SERVING STUDENTS WITH AUTISM IN SCHOOLS 1

SERVING STUDENTS WITH AUTISM IN SCHOOLS 1 Serving Students with Autism in Schools Beth Kost Abnormal Psychology (PSY 406)

SERVING STUDENTS WITH AUTISM IN SCHOOLS 2 Serving Students with Autism in Schools With the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 2004, schools were required to provide services to children with disabilities and a movement was started to integrate children with disabilities into the public schools. Gone were the days in which children with special needs were sent away to institutions or educated in separate schools with other children with special needs. Instead, children with disabilities are now integrated into the general education classrooms as much as possible. Children with autism were among those children affected by the passing of this law and they, too, were integrated into the general education classrooms as much as possible. Autism is a disorder whose numbers are on the rise with 1 in 88 children being diagnosed with it and teachers are seeing more and more children with autism in the public school systems (Laursen& Yazdgerdi, 2012). As a result, with the help of special education teachers, they have had to learn how to adapt their classrooms and teaching styles in order to serve children with autism. Though autism began as a relatively mysterious disorder making it hard to accommodate students with the disorder, as information and understanding of the disorder has increased, general education teachers and special education teachers have worked together to find more and more techniques that are effective in teaching children with autism and integrating them into their classrooms. However, like all other children, children with autism are all different. Where they fall on the spectrum (referring to the range of disorders that show autistic traits known as the Autism Spectrum) dictates their range of abilities and disabilities, so something that works for one child with autism will not work for all of them. This is important for both general education and special education teachers to keep in mind when

SERVING STUDENTS WITH AUTISM IN SCHOOLS 3 they are working with students who have autism. According to Monica Rensch, an aide that works with children with autism in public schools and also spent time working at a center for children with autism, though the ultimate goal may be full inclusion of the child, sometimes inclusion is not what is best and appropriate for that specific child (M. Rensch, personal communication, November 30, 2012). One of the first things that teachers needed to address when they began working with students with autism in the general education classroom was finding a way for the children who were unable to verbalize their needs to communicate. As mentioned before, all children with autism are different and some are able to verbalize their needs, but there are many who cannot. Special education teachers have developed numerous ways to help children with autism learn to make their needs known in the general education classroom. Because children with autism tend to work well with visual prompts, a great method of communication is the Picture Exchange Communication System or PECS (Guldberg, 2010). PECS is a system that uses a variety of picture prompts that can be put together in simple sentences by the student to communicate something that they may want or need. With the advances in technology within the past few years, schools have also begun to use things such as ipods and ipads as tools to help students with autism to communicate (M. Rensch, personal communication, November 30, 2012). There are a variety of programs that can help students to communicate, from programs that are like a virtual PECS to programs that actually speak what the child wants to say (M. Rensch, personal communication, November 30, 2012). As mentioned above, when trying to find a way to communicate with the students, teachers also discovered that children with autism responded well to visual prompts and cues.

SERVING STUDENTS WITH AUTISM IN SCHOOLS 4 As a result, they began to employ other techniques that utilized pictures and other visuals to help students with autism in their classrooms. One technique is to simply relate words to pictures, making learning how to read a much more realistic task for students with autism. (M. Rensch, personal communication, November 30, 2012). Another technique used that employs the use of pictures is creating a picture schedule (Cammuso, 2011). Students with autism like routine and can get very upset when their routine is changed or altered (M. Rensch, personal communication, November 30, 2012). Picture schedules are a good tool to help alleviate problems with the schedule changes that may occur from day to day. When a student comes into the classroom, the first thing that they do is look at their schedule and see what is going to happen that day. They also check it every time that they move from one thing to another. Another technique along the same lines is a First, Then chart which, again, uses pictures to instruct the student what they will be doing first and then, what they will be doing after that. Both techniques help the child with transitions and give them a fair warning when anything is going to be different in their routine (M. Rensch, personal communication, November 30, 2012). Another challenge that teachers face when integrating a child with autism into the general education classroom is preventing the child from becoming over-stimulated by all that is going on within the classroom (M. Rensch, personal communication, November 30, 2012). Again, this can vary from child to child because some children can become over-stimulated more easily than others and some techniques may work better for one child and not another. However, for that reason, there is a large variety of techniques that special education teachers have come up with to help children with autism.

SERVING STUDENTS WITH AUTISM IN SCHOOLS 5 First, sometimes a child with autism is given what are known as sensory breaks throughout their day (M. Rensch, personal communication, November 30, 2012). These are short breaks throughout the day that allow the child to get away from the classroom or wherever they are at the time to prevent them from becoming over-stimulated. Where a child goes for a sensory break can vary, but often times they go to a sensory room (M. Rensch, personal communication, November 30, 2012). The sensory room is another technique that is used to help prevent students with autism becoming over-stimulated when they are in the classroom. The sensory room is full of objects that are soothing to the senses of a child with autism. A few examples of these objects might be balls, trampolines, swings, and rice bins or other things for tactile input (M. Rensch, personal communication, November 30, 2012). Often times, the lights are also dimmed and sometimes the child can even listen to soothing music if he chooses to. It all depends on the child and his specific needs (M. Rensch, personal communication, November 30, 2012). Another technique that is often included in sensory breaks and sensory rooms is the use of weighted blankets and other things that cause deep pressure. For whatever the reason may be, children with autism are soothed by the feeling of pressure. So, often times they will ask for something such as a weighted blanket when they are beginning to feel overwhelmed and over stimulated or, if they are unable to tell themselves when they are beginning to be over stimulated, teachers can watch for the signs of it and give them a weighted blanket to help calm them down. (M. Rensch, personal communication, November 30, 2012) In addition to the sensory breaks and sensory rooms, there are a few small things that teachers can do in their classrooms as well to help with over stimulation. They can provide

SERVING STUDENTS WITH AUTISM IN SCHOOLS 6 students with autism with objects known as fidgets, which are small toys or objects that students can play with quietly in the classroom to give them some sort of tactile input (M. Rensch, personal communication, November 30, 2012). A few examples of fidgets may be things such as silly putty, stress balls, or even chewies if the child tends to like to put things into their mouth (M. Rensch, personal communication, November 30, 2012). Another big challenge that teachers face when integrating children with autism into the general education classroom is the whole social aspect of things. According to the article Social Involvement of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders in Elementary Classrooms, By definition, children with Autism Spectrum Disorders have difficulties with social relationships at all ages and functioning levels, including failures in effective communication, sharing enjoyment and interest, and emotional reciprocity. Children with autism tend to focus more on objects than people and tend to have difficulties understanding social nuances and interaction, as well as general communication (Laursen& Yazdgerdi, 2012). As a result, teachers have had to find ways to involve students with autism in interactions with their peers and to teach students with autism social skills that don t simply come naturally to them like they may for students. Social stories are one technique that teachers developed to help teach students with autism basic social skills (Cammuso, 2011). Social stories are stories that portray daily social situations and the appropriate ways to act and appropriate things to say and do in such situations. The student will read through the story numerous times with someone and then, they will be given chances to practice the skills that they learned from the stories. But, it is important that the student is comfortable with the skills first, before they are given a chance to practice them. Video modeling is a technique that is often paired with social stories, as well

SERVING STUDENTS WITH AUTISM IN SCHOOLS 7 (Cammuso, 2011). This technique uses the same idea as Social Stories, but instead involves the student and/or other people that the student may know acting out a social situation. The acting out of the situation is recorded and the student is then able to watch himself using the social skills that are being practiced. Another technique that is used is known as circles (Laursen& Yazdgerdi, 2012). Circles are a unique technique because they involve all of the students in the classroom, not simply students with autism. Circles are a simple idea in which people come together to communicate in a safe environment without the fear of rejection. There are two main types of circles. The first kind is talking circles, which are circles in which students come to share their experiences, thoughts, and beliefs about an immediate topic. The second kind is support circles, which focus more on personal issues. Overall, circles are a great technique to get all students in a classroom communicating with each other and using their social skills (Laursen& Yazdgerdi, 2012). Though full inclusion into the general education classroom would be the ultimate goal for students with autism, the reality is that most students with autism are not in the classroom for the entire day. They often take part in special education classes for at least some part of the day and are also often pulled out of the classroom to meet with specialists, such as speech therapists and occupational therapists as well. Overall, every case depends on the individual student, their needs, and what their Individualized Education Program (a program for students with special needs that is put together by a team from the Special Education department) dictates for them. On the whole, a lot has changed over the years for students with special needs, including students with autism. Schools are trying their best to integrate them into the

SERVING STUDENTS WITH AUTISM IN SCHOOLS 8 classrooms. With numbers of students with autism on the rise, it is important for not only special education teachers, but general education teachers as well to know about the disorder and the things that they can do to help their students with autism succeed in their classrooms.

SERVING STUDENTS WITH AUTISM IN SCHOOLS 9 References Cammuso, K. (2011). Inclusion of students with autism spectrum disorders. Brown University Child & Adolescent Behavior Letter,27(11), 1-6. Guldberg, K. (2010). Educating children on the autism spectrum: preconditions for inclusion and notions of 'best autism practice' in the early years. British Journal Of Special Education, 37(4), 168-174. Laursen, E. K., & Yazdgerdi, S. (2012). Autism and Belonging. Reclaiming Children And Youth, 21(2), 44-47. Rotheram-Fuller, E., Kasari, C., Chamberlain, B., & Locke, J. (2010). Social involvement of children with autism spectrum disorders in elementary school classrooms. Journal Of Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 51(11), 1227-1234.