Support for Children with Autism.

While we know that participation in mainstream settings has the potential to benefit all children, it is essential that effective supports and teaching practices are in place.

Access to a mainstream setting alone will not necessarily ensure any benefit to the child with a disability (Bellini & Akullian, 2007; Koegel et al., 2012).

In fact, inclusion without effective supports may do nothing more than cause increased frustration for the child with Autism and place them at greater risk of social isolation (Wetherby et al., 2007) or even challenging behaviour (Powell et al., 2006).

Further information can be found in the dedicated tabs on the left (top for some mobile users). Please select a tab to view the information.

5 Strategies to Support Children with Autism in Inclusive Settings (Schwartz, Billingsley, & McBride, 2008)

• Teach communicative & social competence. Presence in a mainstream setting without the skills or support to communicate and interact with others is just that, mere presence. Ensure that all children, even those who do not yet display verbal speech, have some meaningful ways of communicating basic wants and needs. You will find useful tips and strategies in our Resources section. It may be necessary as well to explicitly teach imitation skills, as this is fundamental for learning a range of skills and encouraging play and interaction.
• Use instructional strategies that maintain the flow of classroom activities. Teach important skills within existing and natural routines. For example, rather than thinking about setting aside 30 minutes with a child to practice communication or play skills, consider instead how you will plan to encourage those skills throughout the day. A child may need additional more focused instruction, but embedding skills throughout the day will maximise the child’s participation and increase the likelihood that skills will be applied across all settings. Some evidence-based teaching strategies include mand-model procedures, time delay, incidental teaching and naturalistic intervention strategies, and interruption of routines.

• Teach and provide opportunities for independence.  Ensure that independence is just as much an expectation for the child with autism, as it would be for any peer. Maximise use of routines and visual schedules and supports, and use effective prompting strategies to facilitate independence, rather than encouraging dependence.
• Proactively and systematically build a classroom community that includes all children. Rather than question whether a child is ready for any particular activity, consider what supports or accommodations can be made to include the child with autism. Encourage participation by using preferred materials, and use a blend of child-directed and teacher-directed activities, recognising that children with Autism will need more help during less structured child-directed activities. Group activities may need to be short at the beginning of the year, but should increase as the year progresses.
• Promote generalisation and maintenance of skills. It is essential that skills that are learned in one setting, be applied across all settings. This does not always occur for children with Autism. However, we can increase the likelihood that skills will generalise if we:

• Target skills that are meaningful and useful in everyday life.
• Provide only as much help or prompting as necessary to achieve a goal.
• Practice skills across the day rather than focused practice in one sitting and
• Use the same materials the child is likely to come in contact with in other settings or with peers.

Environmental Considerations and Arrangements.

For a young child with Autism who has language difficulties or experiences increased sensitivity to sounds, lights, proximity, etc., the busy preschool setting can become quite confusing or overwhelming at times.

You can support the young child with these simple strategies:

• Ensure the classroom has clearly defined spaces with specific functions. Bookshelves or large mats may serve to visually define spaces, while items such as beanbags or square foam mats on the floor may define where to sit during story.
• Label spaces, shelves, centres and stations visually by function.  Post large, laminated pictures on tables, walls, or hanging from the ceiling.

• Maintain consistent routines and schedules, and depict schedules visually.
• If there must be a change in routine, or new or special activity, provide preparation. This can be supported through use of visual supports by indicating the change on the schedule. Special events can be explained through social stories. New activities may need to be introduced gradually.
• Use transition cues such as bells, visual or audible timers, or chants/songs. Prepare children for the upcoming transition (e.g. ‘When the bell rings, play is finished and time for snack’).
• Identify a ‘safe space’ or break area that the child can retreat to when overwhelmed. This should be an area away from peers, loud noise, or other sensory experiences which may cause distress. Sometimes a small pop-up tent outside of the classroom is helpful.

When trying to set up the environment to generate interest in peers and encourage peer interactions:

• Ensure that there are materials of interest in each centre or station to maximise engagement and ensure the child will want to remain in the station or centre amongst peers.

• If necessary and where possible, provide duplicate sets of the preferred materials to encourage parallel play, while avoiding difficulties with sharing materials.
• Arrange that the child with Autism has interesting materials that will catch the attention of peers and encourage peers to be around him. Be careful however that the child with Autism is ready for this, and will tolerate the proximity to ensure this is a positive experience for both children.
• Have peers offer preferred items, and/or create situations for the child with autism to retrieve preferred items from peers. This will demonstrate to the child with autism who might not initially see value in interacting with peers, that peers can be fun and interesting. Over time, progress to having the child with autism request items of peers.
• Use familiar, daily routines to encourage interactions. For example, have children work in pairs to set up plates and cups for snack, rather than relying on the adult. Or establish a consistent routine of greeting peers as soon as the child enters the centre or during morning circle.

Mand-Model.

The term mand refers to a request. If a child requests ‘I want a drink,’ we can say he is ‘manding’ for drink.

The mand-model technique is a simple effective strategy to increase functional communication, and can and should be used throughout the day.

This technique involves the educator or caregiver carefully observing the focus of the child’s interest (e.g., a ball). When the child initiates towards the item or indicates in some way that he or she wants the item, the adult models the correct verbalisation (e.g., “ball” or ‘I want ball’).  

If the child makes the correct verbal response the teacher or caregiver then praises the child and provides the object of interest.

More information can be found in our Resources section. 

Incidental teaching and naturalistic interventions.

Incidental teaching would be used widely by early educators, and involves arranging the environment with materials and activities to encourage child directed learning.

The child ‘initiates’ the teaching process by indicating an interest in an item or topic, and the teacher then  uses the child’s initiation as an opportunity to prompt an elaboration.

The child’s correct response to the teacher’s prompt results in a particular response, reinforcement or prompt, and then contingent access to the item/topic of interest.

While such strategies are frequently used to encourage language and communication skills, incidental teaching can be used to encourage a wide range of skills.

You can find some nice examples, with accompanying videos here

Prompting and prompt fading:

A prompt is anything that helps a child be successful, and can take many forms.

Retrieved from ASD Education.

 

You may assist a child with putting on a coat by providing physical guidance, or you might simply need to verbally remind them to zip it up. Educators use prompts on a daily basis to teach all kinds of skills.

Children with autism however can sometimes become over-reliant on these prompts, so we must be very systematic with respect to how we fade these prompts to encourage independence.

When teaching new skills, most to least prompting hierarchies as depicted in the illustration are often most effective, although it is important to remember to progress down the higherarchy as rapidly as you can.

Only ever provide as little prompting as is necessary for the child to be successful. Least to most strategies are most useful when you are encouraging compliance or following directions.

More information on Prompting here. 

Social Narratives. 

Social narratives are visually supported strategies explaining social situations or expected behaviours. They are often used to help children adjust to changes in routine, or to teach and cue specific social skills or desired behaviours.

Social stories are perhaps the most commonly known form, but there are other forms such as social scripts, social autopsies, power cards, and comic strip conversations. There are a number of samples available online.

Retrieved from Creating Social Stories

 

While these can be extremely helpful, remember that the most effective social narrative will be specific to the child, using pictures and language that is suited to their environment and developmental level.

Here are a few useful documents and websites:

Social narratives.

TASN

Watson Institute

One Place for Special Needs

Newton Public Schools Assistive Technology

Time Delay.

Time delay is a widely used, evidence-based strategy for fading prompts within a most to least prompting hierarchy.

Initially, the instruction or request is delivered and the child is prompted immediately to engage in the targeted response. After a series of practice opportunities with immediate assistance, the adult will then deliver the instruction and wait a few seconds before delivering the prompt.

With constant time delay, this wait time remains fixed (e.g. always 3 seconds, then prompt).

A progressive time delay involves gradually increasing the delay (e.g. 2 second, 3 seconds, 5 seconds, etc.).

This delay provides an opportunity for the child to independently respond.

Remember that independent responses should be heavily praised and reinforced.

More information on Time Delay. 

Task Analysis and Chaining.

Children with autism can often have significant difficulties learning sequences of behaviour such as those involved in dressing, washing hands, or putting on a coat.

The task analysis and chaining is a way of breaking down these sequences into component steps, and teaching step by step.

For example, if teaching handwashing, you might systematically prompt the child through:

1. Turn on water
2. Wet hands
3. Get soap
4. Rub hands together
5. Rinse hands
6. Turn off water
7. Get towel
8. Dry hands

Visual supports depicting the sequence can often be extremely helpful as well.

More information on Task Analysis.

Reinforcement.

Reinforcement is anything that is delivered following a behaviour, which increases the occurrence of that behaviour.

It is a principle of human learning, and is in no way unique to children with autism, but we often have to be much more mindful about how we use it with children with autism.

 

 

Here are a few rules to remember to make the most of your use of reinforcement:

• Reinforcers are individually determined. Not everyone will work for the same things, and preferences change over time. If the reinforcer isn’t ’working,’ try something else because what you have is not a reinforcer.
• Reinforcers need to be delivered immediately following the desired behaviours.
• When encouraging new and difficult behaviours,it is extremely important that reinforcement is delivered consistently. 
• When teaching new behaviours, we have to help or prompt those behaviours. It’s important to still reinforce those behaviour even if we have to help. Over time as the child becomes more independent, we should hold onto the reinforcers until we get the ‘best response,’ what we know the child is capable of.
• Remember that reinforcement works on unwanted behaviours. We sometimes accidentally reinforce behaviours we don’t want to continue. Visit our Resource section for more information on understanding reinforcement and challenging behaviours.

Having a hard time thinking of reinforcers for that hard to motivate child?

You can download this list, or try these links:

Autism Training Solutions. Part 1.

Autism Training Solutions. Part 2.  

ABA Therapists.