Last week over 3 days I was lucky enough to attend the ‘Tips for Autism’ course. I came away each day with a deeper understanding of autism and what life would be like for a child or adult with autism.
The course required you to be in teams for the child who you were working with. My team included the child’s mother, the teacher aide, the rtlb, SENCO and myself. This was of great benefit because it allowed me to see what the child was like in many different settings and what I could do to help support the learning of this child.
The three main things I came away with from the course were:
- Autism is something the child has, it does not mean that the personality of the child is defined by this. A child can still be shy or the class clown.
- Social skills are the main thing students with autism need to develop. Video’s modelling behaviour help to give the child strategies for when they are in a similar position. However, just because a child has seen a video does not mean they can transfer this knowledge by themselves.
- Behaviour management needs to have rules and the child needs to understand what they need to do to be at each level.
I have already actioned the behaviour chart in my room - with the class coming up and placing behaviours at each level. The next step is to start filming social behaviours that I would like to see the student showing and spending some time creating a visual display as well as a social story to help support this.
I would also like to work with some older students to set up a ‘play’ learning video for each assembly. This would model for all students things like: playing tag, what to do when someone says you can’t play, what to do if someone asks to play, how to ask someone to play with you etc. I think this would benefit a whole range of students not just the one I went on the course to support.
I have a lot of ideas to implement because of this course. The support of my team will allow the student and myself to be successful in creating the best learning environment.- Kelsey Morgan
It sounds like you had a fantastic few days. It was pleasing to see that you took a lot away and many of the strategies and ideas learnt are applicable and beneficial to many of our students. I really like the idea of the videos being created and used at assembly, these could be used across a range of topics!
ReplyDeleteKelsey, it sounds like a very worthwhile course. It is so valuable to work collaboratively with all who are involved in a child's learning journey: It takes a village to raise a child. After you shared the adaptions you had made with your peg chart, I initiated the same discussion with Tawa Class. The children were very engaged in the conversation and had strong points of view on how they categorised different behaviours. It was really interesting to hear how they justified their opinions. Thanks for sharing that idea.
ReplyDeleteI too think the videos are a great idea. Too often we take for granted the social skills children need to enjoy positive play time. All these behaviours need to be taught, practised and revisited.