Extended Project Qualification presentation.

1. Extended Project Qualification
Presentation
Rebecca Dear
How can we effectively meet the individual
needs of a child with Autistic Spectrum
Disorder in the primary classroom?

2. Outline of Project
• The main focus of my extended project qualification is on the topic of
children with ASD in the primary school environment.
• My project is about how to include each and every child who suffers from
Autistic Spectrum Disorder into the primary school classroom.
• It looks at the ways in which teachers plan activities that allow for children
who suffer from ASD to be included seamlessly into the class of children
without too much disruption to their daily routine that would cause them
stress.
• The reasons I chose to research this subject is down to my ambition to
study primary education in the future, with aspirations to become a
primary school teacher once I have secured my degree.

3. Primary Research
• Throughout my EPQ, research has been one of the most important elements of my
dissertation.
• My research was obtained from various sources such as; Websites, Interviews and
Online Articles and Videos.
• To begin with I started to research the general characteristics of Autistic Spectrum
Disorder, because truthfully, I knew fairly little about the condition. I looked to
websites such as Brookdale Care and The National Autistic Society to aid my
understanding. In particular, Brookdale Care is a resource I am likely to use again
in the future as it gave a clean cut and clear run down of the Triad Of Impairments,
which shows clearly the three key areas of difficulty which children face.
• As well as the aforementioned resources I watched a few videos on YouTube,
which focus on how the children feel about having this condition. These videos
gave me a crucial insight into a the child’s own feelings on the subject, and allowed
me to see the impact of the condition on their learning.
Brookdale
Care Triad of
Impairments
EBD Episode 1:
Primary- A
Whole School
Story

4. Primary Research Continued
• The interviews I did were conducted in a local primary school in which I did a work
placement every Monday and Friday. By doing this structured interview I received
the opinions of 4 practicing primary school teachers. All the information I received
from them allowed me to see how different people use strategies that are already
being regularly used.
• My questions were as follows:
Which do you find to be the best way to conduct lessons that are hard to change at
short notice?
What qualities do teachers who teach a child with ASD need to keep them engaged in
lessons?
Which Subjects have you found to be the ones in which pupils with ASD struggle the
most?
How challenging is it when children are uncooperative in lessons?
How do you find having to adapt methods that you have found to be highly successful
when they do not work with newer pupils?

5. Secondary Research
• After conducting my primary research about the condition itself I moved on to
research focusing on the children’s needs in the primary school classroom
environment.
• There are several resources that came to my aid when looking into this element. I
particularly found valuable information within a PDF Document created by the
Department of Education Northern Ireland. This outlined ideal classroom practice
for teaching children that have a disorder on the Autism Spectrum.
• As well as this I utilized resources that are available from The National Autistic
Society, who also created a booklet PDF on advised strategies that are in place to
help a child adjust to classroom and playground environments.
• One particular section of the triad I wanted to look into further is the social skills
area. As children with ASD tend to struggle with their social skills, the classroom
can be an environment that they struggle in. To aid my understanding of this area I
used Kasari and Patterson study on Interventions Addressing Social Impairment in
Autism. This gave me some vital information on how to help children overcome
their social issues.

6. Analysis of Findings from Research
• There are several things that can be said about the research I’ve conducted.
• After my research it became clear to me that because not all children who have
the same condition will be the same, it is paramount that each get specific care
catered just for them.
• When looking back over the answers the teachers I interviewed gave, I came to
the conclusion that even though teachers regularly use the same methods to help
children with ASD the way they use them still varies. This shows that some
teachers adapt them to their ways of teaching and their pupils ways of learning,
however it could also suggest that some teachers like to alter some methods and
conjoin them with others to make more successful strategies.

7. Strengths of my Project
• In my opinion I would say that there are several strengths of my project.
• One strength is that I researched what I intended to from the beginning. I strayed
slightly when I began writing my first draft of my dissertation, however I rectified
this and got myself back on track.
• Another strength of my project is the area that I am researching is very specific
and allows me to look for reasons and strategies that are heavy in detail, as
opposed to looking at something vaguely.

8. Weaknesses of my Project
• As well as having strengths my project does have some weaknesses.
• I found it hard to reference and I seemed to be repeating the same references
throughout my dissertation. This shows that I should have done even more
research than I had already done. This would have allowed me to expand on the
points I have written.
• Another weakness is that my writing style can see quite informal and as if I am
having a conversation at times, it has been a struggle for me to rectify as this is my
natural style of writing and I have never been told by any other teachers in the
past that I write like this.

9. What have I learnt?
• Whilst doing the Extended Project Qualification I have learnt a lot of valuable skills.
It has been an eye opening experience that has given a selection of new skills that
I will continue to use into my university career.
• In particular I have learnt how to Harvard Reference, this will help when I am at
university and I am using a wide variety of sources.
• Writing a dissertation was a new challenge for me as well. I have never written
anything for a subject above 2000 words, so 5000 proved to be a hard task to me.
However I have now discovered how to write correctly and the formatting of the
document including footnotes and adding comments. This skill will be something I
shall hold dearly.
• As well as these academic related things that I have learnt, I have also gained more
personal skills that will aid me in my future, in particular time keeping. At the
beginning of my project I wrote myself a timeline of where I wanted to be and
when, and I more or less stayed to this time line with slight variation on dates.
• In addition to my time keeping I have learnt to become confident in my own ability
to write a lengthy piece of work. I have learnt that I need to believe in myself so
that I am able to create good pieces of work.

10. Additional Thoughts on the Project
• Overall I have found doing the EPQ to be a very enlightening experience and
something that I have fully enjoyed doing.
• I’m glad that I have had the opportunity to research a topic that will help me
become a better teacher in the future due to the knowledge I have gained whilst
preparing to write my dissertation.
• If there was anything else I were to take from my EPQ it is that everything takes
time to be made brilliant and that it’s worth all the time that you will spend
working on it.

11. Thank you for your time and for
listening to my presentation, if you have
any questions it would be my pleasure
to try and answer them.