Methods_of_Teaching_Students_on_the_ASD_Spectrum_2022.pdf
- 1. METHODS OF TEACHING STUDENTS WITH AUTISM & COMMUNICATION DISORDERS Sonya Abbye Taylor & Grace McColgan edited by Melody Geroux 6/2022
- 2. What is the TEACCH? ⦿ Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication handicapped Children- University of North Carolina- Department of Psychiatry School of Medicine- -1966 ⦿ Developed program in response to backlash against lack of structure in play therapy and highly structured activities of operant conditioning
- 3. TEACCH PHILOSOPHY ⦿ Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are part of a culture; they share common characteristics that define them as a group.
- 4. WHAT IS CULTURE? ⦿ Culture denotes a complex integrated system of beliefs, values, and behaviors common to a large group of people and may include adaptive responses, a shared language and folklore, ideas and thinking patterns, and communication styles. (Utley & Obiakor, 2001,p11.)
- 5. HOW DO YOU BEGIN TO WORK WITH STUDENTS WITH ASD? ⦿ Understand yourself and your own culture ⦿ Understand the culture of autism ⦿ Maintain respect of the culture of the disability ⦿ Act as the cross-cultural interpreter ⦿ Understand the cultures’, strengths & deficits ⦿ Include parents and families as partners in education
- 6. WHAT IS THE STRUCTURED TEACHING APPROACH? ⦿ Provides environmental and instructional adaptations and modifications- ⦿ Instruction is based on individual needs ⦿ Provides meaningful environments where success is supported and behavioral difficulties minimized ⦿ Focuses on Details – not connections ⦿ Addresses Variability in Attention- reduce environmental distractions
- 7. WHAT IS THE STRUCTURED TEACHING APPROACH? CONTINUED ⦿ Focus on concrete not abstract thinking ⦿ Understand students with ASD interpret language literally. ⦿ Provide clear steps; identify expectations- what happens first, second, etc. ⦿ Understand students with ASD can have challenges with the concepts of time and sequence.
- 8. WHAT IS THE STRUCTURED TEACHING APPROACH? CONTINUED ⦿ Understand students with ASD can have attachment to routines and difficulty with generalization- establishing routines with visual organization of the environment assists with generalization ⦿ Understand students with ASD are visual learners and are supported by visual cues. ⦿ Understand students with ASD may have marked sensory preferences & aversions
- 9. WHAT IS THE MILLER METHOD? ⦿ The Miller Method is a cognitive development technique that uses the student's desire to do something to teach communication. ⦿ Example: The instructor teaches the student a routine for an enjoyable activity, such as going down a slide. After the student knows the routine, the teacher interrupts at the moment of maximum tension, when the student most wants to continue the activity. This is where there is greatest likelihood of communication, When the student realizes he or she is stopped - and before the tantrum - there will be communication. (CEC, 2012)
- 10. THE MILLER METHOD: ⦿ Is a Cognitive-Developmental Systems Approach for Children on the Autism Spectrum ⦿ Addresses children's body organization, social interaction, communication and representation issues in both clinical and classroom settings ⦿ Uses two major strategies to restore typical developmental progressions:
- 11. WHATARE THE TWO MAJOR STRATEGIES OF THE MILLER METHOD? ⦿ Transformation of children's aberrant systems (lining up blocks, driven reactions to stimuli, etc.) into functional behaviors ⦿ Systematic and repetitive introduction of developmentally relevant activities involving objects and people.
- 12. WHATARE GOALS OF MILLER METHOD? ⦿ Assess the adaptive significance of the children's disordered behavior ⦿ Transform disordered behavior into functional activity ⦿ Expand and guide the children from closed ways of being into social and communicative exchanges ⦿ Teach professionals and parents how to guide the children toward reading, writing, number concepts, symbolic play and meaningful inclusion within typical classrooms
- 13. THE MILLER METHOD USES: ⦿ Activities chosen to fill developmental gaps. ⦿ Narration of children’s actions while the children are elevated 2.5 feet above the ground on an elevated square and similar challenging structures. Elevating the children enhances sign-word guidance of behavior and body-other awareness as well as motor-planning and social-emotional contact. It also helps children transition from one ENGAGING object or event to another or from object involvement to representational play.
- 14. The Miller Method continued ⦿ Parents play a significant role in helping students to generalize new learning ⦿ Time out is never used- seek to find the cause of the tantrum ⦿ Believes that language begins with directed body action toward or with objects and events. Placing children on elevated boards 2 to 4 feet above the ground helps them become more aware of their bodies, better focused, and far more able to cope with obstacles or demands directly confronting them.
- 15. THE MILLER METHOD CONTINUED ⦿ Narratives are accompanied by manual sign and words related to children’s actions- children are sign and word guided
- 16. APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS (ABA) ⦿ The science in which procedures derived from the principles of behavior are systematically applied to improve socially significant behavior to a meaningful degree and to demonstrate experimentally that the procedures employed were responsible for improvement (Cooper et. al, 1987). ⦿ Based on 50 years of research ⦿ Requires the study of observable and measurable characteristics.
- 17. ABA CONTINUED ⦿ ABA is behavioral. It studies observable, measurable characteristics. It requires data collection based on actual responses not on subjective processes. Data is recorded and graphed. ⦿ ABA is analytic. It requires empirical proof of functional relationships between antecedent events, behavior and consequences. ⦿ Through careful study of these relationships a teacher can control the occurrence and non-occurrence of behavior.
- 18. ABA CONTINUED ABA is technological. Any behavior targeted for change must be precisely defined and methods and procedures must be explicit, described in step-by-step fashion.
- 19. FOR MORE INFORMATION ⦿ http://www.millermethod.org. ⦿ Hall, L.J.(2013) Autism spectrum disorders: From theory to practice. Boston, MA. Pearson ⦿ http://www.HolisticLC.com