Best practices/strategies that support the process of teaching and learning for children with Autism spectrum disorder

1. Best practices that support the
process of teaching and learning for
children with ASD
Dr.Revathi.D
Faculty in Special Education, NIEPMD

2. Recap
1. What is Autism spectrum disorder?
Autism is a ___________disability caused by
differences in the ____________
Autism is a developmental disability caused by
differences in the brain

3. Characteristics of Autism
Inability to relate Distractibility Emotional liable
Speech &
language disorder
Difficulty in
initiating and
sustaining
conversation
Odd behaviour
and mannerism
Unusual responses
to sensory stimuli
Associated motor
problems

4. Assessment
• It is important to understand the implications of
autism on learning and thinking, communication
and behaviour
• Appropriate assessment tools and procedures to be
selected and interpreted accurately
Management of children
Educational Management
TEACCH, Millers,
Behavioural Management -
ABA, CBI
Medical Management

5. Best Practices/ Teaching strategies
❑ Specific Techniques/ strategies used for effective teaching
and learning for children with ASD. i.e Current treatments
for ASD seek to reduce symptoms that interfere with daily
functioning and quality of life.
❑ Best practices are those implemented and found to be
useful for most of the children in the spectrum range.
However, we should understand ASD affects each person
differently, meaning that people with ASD have unique
strengths and challenges and different treatment needs

6. Best practices - ASD
Task Analysis Functional and social
communication
training
02
05
01
06
03
Behavioural
interventions
Joint attention
Schedules and
supports
Picture Exchange
Communication
System (PECS)
09
07
04
11
Structured play
groups and peer-
mediated
Naturalistic
intervention
Reinforcement
10
08
Prompting and modeling
Social stories

7. Task analysis is a teaching strategy where a task is
broken down into simple teaching components and
arranged into sequential order.
TA can break down and educate these chained
behaviours. Chained behaviours include tying shoes,
cleaning and cooking etc. Team members teach
chained behaviours step by step after breaking them
down. The learner will become more independent as
they master each phase.
TASK
ANALYSIS

8. Task analysis for Hand washing
Turn on tap.
Rinse your hand
Turn off tap
Take soap in your hand.
Rub soap properly on your hand.
Turn on tap
Wash your hand with water
Turn off tap
Dry your hand with towel

9. Functional communication training
❑Children with autism spectrum disorder, or ASD,
often have difficulty communicating what they
want or need.
❑Functional communication training for children
with autism are implemented to help those children
by teaching them methods of communication

10. Imagine an autistic child who is nonverbal starts banging their head on the table.
The child behaves like this because they want more juice. This method of
communication can be harmful to the child and cause injury. It can also cause panic
in the parent or guardian. While the parent or guardian may fill the cup, giving the
child what they wanted, there are more effective and safer communication methods
that could get the child the same result.
Now imagine an ABA practitioner teaching this child an alternative form of
communication. Instead of letting the child bang their head on the table, the
practitioner teaches the child to tap their cup on the table. When this happens, the
practitioner or the parent will fulfill the child’s request by pouring them more juice.
This method would continue, with the child being encouraged to tap their cup on
the table when they wanted more juice. The mother responds when the child used
this method correctly, ignoring any other form of communication, including
destructive behaviors.
EXAMPLE

11. another child who throws a tantrum when they can’t reach their favorite
toy. An ABA practitioner will, again, teach the child a different form of
communication. This could be in the form of tugging on their parent’s
sleeves and then pointing to the toy that they want.
The practitioner teaches the child how to tug on the sleeve of their parent
to get their attention and then teaches them to point. Then, the
practitioner or parent asks the child if they want their favorite toy and get
it for them.
Like the other example, this method is encouraged until the child fully
grasps the concept and is able to replace their bad behavior with this
alternative communication method. Again, the mother responds to the
child’s wants when the child uses appropriate communication and ignores
the child when they use bad behavior.

12. ❑Learning early play skills like sharing, taking turns and
interacting with other children.
❑This is because structured play activities usually give children
clear guidelines about what to do and when. They also usually
have clear end points.
❑This can help your child understand the steps, skills, activities
or ideas that are needed to get to the end goal of the game.

13. Cont….
❑ It makes games and play activities more
predictable and manageable for autistic
children.
❑ All of this creates a lower-stress environment,
child can try out the skills they need to play and
interact successfully with other children.

14. Structured play groups

15. Behavioural interventions
❏ Behavioural intervention is a type behaviour of modification therapy that uses
reinforcement to intervene in behaviours that could negatively affect a child’s
life.
❏ One of the biggest challenges parents face is managing difficult or defiant
behaviour on the part of children. Whether they’re refusing to put on their
shoes, or throwing full-blown tantrums, you can find yourself at a loss for an
effective way to respond.
❏ For parents at their wits end, behavioural therapy techniques can provide a
roadmap to calmer, more consistent ways to manage problem behaviours
problems and offers a chance to help children develop gain the developmental
skills they need to regulate their own behaviours.

16. Behavioural interventionists work directly with clients to implement
therapy programs based on their individual needs. This allows your
child to receive exposure to programs from each discipline every
time they are seen.
Skills developed through intervention therapy include but are not
limited to:
Communication;
Daily living skills;
Functional life skills;
Sensory systems and self-regulation;
Gross and Fine motor skills; and
Play and Social Skills.

17. Understanding antecedents (what happens before a behaviour occurs) and consequences
(what happens after the behaviour) is another important part of any ABA program.
The following three steps – the “A-B-Cs” – help us teach and understand behaviour:
1 An antecedent: this is what occurs right before the target behaviour. It can be verbal, such
as a command or request. It can also be physical, such a toy or object, or a light, sound, or
something else in the environment. An antecedent may come from the environment, from
another person, or be internal (such as a thought or feeling).
2. A resulting behaviour: this is the person’s response or lack of response to the antecedent.
It can be an action, a verbal response, or something else.
3. A consequence: this is what comes directly after the behaviour. It can include positive
reinforcement of the desired behaviour, or no reaction for incorrect/inappropriate
responses.
Antecedent - Behaviour - consequences

18. EXAMPLE:
• Antecedent: The teacher says “It’s time to clean up your
toys” at the end of the day.
• Behaviour: The student yells “no!”
• Consequence: The teacher removes the toys and says
“Okay, toys are all done.”

19. CBI
❏ Cognitive behavioural intervention (CBI) is based on the belief that behaviour
is mediated by cognitive processes.
❏ Learners are taught to examine their own thoughts and emotions, recognize
when negative thoughts and emotions are escalating in intensity, and then
use strategies to change their thinking and behaviour.
❏ These interventions tend to be used with learners who display problem
behaviour related to specific emotions or feelings, such as anger or anxiety.
❏ Cognitive behavioural interventions are often used in conjunction with other
evidence-based practices including social narratives, reinforcement, and
parent-implemented intervention.

20. ❑ Peer-mediated support strategies involve one or more
peers providing assistance to their classmates. For students
with disabilities, this intervention can be an effective
alternative to the use of one-to-one paraprofessionals in
classrooms, and other school activities.
❑ Peer-mediated support strategies involve teaching peers to
promote academic, social, and/or communication
outcomes for students with disabilities by supporting skill
acquisition or increasing school participation.
Peer mediated support strategies

21. ❑ Research shows that many people with autism have difficulty with joint
attention, which is the ability to share focus on an object or area with
another person. Examples of joint attention skills include following
someone else's gaze or pointed finger to look at something.
❑ Joint attention is important to communication and language learning.
Joint attention therapy focuses on improving specific skills related to
shared attention, such as:
❑ Pointing
❑ Showing
❑ Coordinating looks between a person and an object
Joint attention

22. Example

23. ❑ PECS is a unique alternative/augmentative communication system
developed in the USA in 1985 by Andy Bondy, PhD, and Lori Frost PECS was
first implemented with pre-school students diagnosed with autism at the
Delaware Autism Program.
❑ Since then, PECS has successfully been implemented worldwide with
thousands of learners of all ages who have various cognitive, physical and
communication challenges.
❑ The PECS teaching protocol is based on B.F. Skinner’s book, Verbal Behavior,
and broad spectrum applied behavior analysis.
❑ Specific prompting and reinforcement strategies that will lead to
independent communication are used throughout the protocol.
❑ The protocol also includes systematic error correction procedures to
promote learning if an error occurs. Verbal prompts are not used, thus
building immediate initiation and avoiding prompt dependency.
Picture Exchange Communication system

24. First you teach single picture – the student
hands one picture to receive a desired item.
Next, move the communication book or adult
to new locations to teach persistence.
Teach discrimination between more than one
picture.
Sentence strip – using the “I want” picture on
a sentence strip with the requested item.
Responding to “What do you want?” with the
sentence strip fluently.
Teaching commenting using pictures

25. Social stories
❑ Social stories explain social situations
to autistic children and help them
learn ways of behaving in these
situations. These stories are
sometimes called social scripts, social
narratives or story-based
interventions.
❑ Social stories were developed in 1991
by Carol Gray, a teacher working with
young autistic children.

26. ❑Reinforcement is defined as a procedure by which the
immediate consequence of a behaviour increases the
likelihood of the behaviour to occur again in similar situations
❑Example - if a child completes a given assignment with in a
given time, the teacher allows him to play his most favoured
game. Here, you observe that the first action is the response
followed by a consequence . As the child was allowed to play
his most favoured game, he continues to complete the
assignment within given time
REINFORCEMENT

27. Positive Reinforcement
Positive Reinforcement: Presentation of a pleasant or a desirable.
Stimulation that increase the likelihood of the response to
reoccur. The stimulus that increases the likelihood of the behavior
or the response to occur in the future in similar situation is known
as the Reinforcer.
For Example - Two year old Arjun touched a hot Electric Iron. As a
result of the burn he will not do so in future

28. ❑ Removal of an undesirable or an unpleasant
❑ stimulation that increases the likelihood of the response to reoccur.
For example- when a person fries something in the kitchen it produces a
lot of smoke that creates discomfort. When he/she puts the exhaust fan
on the fumes are removed and the person feels comfortable.
In this example, the removal of the aversive stimulation (fumes)
increases the likelihood of the desirable behaviour (putting the exhaust
on) when frying shall be done again
Negative Reinforcement :

29. ❑ Prompting is an important part of
many strategies and would rarely
be used by itself.
❑ It is likely to be used in conjunction
with modelling, reinforcement,
visual supports, social narratives
and other strategies.
❑ They can also be used to create
error-less learning by making sure
that the student is able to respond
correctly.
PROMPTING
1. Verbal prompt
2. Gestural prompt
3. Physical prompt
4. Controlling prompt
5. Model prompt
6. Visual prompt

30. ❑Modelling involves the teacher or a peer
demonstrating the skill to the student.
❑Modelling can be effective in encouraging
behaviour, especially in learners who are good at
imitation or have good attention skills.
❑Modelling involves demonstrating or presenting the
targeted behaviour.
MODELLING

31. Naturalistic Intervention
❑ Naturalistic Intervention is a collection of practices including environmental
arrangement, interaction techniques, and strategies based on applied behavior
analysis (ABA) principles, such as modelling and time delay.
❑ Motivating a toddler with ASD to initiate communication and engage in social
interactions can be very challenging. Identifying and building upon a toddler’s
interests and working within daily routines and activities offer opportunities to
increase meaningful engagement.
❑ Naturalistic intervention provides a way for just about anyone in a toddler’s life
to learn strategies for interacting with the toddler in any setting where the child
spends time. The intervention starts with the toddler’s interests, is planned
around baseline data, and provides strategies to meet targeted behaviors.
❑ Naturalistic interventions also provide guidance in structuring environments to
elicit targeted behaviors..

32. Example
❑If the target is for the toddler to
initiative a request, then having
preferred toys in a toddler’s
visual space but out of reach
would motivate him/her to learn
the targeted skill of “initiate a
request.”

33. Visual schedule
❑An image-based tool that supports autistic youngsters is a
visual schedule. It provides a timeline of what will occur
during a particular task, during an activity, or throughout
the day.
❑A visual schedule may consist of a series of images,
movies, pictures, or other visual components that show
children what is expected of them.

34. Example
❑ For Example, a parent might use a
visual schedule to help their child
prepare for school. The schedule could
include photographs depicting tasks
that need to be done, such as:
❑ brushing your teeth
❑ getting dressed
❑ combing your hair
❑ eating breakfast
❑ packing your backpack
❑ getting on the school bus

37. Concluding remarks
★ Consider the child's interests.
★ Schedule regularly.
★ Teach tasks in simple steps.
★ Focus your child on structured activities.
★ Reinforce behaviour regularly
★ Involve parents
Teachers, parents, and therapists must be responsive and
create a Positive learning environment.

38. References
• https://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/what-is-functional-
communication-training-for-autism
• https://vkc.vumc.org/assets/files/resources/psiPeermedstrategies.pd
f
• https://raisingchildren.net.au/autism/therapies-guide/social-stories
• https://pecsusa.com/pecs/
• https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/autism/conditioninfo/treat
ments/joint-attention
• https://autismhub.education.qld.gov.au/resources/functional-
behaviour-assessment-tool/help/prompting
• https://raisingchildren.net.au/autism/school-play-work/play-
learning/structured-play-
asd#:~:text=Structured%20play%20is%20when%20adults,clear%20go
als%20and%20end%20points.
• https://asdtoddler.fpg.unc.edu/book/export/html/252.html

39. https://autismpdc.fpg.unc.edu/sites/autismpdc.fpg.unc.edu/files/Cognitive_Behvi
oral_Intervention_factsheet.pdf
https://crossroadscollective.ca/what-is-behavioural-intervention/