Classroom Strategies for Educating Students with Autism

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Classroom Strategies for Educating Students with
Autism

• Susan Hepburn, Ph.D.
• University of Colorado/JFK Partners
• SESA, Alaska
• March 2008

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Overview of Todays Presentation

• Basic facts about autism (very brief)
• Tips for engaging a student with autism
• Educational strategies

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Basic Facts About Autism
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The Autism Spectrum

• Similarities Difficulties in 3 areas
• Social functioning
• Communication/language
• Restricted activities and interests

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Definition of Autism

• Significant impairment in 3 areas of functioning
• Social
• Communication
• Restricted activities and interests
• Evident within first 3 years of life
• Not a degenerative neurological condition

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Qualitative Social Impairment

• Failure to use or understand nonverbal behaviors
  (e.g., eye contact, gestures)
• Lack of peer relationships appropriate for
  developmental level
• Lack of sharing enjoyment/interest
• Lack of reciprocity

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Qualitative Communication Impairment

• Delay in spoken language accompanied by a lack of
  compensation in nonverbal communication
• For talkers problems initiating and/or
  sustaining conversations
• Unusual linguistic features (e.g., echolalia,
  neologisms, odd prosody)
• Lack of imaginative or symbolic play

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Restricted Activities and Interests

• Preoccupation that is unusual in either intensity
  or focus
• Strict adherence to routines
• Repetitive motor movements
• Preoccupation with parts of objects

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Strengths Associated with Autism

• Nonverbal problem-solving (e.g., puzzles)
• Persistence and focus within preferred activities
• Ability to learn within routines
• Rule-governed

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Strengths Associated with PDDNOS

• Same as autism
• In some studies, found to show more communicative
  intention and to share interest with others more
  frequently
• More likely to be verbal than children with autism

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Strengths Associated with Asperger Syndrome

• Usually good verbal skills
• Rule-governed and routine-oriented
• Can excel at special interest
• Can use cognitive strengths to learn emotional
  and social skills

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Tips for Engaging a Student with Autism
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Engagement is

• Active participation in activities
• Appropriate focus of attention
• Positive affect and enjoyment
• Sense of social connection

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It is possible to engage in rewarding social
interaction with any child with autism.

• .you may just have to be willing to interact in
  a new way

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Specific Strategies for Encouraging Engagement

• Find out about the childs favorite activities
  and interests and indulge him talk to the
  childs parents about how he likes to spend his
  time
• Be silly and absurd and have fun
• Follow her lead and imitate what she does, at
  least sometimes
• Appreciate his uniqueness let your affect be
  heightened and easy to read

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• Be ready to be physical and engage in nonverbal
  play even with verbal kids
• Allow for some repetition, be patient, and let
  the child do some things over and over
• Watch the childs nonverbal responses to your
  behavior and modify yours accordingly

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• Look for behaviors that are communicative and try
  to respect those communications
• Narrate your actions
• Minimize surprises, give advanced warnings of
  what you will do next
• Emphasize predictability and build routines
  (especially for transitions)

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• Find out about a childs sensory preferences and
  issues and try to incorporate them into your
  interaction style
• Whenever possible, add visual cues to your
  communications
• Remember that many children with autism have
  splintered skills i.e., their abilities may not
  be evenly developed keep your expectations
  realistic

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• Do not overuse language particularly if a child
  is upset
• Avoid sarcasm, idioms, metaphors most people
  with autism tend to think very concretely
• Remember that children with autism can be very
  socially sensitive dignity, respect, and
  appreciation are powerful for building solid
  relationships

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• Prioritize 11 time with each child group
  activities are okay some of the time, but look
  for chances for 11 activities too
• Keep on the lookout for hints that the child is
  getting overwhelmed and provide a quiet break
  before he becomes upset
• Keep in good communication with families ask
  them questions, share specifics about the
  positive and challenging parts of your day

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Educational Strategies

• Structured teaching
• Direct instruction
• Incidental teaching

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Each methodological approach has strengths and
limitations
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Structured Teaching

• Is an instructional approach developed
  specifically for students with autism.

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Structured teaching employs methods designed to

• Clarify expectations
• Establish predictability
• Promoting skill acquisition
• Fostering independent functioning

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Features of Structured Teaching

• Involves individualized assessment of skills and
  interests
• Emphasizes physical organization, visual clarity,
  and positive routines
• Focuses on prevention of problem behaviors

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Structured Teaching Sequence

• Teacher assesses childs interests and skills
• Teacher modifies physical environment
• Teacher provides visual cues
• Child participates in independent and group
  learning activities
• Child is reinforced for effort, participation,
  and achievement

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Strengths of Structured Teaching

• Instructional strategies are specialized for
  autism
• Visual structure provides predictability, reduces
  frustration, and promotes independence
• Individualized programming emphasizes
  developmentally-appropriate and functional goals

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Direct Instruction or Discrete Trial Training

• Is a technique that involves breaking down
  behavioral sequences into separate components and
  teaching one component at a time in a highly
  structured manner

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Features of Direct Instruction

• Activities are adult-directed
• Involves one-to-one teaching
• Is based upon operant teaching principles
• Emphasizes repetition

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Direct Instruction Sequence

• Adult presents stimulus
• Adult provides prompts
• Child responds
• Adults provides consequence

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Strengths of Direct Instruction

• Repetition and practice facilitate skill
  acquisition
• One-on-one teaching helps child to attend to
  instruction
• Controlled environment allows for easy data
  collection

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Incidental Teaching

• Is a method of instruction that is employed in
  naturalistic settings with the goal of
  strengthening functional social and communication
  skills

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Features of Incidental Teaching

• Activities are child-directed
• Occurs in the natural social environment
• Employs natural reinforcers
• Emphasizes generalization

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Incidental Teaching Sequence

• Teacher provides stimulating play activities
• Child initiates teaching interaction
• Teacher prompts child to expand the
• interaction
• Child expands interaction
• Teacher provides natural reinforcement for
  appropriate responses

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Provide Positive Experiences with Peers

• Encourage other children to join child with
  autism in his/her favorite activities
• Give preferred objects to other children so child
  with autism has to communicate with them
• Hang back, shadow, and prompt peers (not child
  with autism) to facilitate social interactions
• Encourage nonverbal, physical, stimmy and
  repetitive games as icebreakers
• Practice sharing (e.g., on computer)

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Social Facilitation

• Strategies to encourage and expand social
  engagement within the natural setting
• Cultivating teachable moments
• Prompting naturally
• Shadowing the child
• Preparing and training the peers

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Peer-Mediated InterventionsSteps (Odom
Strain, 1984)

• Adult chooses peers with good social skills and
  social intuition
• Peers are taught to deliver prompts, praise, and
  reinforcement for social initiations
• Peers are trained to be persistent in initiations
• Adult monitors and prompts peers, but does not
  intervene with target child

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Characteristics of Effective Peers

• High social status
• Able to follow adult directions
• Willingness to participate
• -- Sasso Rude, 1987

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Peer-Mediated Intervention A Few Caveats

• Effectiveness may be related to severity of
  social impairment (Odom et al., 1985)
• Helpful to train multiple peers (Fox, et al.,
  1984)
• Sometimes requires a lot of teacher time
• May be most helpful when added to
  teacher-mediated interventions (Odom Strain,
  1986)
• Peer-mediated intervention increased social
  responding
• Teacher-mediated intervention increased social
  initiation, length of interactions

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Strengths of Incidental Teaching

• Teaching in a natural setting promotes
  generalization
• Activities are child-directed
• Peers are involved as intervention agents

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An integrative approach toward educating students
with autism may be the most effective strategy
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Components of an Integrative Approach

• Individualized assessment
• Visual structure
• Combination of
• child- and adult-directed activities

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Components, (cont.)

• Use of one-on-one instruction for teaching new
  skills
• Use of incidental teaching to promote
  generalization
• On-going assessment

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Concluding Comments