When we teach flexibility, we can watch as our kids learn to look to their schedules to see what changes they can expect that day. In this session learn how to organize, setup, and structure your adult day program classroom. Learn how to target a wide range of literacy goals for early childhood students using interactive and hands-on adapted books. For children with autism who may struggle with receptive language processing, schedules are even more important. “When I was little, my nanny made my sister and me do a variety of activities,” she said. Behavior Contingency Maps show a visual representation of everyday rules. Children with autism may put something in one group, and not be cognizant that it can also belong with another group. Flexibility in kids with ASD – Card activity to teach this social skill to children on the autism spectrum Kids with Asperger's and other autism spectrum disorders often try to make their world more predictable and coherent by being rigid. Fig 5: Autism Teaching Strategies on how to teach autistic children Entering into an Agreement with your child. In another situation the same blue cup might be used outside in the sand box as a toy. Children with autism are often frustrated with changes in their daily schedule, or the unexpected actions of another person. Plus, sometimes the last cookie breaks, and bananas get brown spots and favorite cups break. What does that mean? Or if today they are putting silverware away into a drawer, maybe tomorrow they will put it away into canisters. Learn how to implement fluency instruction in your classroom with this interactive workshop. “Cattle that are always fed from the red truck by Jim may panic if Sally pulls up in a white truck.” By altering routines slightly children with autism learn to accept variation in their schedule. But others may develop rigid routines extremely quickly. Change your spot at the kitchen table. But for our kids who count on their routines to stay the same, this can be a major stressor. Learn how to use your academic data to drive your instructional decisions. Required fields are marked *. We want our kids to learn the same from the very beginning. First, you need the student to be able to use the schedule primarily independently and know how it works. Grandin visualized white and black paint being mixed together. On the day when the friend was nice, the paint was nearly white. Autism — what we know (and what we don't know yet) | Wendy Chung … When we first began to suspect that my oldest son, Greyson, had some kind of developmental delay, I examined his behavior as if it was under a microscope. Students with autism tend to be disorganized regarding school materials, homework, and personal articles at home; they also have trouble seeing the big picture and organizing their thinking. We are all comforted by familiarity, and it also makes the world work like a well-oiled machine. Similarly, I may come to expect it to be the same and feel duped when it changes. Fluency is accuracy plus speed and is a must-have when it comes to making the skills we teach functional in the real world. It’s also the brain’s ability to switch from thinking about one thing to thinking about something else quickly. The instructions need to tell them what to do, not a memorized routine that they have with the materials. Don't miss a free resource: Join my mailing list. Behavior Contingency Maps show a visual representation of everyday rules. For my clients who struggle with flexibility, I change the order of at least a couple of activities starting from the very beginning. This session will also focus on the organizational aspect of reading instruction. Remove something the child neither likes nor dislikes, and perhaps replace it with another neutral activity. It’s easy to ignore the question of flexibility and keep moving forward with the status quo, especially if your clients are making progress in your sessions. In this session, learn how to make your data system work for you. For instance, a blue cup may be used for drinking in the kitchen. If we are too rigid, demanding and insistent on having things a certain way, it will really complicate our life and create stress for everyone. In this workshop, we will investigate how to increase positive behaviors, decrease negative behaviors, and how to handle emergency situations where nothing goes as planned! Teach flexibility explicitly. #1 – Is This Something That Needs To Change? Or perhaps you’ve created a routine for your therapy sessions to make the sessions more predictable. Epub 2014 Sep 26. However, lots of things I do because “that’s just how I do it.” In teaching flexibility/busting rigidity- does that mean you look for all routines and change them constantly? This session will provide detailed instruction on strategies to teach pre-reading skills, oral reading fluency, sight word recognition, reading comprehension, and word attack skills. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. “I was really hoping to go to TJ Maxx today, but since I don’t have time I’ll go a different day.” Flexibility is not my middle name, so this takes work for me too. Not all quests for consistency and same is bad. Aggression and other problem behaviors can be the biggest obstacle to running a successful classroom. So what? I.e.- the one t-shirt they want to wear is the only shirt that is soft cotton or doesn’t have tags?) Increasingly, the literature has focused on the role of anxiety in the world of a child on the autism spectrum. The answer is to teach our clients with autism flexibility. Use this information to select an appropriate and effective intervention. By Lauren Kerstein, LCSW Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) often experience enormous challenges in the area of flexibility. In our life, we honor those needs with advance notice of changes in schedule, predictable routines, visual supports and a home environment that is predictable. Maybe this has happened to you: you create a schedule to help a child on the spectrum with transitions during their day. Learn how to create curriculum that is engaging, appropriate, and at your child’s level. Learn how you can incorporate these strategies to effectively teaching reading to students with autism. Remove something the child doesn’t enjoy and perhaps replace it with something they like. January 8, 2021 by Courtney Gutierrez, M.Ed., BCBA, LBA “Being flexible” is a skill children with autism may struggle with often. But the changes will keep it from becoming a memorized rigid routine. Is the world so unpredictable? This can make it especially hard for your child to cope. Effective use of schedules can increase functional independence and decrease negative behaviors and anxiety. When kids with autism, even high functioning kids, become extremely frustrated or angry, they often act out. Grandin illustrated this concept with a story about cattle. Gravity always keeps your furniture on the ground. Broken cookies created tears and were immediately exchanged for perfectly round cookies. Flexible thinking skills are crucial for children developing in the real world as they promote important learning and social skills and behaviours. So it’s best to practice this intentionally. All this exacerbated their feelings of exclusion and otherness. In this session, we will review using rubrics, rate of responding, frequency count, and tracking prompt levels to take data on both basic and more complex academic skills. We can have the satisfaction of knowing that we are helping our clients cope with an ever-changing world. Add a proactive element to your behavior management system by implementing positive reinforcement to increase positive behaviors within your class. Celebrate the ways that inflexibility is … We teach our kids to play with toys, to eat new foods, to follow a schedule, to do academic or fine motor activities at the table. To provide flexibility within the classroom and the teaching strategies utilised, whilst meeting the learning needs of the students, is a challenge for all teachers due to the diversity of ability, interest, motivation and levels of empowerment of the students, including those with autism… The answer is not to make sure everything stays the same. That’s not realistic. Our 5 Best Autism Teaching Strategies 1. Alter routines. This session will be focused on methods to organize and implement these strategies within special education classrooms for students with autism. Eventually you may try replacing it with something less favorable. The more I honored these rigid needs- the more they showed up in our life and the more I realized that living this way is not realistic and ultimately causing more stress on my son- not less. After collecting the data, then you need to use it! You may also need to change up your activities, instructions, and your to-do lists. These maps are an ABA based intervention and help identify the ABC pattern of behavior (antecedent, behavior, consequence) and will give your student or child a concrete way of understanding that “if, then” relationship – “If you do this, this will happen.” In this session, audience members will explore the purpose & use of Behavior Contingency Maps as well as  leave ready to implement this strategy immediately in an effective and positive way! It’s important to show them what to expect on their schedule (and remember, it needs to be a schedule they can understand such as an object schedule, picture schedule, or written schedule). After the child has seen the schedule, never sneak a change behind their back by erasing something or swapping out pictures or objects. Is the bulb on your overhead projector burned out? On the surface, we are doing a great job. Imagine your boss tells you- I’ll just call you every morning and let you know if you need to come into work for that day- each day. Your email address will not be published. We’ll feel proud as they play with toys in a variety of ways, share them with others, and use their new skills in different places and under new circumstances. Don’t worry- I’ll try again I would say, nervously praying banana #2 didn’t break too.) I just didn’t feel equipped to do that because so many things caused him tears and anger. 8:51. If the instructions are always the same, our kids will likely learn to ignore the instructions, and they may resist when we eventually try to change the activity. Learn how you can incorporate these strategies into your functional literacy instruction. These maps are an ABA based intervention and help identify the ABC pattern of behavior (antecedent, behavior, consequence) and will give your student or child a concrete way of understanding that “if, then” relationship – “If you do this, this will happen.”  In this session, audience members will explore the purpose & use of Behavior Contingency Maps as well as  leave ready to implement this strategy immediately in an effective and positive way! The key to successful data collection is to make it easy and doable! They have problems dealing with changes and they have problems trying things new ways. However, … Finally, learn how to track progress and fade assistance. Many of us will be tempted to write goals that don’t consider flexibility, and when our clients meet their goals we simply consider them done. Flexibility in kids with ASD - Card activity to teach this social skill to children on the autism spectrum Children with Asperger’s and other autism spectrum disorders have a lot of problems with rigidity. This session will examine literacy instruction for all types of students. Parents and teachers often find themselves responding to the behavioral outcome of the stress and anxiety involved with this “inflexible thinking,” rather than teaching flexible thinking in a systematic way. I like to drink my coffee out of my favorite Yeti metal mug. He or she needs to be able to look at the series of visuals/pictures/words and see what is going to happen during the day. #2 Now What? Take a step back and consider the things you really count on to be the same. You may also need to change the visual instructions in your activities. There are fieldtrips and fire drills; parents have appointments and holidays; weather interferes with our outdoor plans. If you want to dive deep into how to teach your autistic clients to learn in a way that promotes flexibility (and so much more), sign up to be the first to know when registration opens again for my autism self study course, The Learn Play Thrive Approach to Autism! The child always starts with the same activity, does four tasks at the table, plays with the same selection of toys, gets a snack, and leaves. For many students, including students on the autism spectrum, the benefits of flexibility aren’t immediately clear. At home, offer finger paints, a sand box, swing set, building blocks and stuffed toys. Autism Parenting Magazine 521 views. Browse autism flexibility resources on Teachers Pay Teachers, a marketplace trusted by millions of teachers for original educational resources. There are things you can do to help your clients learn to use their new skills with greater flexibility so that they can thrive in a world that demands we adapt to constant change. Students with autism benefit from structured tasks, the use of visuals, multiple exemplars, discrimination training, and routine based instruction. TEACCH methods are used by a variety of autism professionals: Special education teachers Residential care providers Psychologists Social workers Speech therapists To become trained, professionals must go through a certification program offered by the TEACCH Autism Program in North Carolina. And as we discussed above, make sure they have a way to use the list (not just reference it) so it doesn’t become ignored. But if lack of flexibility does create a negative impact? If my schedule is always the same, I’ll probably stop looking at it. Places close, restaurants run out of things, schedules change, people get sick, cherished things break. Utilize behavioral data to create function based interventions, determine the success of behavior plans, and increase functional skills. But to prevent it from becoming a memorized routine, change the number and order of activities frequently, and don’t always start with the same one. Is he doing that because he has autism or because he’s two? Explore learning obstacles by improving executive functioning skills and adapting academic work. Explore a variety of ways to effectively and efficiently take data that is useful. If you want to dive deep into how to teach your autistic clients to learn in a way that promotes flexibility (and so much more), sign up to be the first to know when registration opens again for my autism self study course. Taylor an intervention based on the WHY you think the behavior is occurring. You would probably begin to feel anxious…after all, if you can’t count on these things to stay the same, what can you count on? I usually paint my nails on Thursdays, clean my toilets on Fridays, and go grocery shopping on Sundays. They won’t let others play with it and they won’t try new ways of using the toy. Also- when able, when preparing for a change- we use accommodations to make change easier- things like visual schedules, and warnings of upcoming changes. “Being flexible” means dealing with a change to what was planned or what was expected. Schedules are an essential component to any effective classroom. In this session, learn how to make your data system work for you. Honoring these rigidities gave me so much anxiety because the need for same gave my son so much anxiety. Flexibility in kids with ASD - Card activity to teach this social skill to children on the autism spectrum Children with Asperger’s and other autism spectrum disorders have a lot of problems with rigidity. How to Stay Sane(ish) During the Pandemic, Focus on Five: Ways to Use Jamboard to Teach Math Concepts, Tips for Using Leveled Daily Curriculums In Your Classroom, Waking up on Saturday, and staying in pajamas all day sometimes-, The hall bathroom door needing to be open at ALL TIMES-, Only using one swing at the park, regardless if someone else is on it-, Preferring to wear (multiple different) white shirts-, Maintain a variety of activities in a variety of environments. 3:12. This session will begin by exploring how to apply these strategies to everyday situations in an applicable and proactive way. Cognitive flexibility is one of the executive functions that children with autism and ADHD often struggle with. Below are some tips and language to use in your daily life that can help your child become more flexible. This may take time to fully understand. Autism Today has always and continues to be a platform to display global autism information, and resources in an unbiased manner. Schedules let us know when transitions will occur, the order of activities, and alerts us to changes. We live in a rule-driven world yet so often our children and adults lack the understanding of these guidelines. The concepts can be applied to a wide range of environments. Tips for Teaching Flexibility WITH Visual Schedules Teach the Schedule. Teachers, parents, clinicians, and other support staff will benefit from this proactive and real-world based perspective on behavior change. We’ll create systems that allow our kids to know what to expect even though things may change day to day or session to session. Is the work or work process beyond your child’s skill level or is the motivation to complete the task not there? This is great for home because both of you have the plan and have agreed to it. Instead, show them the changes on their schedule. We also don't want to take away routines and predictability without giving our kids the tools they need to cope with and understand the change. However, it can also be used in the bath to rinse shampoo out of hair. Students with autism benefit from structured tasks, the use of visuals, multiple exemplars, discrimination training, and routine based instruction. Make changes early and often on your schedules. Learn how to work with your staff so data is taken consistently across all areas of your classroom! And it really helps! In this session, learn how to use function-based interventions to efficiently and effectively reduce problem behaviors. Then, make a neutral change. Shine a bright light on the how and why of flexibility by teaching it out loud during your everyday lessons. Audience members will learn how conduct a thorough Functional Behavior Assessment, select appropriate and function-based strategies, and analyze data to determine growth and next steps. We will discuss methods of organizing your data so you can access it readily. I prefer to drink my water from a plastic Starbucks cup with ice. This presentation covers instructional strategies for both lower level learners and more advanced academic and functional skill sets. Using Play to Teach Flexible Thinking Skills. Cool. This doesn’t mean abandoning any structure and routine, it simply means trying to allow some flexibility into that routine. This approach will focus on the changing outcomes of behaviors by looking at the entire context and approaching behavior from a function based perspective. This may mean checking things off of a list, moving pictures or objects to finished, turning pages in a flip book, or even using objects functionally. We will review instructional planning, activity ideas, and specific interventions. The more experiences a child can have, the better. “This prevented rigid behavior patterns from forming.”. Solving Classroom Challenges Using Positive Reinforcement & Executive Functioning Skill Building, Adapted Books: a Literacy Based Solution for Engaging IEP Instruction, Creating a Communication-Rich Environment for Your Preschoolers to Improve Literacy and Independence, Using Your Academic Data to Making Curricular Decisions, Using Organization and Structure to work with Individuals with Disabilities, Data Collection: Making it Easy and Useful, Literacy Instruction for Children with Autism, Reducing Problem Behavior Using Function Based Interventions, Behavior Change – the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Seven Steps for Setting Up a Stellar Autism Room. They have problems dealing with changes and they have problems trying things new ways. Here are a few things you can try to help teach your clients flexibility: 1. It’s a daunting tasks setting up an autism classroom or appropriately integrating students with autism into the general education setting. But it can also be an incredible source of stress. Once a rigid routine starts it is so much harder to change. In this full day workshop, we will explore methods to increase vocabulary, literacy skills, independence, and communication skills in your preschool students! However, the world is anything but predictable. This session will explore using higher order thinking questions, play based learning, a focused read aloud, discrete trial training, and fluency instruction to build vocabulary with your preschoolers. Imagine your frustration if your toothpaste was suddenly in a different place each day, and you couldn’t predict where to find it. For example, if you give them three activities at the table for the first few sessions and then try to give them five, it may be that you’ve created a routine and then broken it. Here’s what I mean: when I look at my calendar each day, I know it will tell me what I need to do on that day, but I also know I cannot count on it to be the same each day. In this session, learn how to identify the skill deficits that your students are struggling with under the area of executive functioning skills. In this session, we will discuss a multitude of interventions for each type of behavior. An autism diagnosis often demands predictability and routine. As a teacher in an autism classroom, it is hard to figure out when you need should be flexible and when you need to ensure that students are following the rules. Here are a few things you can try to help teach your clients flexibility: 1. We will discuss everything from creating an efficient schedule, the physical structure, using visuals, creating a data system, and beginning curricular planning. Once you have all this data, you need to know what to do with. 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