Educating Our Students with Autism

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Educating Our Students with Autism
Disclaimer The Southern California Autism
Training Collaborative (SCATC) has provided
information included in this original format of
the training manual (dated August 2007). SCATC
is not responsible for any changes made to this
training protocol by subsequent users.
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History of Autism
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Out of the Norm

• Leo Kanner
• 1943
• Father of Autism
• Autism, auto, self
• No differentiation in Autism. Autism is just
  Autism

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Vantage Point

• The low-functioning child with autism, lives in
  a world of his own, whereas the higher
  functioning child with autism lives in our world
  but in his own way.(VanKrevelen, 1991)

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Autism is

• A lifelong disorder there is no cure at this
  time
• Is found worldwide in families of all racial,
  ethnic, and social/economic backgrounds
• Four to five times more common in boys
• Affects brain development in areas of
  communication skills, social understanding,
  behavioral patterns and interest, and sensory
  processing

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What we do know

• Worldwide increase in the incidence of autism in
  past 10 years
• Possible reasons
• Medical and educational community better
  informed?
• Genetic evidence for predisposition in some
  families?
• Head circumference/growth (San Diego, 2003)
• Environmental factors
• Vaccines?
• Environmental toxins?
• Family Stress?
• We DO KNOW that it is not caused by parenting

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Statewide growth in Californiaages 0 22 years
with Autism as the primary handicapping condition
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Autism is a Umbrella Disorder
Autism
PDD-NOS
Aspergers Syndrome
Retts Syndrome
Childhood Disintegrative Disorder
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Autism Criteria

• Usually onset before age 3
• Lack of appropriate communication
• Delays with social interaction
• Restrictive interests or patterns of behavior

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Autism is a Spectrum Disorder
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What Are People with Autism Like?
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Some characteristics

• Communication
• Social Understanding
• Sensory Processing
• Learning Styles
• Behavioral Response

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Communication

• May exhibit the following
• Non verbal----------- very verbal
• Echolalia
• Poor receptive/expressive language
• Oral motor difficulties apraxia
• Appears not to hear

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Communication continued

• Inconsistently shows lack of communicative intent
• Language used to obtain a goal rather than for
  a social purpose
• Literal/concrete
• Use of language scripts

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Communication continued

• Difficulty answering questions
• Difficulty with pronouns, negatives, and time
  concepts
• Difficulty switching/staying on topic
• Limited range of conversational topics
• Odd rhythm, intonation and/or volume

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Social Understanding

• May exhibit the following
• Limited eye contact
• Less responsive to social/nonverbal cues
• Unusual play or limited interests with toys and
  objects
• Lack of imaginary play

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Social Understanding continued

• Lack of join attention/joint reference
• Limited social awareness competency
• Difficulty initiating social interactions or
  maintaining reciprocal conversation
• Preference for isolation or parallel play

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Social Understanding continued

• Lack of understanding of social rules and
  conventions
• Turn taking
• Sharing
• Rules of the game
• Winning/losing
• First/last

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Social Understanding continued

• Difficulty taking perspective of another,
  including their feelings, motives or intent
  (Theory of Mind)
• Not seeking/needing comfort when hurt or
  distressed
• Lack of understanding of social distance/proximity

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Sensory Processing

• May exhibit the following
• Difficulty processing and regulating sensory
  information auditory, visual, tactile,
  kinesthetic, olfactory, taste and environmental
  conditions
• Hypersensitivity may lead to avoidance of the
  source
• Hyposensitivity may lead to seeking or
  fluctuating response to the source
• Poorly modulated attention

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Learning Styles

• May exhibit the following
• Strong visual learning
• Rote memory skills are stronger than conceptual
  abilities
• Display splinter skills
• Better functioning with structure and routine
• Learning by association

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Learning Styles continued

• Uneven developmental patterns
• Difficulty generalizing knowledge and skills
• Difficulty learning through imitation and
  observation
• Poor executive functioning

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Behavioral Responses

• May exhibit the following
• Rigidity, inflexibility, adherence to sameness
• Difficulty with changes in environment or
  routine/transition
• Stereotypical behavior
• Non-compliance

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Behavioral Responses continued

• Self-injurious behavior
• Sudden changes in emotional states
• Perseveration high areas of interests, desires
• Poor organizational skills

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Aspergers Syndrome

• First described by Hans Asperger in 1944 but has
  only been listed in the DSM IV since 1999
• Lorna Wing - 1981 first used the term after
  Aspergers death in 1980
• Aspergers is typically considered the high end
  of the Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Aspergers Syndrome continued

• Abnormalities noted in three broad aspects of
  development
• Social skills and social relatedness
• Use of language for communication
• Difficulty in pragmatics
• Behavioral and stylistic characteristics
  involving repetitive/perseverative features and a
  limited, intense range of interests
• Higher cognitive abilities (average to superior
  range IQ)

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Aspergers Syndrome continued

• These students are more likely found in general
  education classrooms and are often undiagnosed or
  misdiagnosed with ADD, ED, LD or just odd
• Aspergers Syndrome is often associated with
  other disorders such as Tourettes Disorder, OCD,
  depression anxiety
• Genetic factors more prevalent in Aspergers
  Syndrome, sometimes family history of autism

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Characteristics of Children with Aspergers
Syndrome

• Adapted from Brenda Smith Myles, University of
  Kansas

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Characteristics

• Intelligence
• Maturity
• Rote memory
• Theory of Mind difficulties

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Characteristics continued

• Executive function
• Problem solving
• Generalization
• Special interests and obsessions

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Where should the educational FOCUS be with
students with ASD??
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• Goals for educational services are the
• same as those for typically developing
• children
• PERSONAL INDEPENDENCE and SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Educating Children with Autism, National Research
Academy Press, 2001, www.nap.edu
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Priorities of Focus

• Teaching of functional academic skills and
  spontaneous communication
• Instruction and support for social interaction
  delivered throughout the day in various settings
• Teaching of play skills, focusing on play with
  peers

Educating Children with Autism, National Research
Academy Press, 2001, www.nap.edu
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• Intervention strategies that address problem
  behaviors with an emphasis on positive, proactive
  approaches
• Instruction aimed at goals for cognitive
  development, that are carried out in the context
  in which the skills are expected to be used.
• Generalization and maintenance of learned skills
  are as important as acquisition of new skills

Educating Children with Autism, National Research
Academy Press, 2001, www.nap.edu
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Effective Programs

• Characteristics include
• staff development and support
• support to families
• comprehensive curriculum
• utilization of effective instructional strategies
• On-going evaluation of student progress
• structured educational settings and supports

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WHAT IS Effective Instruction? If its GOOD, it

• respects the neurology of autism
• is structured
• is developmental and hierarchical
• is individualized (based on student performance
  data)
• facilitates independence
• builds internal competence
• is motivating
• transitions across contexts (is generalized)
• includes practice of learned skills
• provides positive behavioral supports
• maintains active engagement
• promotes socialization
• is research based
• Resource Leslie Fagan District Program
  Specialist
• ABC Unified School District -Cerritos CA

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Promoting Student Engagement

• Identify interests
• What gets their attention
• Be playful and silly
• Make yourself part of the activity/task
• Push in
• Make few demands
• Use the element of surprise
• BE CREATIVE!!!

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In Closing

• If children cant learn the way we
• teach, then wed better teach them
• the way they learn.

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Please review individual slides for specific
references.Further references to be listed.