School Inset

1
School Inset

• Autistic friendly Schools

2
Overview of Morning

• What is Autistic Spectrum Disorder?
• Outline the Triad of Impairments
• Overview of sensory difficulties
• Film A is for Autism
• Time for Tea
• Referral proceedure
• Strategies to help in class

3
What is Autistic Spectrum Disorder? The Triad of
Impairment

• Impairment of Social Communication

• Impairment of Social Relationships

• Impairment of imagination/ rigidity of thought

4
Social Relationships

• Socially isolated
• Social demands of others cause anxiety
• Finds social cues difficult to read
• May behave in a socially inappropriate way
• May lack the strategies to establish and maintain
  friendships
• May cause offence without being aware
• May appear egocentric or insensitive
• May not know how to react to others feelings

5
Social Communication

• May have spoken language that is formal and
  pedantic
• Voice may lack expression
• Cannot understand implications of different tones
  of voice
• May have difficulty using and understanding non
  verbal communication
• Takes things literally
• Has inability to understand implied meaning

6
Rigidity of thought

• Unusual or absorbing special interest
• Insistence on certain rules and routines
• Limited ability to play and think creatively
• Problems transferring skills from one setting to
  another

7
Sensory Differences

• Visual Differences
• Usually their strongest sense, rely most heavily
  on it to learn.
• But it is easily overstimulated eg bright lights,
  objects, reflective surfaces.

8
Auditory Differences

• Most frequently impaired sense
• Hyper acute hearing can cause real, agonising
  pain
• Impacts on learning what appears to be
  laziness/non compliance is childs inability to
  filter ordinary sounds

• What it means for the child
• In extreme examples the child has been able to
  hear the heartbeats of others in the room.

9
Tactile Differences

• What it means for the child
• Clothing tags, buttons, zippers, elastic etc are
  constant distraction. Children may evade embrace,
  haircuts, teeth brushing and nail clipping. Hands
  on tasks like fingerpainting and sand table
  induce more stress than fun.

• Hypersensitivity to touch.
• Children with autism can feel trapped in own skin.

10
Vestibular and Proprioceptive Differences

• The vestibular system regulates the sense of
  balance, stability

• The proprioceptive sense uses feedback from
  muscles and joints to tell us where our body is
  in space and what forces are acting on it.

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What it means for the child?

• Children may literally trip over own feet, bounce
  off walls, fall out of chairs. They may have
  gravitational insecurity and become anxious to
  take feet off solid ground, like when climbing,
  using toilet etc.

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And finally..

• The Olfactory Difference
• Ewwwww, what stinks!
• The hyperacute
• sense of smell is
• common among
• children with autism

• The Gustatory difference
• Hyper-acute sense
• of taste means
• Autistic children are
• picky eaters.
• Often as few as 2
• foods will be
• acceptable to the child.

13
Group Exercise

• Bearing the hyper acute nature of the Autistic
  childs senses, as a group list the possible
  disturbances during a trip to Tescos.

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But having said all that .

• I find great value and meaning in my life and I
  have no wish to be cured of being myself. If you
  would help me dont try to change me to fit into
  your own world. Grant me the dignity of meeting
  me on my own terms- recognise that we are equally
  alien to each other.work with me to build more
  bridges between us.
• Temple Grandin

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A is for autism.
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How to support and teach children on the autistic
spectrum.

• Attention please
• Dont forget to establish contact with the child
  before speaking or initiating conversation.

• Physically move to the childs level.
• Get physically close, if tolerated.
• Watch for them to orient to you ( not necessarily
  eye contact)
• Be animated
• Use gestures, body language meaningfully in a low
  pronounced way

17
Child Friendly Classrooms

• Organise your furniture and equipment and stick
  to that order.
• The use of areas e.g. play area, reading corner,
  work spaces helps the children to distinguish the
  different types of behaviour required for
  different types of work.
• If easily distracted compartmentalise the
  available space.
• Label equipment and areas clearly.

18
Other Strategies

• Visual
• ASD children are visual learners. Use
• visual timetables,
• classroom rules,
• step by step written instructions.

• Time to talk
• Give extra time to talk. Children often have
  delayed response time, listening, comprehending
  and speaking doesnt always happen in
  nanoseconds. Dont rush in to repeat the question
  or comment. Or finish their sentences for them.
• Wait a few extra seconds for them to respond.

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Say what you mean, mean what you say.

• SAY
• This is a picture of a dog.
• Put the flowers in the vase.
• Its a red sweater.
• After you finish your work you can go out.
• Please walk to the classroom.

• RATHER THAN
• This is a dog
• Put these in there.
• Its red.
• If you dont finish your work, you cant go out.
• No running in the halls.

20
Free play/unstructured time

• Asking a child with Autism to play until the end
  of a lesson, or to enjoy a free choice time can
  be very difficult for them to cope with.
• Give them a list of activities that should or
  could be completed
• Encourage by starting with small choices, so they
  become less dependent on the teacher.
• Allow to work away from noise or other children.
• Allow the freedom of working at length on their
  interest.

21
Break Time

• Give a clearly defined job.
• Find a sympathetic friend with same interests.
• Teach a useful skill to play, snakes and ladders,
  computer game, chess, how to be a good goal
  keeper.
• Have a quiet zone.

22
Behaviour

• Melt Down
• Temple Grandin has compares melt downs to
  epileptic fits, which cant be stopped once they
  have been started, but must be allowed to run
  their course. It is better to see whats going on
  as a brainstorm rather than someone having a
  tantrum

• Case Study
• Sam continuously rolls a pencil rapidly and
  noisily between his hands distracting the other
  children in class.
• Theory Use obsession as a reward rather than
  trying to eliminate it

23
The Rage Cycle

• Rumbling stage
• Fidgeting
• Swearing
• Making noises
• Ripping paper
• Grimacing
• Tapping foot
• Refusing to co-operate
• Name calling
• Verbal threat
• Increasing/decreasing volume

24
Possible Interventions

• Antiseptic bouncing
• Proximity control
• Signal interference
• Touch control
• Humour
• Routine
• Interest boosting
• Cool zone
• Just walk and dont talk

25
Rage Stage

• Disinhibited
• Acting impulsively
• Emotional
• Explosive
• Destroying property
• Self injurious
• Screaming
• Biting
• Hitting
• Kicking

26
Rage Stage Interventions

• Protect the child
• Protect the environment
• Protect others
• Dont discipline
• Remove the audience
• Be non confrontational
• Plan a graceful exit strategy
• Follow a plan
• Obtain assistance
• Prompt to cool zone
• Use few words
• Prevent a power struggle
• Be flexible-the child cannot

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Where to start with behaviour management

• List behaviour that concerns you
• Is it a danger?
• Does it interfere with ability to learn?
• Does it restrict access?
• How much stress and for whom?
• How frequent and intense
• Focus and keep a record

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Pinpointing the setting

• When, where and with whom the problem occurs.
• What the child should be doing.
• The childs emotional state
• When the problem does NOT happen.

29
Looking for triggers

• Does someone make a demand?
• Does something make a demand?
• Is the trigger something they notice or pay
  attention to.
• Could it be a change to the routine?

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What happens next?

• Child could be just interested in making
  something happen.
• The behaviour may create physical/sensory
  results.
• What are the reactions of others?
• Something might stop happening as a result e.g.
  people reduce demands.

31
Prevention

• Can some of the settings and triggers be avoided?
• Is there a way to reduce demands?
• Can settings and triggers be altered?
• Would more structure help?
• What can you learn from the settings where the
  problem does not occur?

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Changing the results

• What do you want child to be doing at times when
  is behaving in a difficult way?
• What skills may help child to cope with the
  problem?
• How could they get better pay offs?
• How do you encourage the positive behaviour?

33
Strategies for improving behaviour

• Rules
• ABC model
• Advanced preparation of change in routine
• Calm neutral approaches to negotiation
• Calming down zone
• Reward and praise appropriate behaviour
• Disapprove of the behaviour not the child
• Tell the child what to do rather than not what to
  do
• Be consistent
• Give pupils a responsible role.