Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

EDU 5101Kevin Neuenswander

What is Sensory/Integration Processing?

• We receive information about the world around us through our senses. We have a constant flow of information coming into our nervous system every second of every day.

• All this information is received in our brain & organized & sorted in an efficient manner. The brain then uses this information to help us form our behaviors, emotions, & readiness to perform learning tasks.

5 Steps of Sensory Processing/Integration

1. Registration-awareness that we have touched, seen.

2. Orientation-Focusing on or regarding the input.

3. Interpretation-relating emotions & past experiences.

4. Organization-determine if a response is necessary

5. Execution of response-which may be ignoring.

What is Sensory/Integration Processing?

• Most people take in sensory information & process it without even thinking about it.

-Optimal state-all seven areas of sensory processing work effectively.

• Some people take in sensory information & recognize it immediately & are very aware of the sensation.

-Sensory defensiveness-high alert or arousal level

• Some people take in sensory information & difficulty registering the sensation.

-Low arousal.

Sensory & ASD Students

• High incidence of sensory processing challenges

• Can be hypersensitive/over reactive

• Can be hyposensitive/under reactive

• Result in behavioral/social/emotional & academic difficulties

We all have Sensory Needs

There are seven different kinds of

Sensory Needs.

• Variation in light

• Variation in color

• Visual distractions

Visual

Olfactory

• Variations in types of odors

• Variations in intensity of odors

Tactile

• Variations in temperature

• Variations in touch pressure

• Variations in amount of touch

• Types of clothing

Oral/Gustatory

• Variations in temperature

• Variations in textures (crunchy, chewy)

• Variations in taste (sweet, sour, etc…)

• Oral motor movement (blowing, biting, sucking, licking, etc…)

Auditory

• Variations in noise level.

• Variations in auditory distractions.

• Variations in the types of noise.

• Variations in the rhythm.

Proprioception

• This is the sense that gives us awareness of body position.

• Proprioception information comes to us from our muscles and joints.

• When working effectively, this sense helps us to use appropriate pressure on objects, guide our movements & generally give us a sense of what our body is doing.

Vestibular

• This is the sense of movement.• Information comes to us from changes in head

position.• It is the foundation for the orientation of our body.• Under active or overactive vestibular systems

systems affective a person’s ability to play, interact with the environment & learn.

Take the Sensory-Motor Preference Checklist (for Adults)

Share results with the people at your table.

Regulation of Sensory System

• In order for students to be ready to learn, they need to be at an optimal level of arousal.

• Low arousal students may appear lethargic, inattentive & sometimes be difficult to motivate. Sometimes they can display hyperactive behaviors in an attempt to avoid a stat of lower arousal.

• High arousal students are usually considered antsy, quick to emotional reactions & may have behavioral outbursts. May enter a flight, fright or fight reaction to everyday sensory stimulation.

Signs of Sensory Processing Difficulties

• Sensory processing is considered a problem if it interferes with the child’s ability to function normally within the environment.

• This may be manifested either by behavior challenges, emotional outburst, unwillingness to participate in activities.

What you might see:

Visual

• Stares at visual objects

• Can not handle many visual distractions

• Bothered by lights or certain colors

• Interested in only certain colors

Olfactory

• Seeks out certain smells

• Agitated by certain smells

• Constantly sniffs things

Tactile

• Irritability or withdrawal to touch

• Avoidance of certain types of textures

• May not enjoy playing with messy materials

• Does not enjoy touching tactile materials

• Always touching objects or other people

• Oblivious to pain

Oral

• Constantly putting things in their mouth

• Licking objects

• Avoidance of certain types of food textures, or on the contrary, craves certain types of food

• Will only eat food at a certain temperature

Auditory

• Covers ears to certain noises that do not bother other children

• Can not filter out other background noises

• Tunes in to certain noises, like the ticking of a clock

• Oblivious to noises that bother

other people

Proprioception

• Craves or gives “bear” type of hugs

• Uses a great deal of pressure on objects

• Constantly bumping or pushing into other objects or people

• Likes to carry around very heavy objects

• Does not seem to be aware of

where their body is in space

Vestibular

• Avoids playground equipment or any movement type activity

• Constantly is moving

• Enjoys spinning (self or objects)

Sensory Diet

• Providing activities which will help the child reach an optimal level of arousal.

• The diet is based on the needs of the child, & what activities help the child to cope with his/her environment.

• It is individual for each child, what works for one child may not work for another child.

• The diet can be provided in sensory breaks throughout the day or given continuously in the child’s day.

• Sensory breaks should be given before an anticipated problem or certain times of the day to avoid any challenging behavior.

BehaviorManageme

nt

BehaviorModification

Vs.

Stop thinking about “removing the child” as the “REAL” answer to

the problem.

If the inappropriate behavior is occurring… what has to change?

– The teacher– The Task– The Setting

If what you are doing was going to eliminate the problem behavior…it would already have worked.

Structure, Order, Routines

• Use a visual schedule before & after every activity• Review rules daily• Break large tasks/activities into 3 steps• Use timers• Activities should be no more than 20-30 min.• Provide advanced notice prior to changing

activities• Prepare for short planned transitions

Structure, Order, Routines (cont.)

• Provide structured breaks• Minimize down time• Build sensory opportunities into the daily

classroom schedule• Decrease fine motor tasks• Hands on materials• Pair new activities with favorite items-sandwich• Focus on strengths & weaknesses• Data driven

• Visual supports-used daily & consistently

• Social-understand the rules, know what he/she is supposed to do

• Communication-Receptive, Expressive (Stranger Test), given choices, directions are in simple language

• Cognitive level-is work too difficult, do they understand the task?

• Reinforcement-4 positive to 1 negative

Ga State Project

http://education.gsu.edu/autism/

Structure, Order, Routines (cont.)

Form vs. Function

• Any challenging behavior that persists over time is “working” for the child.

• The students is being reinforced for the inappropriate behavior.

• The student has little to no incentive to change.• The student needs to get what he’s getting or he wouldn’t be

doing the inappropriate behavior in the first place.• You can’t “punish” the behavior out of existence, if you

could have it would already have eliminated the problem behavior

• Research shows that for every year a behavior has been “working” 1 month of consistent intervention is needed to change the behavior.

Functions of Behavior

Most behaviors occur for one or more of the following reasons:

1. Escape/Avoidance

2. Attention

3. Tangible

4. Sensory

5. Control

6. Communications

These are the main functions of behavior

Why does

he do this?

Escape Strategies

• Increase use of visual supports

• Shorten activities

• Slow down lesson/change task difficulty

• Teach to request for a break/help

• Use hands on activities-areas of interests

• Tutor/remediate

• Build in choices-give them the power-control

• Increase student Preference/Interest-incorporate student hobbies/interests into activities

• Increase predictability-Provide cues for upcoming change in activities.

Attention Strategies

• Verbal vs. Physical Attention

• Reinforce (R+) them for being good

• Teach the child an appropriate way to get attention-switch calling teacher

• Only reinforce the method being taught not inappropriate behavior

• Ignore & redirect silently-get them on task for 20 seconds then R+

• Scheduled Attention-Adult or peer attention is made available on some type of schedule.

• Change location-Place student in close proximity

to staff

• Provide Preferred Activities during time when you

• can not provide attention.

Tangible Suggestions

• Clarify rules

• Build in opportunities for the item into class schedule

• Develop routines

• First work, then break

• Teach appropriate requesting skills for the desired item.

• Reinforce appropriate requesting skills for the desired item.

• Use desired items to assist with instruction

• Provide a warning-indicate that activity is about to end…5 minutes, 3 minutes.

• Schedule a transitional activity-schedule a moderately preferred activity between highly preferred & highly non-preferred activities

Sensory Suggestions

• Fill environment with interesting & stimulating activities that provide similar reinforcement.

- back rubs, vibrating tube, tickle game

• Structured, scheduled sensory diet

• Allow for breaks to move-put up items, sharpen pencil

• Opportunities for instruction/work in different settings

- on the floor, sitting standing

Don’t wait until they are demanding it,

do it ahead of time.

Control Suggestions

• Does the behavior occur when told “No” or “Stop”?

• Does the behavior occur when teacher is delivering an instruction to the student?

- Like things the same

- Doesn’t like change

- Repetitive behavior

• Characteristic of ASD:

• Build in choices-give them the power-control

• The rule is…

• Routines/Advance organizers

• Social Stories

• Slight differences

Communication Strategies

• Receptive-Input/Task demands

- Visual supports-aided language input

- Teach the skill

- Be aware of developmental level

- Clear, simple Language

- Systematic Prompting (Tell, Show, Do)

• Expressive-No output system in place

- Develop a way to communicated with SLP

- Model system for the child

- Direct teaching of how to use the system

Tips

• Never suggest a child to do something. (Let’s put the toys away)

• Directions are positive & clear• Tell, show, Do Prompting• Close proximity when giving directions-no more

than 3 feet away• Two directions only-keep it simple• Reduce teacher talk

Tips (continued)

• Visual cue card-wait card, walk, sit

• Count down 5-4-3-2-1

• Clear Rules Review

• Video taping/tape recorder

• Chip system

Tips (continued)

• 1, 2, 3 strikes your out

• First work, then break

• Develop communication

• Consistency with team- same language

• Parental input

• Sensory diet