Case Study: Molly Molly is a kindergarten-age student who presents with autism as well as significant expressive and receptive language deficits. Molly is primarily echolalic and seldom uses her language spontaneously to communicate with peers and teachers. Molly’s conditions pose great difficulty not only for Molly but for her teachers as well who must implement strategies, tools and environmental supports to aid Molly in several areas including communication, behavior, social, cognitive, sensory-motor and assuring that Molly is in the most appropriate and supportive environment, because the implementation of the appropriate strategies, tools as well as environmental supports will only aid Molly in engaging with her teachers and peers and will motivate Molly to meet or exceed her individual potential and will ensure Molly’s needs are being met overall in the academic setting. Molly is primarily echolalic which is the immediate and involuntary repetition of words or phrases just spoken by others, Molly seldom uses her language spontaneously to communicate with peers and teachers. There are a variety of intervention techniques available to support the social-communication development of individuals with ASD. (Myles 191) It has been noted that nonverbal persons with autism can benefit from a variety of communicative devices and methods. (Myles 236) Implementing AT devices and services to aid Molly in the communication process would be very beneficial for Molly and allow her to communicate her feelings, needs, and wants to her teachers, caregivers and peers. There are several types of AT devices from those that are considered high to those that require little training and are quick and easy to implement and ...
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...s with either a peer of her teacher/aid. This would be most beneficial for Molly and less stressful than her entering into a social interaction in which she may become frightened, one Molly is more comfortable the use of Social Stories can be started Social Stories are a frequently used strategy to teach social skills to children with ASD. Social Stories present social concepts and rules to children in the form of a brief story, and may be used to teach a number of social and behavioral concepts, such as initiating interactions, making transitions, playing a game, and going on a field trip. (Myles 213) Molly may have a social story that depicts initiating commination with her peers, she could enter in to a predetermined game that her peers are active in and the social story should depict the game rules, resulting in a positive social interaction with her peers.
Once a week, Ms. Neiman has an occupational therapist visit our nonverbal student and our student with autism. Occupational therapist uses special equipment to help children with developmental disabilities, they help students develop and improve the skills needed for daily living. The occupational therapist uses techniques that work the children’s brain, for the nonverbal student since she is at a lower learning level she is teaching her to match colors and unscrew lids. For the student with autism, she is teaching him to tie knots and how to properly draw shapes. She removes the obstacles for the children by supplying the students with the necessary specific help needed in the areas in which the students are lacking or not doing well. One of the gestures Ms. Neiman wanted the nonverbal student to learn was, “I want more”. In trying to do so, she contacted the speech therapist for her input. The speech therapist found a device where she could record her voice saying “I want more” and the student could press the button when trying to relay that message. Ms. Neiman tried the device for about a month and she realized the student was not responding to the button. She removed trying to teach the student how
Seth is a 4 year old boy who was diagnosed with Autism. He is an only child and concerns about his development rose when he didn't engage in peek-a-boo or mimicking facial expressions/gestures. His parents, at a young age, would try to engage him or attain his attention with toys, songs, or games but Seth had no interest. Seth early made eye contact, didn't babble, or respond when his name was called. His motor skills developed at the appropriate age but at the age 2 Seth still had no words. His parents had his hearing checked, and the results came back that he was healthy, but he was diagnosed with autism and started to receive services through his public school at 3 years old.
Wendy Keay-Bright and Imogen Howarth From the issue entitled "Special Issue on Autism and Technology" Personal and Ubiquitous Computing Volume 16, Number 2 (2012), 129-141, DOI: 10.1007/s00779-011-0381-5
For example, our text describes two symptoms of ASD; 1. social communications and interactions 2. and limited patterns of repetitive behavior, interests, and or activities. This was all evident in the “Neurotypical” documentary. For example, Nicholas was unable to interact with girls or form relationships he believes he has nothing in common with them. Wolf suggested that autistic children are good at mimicking others and that nonverbal cues are important to watch out for. Violet, on the other hand, has a habit of repeating behaviors; she will repeat anything her parents say. In the text it also says severity of language problems vary child to child. In Violets case she does not fall under the mute category but instead she is able to speak in a few words, cry, and even laugh. Our text introduces the term for repetitive speech, echolalia. Violet tends to repeat a word or words her parents say either right away when she hears it or later
Tarbox, Madrid, Aguilar, Jacobo, and Schiff (2009) researched this behavioral technique in a study involving three children with Autism who had echoic language deficits. Each of these students (ages 3, 5, and 7) could only produce single-syllable approximations of words prior to this study (Tarbox et al., p. 902). Three child-relevant, di- and tri-syllabic words were selected as targets of mastery for each student. A chaining procedure was then utilized by in-home ABA therapists to allow gradual, yet effective mastery of the words. Each word was broken down into sounds, and each sound was a step in the chaining process. The therapist would then verbally model a component of the word. Once that step was mastered, immediate reinforcement was provided and the next step would begin. The final step linked all of the components together in order to form the entire echoic. Out of the nine words total between the three participants, eight were mastered within only nine sessions. One word took a participant 35 sessions to master; however, all of the words reached mastery level and eight were maintained long-term (p. 903). These findings suggest that chaining procedures can be effective methods of increasing word-lengths in children with Autism who struggle with echoic language. Since language-production is a common deficit for those with ASD, this method of chaining is often utilized in ABA for language acquisition and is many times deemed effective (Tarbox et al., p. 904).
Students with learning disabilities can learn; each student has his or her own strengths and weaknesses. Educators must continue to focus on the strengths of each student and building on them, creating a stronger student and person. Identifying the weakness is at the core of getting a student help with their learning disability, but after this initial identification and placement, the focus should shift to the strengths and adjusting the student’s schoolwork to reflect these strengths. For instance, if a student is weak in reading but has wonderful group interaction skills and is good with his or her hands, the students' reading tasks should then be shifted to reflect these st...
...n between the ages 1-5 showed some initial gains in cognitive and language functioning, which includes but not limited to communication, self-care, imitation, and play skills, and were placed in regular classroom settings. Although many strives have been made, some results suggest significant racial and ethnic disparities in the identification of children with ASD. There have been studies comparing behavioral approaches to general electric approached have found them to be lacking, but some of the programs were community based. When it comes to making treatment plans, some think that specific behavioral profiles may be useful in identifying which children are likely to respond to a particular treatment. While positive results have been made towards treatment, there are no ASD treatments that currently meet criteria for well-established empirical supported treatment.
Students with high incidence disabilities or HID are the most common in schools. The group of high incidence disabilities include students with emotional, behavioral or mild intellectual disabilities as well as those with autism, speech or language impairments and attention deficit disorder (Gage et al., 2012). Students with HID are usually taught within the general education classroom. There are either co-teachers or a resource teacher that takes the students out of the general education classroom for short periods of time to work in a more individual, structured environment (Per...
It is required that the student be placed in the setting most like that of typical peers in which they can succeed when provided with needed supports and services (Friend, 2014). In other words, children with disabilities are to be educated with children who are not disabled to the maximum extent appropriate. Removal may only occur when education in regular classes, with the use of supplementary aids and services, cannot be achieved satisfactorily (Yell, 2006).
Luiselli, James K. "Verbal Language and Communication." Teaching and Behavior Support for Children and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Practitioner's Guide. New York: Oxford UP, 2011. Print.
Systems of AAC include both high-tech and low-tech methods. High-tech methods consist of electronic devices such as the Apple iPad or iPod. Low-tech methods consist of non-electronic systems such as a Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) or manual signing. Different types of AAC systems give educators the option to choose the best method of AAC for each individual child. When choosing the best method of AAC, educators must consider the severity of autism, the individual characteristics, and capabilities of each child. The type of AAC method or device educators select for the child may depend on the school system and the cost of the device. Multiple research studies have investigated allowing children with autism to choose an AAC system or device (Son, Sigafoos, O’Reilly, & Lancioni, 2006; Van der Meer et al., 2012; Van der Meer et al., 2013). Son et al., (2006) Van der Meer et al., (2012) and Van der Meer et al., (2013) examined if allowing the child with autism to choose an AAC system had a positive outcome on communication. Selecting an AAC system for a child with autism takes time and consideration of each individual child’s abilities.
In conclusion children with AS will bring certain challenges to the classroom. A knowledgeable teacher through reassurance and “gentle assistance” (Allen, Paasche, Langford, & Nolan, 2011, p. 355) can provide the proper guidance for this child and help them to become integrated into the classroom environment.
At about six months of age, children will begin to use their tongues, palates, and newly emerging teeth to create sounds. This is their way of teaching themselves to talk. Unlike children who are developing normally, ASD children begin to repeat certain sounds over and over. Once the child is old enough to be able to speak and hold conversations, ASD is easily noticeable. Communication with a child with ASD is habitually rigid and repetitive (CDC, 2013).
One of the most difficult things teachers will face when dealing with Autistic children is their lack of communication skills and inappropriate or nonexistent social skills. In addition to academic instruction children with Autism require instruction in communication techniques and social skills. Kamps et.al. says “A key to accommodating students with autism in public school settings is the provision of social and behavioral programming to develop meaningful participation with nondisabled persons” (p.174).
Education is a profession which requires a teacher to be able to communicate with a multitude of students on a variety of levels. There is not a class, or student for that matter, that is identical. Therefore, teachers must be able to identify and help educate students from all different types of backgrounds and at different levels. Teaching a singular subject presents difficulties, but teaching students with disabilities should not be one. There are three main teaching areas that need to be focused on when teaching a student with a learning disability. Teachers need to focus on the strategies that will assist students with reading comprehension skills, writing skills, and maintaining appropriate behaviors in a classroom setting.