Autism Spectrum Disorder

1. Autism Spectrum Disorder Sarah Calvert -G.Dip Teaching Students with Autism; B.Ed Visiting Teacher – Autism Northern Metropolitan Region DEECD

2. What is Autism? Autism is a lifelong disability that affects the way a person communicates and relates to other people and the world around them. Kanners’ Aspergers Low Functioning (Severely disabled) Higher Functioning

3. Measured IQ hypersensitive hyposensitive active/odd verbal gifted agile severe Social Interaction aloof severe passive Communication non verbal Motor Skills awkward Sensory

4. Triad of Impairments

5. Social Interaction

6. Theory Of Mind “The ability to think about other people’s thinking – and further, to think about what they think about our thinking – and even further to think about what they think we think about their thinking, and so on…. This ability underlies much of our interaction with others, informing our understanding of other’s behaviour and influencing our actions towards others…

7. Theory Of Mind … In psychological terms, this is described as the ability to appreciate that other people have mental states: intentions, needs, desires and beliefs, which may be different to our own. The term given to this ability is “Theory of mind”. Cumine V., Leach J. and Stevenson G. 1998 ‘Asperger Syndrome, A practical Guide for Teachers’ London: David Fulton Publishers.

8. Theory Of Mind Cause problems with: Predicting Reading Intentions Understanding emotions Explaining own behaviour Reading and Reacting to others’ interests Understanding social interactions

9. Central Coherence Deficit Big Picture Problems: See parts instead of the whole Difficulty choosing and Prioritising Difficulty seeing connections Can’t follow directions that don’t make sense. Have one way to view a problem Literal problems solving abilities.

10. Executive Function Cause Problems with: Planning Internal sense of time Working memory Impulse control Self reflection / self monitoring Time managment

11. Communication • 2 broad categories: • Receptive: taking in and understanding the spoken language- information and instructions. • Expressive: output of needs, wants and feelings- everything that needs to be expressed.

12. Communication Characteristics in Autism • Few or no words • May be echolalic • Difficulty understanding verbal language • Difficulty expressing language – including knowing the meaning or correct use • Problems with conversation • Higher level language difficulties – including jokes, metaphors, sarcasm • Problems understanding body language • Problems understanding gestures. • Problems with tone, pitch, intonation

13. Please Remember: • A child with no language and a low IQ score can express something in some way to you. Just because they don’t have words, doesn’t mean they don’t have anything to say. • A child who presents with excellent verbal communication skills will lose their words once in a while.

14. Communication Deficits • Two major areas: • Joint attention: capacity to coordinate and share attention and interest with another person. • Pragmatics: Social use and understanding of language.

15. Pragmatics • “The building blocks of communication in ordinary babies, until speech develops, are almost entirely biological and developmental; that is they do not have to be taught as skills, but develop naturally, and simply increase in complexity through practice. The many linguistic tools that babies use before spoken language are in fact the “pragmatics” of language, these are the abilities they will eventually need in order to transform speech into conversation…..

16. Pragmatics … The pragmatics are not added on to speech, they begin to develop long before speech, and are increasingly practiced during the first year, and so create a structure ready for the speech that normally follows. For children with Autism, the pragmatics are lacking or deeply disordered, and this must be seen as a central deficit, proceeding the problems of disordered speech development as such, and also appearing at a more significant time for derailing the child’s social development….

17. Pragmatics … It follows that, in terms of priority, there is need to focus on pragmatics before one can effectively work on speech itself.” Chandler, S., Christie,P., Newson, E., and Prevezer, W. (2002) “Developing a diagnostic and intervention package for 2-3 year olds with Autism.”

18. Pragmatics In The Classroom

19. Non-Verbal Difficulties • Poor eye contact • Lack of knowledge of rules of conversation • Lack of knowledge of social conventions • Difficulty understanding changes in tone of voice and the intended meaning • Body language: facial expressions, social distance • Obsessive topics.

20. Impairments In Imagination • Difficulty processing the world around them, therefore may develop obsessive or rigid behaviours to help themselves cope. • Limited play skills with little imaginative play- repeat themes or re-enact what they have seen (television or real life) • Cope best when their environment is predictable.

21. Sensory Processing • The way our bodies take in information through our senses • How this information is organised in our central nervous system • To be able to understand, react and interactappropriately with the world around us

22. What is your arousal level now? Do you need a coffee? Do you need a wine? Do you ever have that niggling feeling where you don’t know why but you feel like you want to explode at someone? How does exercise make you feel? (Apart from puffed) Why do we have breaks? Do you ever eat your breakfast thinking –I really can’t do it today. My body just doesn’t feel right! How do you feel after stepping of Wizzy Dizzy?

23. Talk to an adult When I am getting worried or angry I can find an adult and tell them how I am feeling. I can tell them what is making me feel like this Push the wall over Find a wall, put two hands on it and try as hard as you can to push it over for 30 seconds. Run it out Find a place and run on the spot as fast as you can for 30 counts Chill out Tell an adult you feel like you need to “Chill out Stretch a Stretchy Band Find a stretchy band and stretch it as much as you can for 30 seconds. Stretch, stretch, stretch! Recycle your ANGER! Talk all of your anger into a bag and throw it away in the recycling bin! www.senseabilities.com.au

24. Behaviour • The nature of Autism is such that the student with an ASD has difficulty acquiring the social understanding and communication skills necessary to establish and maintain appropriate behaviour. • It is important to always ask “WHY?” • Never look at behaviour in isolation.

25. Behaviour • Often a form of communication • Naughtiness or lack of understanding ? • Do we not understand what the student is trying to communicate? • Does the student not understand what we are trying to communicate? • ‘Punishment’ is only a short term approach If I know that every time I kick the table/cry/pinch I am going to be taken outside the classroom (Where there is no-one else, its quiet and I don’t have to do work), What will I do when I want to be alone or don’t want to do the set task?

27. All of the above and removal of unwanted intervention

28. How do you know that you are dealing with a behaviour in the right way? How can you actually stop or reduce a behaviour? How do you do all this and remain calm, happy and in control? Positive Behaviour Support

29. Positive Behaviour Support PBS implies an understanding that people (including parents) do not control others, but seek to support others in their own behavior change processes. There is a reason behind most inappropriate behavior of difficulty in acquiring skills, so the child should always be treated with respect. There should always be a focus on humane changes in the child's life to learn better behavior, instead of using coercion or punishment to manage behavior.

30. PositiveBehaviourSupport Find the function of the behavior Only after we find out WHY the behaviour is occurring can we put the right strategy in place

31. Individual Behaviour Program Should: • Teach new skills • Change / modify a behaviour • Focus on positive strategies • Teach functional communication skills that will effectively replace inappropriate behaviour

32. Boundaries “If I don’t know where I am, I am lost and when I am lost I am scared and stressed and cant find my words…so I will use my behaviour to express” 9 year old boy who has Autism “If things you say change all the time I don’t know what you want and when I need to do what you say. So I don’t do it. Not because I am naughty, just because nothing you say stays the same! That’s why I like having my visual schedule because it reminds me and you what is happening” 12 year old girl who has Autism

33. “If a child doesn’t know how to read, we teach.” “If a child doesn’t know how to swim, we teach.” “If a child doesn’t know how to multiply, we teach.” “If a child doesn’t know how to drive, we teach.” “If a child doesn’t know how to behave, we…” …teach?…punish?” “Why can’t we finish the last sentence as automatically as we do the others?” Tom Herne (NASDE President) Counterpoint 1998, p2

34. AND….. What does all this mean for our classroom?

35. Natural Learning Style • Strong memory • Strong visual skills • Strong response to motor activity -muscle memory • Strong response to high affect -motivation/interest

36. Classroom Set up • Break down tasks and display visually. • Allow for processing time – Name at the start of the sentence / instruction halves the amount of processing time needed • Think about the timeframe • Repeat activities • Motivate / reward: “when….then” • Structure / routine / boundaries • Change the environment , not the child Transfer structure to different classrooms

37. Maths Year 8 – Mr Waters 8 x (3 + 2) = _________ 4 - (6 + 5) = _________ 2 x (8 - 5) = _________ 9 + (7 - 4) = _________ (2 + 4) x 8 = _________ (6 + 7) x 2 = _________ (6 - 3) x 4 = _________ 42 ÷ (9 - 3) = _________ 56 ÷ (11 - 4) = _________ 25 x (5 - 2) = _________ (4 + 5) ÷ 3 = _________ 25 ÷ (7 - 2) = _________ 7 x (25 - 132) = _________ 9 + 8 x 6 = _________ Maths Year 8 – Mr Waters (2 + 4) x 8 = _________ (6 + 7) x 2 = _________

38. When your teacher asks you a question... Tell the teacher your answer. It’s okay to have a guess. If you didn’t hear or understand the question say Can you ask me again? If you need more time to think say I need think time If you need some help say Can you give me a hint? If you are stuck say Can I try a new question?

39. What happened? H A S S L E L O G When did it happen? How serious? Minor Major What did you do? WHAT COULD YOU DO NEXT TIME ?

42. BLURTS ARE COMMENTS THAT TRY NOT TO BLURT

43. C H O I C E S

45. I need to… • _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ • _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ • I have _____ minutes to do this. • I need to tick off each job when I have finished. TASK SLIP

49. VOICE METER

50. QUESTIONS ?