Including Children with Including Children with Autism in Inclusive Autism in Inclusive

Preschools: Strategies Preschools: Strategies that workthat work

Including Children with Including Children with Autism in Inclusive Autism in Inclusive

Preschools: Strategies Preschools: Strategies that workthat work

By: Sarah A CatesBy: Sarah A Cates

Autism: What is it? What does it look like?

• Autism: Children with Autism Disorder have a moderate to severe range of communication, socialization, and behavior problems. Many have mental retardation. These problems must present prior to the age of 3, but may not be diagnosed until after 3.

• Autistic children are usually described as the weird kids. They have a lot of repetitive movements. They have impairments in social interaction, imaginative activity, verbal and non-verbal communication, a limited number of interests, and activities tend to be repetitive.

• You will see them rocking a lot. Many times they will hurt themselves, or a specific person. Yet, they can be very loving, but only on their terms.

• Children with Autism are now in a group of disorders that have similar characteristics and are known as Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD)

Autism: Social Skills• The major component of Autism is a

lack of social skills. This is evident in the lack of: – Eye contact– Inability to relate to peers– Inability to share in others enjoyment,

achievement, and interests.– Lack of social or emotional reciprocity

Autism: Communication

• The second major characteristic of children with Autism is a lack of communication skills. This is shown by:– Delay or total lack of spoken language– Spoken language = inability to initiate or

sustain conversation– Repetitive use of language – often will

imitate what another person has said– Lack of spontaneous make-believe or social

imitative play.

Autism: Repetitive Patterns of Behavior

• The last major component of Autism is the repetitive behaviors that are exhibited. These are shown by:– Preoccupation in a pattern or object that is

abnormal in intensity or focus.– Inflexible adherence to specific

nonfunctional routines or rituals.– Repetitive motor mannerisms, such as

rocking, finger flapping, clapping, twirling things, etc.

– Persistent occupation with parts of objects

Study from Article• A study was completed involving 150

children from birth to age 6 and their families

• Children were in classrooms of 15 with 9 qualifying for special ed. services

• Abilities of children ranged from mild to severe to gifted.

• Approx. 30% of children with disabilities had Autism or another form of PDD.

Instructional and Curricular Philosophy

• Goals of the program were:– To provide classroom activities that promote dynamic

interactions between children and the environment– Work collaboratively with families to identify

priorities, develop educational outcomes, and evaluate program outcome

• Translation of goals into practice:– Apply systematic instruction to achieve educational

goals– Activities and strategies were developmentally

appropriate– Adhere to recommended practices for young children

with disabilities

Five Strategies• Five strategies were considered central

to providing educational services in inclusive settings

• Five strategies were identified by the teaching staff to help children with Autism achieve important outcomes such as acquiring skills, developing relationships, and participating as full members of the class

Five Strategies:• The Five strategies are:

– Teach communicative and Social competence– Use instructional strategies that maintain the

natural flow of classroom activities.– Teach and provide opportunities for

independence– Proactively and systematically build a

classroom community that includes all children

– Promote generalization and maintenance of skills

Strategy 1: Teach communicative and Social competence

• Use of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) to teach an effective mode of communication.– children communicate using pictures and

symbols, and focus on initiations.– Most of the students acquired the

functional communication skills quickly using PECS, which allows children to communicate in understandable and acceptable ways.

Strategy 1: cont• Use of imitation to teach children with Autism

to relate to others.– Imitation is a critical tool.– Children with Autism don’t know how to imitate

others (actions, and communication not words)– Embedded training into the activities throughout the

day.– Not only increased imitation skills, but increased and

improved social interactions– Planned opportunities for students with Autism to

interact directly with typically developing peers.– Ex: Bubbles at opening circle, Mark requesting Dot

Art

Strategy 2: Use Instructional Strategies that Maintain the Natural Flow of

Classroom Activities• Teaching within context of developmentally appropriate

activities and routines• Draw peers into the instructional situation• Teach using a variety of Naturalistic Teaching

procedures including:– Mend-Model procedures, time delay, incidental teaching,

and interrupted routines and behavior chains• Characteristics of Naturalistic Teaching procedures:

– Teaching occurs in the natural environment– Individual teaching interactions are brief and spaced over

hours or days– Typically child initiated– Uses natural consequences –toys highly desired by the

child

Strategy 2: cont.• Scaffolding is used in applying

techniques– different cues or prompts– Necessary amount of support– Only provide help required so that children

do not become dependent on prompts

• Example: Jacob matching shapes - prompts from teacher.

Strategy 3: Teach and provide opportunities for Independence

• Independence in classroom activities is expected for Kindergarten, but very difficult for children with Autism.

• 5 things that can help children with Autism have independence– Give choices when possible, teach choice making when

needed.– Provide picture schedules and use timers to indicate duration

of activities– Make sure the day is filled with activities, and are conducted

in the same way and in the same sequence daily.– Make a special effort to give all children frequent chances to

respond to teachers– Maintain high expectations. Celebrate small victories and

immediately increase the expectations. Don’t say “he can’t; instead say How can we help him to …?”

Strategy 3: cont.• Additional Strategies:

– Freedom to participate and interact with their peers throughout the day

– Adult support that facilitates independence, interaction and learning, rather than interfere.

– Jonathon’s choice - bad day, pict. Sch.

Strategy 4: Proactively and Systematically build a classroom that

includes all children• Never question if a child “is ready” to

participate, determine what supports or accommodations are needed for the child to be successful.

• Plan activities that engage children with a large range of abilities.

• Plan activities that the child with the most significant disabilities can do independently and are challenging for the typically developing child.

Strategy 4: cont• Activities must have multiple

components, be open-ended, and support a variety of responses

• Day mixed with child-directed and teacher-directed activities. Recognize that children with Autism need more support during child-directed activities.

Strategy 4: cont• Group activities are important to create a

classroom community. Large Group activities and Small Group activities.

• Large Group activities include: opening circle, songs, stories, and acting out plays

• Small Group activities include: games, art projects, pre-academic activities

• Activities need to be short at the beginning of the year and increase in length during the year.

Strategy 4: cont• Group activities address the strengths of

children with Autism• All group activities allow every child to have a

turn and play a role. • During some small group activities every child

is in charge of handing out materials. This puts children with Autism on equal footing and teaches them to be receptive communicative partners and to interact with peers.

• Oliver – Show and Share day - cue cards

Strategy 5: Promote Generalization and

Maintenance of Skills• Unless skills are demonstrated in a variety of settings

and maintained throughout the year these skills will be used only in the setting where they were learned.

• 4 strategies that promote generalization and maintenance are:– Target skills that will be useful in each child’s life.– Use prompts judiciously (use least directive and intrusive

prompt) and fade them rapidly– Use naturally distributed trials – not all instruction is

formally scheduled– Use common material for instruction

• Example: Joey - pretend play - developed script

Conclusion• Children with Autism have always been among

the most difficult to include effectively in educational, recreational and community settings

• Two lessons were learned by successfully embedding instructional strategies into preschool routines and supporting children with autism in this environment:– First, learned to view children holistically: young

students with autism constantly show their strengths and skills

– Second, learned to view the outcomes of inclusion and effective instruction broadly

Conclusion• Children with Autism can be

successfully included in regular classes if the right supports and strategies are put into place.

Resources• Schwartz, I.S., Billingsley, F.F., & McBride,

B.M. (n.d.) Including Children with Autism in Inclusive Preschools: Strategies that Work. Retrieved July 8, 2008 from New Horizons For Learning website: http://www.newhorizons.org/spneeds/inclusion/information/schwartz2.htm

• Tsai, L. (2003). Pervasive Developmental Disorders. NICHCY: National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. FS20. pp. 1-15.