Case History: T.C. is a 13 year old, 2 month old girl in the seventh grade. T.C. lives with her parents and she is the oldest of three children. T.C.’s prenatal and birth history was unremarkable. T.C. was normal developing until 18 months old. By 18 months old it was apparent that T.C. was delayed in speech. In addition, she walked on her toes, did not make eye contact with others, had a terrible fear of loud sounds, cried frequently, and was a poor sleeper. She was evaluated before her second birthday and was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome or related pervasion developmental disorders and has profound difficulty with social interaction. She has received speech therapy, with an emphasis on social skills training, intense therapeutic therapy, and occupational therapy. T.C. is in a regular seventh grade classroom with an aide to assist her throughout her day.
Long term objectives: T.C will socialize and converse adequately with her peers, maintain a conversation, introduce topics for conversations, and be able to compliment others in 6 months appropriately 80% of the time.
Short term objectives: T.C. will have good conversation skills while using the correct social context, asking questions and commenting, building on a conversation to keep the conversation going, when it is appropriate to compliment someone and phone skills over 10 sessions, twice weekly, approximately 90% of the time.
Observations: T.C. is a 13 year old girl in the 7th grade. T.C. is receiving therapy to enhance her social and pragmatic skills. Over the sessions observed, different techniques were taught.
Session #1: The speech language pathologist (SLP) modeled and role-played different types of voice tone. According to Jed Baker (2003), when demonstrat...
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...kills, it is pivotal for the SLP to work in a collaborative effort with the students’ teachers to endure an open line of communication to address any concerns and/or progress.
Works Cited
Baker, J. (2003). Social Skills Training for Children and Adolescents with Asperger Syndrome and Social-Communcation Problems. Shawnee Mission: Autism Asperger Publishing Company.
Cummings, T. H. (2008). Social Skills Instruction for Adolescents with Emotional Disabilities: A Technology-Based Intervention . Journal of Special Education Technology, 19-33.
DeGaetano, J. G. (2013). Developing Logical Reasoning. Wrightsville Beach: Great Ideas for Teachers.
Meadan, H. M.-A. (2008). Collaboration to Promote Social Competance for Studnets with Mild Disabilities in the General Classroom: A Structure for Providing Social Support. Intervention in School and Clinic, 158-167.
Seikel, J. A., King, D. W., & Drumright, D. G. (2010). 12. Anatomy & physiology for speech,
The cause of AS is still very much unknown.Children with Asperger syndrome start to show signs as early as one to two years old; however a diagnosis is rarely given until later, usually around the ages of th...
...at comes naturally to most people: listening to others, looking them in the eye, and trying to understand another's point of view. Dr. Attwood believes, "Children with Asperger's Syndrome have the strong desire to have friends while recognizing their considerable difficulties with achieving and maintaining genuine friendships. Many experience ridicule, exclusion, teasing or bullying. Education programs can be used to assist them."
These behaviors with time can be modified with therapy, teaching and medication. Over time children/adults with Asperger’s can learn to better interact with their peers more productively. We also need to educate ourselves about Asperger’s so that we can help to alleviate the feelings of aloneness that occurs with Asperger’s. In other words we need to become more understanding and compassionate towards others. Jayden has come so far with his therapy. He has many friends at his current school; although he prefers talking to his teachers. He is a shining example of what proper intervention, compassion and understanding can accomplish. I am blessed to have him in my life, he always causes me to look at things in ways I might not have. I hope you have found this paper not only informative, but in lighting.
Development of social skills is very important for children that are diagnosed with autism because of ...
Special education is evolving, evolving in form and substance. Education of the special needs population in the United States lacks uniformity of purpose and deed. In many school districts within the United States, special education creates a financial burden that subjugates the traditional programs (Higbee, Katz, & Shultz, 2010). The lack of consistency to approach and positive results has created academic chaos for methods and strategies in working with the special needs population. The difficulty in educating special needs children to develop their academic and social skills has created many strategies for supposed benefit, and in fairness, some work for some children. Too many instances exist where not all children benefit (p. 8). The problem is developing a strategy and curriculum that provides for the needs of all children whether they are involved in an inclusive, mainstreaming, or self-contained classroom. This is particularly significant with a particular segment of the special needs population, Asperger’s autism. Asperger’s autism is a controversial diagnosis, a diagnosis that creates a schism of psychiatric thought. Some psychiatrists classify this as a pervasive developmental disorder, while other psychiatrists see this as a form of personality disorder that has many traits associated with schizophrenia (Odom, Buysee, & Soukakou, 2011). The Asperger’s child lacks emotional development normally associated with their age group. An example that illustrates the emotional development issue concerns age appropriate demonstrations of concern or awareness in their environment. Many of the Asperger’s children are not able to tell whether someone is making fun of them and will join in making fun of themselves as unsuspecting ...
Children with autism have multiple characteristic impairments in their social interaction skills. This results from the lack of “Theory of Mind” in autistic individuals. Autistic children have difficulty interpreting what another person may be thinking or feeling. Social impairments may cause the child to act inappropriately in social interactions and prevent the children from truly taking part in interactions. The children have difficulty recognizing social cues and responding to cues. Autistic children have a hard time forming relationships as a result of these impairments. Social stories, Applied Behavior Analysis, and Pivotal Response Training are three therapy techniques that help children with autism learn appropriate social behavior. Social stories allow the children to practice the situation in a lower stress environment. Applied Behavior Analysis utilizes positive reinforce to teach desired skills. Pivotal Response Training allows the child to learn social skills while in a natural play environment. Learning social skills through these techniques enable the children to have more meaningful relationships and engage more in their community.
Pervasive Developmental Disorders are characterized by “severe and pervasive impairment in several areas of development” (Tsai, 1998). In the 1994 edition of the Diagnostic Statistic Manuel version IV, three new categories were introduced under Pervasive Developmental Disorders. These include: Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, Asperger's Disorder, and Rett's Syndrome (Volkmar, 2005). All these disorders occur in early childhood and are often not noticed by a parent or primary caregiver until it is noticed that the child is not achieving normal developmental milestones.
On the website autism speaks, “Autism is a general term used to describe a group of complex developmental brain disorders known as Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD). The other pervasive developmental disorders are PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified), Asperger's Syndrome, Rett Syndrome and Childhood Disintegrative Disorder. Many parents and professionals refer to this group as Autism Spectrum Disorders.” They also said that “Asperger’s syndrome is a developmental disorder that makes it very hard to interact with other people.” Your toddler may notice that it is a challenge to make acquaintances because he or she is socially gawky. Many citizens with Asperger’s Syndrome may possess some traits of autism. Asperger’s syndrome is an enduring condition, but symptoms do seem to get better over time. Asperger’s syndrome and autism both...
Many people across the world are unfamiliar with disorders associated with autism. Some people do not even know what autism actually is. Asperger’s Syndrome is one perplexing disorder, of countless, that needs to be acknowledged. Although it is one of the more well-known disorders, an understanding of Asperger’s is far from common knowledge. There is an abundance of misconceptions and people unaware of what Asperger Syndrome actually is. Being uncertain about the characteristics of a person with Asperger’s allows people to go through life not understanding the disorder itself and people who have it.
Social interaction is considered a core deficit in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Due to impairments in social interactions, children with ASD fail to develop peer relationships and share enjoyment and interests (Ashbaugh, Bradshaw, K.Koegel, & L. Koegel, 2014). Difficulty engaging with others may persist throughout the lifespan; therefore it is crucial to identify these underdeveloped social behaviors and to target early intervention. In regard to intervention strategies, Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) has been proved to be an effective, efficacious and naturalistic intervention for communication and social functioning of children with ASD derived from applied behavioral analysis (ABA). An important component of PRT is motivational strategies which emphasizes natural reinforcement. Reinforcers that are logically related to the outcome of a behavior have been shown to be more effective than unrelated reinforcers in teaching tasks. For example, a child opening the lid of a container with an edible reinforcer inside (i.e. cookie) is more effective than a child opening the lid of a container then receiving an edible reinforcer after. By implementing PRT, children with autism will strengthen the response-reinforcer relationship thus encourages their social communication.
As a Life Skills Mentor through Lane County, I instructed students diagnosed with Autism, implementing interventions prescribed by individual treatment plans. This involved teaching students social skills, focusing on nonverbal cues and maintaining conversations through modeling or role-playing. In addition, I assisted students in developing self-awareness, identifying sensory and emotional needs. Additional targeted objectives included: developing and maintaining relationships, navigating school, basic money management and utilizing public transportation.
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...
Kamps, D. et.al. (2002). Peer Training to Facilitate Social Interaction for Elementary Students with Autism and Their Peers. Exceptional Children, 68 (2), 173-187.
Shepherd, T., Braham, J., & Elston, C. (2010, January 13). Learning and Interpersonal Skills Review. pp. 1-2.