Chapter 1
Project Design
What are best practices for students with Autism to learn effective writing skills?
Author Name(s), First M. Last, Omit Titles and Degrees
Institutional Affiliation(s)
Abstract
There are many practices for students with Autism to learn effective skills. Students with autism have serious difficulties in understanding new information, as well as to incorporate them and relate them to other knowledge, and simply reproduce them mechanically They also focus their attention on aspects and little details on learning in TK-12 classrooms.
Keywords: Autism, TK-12 classroom, strategies, treatment.
Chapter 1: Project Design
Students with autism in TK-12 classroom show a multitude of antisocial and asocial characteristics. Through definition, suitable social behavior suggests an optimistic or at any rate practical interface through others. Therefore, there has been an upsurge in investigation that uses strategies with peers (for example, modeling, aids, tutorials) as a means to upsurge knowledge and improve the social relations of learners with autism and other developmental disorders.
Furthermore, to efforts to increase the interactions and social skills of children by autism, more emphasis should be specified to the effects of training in social groups and in school integration settings. These topics are of specific interest to high-functioning students by autism. This subclass frequently presents an intelligence within the average, so the prospects are that their social skills are close to the average. However, many high-functioning students with autism tend to have a rather inefficient social performance (Asaro-Saddler, et.al. 2019).
This study examined the practice of social skills groups in children with higher effective autism to progress social communication skills by their peers. The learners were in a straightforward school, fully unified into a consistent first grade class. The management was not aimed at the target subjects (children with autism) or the same, but was performed generically for the entire group. Therefore, the management was measured as a part of the first grade prospectus.
Background of the Study
The Autism is a developmental disorder that causes impaired ability to communicate and interact with others, while restricting the interests and activities. This disorder has no cure, at least so far, but its symptoms may improve over the years. In fact, the earlier treatment begins, the better the long-term prognosis is usually. This is why specialists recommend carrying out a series of activities and / or educational games aimed at children with autism developing their skills and abilities, as well as improving their ability to communicate, especially with their parents (Saddler, et.al. 2019).
The process of inclusion of students by autism in the general instructive system of education can be successful and contribute to their psychological and emotional development. A variety of inclusion policies that are used in the teaching of children by autism spectrum disorders (ASD) make it possible to build the inclusion process based on the individual abilities and capabilities of each child, taking into account developmental deficiencies and characteristic features of the disease. This article provides an overview of the goals, strategies and methods that are used to include children with ASD, and includes recommendations for using these strategies to develop one or another type of skills, as well as to increase the effectiveness of the process of including such children in the general education system.
The inclusion of students by autism in the form educational structure at preschool and KT-12 classroom can have a significant impact on their growth, in particular, increasing the level of communication and speech skills, socialization skills and knowledgeable level. Most specialists reflect inclusion to be the civil rule responsible for shaping suitable social progress, but for attachment and learning among normatively emerging peers to be fruitful, numerous children by ASD require particular care.
The level of support and support provided should differ depend on the strictness of diagnostic symptoms and developmental disorders of a students with autism, as well as change over time as a function of promoting a child and acquiring necessary skills for learning in a natural environment.
Statement of the Problem
Unlike children with other types of disorders (for example, with mental retardation), most patients with ASD can successfully study in the general school curriculum. Preserved intelligence, good memory, and normal visual perception permit the students to positively master academic material. An autistic child can excel in math, and sometimes be ahead of his peers in this area. Some children draw very well (who have no problems with fine motor skills). Also, many quickly acquire reading skills and learn to read fluently, but, most often, they do not understand the meaning of what they read. There are children who have specific areas of interest that fit perfectly into the framework of the school curriculum - a child can be an expert in the history of ancient Rome or astronomy (Pennington, & Delano, 2012).
On the other hand, autistic traits and perceptual problems are a serious obstacle to learning at school. Difficulties in establishing contact with peers, superficial and specific interpersonal relationships can cause social detachment on the part of classmates and teachers.
A child who ignores peer interests and is characterized by overly intrusive behavior may be an outcast in the classroom. Also, children with problematic behavior characteristic of them are an “unpleasant incentive” for the teacher and become “uneducable”, “intolerable” or “abnormal”. Inappropriate behavior, even in the mildest form (shouting in the classroom, swaying in a chair), can annoy the teacher and interfere with the lesson, not to mention more serious forms of problematic behavior, such as aggression or auto-aggression.
In addition, autistic children are characterized by numerous speech disorders. A child may have serious problems with pragmatics (proper use of speech), semantics (limited vocabulary), and morphology (syntax and grammar). An inclusive learning environment is precisely one in which the sensory characteristics of children with ASD may not find support. A large number of students in classrooms and small spaces can only increase the desire of an autistic child to avoid bodily contact, and even a casual touch of a classmate is likely to be perceived as an attack and cause an aggressive reaction. Many autistic children are extremely sensitive to noise and loud noises. The cries of other students during a break, the noise in the classroom can cause a response scream or cause self-stimulating behavior that helps a child with ASD get distracted and calm down. The loud voice of the teacher or the crying of another child in the classroom can provoke an emotional response, and an autistic student will begin to cry, scream, or, in the worst case, throw things around, push around.
Sensory problems are often accompanied by underdevelopment of motor skills and difficulties in coordinating movements. Children find it difficult to feel the boundaries of their body and are not aware of their own location in space, have incorrect posture and cannot fully perform motor movements (for example, in a physical education lesson, an autistic child runs hard and slowly, waving his arms). It can be difficult for a child to play ball, hopscotch and other outdoor games with classmates not because of social detachment, but because of poor motor skills (Villa, et.al. 2008).
Purpose of the study
The purpose of this study is to conduct research on the students with Autism in TK-12 classroom and strategies to teach them effective skills for their requirement of life.
Significance of The Study
This study has significant importance in the field of psychology. It helps us to make aware about the strategies regarding Autism. The process of inclusion of children with autism in the general educational system may differ from the inclusion of those with other disorders and developmental features. Characteristics such as underdeveloped speech and social interaction skills, motor impairment, lack of balance in the integration of sensory stimuli, addiction to routine activities and a narrow circle of interests can become a significant obstacle to the inclusion of a child with autism, regardless of the level of development of intelligence or academic abilities.
Research Question
What are best practices for students with Autism to learn effective writing skills?
Assumptions
Inclusion strategies represent a wide range of diverse teaching methods, with one level or another of support level and intensity of support, and most of them are based on ABA. Most of the methods include using the methodology of hints, rewards and structuralization of the learning process. These strategies are applied in a complex, the level of support and use of which depends on the individual abilities of the child, and on the dynamics of its development when normatively developing peers are included in the team. The gradual transition from accompanying adults to peer tutoring and self-managing their own activities allows an autistic child to acquire the necessary skills and successfully complete school inclusion. Besides, when included in a team for acquiring academic knowledge, a child with autism should receive functional social interaction skills that are necessary for “survival” in any social environment, not only in the educational one. The ability to defend one’s rights and one’s dignity, to find common interests with peers, to cooperate and interact with them, as well as to maintain friendship and close relationships - all these skills are necessary for a decent life in society and are a prerequisite for further independent life outside of school.
Basic Skills Assessment
Awareness and understanding of the specific features that characterize children with ASD is the first and key step in the process of their inclusion in the environment of normatively developing peers (More, 2008). However, the probability of the presence of certain characteristic features for autism does not indicate that the full range of these problems is really inherent in every autistic child. The selection of goals and strategies for training requires an individual approach and assessment of both the initial level of skills and various developmental deficiencies.
Limitations
These strategies are time consuming in TK-12 classroom.
Students with Autism may not controlled or monitored in the classroom.
It cannot implement in the group settings.
Budget is important aspect of these strategies.
Delimitations
The inclusion process needs the corresponding work of the education team, the use of specific techniques and methods, the awareness of inclusion as a procedure and a great emotive involvement. The involvedness of the inclusion procedure, as well as the difficulty of human relations, does not have a single way to solve all difficulties and problems (Knight, McKissick, & Saunders, 2013).
Definitions
Skills of "social survival":
In the presence of grievances and bullying by peers, an autistic child must acquire the skills of understanding and solving social problems. This task is especially difficult for a child with ASD, who cannot always recognize the problem, and quickly and adequately respond to it.
Skills of inclusion: in the group and appealing the courtesy of peers. These skills can assistance incredulous social exclusion and refusal by peers. To attain the objectives, intensive work is needed to progress the strengths of the autistic student and to search for common interests by students.
Skills of interaction and cooperation with peers. In order for a peer to act as a mediator or tutor, the charge of the teaching staff is to communicate the child to collaborate by his peer - to follow his address his needs, instructions, answer questions, contribute in betting activities, etc. In this case, strategies for deferred rewards, gradually reducing clues, among which the main one is inclusion through peers, are effective.
Developing friendly relationships and providing emotional support . In this case, when communication with a peer is formed in the development of close friendships, additional types of therapy that go beyond inclusion can come to the aid of an autistic child.
Summary
Due to the characteristic deficit in the development of social interaction skills in children with ASD, it is assumed that involving normatively developing peers in inclusion is a potentially useful approach to facilitate the inclusion of autistic children in the general education class. Attracting peers to help educate students with autism offers the potential to reduce the need for constant, individual adult attention, and thereby allows children with ASD to act more independently and maximize their typical developmental peers.
Such mediation consists in the fact that a peer together with a child with ASD are paired to work on one educational algorithm, and a peer helps an autistic child with the help of such teaching principles as clear and motivational instructions, tips and encouragements, that is, acts as a tutor. Inclusion through peers has proven to be an effective method for increasing the ability to perform tasks, the level of academic skills and the social interaction of children with disabilities in inclusive classes.
At the initial stage, adult members of the teaching staff provide support and lead the learning process, helping the “norm-typical” peer to effectively use learning strategies, and the autistic child to participate in the interaction. As interactions between children become stronger, the presence and intervention of an adult decreases and gradually stops.
As an additional type of intervention through peers, “cooperative learning” can be designated. A number of studies have shown that educating children with autism and their normatively developing peers in social and academic skills in joint groups in an inclusive environment leads to an increase in the frequency, duration and quality of social interactions. Cooperative learning groups have been used in an inclusive classroom environment as a learning activity to improve academic performance and social interaction. In one such study, Dugan et al. (1995) evaluated cooperative study groups during their studies in the fourth grade, where group activity consisted in the selection of keywords and facts, group activity, the subsequent discussion and summary of the results of the whole class (Boyle, & Kennedy, 2019).
According to some reports, the most convincing and proven type of intervention that affects the development of socialization skills is inclusion through peers. In the behavioral literature, studies of this particular type of therapy have the most significant evidence base, the clearest methodological and therapeutic results, as well as the best indicators in terms of generalization and maintenance of trained social behavior. The effectiveness of peer intervention is obvious not only to researchers in this field, but also to parents (who describe the significant achievements of children in this area) and representatives of political structures (due to the accessibility and economic benefits of this type of education).
References
Asaro-Saddler, K., Ellis-Robinson, T., & Eacker, H. (2019). Exploring the Effects of a Biopoem Writing Intervention on Middle School Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder. Topics in Language Disorders, 39(2), 155-190.
Boyle, J. R., & Kennedy, M. J. (2019). Innovations in Classroom Technology for Students With Disabilities. Intervention in School and Clinic, 1053451219837716.
Knight, V., McKissick, B. R., & Saunders, A. (2013). A review of technology-based interventions to teach academic skills to students with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 43(11), 2628-2648.
More, C. (2008). Digital stories targeting social skills for children with disabilities: Multidimensional learning. Intervention in School and Clinic, 43(3), 168-177.
Pennington, R. C., & Delano, M. E. (2012). Writing instruction for students with autism spectrum disorders: A review of literature. Focus on autism and other developmental disabilities, 27(3), 158-167.
Saddler, B., Asaro-Saddler, K., Moeyaert, M., & Cuccio-Slichko, J. (2019). Teaching Summary Writing to Students with Learning Disabilities via Strategy Instruction. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 1-15.
Villa, R. A., Thousand, J. S., & Nevin, A. (2008). A guide to co-teaching: Practical tips for facilitating student learning (Vol. 2). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
