Circle of Friends Part 1

Mary Schlieder Ed. D. Author

02/04/2019 Added

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The Circle of Friends webinar, Part 1, will explore the evidence-base for CoF; Learn CoF implementation basics; and Compare different CoF models

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[00:00:00.480]Welcome to the Tri-State
[00:00:01.810]Autism Spectrum Disorder webinar series.
[00:00:04.810]The topic of this training is how to implement
[00:00:07.330]a Circle of Friends group for students who have autism.
[00:00:11.440]This is part one in a two part webinar series.
[00:00:14.370]My name is Mary Schlieder.
[00:00:16.070]I am a special education teacher.
[00:00:18.070]I've been a teacher, I think, at just about every age
[00:00:20.880]and grade level that there can be.
[00:00:22.660]I started off in early childhood special needs.
[00:00:25.290]I taught general education second grade for awhile
[00:00:28.730]and then I jumped back into special education.
[00:00:31.070]That's really where my heart has always been.
[00:00:33.130]I have done elementary, middle, and high school levels.
[00:00:35.690]I am currently a high school special ed
[00:00:37.910]teacher in a full inclusion program.
[00:00:40.570]The kids I get on my case load tend to be,
[00:00:42.970]have diagnoses like autism, behavior disorders,
[00:00:46.250]other mental health diagnoses, learning disabilities,
[00:00:48.859]physical impairments, hearing impairments.
[00:00:51.280]It's really kind of a mixed bag.
[00:00:53.250]I am also an adjunct professor at
[00:00:54.840]several different university programs.
[00:00:57.180]The focus of the courses that I usually teach
[00:00:59.730]have to do with behavioral interventions
[00:01:01.950]that will help students successfully stay
[00:01:03.940]in the regular classroom setting.
[00:01:06.710]There are several objectives for this webinar.
[00:01:09.040]In the first part we're going to explore the program
[00:01:11.500]background and evidence base for Circle of Friends.
[00:01:14.650]We're going to learn group implementation basics.
[00:01:17.500]And we'll also be comparing different Circle of Friends
[00:01:19.870]models that you'll be able to choose from.
[00:01:22.200]In the second webinar we'll be working on gaining
[00:01:24.630]implementation ideas for meeting topics and activities
[00:01:27.980]so that you know exactly what to do at your meetings.
[00:01:30.560]We will explore obstacles and possible solutions
[00:01:33.440]based on things that we have seen in other groups
[00:01:35.850]across the state for a number of years.
[00:01:38.550]And we will also be learning next steps.
[00:01:40.860]There are additional layers of support
[00:01:43.160]for your groups that we'll be sharing with you.
[00:01:45.920]I'd like to begin by sharing some background information
[00:01:49.050]about how Circle of Friends developed across our state.
[00:01:52.140]And I'll start by sharing a personal story.
[00:01:54.480]I think it's important to understand the whys,
[00:01:57.100]why we are doing Circle of Friends groups,
[00:01:59.410]and the story will illustrate that.
[00:02:01.460]It's a personal story.
[00:02:03.000]I was 14 years old when my cousin,
[00:02:04.840]I will call him Joe, was born.
[00:02:06.870]I have a brother born about the same time,
[00:02:09.800]so they grew up together.
[00:02:11.050]There was a lot of back and forth between our houses.
[00:02:13.290]And I was able to observe Joe.
[00:02:15.340]And I noticed that there were some
[00:02:16.680]things that were unique about him.
[00:02:18.370]First of all, he didn't develop language for a late.
[00:02:20.700]He was a late language acquisition person.
[00:02:24.690]But when he did start to talk,
[00:02:26.100]he was speaking immediately in full sentences.
[00:02:28.870]He would go on and on in his area
[00:02:31.630]of special interest, which was whales.
[00:02:33.940]He loved marine biology.
[00:02:35.620]But he would go on and on to anybody that would listen
[00:02:37.900]about the habitat of different kinds of whales,
[00:02:40.880]the anatomy of whales, what they ate, where they swam,
[00:02:44.388]saving the oceans, all those kinds of things.
[00:02:47.340]He was very much into that.
[00:02:49.640]And it was cute and he sounded smart,
[00:02:51.990]but there were some things that were
[00:02:53.550]really concerning to his mom, my aunt.
[00:02:56.250]For one, he was very fixated on certain things.
[00:02:59.760]He would only eat certain numbers of foods,
[00:03:02.750]not a very big variety.
[00:03:04.430]He would have meltdowns when he was four and five years old
[00:03:08.900]that really weren't typical of children that age.
[00:03:11.370]When they left the park because it was time to go home,
[00:03:14.070]that could result in a two or three hour meltdown.
[00:03:17.190]And by the time he approached school age,
[00:03:19.740]she was very concerned because she had
[00:03:21.800]tried to arrange some play dates,
[00:03:23.190]but he was very bossy with other kids.
[00:03:25.240]Would really play more next to them by himself.
[00:03:27.860]But there wasn't a whole lot of interaction.
[00:03:29.890]So when it was time for kindergarten when they did the
[00:03:32.620]pre-kindergarten evaluations that they do with students,
[00:03:35.461]my aunt went to them and said I think that there's something
[00:03:37.890]different and I would like a more full evaluation for him.
[00:03:41.390]And because he was so academically gifted,
[00:03:43.910]they said nope, he's fine.
[00:03:45.630]They challenged her parenting and thought maybe she should
[00:03:47.909]take some parenting classes and maybe he was spoiled
[00:03:51.940]and that's why he was having some of these behaviors.
[00:03:54.460]Well needless to say, my aunt wasn't happy.
[00:03:56.410]But there was really not much that she could do about it.
[00:03:58.720]So Joe started school.
[00:04:00.540]He did fine with academics.
[00:04:02.610]There really weren't too many gaps there.
[00:04:04.800]But he absolutely struggled when it came to
[00:04:06.970]social skills and interacting with other students.
[00:04:09.366]My aunt kept acting for help.
[00:04:11.320]The school kept saying no until fourth grade.
[00:04:13.550]They finally gave him an IEP,
[00:04:15.580]diagnosing him as a student with a
[00:04:17.210]learning disability in written expression.
[00:04:19.632]Not because he couldn't formulate
[00:04:22.220]really advanced complex sentences.
[00:04:24.600]He could.
[00:04:25.500]But his fine motor skills were a little bit low for his age.
[00:04:28.680]So I think just to get my aunt off their back,
[00:04:30.910]they gave him that diagnosis and he finally got an IEP.
[00:04:34.220]As fate would have it,
[00:04:35.290]I was his first special education teacher because I was
[00:04:38.250]assigned as a very young new teacher to his school.
[00:04:41.763]I learned early on that handwriting
[00:04:43.920]was the least of Joe's problems.
[00:04:45.730]His social behavior was getting in the way.
[00:04:49.130]The kids were bullying him or isolating him.
[00:04:52.210]He would tattle on them,
[00:04:53.940]which was very much annoying to them.
[00:04:56.000]He would chew a lot of things.
[00:04:57.810]He would put a lot of things in his mouth.
[00:04:59.290]Pencils, pieces of paper.
[00:05:00.590]The other children found that odd.
[00:05:02.260]He would go on and on in one-sided conversations
[00:05:05.000]on topics that the kids really didn't want to hear about.
[00:05:07.560]And I spent a lot of time that year saying
[00:05:09.650]Joe, do this, and Joe, don't do that.
[00:05:11.850]But I was kind of that Charlie Brown teacher
[00:05:13.740]in your ear saying wah, wah, wah
[00:05:16.080]because he didn't really listen to anything I said.
[00:05:19.140]It certainly didn't change his behavior.
[00:05:21.160]Well I only taught in that school for one year
[00:05:23.020]and then I moved across the country,
[00:05:24.470]but I did keep in touch with my aunt throughout the years
[00:05:27.060]because I loved John and I was concerned
[00:05:28.709]about his schooling and his life
[00:05:31.010]and to know how things were going for him.
[00:05:33.060]Middle school was especially difficult.
[00:05:35.040]His teachers took an attitude that they would
[00:05:37.110]turn the other way when the peers were
[00:05:39.480]mistreating him because what they gave him,
[00:05:42.000]negative reinforcement through their bullying,
[00:05:44.680]then he would learn a lesson.
[00:05:46.040]Well obviously that was a disaster
[00:05:48.320]because no one was taking the time to teach him
[00:05:50.390]the lagging skills that he was missing.
[00:05:53.540]When he got to high school level,
[00:05:55.560]he really didn't want to go to school anymore.
[00:05:57.750]My aunt had a hard time even getting him to show up
[00:06:00.270]every single day to get in the car and go to school.
[00:06:02.950]There were a lot of stomach aches, a lot of stress,
[00:06:04.930]a lot of anxiety, and some depression.
[00:06:07.010]He went on to get a degree because
[00:06:09.150]academics were never the problem.
[00:06:10.960]But he really struggled to find a job in his career area.
[00:06:14.390]He did not ever learn those soft social skills
[00:06:17.447]of getting along with other people
[00:06:19.460]and making it through a job interview,
[00:06:21.150]knowing how to ask for help when you don't know what to do.
[00:06:25.336]All the social nuances of working in an
[00:06:28.357]environment with other people day by day.
[00:06:31.210]So he grew up to live a quiet, isolated life.
[00:06:35.397]He really doesn't hang out with other people.
[00:06:37.880]He doesn't have very many interactions with others.
[00:06:40.340]He never found a job in his career field.
[00:06:43.400]And I think that it's kind of sad,
[00:06:45.210]because it is a loss for society that his incredible
[00:06:49.310]intellect and his quirky wonderful sweet personality
[00:06:53.190]is not manifesting itself and recognized
[00:06:56.070]and experienced by other people.
[00:06:58.670]So, fast forward.
[00:06:59.590]We didn't know back then for Joe
[00:07:01.462]that he was on the autism spectrum.
[00:07:03.600]We didn't know then what we know now.
[00:07:06.180]But fast forward to several years later
[00:07:08.030]and I ended up teaching in Nebraska.
[00:07:09.740]And I had a student named Caleb.
[00:07:12.430]And Caleb had very similar social deficits as Joe
[00:07:16.995]and I made my mind up that I was going to help him
[00:07:19.928]in a way that I wasn't able to help Joe.
[00:07:22.990]Caleb was having meltdowns every afternoon.
[00:07:24.930]By about one o'clock, he would be yelling I want it my way.
[00:07:28.070]The teacher would run out of the room
[00:07:29.430]with all the other students to keep them safe
[00:07:31.360]and it just wasn't working very well.
[00:07:33.410]And out of desperation, I asked a seventh grade
[00:07:36.220]social studies teacher if I could come in a room,
[00:07:38.600]talk to the kids about autism, and she said sure.
[00:07:42.420]And the kids were a very good audience.
[00:07:44.570]They asked good questions.
[00:07:45.840]And about 15 minutes after my presentation to them,
[00:07:48.664]Caleb came running in my room
[00:07:50.570]and he said incredulously, they're talking to me.
[00:07:53.660]And that was the step one that kind of started
[00:07:56.500]to break down the wall and the barrier.
[00:07:58.640]After that, I chose a small group of kids,
[00:08:00.740]and it was all experimentation.
[00:08:02.150]I had really no model to follow.
[00:08:04.080]But I chose a smaller group of students
[00:08:05.840]to start a Circle of Friends with.
[00:08:07.547]And the information that I'm going to be sharing with you
[00:08:09.840]in this webinar is really the outgrowth
[00:08:12.510]of all of this experimentation not only with me,
[00:08:14.648]but in other schools across our state.
[00:08:17.686]So, we started to experience success with Caleb.
[00:08:21.430]The isolation and the bullying by peers stopped.
[00:08:24.930]The meltdowns decreased pretty quickly, actually.
[00:08:28.135]He became involved not only in the classroom,
[00:08:31.891]but he also became a sports manager.
[00:08:34.660]He was very interested in sports teams and so he was
[00:08:37.240]a sports manager for basketball, track, and cross country.
[00:08:41.510]And that provided a whole lot of other
[00:08:43.320]social skill areas that we could work on.
[00:08:45.850]And he was much happier and much more involved.
[00:08:48.500]His outcome was quite different than my cousin Joe's.
[00:08:51.870]As an adult, he grew up to be very much involved
[00:08:55.090]in his church, involved in Special Olympics,
[00:08:58.270]and he works a job and he lives on his own.
[00:09:00.860]So, I was bound and determined
[00:09:03.080]that I wanted to share the story,
[00:09:05.130]the comparison between Joe and the outcomes for Caleb.
[00:09:08.450]Caleb received the social skills instruction
[00:09:11.200]for the lagging skills that he had that he needed.
[00:09:13.810]My cousin did not.
[00:09:14.707]And the outcomes were quite different.
[00:09:17.090]So I got excited and I started to go around the state
[00:09:19.590]and I would present about what was happening
[00:09:21.630]with our Circle of Friends group at workshops
[00:09:23.890]and conferences and school districts.
[00:09:25.580]Really, anybody that would have me.
[00:09:27.550]And during that time I was approached by the director
[00:09:31.100]of the Autism Action Partnership,
[00:09:32.670]which is a nonprofit agency in Omaha, Nebraska.
[00:09:35.780]And she said to me that they wanted
[00:09:38.180]to support Circle of Friends.
[00:09:39.410]They wanted a school-based program.
[00:09:41.480]They thought that the model was good
[00:09:43.527]and they wanted to put their efforts into that.
[00:09:45.990]And so I am very appreciative and always will be
[00:09:48.180]to the Autism Action Partnership for moving along
[00:09:50.968]the growth of Circle of Friends in our state.
[00:09:53.860]In 2011, as you can see from this chart,
[00:09:55.890]we started with an eight school pilot program.
[00:09:58.120]High schools only.
[00:09:59.540]We went on the next year to have a little over 50 schools.
[00:10:03.640]We went to K12.
[00:10:05.302]The next year, public and private school.
[00:10:08.230]There is one college, the University of Omaha, Nebraska,
[00:10:11.470]that also has support Circle of Friends groups as well.
[00:10:14.630]And you can see the progression of the
[00:10:16.745]growth in our state across the years.
[00:10:18.300]And you are the beneficiary of all of our
[00:10:21.250]experimentation across the state in this webinar.
[00:10:25.150]So one time when I was doing a
[00:10:26.570]presentation to a group of educators,
[00:10:28.530]I asked the question what do your students
[00:10:31.120]on the autism spectrum need the most?
[00:10:33.580]And these are their responses.
[00:10:35.460]They talked about taking social skill, excuse me,
[00:10:38.744]social skills, taking turns, conversation skills,
[00:10:40.900]making friends, sharing, appropriate behavior at recess.
[00:10:44.820]All those kinds of things.
[00:10:47.740]And then I asked them to think about that student again
[00:10:50.400]and to think about what their day looks like.
[00:10:52.270]How do they spend their day?
[00:10:53.800]And this is what came up.
[00:10:55.790]Now I'm not saying that academics aren't important.
[00:10:58.160]They are.
[00:10:58.993]After all, we teach in schools and that is our main mission.
[00:11:02.040]However, what was evident was that students
[00:11:04.610]on the autism spectrum were not receiving
[00:11:06.570]the level of social skills instructions that they needed.
[00:11:09.320]And Circle of Friends is a good way to do that.
[00:11:12.090]Some of the terminology we'll be using.
[00:11:14.620]Circle of Friends, it's an educational approach
[00:11:16.970]that facilitates the inclusion of children with disabilities
[00:11:19.850]in the school community by engaging the peer group.
[00:11:22.910]And those peers can support our students,
[00:11:25.280]their individual students with their special needs.
[00:11:28.240]Peer-mediated intervention is another term.
[00:11:30.750]And that is sort of the umbrella
[00:11:32.310]term over Circle of Friends.
[00:11:34.810]And the definition of that is an approach
[00:11:36.550]in special education where peers of the focus students
[00:11:39.700]are trained to provide needed tutoring.
[00:11:41.630]And that tutoring could be in educational academic areas,
[00:11:44.502]behavioral, or it could have to do with social concerns.
[00:11:48.632]Here is a visual where you can see how peer-mediated
[00:11:52.820]intervention is the umbrella term for several
[00:11:55.550]different ways of delivering these peer support groups.
[00:11:59.150]You may have heard terms like integrated play groups,
[00:12:02.038]peer buddies, group-oriented contingencies.
[00:12:05.680]There are models where paraprofessionals are trained
[00:12:08.860]to go into the classroom and instead of being
[00:12:11.490]what I call a Velcro para stuck to one student,
[00:12:14.880]instead they work on training peers to support the student.
[00:12:18.210]And then they go around the room working
[00:12:20.580]with many different students and provide feedback
[00:12:23.570]to the peer support system, that kind of thing.
[00:12:26.392]There's also lunch bunch.
[00:12:28.050]That refers to a time of day where
[00:12:30.000]a school guidance counselor or teacher will meet
[00:12:31.880]with a group of kids for the purpose of socialization
[00:12:34.910]and getting those students to know each other better
[00:12:36.760]and interact appropriately together.
[00:12:38.910]And then there's Circle of Friends,
[00:12:40.270]which will be our focus today.
[00:12:42.940]A little bit more terminology.
[00:12:44.550]The focus student refers to the
[00:12:46.360]student that the groups are for.
[00:12:48.270]These are kids who are isolated, alone.
[00:12:50.500]They have poor social skills.
[00:12:52.480]They can have autism spectrum disorder
[00:12:54.380]or other disabilities.
[00:12:56.110]You may use the term peer partner or peer mentor.
[00:12:59.050]It means the same thing.
[00:13:00.500]Those are the students who are trained
[00:13:02.020]to support the focus student.
[00:13:03.800]And then facilitator.
[00:13:05.140]Those are the adults that are implementing the groups.
[00:13:07.320]They can be special education teachers,
[00:13:09.400]paraprofessionals, speech pathologists,
[00:13:11.980]general education teachers, and even administrators.
[00:13:15.280]So why do Circle of Friends?
[00:13:16.770]It's not as if we don't have enough on our plate
[00:13:18.660]already as busy professionals.
[00:13:20.620]But we do want the best outcomes for
[00:13:22.250]our students that they can possibly have.
[00:13:24.500]For one thing, teachers lack time for
[00:13:26.290]intensive social skills immersion.
[00:13:28.370]I want my students to have 20 to 30
[00:13:30.470]positive interactions per day at school.
[00:13:33.540]I'm good for maybe two or three.
[00:13:35.750]I'm very, very busy, as I know that all of you are too.
[00:13:38.932]So I need to use those peers.
[00:13:40.830]They can either be part of the solution
[00:13:42.220]or they can be part of the problem.
[00:13:44.150]It fosters acceptance, empathy, and teamwork from peers.
[00:13:46.980]And I'll give you an example.
[00:13:48.050]So one of my students, I'll call him Danny,
[00:13:50.850]I really needed to do a lot of pre-teaching for PE class.
[00:13:53.830]That was an area that would cause him to have problems.
[00:13:56.070]He didn't maybe understand the instructions.
[00:13:58.000]He was overstimulated.
[00:13:59.450]He wasn't always successful and then there would be
[00:14:01.260]meltdowns later in the day if he didn't do a good job there.
[00:14:05.090]So one day I was planning on getting there,
[00:14:07.780]but other things came up.
[00:14:09.010]I didn't get out there in time to where the class
[00:14:11.170]was being held out in the football field.
[00:14:12.920]And by the time I got there,
[00:14:14.230]the teacher was already well into
[00:14:16.640]giving multi-step instructions
[00:14:18.100]and I was just hoping that he was paying attention.
[00:14:20.620]I looked around, found him, and lo and behold,
[00:14:23.140]he wasn't looking at the teacher at all.
[00:14:24.590]He wasn't listening.
[00:14:25.423]He was pulling blades of grass kind of in his own world.
[00:14:28.650]But because I had taken the time
[00:14:30.030]to put Circle of Friends in place, what I noticed was Hanna,
[00:14:33.860]one of our Circle of Friends peer mentors,
[00:14:35.550]went over to him and said Danny,
[00:14:36.930]we're doing the relay today.
[00:14:38.510]I'm going to run with you.
[00:14:39.480]I'm going to tell you when to jump,
[00:14:40.840]when to hop, when to pick up the Frisbee and throw it to TJ.
[00:14:44.020]You just do what I tell you.
[00:14:45.620]So he was happy to have her help.
[00:14:47.420]He went through it successfully.
[00:14:48.780]The kids were high fiving him and smiling at him.
[00:14:51.400]I don't know that he knew what he had done successfully,
[00:14:53.350]but he knew that they were happy with him, so he was happy.
[00:14:56.116]And because of that, because we had taken the time
[00:14:59.079]to put the Circle of Friends in place,
[00:15:01.319]the teacher was able to do what he was supposed to do,
[00:15:03.870]which is manage a large group of students.
[00:15:06.050]My day was saved.
[00:15:07.210]I didn't have to do a lot of cleanup for the rest
[00:15:09.250]of my afternoon due to any kind of a meltdown.
[00:15:12.000]And he was happy learning skills
[00:15:14.090]and the peers did a good job
[00:15:15.850]and it's just as good for them too.
[00:15:18.340]It provides an environment to learn
[00:15:19.930]and practice social skills.
[00:15:21.733]Earlier in my career, I would do social skill
[00:15:25.180]role play instruction in my resource room
[00:15:27.600]and my students tended to do a pretty
[00:15:29.330]good job with a middle-aged lady.
[00:15:31.230]However, when they went out into hallways,
[00:15:33.260]the cafeteria, on the bus, the social work was closed off
[00:15:37.129]to them because of their behavior.
[00:15:39.350]And so they didn't really get the practice that they needed.
[00:15:42.740]Greater social contact opportunities
[00:15:44.970]equals greater feelings of connectedness.
[00:15:47.350]These kids can feel like they're part of that school body
[00:15:49.890]and then you can avoid some of the anxiety and stress
[00:15:53.320]that can lead to kids not wanting to come to school.
[00:15:56.040]Peer communication equals better opportunities
[00:15:58.690]to troubleshoot because we have trained peers.
[00:16:01.750]I had a girl come to me and say you need to talk
[00:16:04.300]to these two girls on the bus because
[00:16:06.370]they're telling Dalton to say these bad words.
[00:16:08.770]And he's laughing.
[00:16:09.700]He's thinking he's one of the kids
[00:16:11.110]and everyone's being his friend.
[00:16:12.240]He doesn't realize that they're really making fun of him.
[00:16:14.540]And so I said great, I will talk to them.
[00:16:16.660]And so I was able to do some awareness
[00:16:18.420]with them and tell them you know,
[00:16:20.320]you may not understand, but Dalton has autism.
[00:16:22.380]Let's talk about autism.
[00:16:24.010]And I'm not going to send you to the principal this time,
[00:16:27.020]but if it happens again, you go to the principal.
[00:16:29.100]You'll have to call your parents
[00:16:30.320]and our resource officer is going to get involved.
[00:16:32.700]So either please stay away from him
[00:16:34.800]or perhaps you'd like to engage him in a friendly manner.
[00:16:37.410]That's up to you.
[00:16:38.760]So as you can see, in the long run,
[00:16:41.090]implementing an intervention like this saves adults' time.
[00:16:44.570]Let's take a quick look at the
[00:16:45.870]research base for Circle of Friends.
[00:16:48.550]So the research tells us that there is
[00:16:50.690]an increase in children diagnosed with ASD.
[00:16:53.670]And there has been a related increase in inclusion.
[00:16:56.700]These kids are going to the regular
[00:16:58.040]school setting classrooms more and more.
[00:17:00.820]However, what they've found is that social inclusion
[00:17:03.686]is not the same as physical inclusion.
[00:17:05.800]So sure, these kids are sitting next to their peers in a
[00:17:07.980]regular classroom setting for a lot of their school day,
[00:17:10.663]but if they don't get the social
[00:17:12.260]skill instruction that they need,
[00:17:13.760]they are not really socially included.
[00:17:16.410]School staff lack training in interventions for ASD.
[00:17:20.130]And academic competence is
[00:17:22.230]associated with social competence.
[00:17:23.477]And I found that this was an interesting study.
[00:17:25.970]They found that because some of our students
[00:17:27.560]on the spectrum are fairly competent academically,
[00:17:30.520]some of them are indeed gifted in some areas,
[00:17:33.110]school staff teachers felt that well,
[00:17:35.943]they're good at math, they can write beautiful essays.
[00:17:39.720]They're in sixth grade,
[00:17:40.600]they should know how to behave by now.
[00:17:42.740]So that affected the way that they interacted
[00:17:45.800]with the students and the peers pick up on that.
[00:17:48.040]So when staff don't have the training and the understanding,
[00:17:51.570]that can get in the way of their true social inclusion.
[00:17:55.060]Poor social competence plus school isolation by peers
[00:17:58.570]equals poor outcomes for youth with ASD.
[00:18:01.670]The kids who need the most social skill practice
[00:18:04.420]are getting the least due to this isolation.
[00:18:07.040]They also experience higher rates of victimization.
[00:18:10.390]Comprehensive planning for social competence
[00:18:13.280]development should incorporate peer training.
[00:18:16.110]However, few children receive this intervention.
[00:18:19.350]Other studies show that social skill deficits
[00:18:22.410]contribute to anxiety and mood disorders,
[00:18:25.080]things like depression and stress levels going up,
[00:18:28.040]but few school programs target social skill development.
[00:18:31.900]The National Autism Center's National Standards Report.
[00:18:35.330]The folks there, they went in and researched a multitude
[00:18:38.370]of interventions for individuals on the autism spectrum.
[00:18:41.540]And what they wanted to do was to find out
[00:18:43.600]which interventions had an evidence base behind them
[00:18:46.440]so that people wouldn't waste their time
[00:18:48.645]doing things that weren't going to work.
[00:18:51.380]And what they found was that peer training
[00:18:53.609]equals established treatment with favorable outcomes.
[00:18:57.550]So the positive outcomes justify doing it.
[00:19:01.127]There's more good news in the research
[00:19:03.210]related to peer-mediated intervention.
[00:19:05.840]Researchers found that behavior is determined reciprocally,
[00:19:09.810]meaning that if classmates interact positively
[00:19:13.100]with students on the autism spectrum,
[00:19:15.210]there was a higher likelihood of them
[00:19:17.390]reciprocating that kind of social behavior.
[00:19:21.062]The research also found that peers
[00:19:23.610]who have received training and awareness
[00:19:25.490]on autism develop empathy for the student.
[00:19:28.260]It doesn't mean that the autism goes away.
[00:19:30.200]It doesn't.
[00:19:31.080]But they gain a greater understanding
[00:19:32.800]and are more willing to interact
[00:19:34.220]and work with those students in the classroom.
[00:19:37.190]Research showed the parents and facilitators
[00:19:39.830]experienced satisfaction when their students and/or
[00:19:43.850]children were participating in Circle of Friends groups.
[00:19:47.881]They found increased number of social skill interactions
[00:19:51.600]and improvement in social skills
[00:19:53.730]improvement, development, and behavior.
[00:19:56.090]And there were some folks that also reported that these
[00:19:58.840]social interactions extended outside the school program.
[00:20:02.110]For example, one mother reported that the family went
[00:20:05.120]bowling and at the bowling alley on another lane
[00:20:07.700]were some students from school
[00:20:09.430]and a couple of them were in the Circle of Friends group.
[00:20:11.670]So they began to interact and they were
[00:20:13.930]hanging out at the bowling alley together as well.
[00:20:16.210]So there has been reports of more invitations to birthday
[00:20:20.560]parties and other social outings outside the school setting.
[00:20:24.640]I have these research studies at the end
[00:20:26.530]of the webinar and I'll share those slides with you
[00:20:28.550]at the end in case you want to delve deeper into them.
[00:20:31.370]But for now we're going to move onto the how to.
[00:20:33.740]These are implementation basics for building
[00:20:35.940]your Circle of Friends peer support group.
[00:20:38.450]We're going to cover how to choose focus students,
[00:20:40.754]how to decide on which group structure works best for you,
[00:20:44.640]how to choose peer mentors,
[00:20:46.040]and how to communicate with parents.
[00:20:48.080]We'll be covering those things in this first webinar.
[00:20:50.770]Knowing what to do at meetings will be the focus
[00:20:52.750]of part two in this webinar series.
[00:20:55.550]While there's room for individualizing
[00:20:57.430]the way that you run your Circle of Friends group,
[00:20:59.410]there are certain tenets that are non-negotiable
[00:21:02.320]if you want to have a strong group
[00:21:04.260]that really benefits your focus student.
[00:21:06.660]One thing that I recommend is that you meet weekly
[00:21:09.390]no matter what in a minimum of 30 minutes.
[00:21:12.580]If you can grab more time, that's great.
[00:21:14.950]I've had some folks that try to do
[00:21:16.270]maybe a 10 or 15 minute study hall period
[00:21:19.560]or morning meeting time and that really is not enough time
[00:21:22.930]to really delve deep into the activities and the lessons
[00:21:25.530]and those other things that I'll be sharing with you.
[00:21:28.130]As far as when you meet, that's up to you.
[00:21:29.990]I know that there's not a lot of time in our busy days,
[00:21:32.150]but we have facilitators who meet
[00:21:33.980]with their groups during lunch.
[00:21:35.100]Some do before or after school.
[00:21:37.030]Some choose to do their Circle of Friends
[00:21:38.680]groups totally at recess.
[00:21:39.910]We'll talk about that.
[00:21:41.120]Some do it during study halls.
[00:21:43.260]It's really up to you when.
[00:21:44.950]But we do recommend once a week
[00:21:46.810]no matter what for a minimum of 30 minutes.
[00:21:49.500]We also recommend that there is an
[00:21:51.460]element of peer training involved.
[00:21:53.610]So if you're just getting together,
[00:21:55.990]you're playing in the gym each week
[00:21:57.390]or playing games or whatever it is,
[00:21:59.330]those social opportunities are very important.
[00:22:02.200]But you want to make sure that you're
[00:22:03.300]training peers to support that student too.
[00:22:06.210]These groups are goal-oriented with a teaching focus.
[00:22:09.120]So yeah, you're going to get together
[00:22:10.730]and you're going to do some fun things socially together.
[00:22:13.480]However, I will be helping you think about
[00:22:16.010]how to set goals for your group,
[00:22:17.800]how to get goals for the individual focus student,
[00:22:20.320]and how to set goals for the peer mentors.
[00:22:23.000]This is a teaching intervention.
[00:22:24.790]It's more than just getting together to have some fun.
[00:22:27.380]Although it is fun and there is that.
[00:22:29.890]We will build in talk about a way
[00:22:31.750]to provide ongoing feedback so that the peers
[00:22:34.190]are talking to you and you know how things are going.
[00:22:36.370]And you want to run your groups with a philosophy
[00:22:38.980]that we all have differences and that we're
[00:22:41.310]more alike than we are different.
[00:22:43.270]We don't want it to be where the peers
[00:22:45.710]are taken on so that they're going to
[00:22:47.770]fix that kid who's got all the problems.
[00:22:50.520]That really shouldn't be it.
[00:22:51.690]We all have differences and we want our kids
[00:22:54.520]to accept and embrace those differences.
[00:22:57.675]Other negotiable items include,
[00:22:59.950]besides the time of day that your groups meet,
[00:23:01.860]is the number of facilitators.
[00:23:03.510]Some people run their groups with one facilitator.
[00:23:05.960]Some choose to do it with another person.
[00:23:08.280]Maybe a couple of teachers or a
[00:23:09.630]teacher and a guidance counselor.
[00:23:10.930]That's up to you, who is going to facilitate the group.
[00:23:14.260]You can use special education staff,
[00:23:16.090]gen ed teachers, paraprofessionals,
[00:23:17.920]or a mixture of those, or other specialists.
[00:23:20.960]Speech language pathologists are people
[00:23:23.780]that run a lot of these groups and other folks too.
[00:23:26.880]The size of your group.
[00:23:28.010]We're going to be offering you different options for that.
[00:23:30.620]The type of awareness that you provide,
[00:23:32.900]whether or not you're going to do
[00:23:34.320]additional out of school activities,
[00:23:36.150]and whether you're going to choose
[00:23:37.510]to do any funding for your group.
[00:23:39.040]You don't have to.
[00:23:39.873]And we're going to get into all
[00:23:42.296]of these things in the next few minutes.
[00:23:43.460]You want to consider who your
[00:23:44.810]focus students are going to be.
[00:23:46.970]First thing, how many?
[00:23:48.230]What I get oftentimes when people are
[00:23:49.930]deciding to start up Circle of Friends groups,
[00:23:51.960]they have a hard time because they say
[00:23:53.600]I have five students who need these groups
[00:23:55.810]or six or 10 or 15 of them.
[00:23:58.550]If it's your first time, you may want to start small
[00:24:00.980]with just one or two focus students.
[00:24:03.060]But that's up to you.
[00:24:04.430]We're going to talk about the different
[00:24:05.790]sized groups in just a minute.
[00:24:07.470]But you'll want to think about that.
[00:24:09.240]You definitely want to consider students
[00:24:10.770]who have those social skill deficits
[00:24:12.820]and require that kind of instruction.
[00:24:15.020]You might consider having kids who
[00:24:16.690]serve a dual mentor-mentee role.
[00:24:19.200]And what I mean by that, I kind of discovered this
[00:24:21.660]when I had a reluctant student.
[00:24:22.990]He didn't want to come to Circle of Friends.
[00:24:24.740]He has autism and he wanted to avoid social interactions
[00:24:27.794]as much as possible because they caused him some anxiety.
[00:24:31.340]However, I knew it would be good for him
[00:24:33.800]to have the practice and I wanted him to go.
[00:24:35.980]So we included some students in our group
[00:24:38.680]who are also focus students who have Down syndrome.
[00:24:41.280]And so I went to the student with autism
[00:24:43.300]and I said you know, Jack really likes you a lot.
[00:24:46.010]He looks up to you and we're going to start this group
[00:24:48.590]of kids getting together to have some fun,
[00:24:50.740]play some games, get to know each other better,
[00:24:53.170]and would you consider being a peer mentor for Jack?
[00:24:56.680]And while he didn't want to go if the group was for him,
[00:25:00.700]when he heard that it could be for somebody else,
[00:25:02.840]he was very readily available and wanted to come.
[00:25:05.920]And he developed some leadership goals
[00:25:08.010]and he had some pride for being able to help
[00:25:11.698]our student who had Down syndrome.
[00:25:13.960]So yes, the groups were definitely designed for him.
[00:25:17.400]He was definitely in need of social skills instruction.
[00:25:20.310]But I didn't tell him this group is for you.
[00:25:22.740]You can tell kids that, but I had a reluctant student.
[00:25:25.540]So what I've found is that without
[00:25:27.320]meaning to in the beginning,
[00:25:28.850]some of my kids really do step up to the plate
[00:25:31.240]and they embrace helping other students
[00:25:33.210]as much as they are being helped as well.
[00:25:35.510]Next is time to consider choosing group structure.
[00:25:38.510]Do you want to use a small group model,
[00:25:40.370]a large group model, or a group within a group model?
[00:25:43.045]With the small groups model,
[00:25:45.170]facilitators choose one or two
[00:25:46.750]focus students and several peers.
[00:25:48.760]Maybe three, four, or five.
[00:25:50.850]They might meet at lunch once a week.
[00:25:52.880]Their meetings may take place entirely at recess.
[00:25:55.760]Recess provides a great social
[00:25:57.830]skill opportunity practice time.
[00:26:00.160]Some folks will pull kids at lunch time
[00:26:02.780]to pre-teach whatever skill they're working on at recess
[00:26:05.700]and then they'll kind of observe how that goes.
[00:26:07.940]They'll prepare the peers ahead
[00:26:09.200]of time to help teach those skills.
[00:26:11.270]And then they can practice the social skills alone
[00:26:13.820]with the focus student ahead of time
[00:26:15.390]before he or she interacts with peers.
[00:26:17.810]You can do role play, review, preview,
[00:26:20.500]video modeling, and use social stories
[00:26:22.460]to teach in a small group model.
[00:26:24.380]One of the benefits is that you really can
[00:26:27.080]laser focus on one or two focus students.
[00:26:29.900]The groups are a little easier to manage when they're small.
[00:26:33.000]And it's really good when you're starting out
[00:26:34.890]and just kind of getting used to running a group
[00:26:36.790]to start with a small group model.
[00:26:40.210]Currently we're doing a large group model in my school.
[00:26:43.220]And by the way, neither a small or a large group model
[00:26:45.900]has shown to have any better outcomes than the other.
[00:26:48.650]You need to choose a size group
[00:26:49.687]that's going to work best for you.
[00:26:51.850]But right now currently we're doing
[00:26:53.260]a three to one ratio with about approximately
[00:26:55.670]30 peer mentors and 10 focus students.
[00:26:58.100]Because we do Circle of Friends from K12,
[00:27:00.880]elementary, middle, and high school in our district,
[00:27:03.290]students are very aware of it.
[00:27:04.730]They belong to Circle of Friends at multiple
[00:27:06.790]different grade levels and it's just a natural
[00:27:08.820]progression for them to continue on in the high school.
[00:27:11.410]So that tends to lead to larger groups.
[00:27:13.872]Because we're so well known and it's viewed
[00:27:16.250]in a positive light in our district,
[00:27:17.740]we also have parents many years who come up and ask us,
[00:27:20.630]I'd like to have my son or daughter be a peer mentor
[00:27:22.940]in the Circle of Friends group because that's something that
[00:27:25.340]they value and they want that experience for their child.
[00:27:27.730]So as a result, our groups tend to be big.
[00:27:30.030]If you're going to do a large group like this,
[00:27:31.730]you're going to need more than one facilitator.
[00:27:33.770]We have two special ed teachers and a paraprofessional
[00:27:36.270]that come to all of our meetings.
[00:27:38.250]Some schools choose to do a whole class option
[00:27:41.370]where the whole class is the Circle of Friends group.
[00:27:43.750]We have small schools in rural Nebraska where there may
[00:27:46.510]only be 10 or 11 students in a first grade classroom.
[00:27:49.450]So they'll do their group with the whole class.
[00:27:52.675]The advantages and disadvantages.
[00:27:55.160]The advantage is that you have
[00:27:56.240]a lot of students to choose from.
[00:27:57.970]When you have a large group,
[00:27:59.180]it's very likely that students are going to
[00:28:00.970]have a peer mentor in many of his or her classes,
[00:28:03.980]in lunch, there's kids to hang out with in the hallway.
[00:28:06.500]So they get to know more students.
[00:28:08.400]The disadvantage is that if you have a student
[00:28:10.470]who has a high stress level and anxiety,
[00:28:13.130]they don't like to be around large groups,
[00:28:15.830]that could be an obstacle for them.
[00:28:17.930]In that case you can do a group within a group,
[00:28:20.060]which I'll be talking about on the next slide.
[00:28:22.633]Either way, whether it's a large or small group,
[00:28:25.170]you're going to build in a method
[00:28:26.480]for getting feedback from the peers.
[00:28:28.190]And we'll talk about that in a little bit.
[00:28:30.530]This year for the first time after
[00:28:32.210]doing a few years with a large group,
[00:28:33.890]we decided to go with a small group within a large group
[00:28:36.630]model because we had some kids who were very high anxiety
[00:28:40.620]and they were struggling in the large group.
[00:28:42.870]Some of our focus students are still
[00:28:44.410]doing well in that large group.
[00:28:45.690]So what we do is one of the two or three facilitators
[00:28:49.660]will take the large group of kids.
[00:28:51.260]So perhaps they'll go the gym or maybe they'll do
[00:28:53.250]a craft activity or a service learning project
[00:28:56.240]while I will take a small group of maybe two or three,
[00:28:59.230]four of five students to work on whatever
[00:29:01.780]social skill we're working on such as,
[00:29:03.460]it could be a conversation skill.
[00:29:05.430]Maybe it's playing a game together
[00:29:06.890]to develop other skills that are deficit areas for them.
[00:29:09.950]So that's how you do a group within a group.
[00:29:12.250]You will need more than one facilitator to do that.
[00:29:16.060]We meet on the same day.
[00:29:17.230]We meet on Thursdays during our school-wide study hall.
[00:29:20.010]So for us it's always the same time,
[00:29:21.750]but we'll split off into different places.
[00:29:24.140]And so the small group will provide targeted
[00:29:27.100]individual focus for the individual students' goals
[00:29:31.540]while the large group will meet
[00:29:32.720]their goals in a different setting.
[00:29:36.010]So whether you do a small group,
[00:29:37.580]a large group, or a group within a group,
[00:29:39.570]you want to have a way to get feedback from peers.
[00:29:42.540]You want to know how things are going.
[00:29:44.400]For example, I had a student who would
[00:29:46.260]put things in his mouth and pick his nose a lot in,
[00:29:48.586]say for example, math or science class.
[00:29:51.430]So we had trained the peers to give them
[00:29:53.790]a tissue or a piece of gum.
[00:29:55.440]We would provide those materials, those items for them,
[00:29:58.840]so that they could give them to our focus student
[00:30:00.720]when they started to do that kind of behavior and it served
[00:30:03.350]as a good reminder for them to please stop that,
[00:30:05.360]it's not socially appropriate.
[00:30:07.220]But I needed to know once we came up with our plan
[00:30:09.490]and the kids had a few days to implement it,
[00:30:11.440]how was that going?
[00:30:12.410]So that's an example of something
[00:30:13.790]you would want to get feedback about.
[00:30:16.000]So you can have informal ways of getting feedback
[00:30:19.660]where kids just come up to you when they see you.
[00:30:21.760]I do lunch duty every day,
[00:30:23.460]so students tend to come up to me as I'm wiping tables.
[00:30:25.860]And if there's a problem,
[00:30:27.120]they'll come up and discuss that with me.
[00:30:29.020]I have one of my peer mentors in
[00:30:30.470]my co-taught algebra two class.
[00:30:32.380]So we'll have quick conversations there.
[00:30:34.490]How are things going?
[00:30:35.610]I involve some of my students in extracurricular activities
[00:30:37.563]and so she is a peer support for them there.
[00:30:40.260]So we touch base in class.
[00:30:42.420]That would be more informal.
[00:30:44.100]Other facilitators have a formal peer only meeting
[00:30:47.540]perhaps once a month where they share successes,
[00:30:50.640]what's going well with your
[00:30:51.770]interactions with the focus student.
[00:30:53.690]They'll share concerns, what's not working well.
[00:30:56.130]What do we still need to work on?
[00:30:58.490]And then they teach the peers how to respond
[00:31:00.480]and interact with the focus student.
[00:31:02.190]So for example, if they have been taught a conversation
[00:31:05.000]model and they are going to go up to John and have a
[00:31:08.300]conversation but John doesn't say anything back to them
[00:31:10.850]or he looks away and doesn't engage them at all,
[00:31:13.291]we would maybe role play things that they could say to him.
[00:31:16.329]So that would be an example of teaching them
[00:31:19.400]how to provide support for the focus student.
[00:31:22.620]As far as choosing your peer mentors,
[00:31:24.480]you want to choose kids who are confident
[00:31:26.360]and not afraid of differences.
[00:31:28.450]Obviously you want good social role models.
[00:31:30.820]But remember, you can include kids who are
[00:31:33.950]in special education programs as well as kids who aren't.
[00:31:36.930]Sometimes students who have ADHD
[00:31:38.890]or mild learning disabilities,
[00:31:40.300]they understand what it's like to struggle.
[00:31:42.420]They have big hearts and they are very content to reach out
[00:31:45.470]and help support students on the autism spectrum.
[00:31:48.700]You want peers who want to participate.
[00:31:50.730]I will always start with a peer only meeting
[00:31:53.460]to let them know that they are invited to be in
[00:31:55.490]Circle of Friends and I outline what those expectations are.
[00:31:59.180]And I tell them go think about it.
[00:32:00.950]Come on back next Thursday to
[00:32:02.310]our meeting if this is for you.
[00:32:03.630]And if it's not for you, maybe you're too busy,
[00:32:05.460]it's not your thing this year, don't worry about it.
[00:32:07.700]That's fine.
[00:32:08.533]Maybe in the future.
[00:32:10.130]You definitely want available peers.
[00:32:12.290]You can choose the top student in the class,
[00:32:15.700]the most social, kind, high achiever student, leader.
[00:32:20.680]However, if they're not in the same classes
[00:32:23.890]or if they're too busy to ever interact
[00:32:26.240]in the world of that focus student,
[00:32:28.010]you might as well go on to somebody else.
[00:32:29.640]You want students who are not too busy,
[00:32:31.820]who are in the same classes,
[00:32:33.100]who have the same lunch period or in PE.
[00:32:35.810]Not all of those, obviously.
[00:32:37.240]That becomes very difficult in the middle and high school
[00:32:39.340]level as kids start to be in different classes.
[00:32:41.660]But you definitely want to choose per mentors
[00:32:43.510]who are in some of the places that the
[00:32:45.650]focus student will be throughout the day.
[00:32:47.830]It's a bonus if you can find a few peers
[00:32:49.840]who have similar areas of interest.
[00:32:51.480]Sometimes that's possible, sometimes it's not.
[00:32:54.170]But it's a big bonus if you find someone
[00:32:56.010]who plays the same video games.
[00:32:57.690]Maybe they both like chess or like to read
[00:33:00.500]or the same type of adventure books or whatever it is.
[00:33:04.150]I always recommend being fluid with your mentor members,
[00:33:07.790]your peer mentors, and to go big.
[00:33:09.260]What that means is some of the peer mentors
[00:33:12.040]that you choose are going to fully embrace their role
[00:33:14.590]and interact with the focus student
[00:33:17.970]in a very positive way with a lot of frequency.
[00:33:21.900]Other students may do a little bit
[00:33:23.277]and some might not engage at all.
[00:33:25.630]And that's okay.
[00:33:26.800]If you've chosen some extra students,
[00:33:28.940]the ones that don't work out,
[00:33:30.360]you just stop inviting them to meetings.
[00:33:32.230]They stop coming and they kind of fall by the wayside.
[00:33:34.900]So what I mean when I say go big
[00:33:36.550]is to be thinking all the time
[00:33:38.020]about who you can invite to your group.
[00:33:39.910]We'll invite peer mentors during the school year.
[00:33:41.920]At the semester, the classes change.
[00:33:43.970]I had a student, for example,
[00:33:45.290]who didn't want to go to a strength and conditioning class.
[00:33:47.400]And I wondered why, because I knew he liked to work out.
[00:33:49.800]And he was coming to my room every day
[00:33:51.380]just saying I don't want to go to class.
[00:33:52.770]Well come to find out, he didn't know any
[00:33:54.680]of the students in that particular class.
[00:33:56.590]So I immediately chose one or two people
[00:33:59.290]to ask if they would be a support for him.
[00:34:01.330]I did some autism awareness for them
[00:34:02.937]and they turned out to be a good support for him.
[00:34:05.510]So you can add members any time you want.
[00:34:08.130]You can do whole class or multi-grade.
[00:34:10.760]I've found that some of my,
[00:34:12.210]I had a girl, for example, who was diagnosed
[00:34:14.440]with autism spectrum disorder in eighth grade.
[00:34:16.790]And up until then, she really didn't get much support.
[00:34:19.660]The peers didn't know anything about her
[00:34:21.630]other than she kind of annoyed them.
[00:34:23.410]So she had some very negative experiences
[00:34:26.120]and interactions with them for a long time.
[00:34:28.240]So when she got to high school,
[00:34:29.560]I chose sophomores, juniors, and seniors
[00:34:31.910]because they had no history with her
[00:34:33.470]and they were able to embrace her from the start.
[00:34:36.320]And you can also consider suggestions
[00:34:38.060]from the focus student.
[00:34:39.080]That helps them be engaged in
[00:34:40.360]the development of their group.
[00:34:41.760]It doesn't mean that all the students they choose
[00:34:43.730]are going to be their only peer mentors,
[00:34:45.630]but you can also ask them what they think.
[00:34:48.540]As I said, I want to make sure that
[00:34:50.170]my peer mentors understand what their role is.
[00:34:52.800]So I teach them in the beginning,
[00:34:54.120]if you choose to accept this invitation
[00:34:56.140]to be a peer support for a student with autism,
[00:34:58.960]I would like you to have conversations with them.
[00:35:00.973]I would like you to speak with them daily if possible.
[00:35:04.010]If there's five peer mentors,
[00:35:05.230]that's five or 10 conversations.
[00:35:06.930]If there's 10 peer mentors, there's even more.
[00:35:09.570]And I teach them a conversation model
[00:35:11.540]that I'll share with you in part two of this webinar series.
[00:35:15.290]Because it's not enough just to tell them to talk.
[00:35:17.180]You need to teach them how to do that.
[00:35:19.150]I often ask to invite the focus student
[00:35:22.090]to eat lunch with them at their lunch table.
[00:35:24.330]I tell them, I know that you have your friends
[00:35:26.320]and you have your friend group
[00:35:27.420]and I'm not asking that it's every day.
[00:35:29.700]However, if there's eight peer mentors
[00:35:31.810]and everybody invites him one or two days a week,
[00:35:34.150]he's always got somebody to eat lunch with.
[00:35:37.660]Sometimes I have to teach them to look for the focus
[00:35:41.010]student in the cafeteria and to call them over.
[00:35:43.250]Because the lunch room can be pretty
[00:35:45.070]chaotic for students on the spectrum.
[00:35:46.820]It's noisy, there's smells, sounds,
[00:35:49.470]all kinds of things going on.
[00:35:50.940]And so I tell them you might need to say hey,
[00:35:53.720]we're sitting at this table, come sit with us.
[00:35:55.470]So that's one of the things that I'll teach them to do.
[00:35:57.880]I have them sometimes support in
[00:36:00.620]extracurricular activities as appropriate.
[00:36:03.080]As I mentioned before,
[00:36:03.990]Caleb became involved as a student manager.
[00:36:06.210]And so I trained the other two student managers about autism
[00:36:09.640]and to be part of his peer support network as well.
[00:36:12.070]And I gave them a clipboard with jobs that he would do.
[00:36:16.010]I talked to the coach and I taught them how to support him.
[00:36:19.660]I let them know that I want them to
[00:36:21.030]communicate with me how things are going.
[00:36:22.820]I tell them that the focus student is not
[00:36:24.190]going to get in trouble if they mess up.
[00:36:26.350]I expect that and my job is to teach them,
[00:36:28.580]not to punish them.
[00:36:29.480]It's not tattling, it's telling to help them learn
[00:36:32.270]the lagging skills that they just don't have yet.
[00:36:34.800]And I have them tell them that they're going to be
[00:36:36.630]a cheerleader for the focus student to encourage them
[00:36:38.850]and help them feel good about coming to school.
[00:36:41.080]The last thing I want to share with you before we end
[00:36:43.170]part one of this webinar series is about notifying parents.
[00:36:46.618]Participation in Circle of Friends is voluntary.
[00:36:49.440]If you have chosen a focus student
[00:36:50.907]and their parent does not want them to participate,
[00:36:53.540]you really do have to honor that.
[00:36:55.545]So just keep that in mind.
[00:36:57.802]Sometimes in the early elementary grades,
[00:37:00.370]parents know their child is fantastic.
[00:37:02.860]And sure, they have some quirks, but they're this unique,
[00:37:05.620]amazingly gifted and talented individual.
[00:37:07.820]And so they don't want the other students
[00:37:09.810]to know that they have autism.
[00:37:11.170]They believe that the other students
[00:37:13.270]will just recognize the inherent goodness in their child
[00:37:16.110]and will treat them well accordingly.
[00:37:18.740]Unfortunately that's not always what happens
[00:37:20.960]and sometimes who really don't want the classmates
[00:37:23.820]to know about it in kindergarten or first grade are begging
[00:37:26.600]you to do a group like this in fifth or six grade.
[00:37:28.820]But wherever the parents are on that journey,
[00:37:31.100]you want to respect it.
[00:37:32.770]If you're sharing a diagnosis,
[00:37:34.270]if you're going to share that John or Sally has autism,
[00:37:37.948]you want to make sure you get parent permission.
[00:37:40.520]If the parents don't want it shared,
[00:37:42.090]you can still have them in a group.
[00:37:44.130]You don't have to tell them that they're a focus student.
[00:37:46.210]You can tell them that they're part
[00:37:48.380]of the peer support network for everybody in the group.
[00:37:51.420]You can do awareness not only on autism,
[00:37:53.450]but you can do awareness on Down syndrome
[00:37:55.500]and Angelman syndrome and learning disabilities and ADHD
[00:37:58.560]and all other kinds of things so that you're not sharing
[00:38:01.110]specifically with students that the group is
[00:38:03.400]for this focus student who happens to have autism.
[00:38:07.030]You can communicate with parents
[00:38:08.470]through phone calls, email, and paper form.
[00:38:10.910]I do all of the above.
[00:38:12.260]And so those are just some options for you.
[00:38:15.370]Before we end, I'm going to share just a couple slides
[00:38:17.610]with the research with you just so that you know
[00:38:19.960]that the studies that I was talking about earlier,
[00:38:22.280]you can look those up if you're interested.
[00:38:24.620]These are by no means an exhaustive study
[00:38:27.120]on the benefits of peer-mediated intervention.
[00:38:30.080]But it's a good place to start.
[00:38:31.853]I'll give you just a minute to look through those.
[00:38:35.870]The research actually started,
[00:38:37.730]the earliest Circle of Friends groups
[00:38:39.450]in the literature that I read about,
[00:38:41.830]started initially in preschool populations.
[00:38:45.020]It's relatively later that teenagers,
[00:38:48.460]adolescent populations have been studied.
[00:38:50.750]There is a need for more research in the field,
[00:38:53.310]but continuing and additional research studies are emerging.
[00:38:57.800]The National Standards Project
[00:38:59.350]report that I mentioned earlier,
[00:39:01.416]determining the outcomes of the evidence
[00:39:04.020]base for different interventions,
[00:39:06.220]is included in this slide here.
[00:39:10.960]And here is the final bit of that information
[00:39:12.920]that I shared earlier in the presentation.
[00:39:15.350]So this is going to end the first
[00:39:16.850]part of this webinar series.
[00:39:18.410]In the second part, we're going to get into
[00:39:20.650]exactly what to do at meetings.
[00:39:22.720]We're going to give you all kinds
[00:39:23.720]of ideas for meeting activities.
[00:39:25.620]We're going to share with you a virtual learning community
[00:39:28.010]that you're welcome to go to any time
[00:39:29.898]to learn new ideas for implementing your groups
[00:39:32.437]and to get questions answered.
[00:39:34.250]And we'll be exploring possible obstacles for your groups,
[00:39:38.170]things that people have experienced,
[00:39:39.670]and ways to overcome them.
[00:39:41.410]We will also have a next steps document for you.
[00:39:43.980]It's a blueprint for developing your plan.
[00:39:45.970]So, thank you so much for your time
[00:39:48.070]and I look forward to sharing the
[00:39:50.270]second part of this webinar with you.
[00:39:52.160]Thank you so much.

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Circle of Friends Part 1

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