Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders

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Chapter Three Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders Quill, K. A. (1995) “Visually cued instructions for children with Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders,” Focus on Autistic Behaviour, 10(3). Hodgdon, L.A. (1995) Visual Strategies for Improving Communication, Vol 1: Practical Supports for School and Home. of the student’s individualized program. Some more high-functioning students who have benefitted from early intervention may be able to benefit from more traditional learning styles. Discrete trial training involves teaching skills in small units called trials. Each trial consists of an instruction, a prompt (if needed), a response from the student, and a consequence or feedback. The instruction is given in simple, clear language that the student can understand. Discrete Trial Teaching can be delivered both in one-on-one teaching situations or in the context of incidental and activity-based teaching situations. A prompt may be necessary especially when a new skill is being taught, to guide the student in achieving a correct response. A prompt to guide a child to a correct response is more beneficial and ensures success. Approximately 3-5 seconds are allowed following the instruction to give the student time to process the direction and to separate each teaching trial. Using prompts to help students learn is an important element of instruction for some students with ASD. Prompts may be physical, gestural, positional, or verbal. They should be used only as long as they are needed, since students can become dependent on them. The prompt is given following the direction when the student seems to need a cue to perform correctly or when learning a new skill. The prompt is often designed to model the desired behaviour or assist the student in performing it. The instructor decides what level of prompt to use based on the student’s need (see Appendix B). A prompt hierarchy should be established to determine how prompts should be systematically faded, thus allowing the child to carry out the task independent of adults prompts and/or cues. The least intrusive level of prompting should be used with the goal to fade all prompting as soon as possible as trials progress. Prompted trials should be followed by an unprompted trial to see if the student has learned from the prompt. The best reinforcement or consequence is given to the student for a correct unprompted trial. Visual approaches The most strongly recommended approach for teaching students with ASD is to use ABA, which includes the use of visual aids. Students often demonstrate relative strengths in concrete thinking, rote memory, and understanding of visual-spatial relationships, but have difficulties in abstract thinking, social cognition, communication, and attention. Pictographic and written cues can often help the student to learn, communicate, and develop self-control. 24 Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders Chapter Three Boardmaker for Windows. (1994) Mayer-Johnson Co. Writing with Symbols. (2000) Mayer- Johnson Co. An advantage of visual aids is that students can use them for as long as they need to process the information. In contrast, auditory information is transient: once said, the message is no longer available. Auditory information may pose problems for students who have difficulty or require extra time to process language. In addition, it may be difficult for the student with ASD to attend to relevant information and to block out background stimulation. Using visual supports better enables the individual to focus on the message. Visual aids and symbols range in complexity from simple and concrete to abstract. The continuum moves from real object or situation, to colour photograph, colour picture, black and white picture, line drawing, and finally to graphic symbol and written language. Objects are the most simple, concrete form of visual aid. Graphic symbols, although far along the continuum in terms of complexity and abstraction, have been widely successful with students with ASD. Software packages that provide quick access to graphic symbols and the ability to create customized symbols are available (eg. Boardmaker, Writing with Symbols, or Do2learn). Visual supports can be used in the classroom in a variety of ways. To be successful, they must fit the student’s level of comprehension by being at the appropriate point on the continuum of complexity mentioned in the preceding paragraph. Using a line drawing to support learning when the student needs colour photographs in order to comprehend will only frustrate everyone. Taking this caution into account, visual supports are useful and can be employed to: • organize the student’s activity: daily schedules, minischedules, activity checklists, calendars, choice boards • provide directions or instructions for students: visual display of classroom assignments, file cards with directions for specific tasks and activities, pictographs and written instructions for learning new information • assist the student in understanding the organization of the environment: labeling of objects, containers, signs, lists, charts, and messages • support appropriate behaviour: posted rules and representations to signal steps of routines • teach social skills: pictorial representations of social stories depicting a social situation with the social cues and appropriate responses, developed for a specific situation for the individual Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders 25
Page 1 and 2: TEACHING STUDENTS WITH AUTISM SPECT
Page 3 and 4: Table of Contents Acknowledgments .
Page 5: Table of Contents (cont’d) Append
Page 8 and 9: ii Teaching Students with Autism Sp
Page 10 and 11: Introduction The final section of t
Page 12 and 13: Chapter One What Is Autism? Bryson,
Page 14 and 15: Chapter One What Is Autism? Reprint
Page 16 and 17: Chapter One What Is Autism? The DSM
Page 18 and 19: Chapter One What Is Autism? Childho
Page 20 and 21: Chapter Two Characteristics Associa
Page 34 and 35: Chapter Three Teaching Students wit
Page 62 and 63: Chapter Four Managing Challenging B
Page 76 and 77: Chapter Five Students with Asperger
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Chapter Six Transition Planning For
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Chapter Six Transition Planning The
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Chapter Six Transition Planning Gra
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Chapter Six Transition Planning In
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Chapter Seven Assessment and Evalua
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Chapter Eight Planning Support for
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Appendices These appendices contain
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Appendix B Hierarchy of Prompts Pro
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Appendix D Name:___________________
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Appendix E Home-School Communicatio
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Appendix F Communication Dictionary
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Appendix H The Components of a Beha
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Appendix I Tips for Teaching High F
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Appendix I 13. If that doesn’t wo
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Appendix K Integrating Student’s
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Resources Consultative and Support
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Resources Print Resources The follo
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Resources Do-watch-listen-say: Soci
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Targeting autism: What we know, don
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Resources Assessment Tools Assessme
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References This section includes so
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References Durand, V.M., & Crimmins
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References Hodgdon, L. (1991). Solv
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References McGinnis, E., & Goldstei
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References Rourke, B.P. (1989). Non
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138 Education Guidelines for Referr
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Step 1: Guidelines for Referral Pro
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Step 2 - A: *** Note: A psychologic
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Referral for Consultation School Ps
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SCHOOL DISTRICT _____________ PAREN
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Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders

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