We have all taught the awkward kid that
“just doesn’t get it.” The child who is so disorganised and doesn’t understand
the simplest of instruction, the one that can’t remember from one minute to the
other and doesn’t react to any hint or direct instruction to adjust behaviour.
This student, in my case, is Sally. She is 12 years old and in her second year
of secondary school. The first year was not the most successful of transitions
and everybody has become acclimatised to the deathly hallows of a Sally
Tantrum. It has even become an abstract noun. “What’s wrong with Mr J?” we
would joke in the staff room. “Not much, he’s just having a sally…” It was only
later in the year, after much work from the Special Education Needs Coordinator
(SENco) that Sally was diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), more
specifically, Asperger’s Syndrome.
Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
ASD encompasses a very wide range of behaviour. When we think of Autism or Asperger’s Syndrome, we (unfortunately) have a traditional image of repetitive behaviour; severe language impairment and images of Rain Man frequently pop into our imaginations. This is not always the case. We also imagine that mainstream education is not the right place for a child with ASD. This is most certainly not the case either.
ASD encompasses a very wide range of behaviour. When we think of Autism or Asperger’s Syndrome, we (unfortunately) have a traditional image of repetitive behaviour; severe language impairment and images of Rain Man frequently pop into our imaginations. This is not always the case. We also imagine that mainstream education is not the right place for a child with ASD. This is most certainly not the case either.
General Problems
Children with ASD generally face some (not
all) of the following problems:
- Poor short term memory (executive memory)
- Difficulties with motor skills
- Limited understanding of instructions
- Disorganisation
- Problems with visual thinking and imagining (empathy is thus a problem)
They may also experience one or more of the
following specific problems during the day:
- Slowed response to questions
- Information overload results in sleepiness or hyperactivity
- Panic attacks and anxiety
- A lack of curiosity
- Poor awareness of danger (health and Safety)
- Lack of understanding social cues and other people’s motives
Slow responses to questions:
It might look like Sally is not responding
to me, but she is actually processing the question, instruction or task. I
would say to Sally that I am going to ask her a specific question and then give
her time to arrange the question and response in her mind. In the beginning she
would shout out the answer as soon as she knew what she wanted to say. We
worked on this together. I would stop her and remind her to wait for me to ask
her the question first. Now I can often
see if she is ready to answer or she will say to me “I can answer now".
I also found that it is best to ask her assessment
questions on a one-on-one way rather that whole class. To build her confidence,
and alleviate overload, I tell her the question before hand, give her time to
give the answer and then ask her to respond.
She often puts her hand up and volunteers
an answer. In the beginning I experienced this as disruptive because I have moved
on in the lesson while Sally was processing a previous question. I now use this
as a positive opportunity; as a mid-lesson plenary or progress/exit reflection
for the whole class.
Mono possessing – bite-size teaching
Sally can only process one thing at a time.
Because her spoken communication is quite good and she often uses words that we
find surprisingly advanced, we forget that her capacity to multi-task is
diminished. Like many children that have attention problems (and quite often
boys in Year 7 and 8), Sally is prone to mono processing and she needs to
receive instructions one step at a time. This strategy works well for students
with low reading ages as well and I found that it isn’t an intrusive strategy
in my class.
I already use timed activities as a teaching
strategy in my lessons. However, I realised that for Sally this causes anxiety
if she has not fully processed the first step of the task. When I set the
timer, I ensure her privately that she can take her time – but I keep an eye on
her that she doesn’t get busy with other activities. I have her seated close to
my teaching base so it is easy to keep an eye especially when she has
information overload.
Information overload
Intellectual narcolepsy is something I am
used to when I teach 16-year-old boys. But when Sally started falling asleep in
my lessons, I became very concerned. I contacted her mother and asked if Sally
gets enough sleep. “If Sally suddenly lies on her arms and becomes unresponsive
to you, it might mean that she feels anxious about all the information she has
to be busy with.” I felt relieved that
it was not my boring lessons that sent her into an enervated state. However, I
found that this often happens when she has not yet coped with learning objectives
and I wanted to move on in the lesson.
To help Sally I pre-printed a sheet with
the lesson objectives on for her. As she enters the class she practises reading
the objectives and at the start of the lesson everybody now knows that it is
her task to read the objectives out loud to the class. Even after several months, she still lets me know that she has a reading age of 7 and that she will find
reading the objectives difficult. I constantly ensure her that she can do it
and that the class likes it when she reads the objectives. While the rest of the class is busy with the
starter activity, Sally practises reading the objectives. I found that she also
likes being busy with the starter worksheets and quite often this is the most
she manages in a lesson. The most important aspect of teaching Sally is time. I
have learned that rushing myself and Sally always results into information
overload.
The other students in my class found
Sally’s sleeping disruptive. I explained to them that she is taking a break and
to be fair I included a break session in every lesson. After approximately 20
minutes I have everybody stand up, turn around, stretch and then sit down
again. This is our time out and everybody, including Sally and myself, benefit
from this. I also use my strategy to remove the stimulus (as I discussed in
Low-level disruptive behaviour last week) when Sally’s behaviour becomes too
disruptive. It took some time but the other students in the class now don’t
respond to Sally’s behaviour.
Not all students with Asperger’s will fall
asleep when they have information overload. Some might get up and walk out of
the class, become busy cleaning up the area around them or repetitively open
and close the classroom door. Sally's mum suggested that a light tap on the shoulder is the best way to re-focus her again. It is always best to talk with parents about strategies they use to avoid information overload.
Executive Memory
The child with Asperger’s Syndrome can
often be described as being impulsive and off task; even hyper-active. Many
people claim that children with Asperger’s have comorbidity with ADHD. This can
be debated. In the case of Sally this is very much true. She often goes off
task or if the conversation in science is about velocity, she will want to talk
about a car they were driving in while going on holiday. If not stopped she can
talk the whole hour, jumping from one topic to another. I found it best to kindly
redirect her to the velocity question and explain to her that she needs to
remember to think about science and not her holiday. Sally also forgets what
she is supposed to do to complete the activity: read a text or find words.
Sally might often be late to lesson, this
is often because she gets confused between going to lesson or lunch. At the
start of the day she might feel anxious about her PE kit and even if PE is at
the end of the day, she will not be able to deal with the problem at the
appropriate time. She is often found to wonder around in the building. We now
have an arrangement with all the adults in the building that if they see her, they
know she are not truanting and they escort her to the correct lesson. We arranged with her mum that her timetable is
always kept in the second section of her bag, in an orange folder and everybody
knows not to remove the timetable from the folder as it makes her anxious.
Classroom Management
Seating Plan
The best place to seat Sally is close to me. Not
all children with ASD shy away from social interaction. I found that it is ok
to have Sally seated as part of a group as this helps her to develop some
social skills. During group activities it is best to explain to her what her
role during the activities is. She loves group games and being involved with
group activities but when things don’t go her way she gets anxious.
Some children with Asperger’s don’t do well
during group activities and it is best to have a set of language games or a
favourite activity ready for days when group work forms the spine of a lesson.
Body Language
Sally finds it very difficult to read body
language. I often use body language to manage behaviour in my lessons. Crossing
my arms at the front of the class and waiting for silence, or the hands up
signal, has no meaning for her. I have to walk to her and say that I am now
going to put my hands up in the air and that when I do that I want everybody to
be quiet.
Verbal Reminders
Many teachers use humour as a very
effective tool to manage classroom activities. Sally finds this difficult to
understand. She takes tongue in cheek remarks as literal and this has caused
her great confusion and even anxiety. That doesn’t mean that I don’t use
humour, I just explain the humour as well as the intended effect to her in a
very literal way afterwards.
Using Your Opera Voice (shouting)
Sally seems to not really respond outwardly
to a teacher’s “opera voice”. She has told me that when she is on the receiving
end of the cadenza (shouting), it does distress her. She does not know how to
respond and will often show no response. This is not because she doesn’t care
about what the teacher is saying, she just doesn’t know how to respond.
Consistency, Consistency, Consistency
The key word in working with a child with
ASD is routine. Consistency in routine is particularly true for subjects such
as D&T and Science where experiments health and safety is crucial.
Sally will follow a routine religiously
once it has been put in place. She has elected herself to be the “Class
Monitor”, telling me who have been doing what. This has been a source of
conflict and I have had to be honest with the class and explain that out of
bounds Sally will report behaviour to me and that it is not “snitching” or
“tattling”.
Sally took some time to get used to my routines.
It was not necessary to change my routines just for her. However, consistency
in the procedures in my lessons was beneficial to all my students.
However I found that when I planned to do something out of the ordinary, I had to let Sally know some time in advance (a day or so). She felt very anxious when I suddenly took the class outside for a lesson and she was not able to join in the learning. When Sally has time to prepare herself, she is great in outdoor lessons.
Sanctions
I expect Sally to adhere to the same rules
as all students. That being said, giving her a sanction is a different ball
game all together. I found that it is best to discuss sanctions with her
mother. Sally once made a highly inappropriate comment during lesson. My
immediate reaction was to reprimand her immediately. but I did not follow up
with a sanction. This gave the student on the receiving end of Sally remark a
sense that social justice did not occur. I received the phone call soon after
the end of the day. Charlie’s mother wanted to speak to me about my lesson
today.
I realised that I should have talked to
Charlie as well and explain that there will be social justice, and that to
ensure that such a comment doesn’t happen again we have to make sure Sally
understands why what she said was offensive. By the time I could call Charlie’s
mother, the Head Teacher had received a call and what was a small oversight on
my behalf became an official complaint. I phoned Charlie’s mother and invited
her to come to the school. I explained to Charlie’s mother that giving Sally a
sanction was not that easy and that I needed to talk with her mother first. We
set a day and time for me to give her feedback about what the actions I was
going to take.
In the end we had a repair and rebuild meeting
between Charlie and Sally. I met with Charlie first and explained that he
should not expect the normal body language, facial expressions and tone of
voice that will be typical of an apology.
Sally’s sanction was to be in a detention
for an hour. This was agreed with her mother and Charlie’s mother also found
this to be an acceptable consequence. I used the hour to help Sally understand
that some words are hurtful. Her mother and I agreed on a specific example to
explain this to her. My conversation with her was reinforced at home.
Contact Home
The parents of children with ASD are always
on the alert. This is a syndrome that has an impact on the whole family. Sally’s
mother is very good with communication, but to ensure that we support her as
much as possible, we agreed that the SENco will always be the primary contact
from the school’s side. In the case where Sally needed to receive a sanction, it was my colleague who phoned her mother and helped me to set up a meeting to
discuss an appropriate sanction for Sally.
Social Development
Sally is very open about her ASD and given
the opportunity she will talk freely about it. This is not always the case and
as with all behaviour difficulties one size does not fit all. Sally often tells
her peers that she is autistic and even though this is a positive, we as a
school have had to ensure that all students have respect for the condition and
for Sally. This was not dealt with through whole school assemblies, but rather
by keeping our ears to the ground and having many individual conversations with
students where we suspected they didn’t understand.
Sally tends to misinterpret social cues
from her peers. This can cause conflict and she gets quite explosive: Sally has
developed a very strong right hook! We are trying to establish a procedure where
she remembers to come to the SENco when she gets angry. This has not been too
successful and we all still need to keep our eyes open during break and lunch
times. If she gets into a skirmish, all the adults in the school, and the peer
leaders know to bring both parties to the SENco to sort the problem out.
I enjoy having Sally in my class. She helped me to look at my own teaching (and learning) in a new way. When she is anxious and has a "sally", I know I have to adjust my practise. When she has a good day I feel invigorated and proud. She reminds me of the song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, because when she has a good day, she sparkles.
This time the Timetable Russian Roulette rolled in my favour.
This time the Timetable Russian Roulette rolled in my favour.
Below are a list of general strategies that are quite useful. I coloured the strategies that worked well for me to support Sally.
General Strategies
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