Provide perspective of a person with ASD • Should be at the student’s comprehension level • Should be read consistently over a period of days • Copies for use at home also helpful Modified Social Stories 16

17. Choose a behavior for the focus of your story. • Describe the social situation your child has difficulty with. • Add a description of what to expect in that specific situation. Include your child’s feelings or behaviors your child displays in that situation. • Include a description of what is expected from your child in the social situation. List the reasons why it is important. • End the story with a pledge to achieve appropriate behavior in that social situation. Include the effect it has on other people or the individual. How to write a social story… 17

18. Not listening It's important to look at people and stop what I'm doing when they have something to tell me.Sometimes grown-ups tell me very important things that I need to know. If I don't look & listen I might miss something important and make the grown-ups angry. I know it's wrong to keep doing what I'm doing when grown-ups want me to listen. I will listen to grown-ups when they talk to me. Social Story Example 18

19. When I feel I must talk Sometimes I want to say things very badly, it feels like I have to say it right that second.It's important to wait until the other person is finished talking. Even though it feels important, it can wait. They will listen to me better if I wait patiently. When I interrupt, it just angers people. People wonder, "what's wrong with him?", "why can't he wait?" If I can wait, I can tell them later. Social Story Example 19

20. Involves the child watching videotapes of positive examples of adults, peers, or him or herself engaging in a behavior that is being taught. • Can be especially helpful in transition for students with ASD • Has been shown to increase positive social behaviors Video Priming 20

21. Prompting strategies have been successful in facilitating the inclusion of students with ASD • In order to elicit an appropriate response in a targeted academic or behavioral activity, one must provide prompts that supplement the general instructional routine • Can be visual, auditory, or kinesthetic Prompt Delivery 21

22. Often used as a strategy for increasing predictability • Alternative to verbal and written instruction • Can serve as effective cues in alerting students with ASD to upcoming changes in activities Picture Schedules 22

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24. Some researchers have examined the extent to which instruction using delayed or unpredictable contingencies can facilitate the generalization of behavior in the absence of direct supervision • Reinforcing behaviors on an unpredictable schedule and gradually increasing the time between reinforcement 2. Delayed Contingencies 24

25. Consist of teaching the student to: • Discriminate between appropriate and inappropriate behaviors • Evaluate her or his own behavior • Monitor her or his behavior over time • Reinforce her or his behavior when pre-specified criteria are met Research has shown that teaching a child to self-manage behavior in the classroom can result in independent functioning to the point where the student is no longer relying on the teacher or on an instructional aide (Koegel, Harrower, & Koegel, 1999) 3. Self-Management Strategies 25

26. Utilizing typical peers to support the academic functioning of students with ASD has the potential to reduce the need for continuous one-on-one adult attention, thus allowing students with autism to function with increased autonomy and in a manner that more closely matches that of their typical classmates (Putnam, 1993) • Peer tutoring, peer support, cooperative learning 4. Peer-Mediated Interventions 26

27. Use multiple strategies to facilitate the educational inclusion of students with ASD • Ex: use of conversation books, rotating peer buddies, weekly class meetings, media-related activities, and staff prompting 5. Multi-Component Interventions 27

28. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMFNVHlRkqc Has been described as an autistic continuum disorder and is characterized by: • Motor clumsiness • Abnormal language development • Abnormal social development • Presence of fixed interests • Limited range of imaginative activities (Ghaziuddin & Gerstein, 1996; Howlin, 1993; Wing, 1991) Asperger’s Syndrome 28

29. Autism occurs in approx. 4 out of every 10,000 children • Asperger’s ranges as high as 20-25 per 10,000 • Considerably more common in boys than girls • Display abnormal communication, social idiosyncrasies and oddities throughout their lives (Goble, 1995) Prevalence 29

30. Communication: • May have high verbal intelligence • Abnormal communication is usually evident • Lack of spontaneous and reciprocal conversation • Overuse of stereotyped phrases • Little descriptive language • Imitation and echoing of words • Impaired imagination • General lack of understanding of meaning of language and function of communication • Inappropriate communication may include too much information or the use of socially inappropriate style Challenges 30

31. Motor clumsiness – physically awkward and display a lack of coordination (handwriting difficulties, tip toe walking, etc) Obsessions– in contrast to Autism where the obsession is often focused on objects, individuals with Asperger’s appear to obsess about specific information areas such as math or science. • Special interests may extend into adulthood and can form the basis of a successful career 31

32. Attention : • Difficulty focusing on significant cues in the environment • Difficulty screening out irrelevant stimuli • Difficulty switching attention while maintaining self-control • May appear to be distracted by every stimulus or overly absorbed in one particular activity to the exclusion of all else • May experience hypersensitivity to noise, touch, taste, and smell making it difficult for them to cope in a classroom or on playground without support, understanding, and flexible curriculum arrangements 32

33. Social Skills: • Difficulty interpreting subtle social cues, particularly non-verbal body language • May not recognize that another is bored or in a hurry • Often use smiles, greetings, eye contact and social distance inappropriately • They may be naïve and vulnerable (bullying and peer pressure) • Become increasingly frustrated during teen years which may cause physical aggression or withdrawal 33

34. Need for a structured program: • Benefit from highly structured environment (orderly and routine oriented) • Teach academic skills as well as self-control, self-discipline, and appropriate social interaction skills • An effective program needs to recognize students’ strengths and provide opportunities for them to achieve in their areas of interest Challenges for Teachers 34

35. Behavior Management: • Rarely disruptive without reason • Likely to disrupt class due to lack of ability to focus, confusion, literal interpretation of instructions, inability to read social rules and cues, and hypersensitivity • Frustration and stress may be caused by over stimulation, and unpredictable changes 35

36. Interventions: • Self-calming strategies can reduce anxiety • Creation of list of appropriate and inappropriate behavior – the student puts a tick or a cross after descriptions of behavior he/she considers to be good or bad – encourages students to identify their own problem areas rather than being told by others what is appropriate and inappropriate • Later students can be asked to think about, talk about, and write down why he/she behaved in certain ways in certain circumstances and to consider the effects the behavior has on teachers, students, and his/her learning 36

37. Carefully structure seating arrangements and group work • Provide a safe haven • Save the student from himself or herself • Prepare for changes in routine • Use available resources/ make needed accommodations • Connect with parents, internet support groups, and other support networks • Promote positive peer interactions • Capitalize on special interests • Don’t take it personally • Help your classroom become a caring community Tips for Inclusion Teachers 37

38. Students with ASD experience math difficulties because: • Math is compact so that every # and symbol is critical to understanding • Math is full of abstract concepts (word meanings, symbols, relationships, formulas…) • It is not always done in L to R order • Receptive/expressive language impacts learning • Requires processing information in multiple formats and generalizing to new situations What does this mean for math? 38

39. Focuses more on understanding than rote learning – which is challenging for students with ASD who typically have strong rote skills • Requires students to continually predict and experiment (confirming, self-correcting, reprocessing) • Requires that students access and apply prior knowledge in new situations – which is difficult for students with ASD who experience problems processing information to comprehend meaning Math Instruction 39

40. Autism classroom • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEEOxT_O3N4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO6dc7QSQb4&feature=related 40

41. To improve practices for students with ASD requires attention to a number of issues 41

42. Must observe the products of their thinking to determine how LANGUAGE ability or disability is affecting math learning • Assume that they ARE having language issues • Language is the scaffold that can help organize and communicate accurately math concepts How do we address this? 42

43. Students with autism may learn tasks differently than those with Asperger’s • Students with Asperger’s may be able to learn from interactions with peers better than children with more severe autism • It may not be “what” we are teaching but “how” we are teaching that is the key (task analysis – break down complex tasks) • Individual interventions are needed – not all students respond to the same instruction 43

44. Task analysis is a process by which a task is broken down into its component parts. • It is easy to forget that some tasks need to be broken down into chunks, because after a time, they become like second nature to us. • We often expect students to be able to figure out the steps involved in completing a task but… Task Analysis 44

45. Brushing teeth • getting the toothbrush and toothpaste, • turning on the water • wetting the toothbrush • unscrewing the lid of the • Toothpaste • putting the toothpaste on the toothbrush, 45

46. When working with students with disabilities, it’s necessary to take the time to express the different parts of a task until the student has mastered each one. 46

47. Determine what task you want the student to perform • Figure out what steps will be required to complete the task • Teach the student one step until the student displays mastery of it • Decide what order to teach the steps in – chaining • As each part of the process is learned, add it to the chain until the task can be completed independently How does it work? 47

48. 5th and 6th grade students are assigned combination locks for the first time… • Many students are struggling with this task • Complete a Task Analysis of “Using a Combination Lock” For Example 48

49. Don’t use yes/no responses with non or low verbal students with autism. Their language errors may interfere with understanding of math • Often successful with direct, specific responses of giving or other performance related activities • Doing or manipulating objects is most successful Language Strategies in Math 49

50. Choose vocabulary wisely: • Are they same number or different number (not the abstract word ‘amount’) • Avoid “one” since it can be a pronoun or an amount (everyone needs “one” means something different than the number 1) • “enough” can be a difficult word because it is variable. Try using the words ‘extra’ and ‘no extras’ to suggest a more specific concept 50