-: Teri McGill, and I am the Metro Region ASD Coordinator.
So I serve school districts in ESUs 2, 3,
and then also Omaha Public, which is their own ESU.
And so I have a really small little area
here in Eastern Nebraska, but pretty dense,
lots and lots of kids and lots of staff that I work with.
So, so excited that Jamie is doing these Training Tuesdays.
I did one, I don't know, a month or six weeks ago or so,
which was so fun on joint attention for the little ones.
And so today we're gonna talk about preparing
for your new student with autism,
and it is tough this time of year.
I know that because everyone's asking about stuff
for next year and like you guys, it's a little rough
because you're still trying to finish up this year,
but it's just sort of, kind of the beast of our jobs, right?
I mean, even though we're still working on this year,
we gotta be thinking about next year.
So this is a tough training to do in an hour
because honestly, I could spend an hour
just talking about the characteristics of autism.
So I had to kind of figure out a way
that I can give you guys a lot of information
to prepare yourselves for your new student,
but also do it in an hour, okay?
So it's kinda going to be quick and fast and furious.
But one of the things that I did do in this PowerPoint
is I gave a lot of resources.
So hopefully you'll have a lot of resources
that even this summer, maybe as you're lounging
around the pool or sitting out on a lawn chair,
you might pull up a webinar and take a look at it
or email a past teacher and get some information,
whatever it happens to be.
So the first step, when you prepare for a new student
with autism is to ask yourself whether or not
you really understand what autism is.
So have you had kind of an intro to autism training,
Autism 101 training, any of those kinds of trainings
that really do help you understand
the characteristics of autism?
So when we have administrators that contact
the ASD coordinators, and they say, you know,
we're getting this new student with autism,
you know, this team has not had a student with autism,
so what should we do?
And the very first thing that we always say is,
they need to learn about the characteristics of autism.
And if you don't understand kind of
what those underlying characteristics are,
it's gonna be very hard for you to understand
how the child learns and also very difficult to understand,
you know, behaviors and interactions
and all of those kinds of things with your kiddos.
So this is not an intro to autism.
I'm gonna fly through some of the examples
of characteristics, but we're gonna get onto some
of the other pieces, too.
So we always do want, you know,
to have that definition of autism.
It's a complex developmental disability,
typically evident within the first three years of life,
and it is a behaviorally-defined syndrome.
And it's recognized by difficulties in three specific areas.
Those are communication, social interaction,
and then restricted interests
and those patterns of behavior.
So autism is a spectrum disorder.
So if you haven't worked with a lot of kids with autism,
this might be new to you, I'm sure many of you
have worked with many individuals with autism,
but it is a spectrum disorder.
And we talk about it as a spectrum
because of the variance in characteristics
and levels of functioning.
So we have kids with autism who may present
with more classic autism.
Those are the kids you're not generally going to miss.
Those are the kids with low verbal ability,
or they might possibly be non-verbal.
They may also have more of those stereotypic
or repetitive kinds of behaviors.
And then we have individuals who are,
who have average to above average cognition,
above average, to above average verbal abilities,
and they, so they present very different
than our individuals with classic autism.
Now, generally, we have talked about those individuals
with higher, with those higher cognitive abilities
and higher verbal abilities as high functioning autism.
And so, those, one thing we just wanna caution you
is that sometimes, we use the terminology,
high functioning autism,
there is a tendency for people, then,
to think the other end is low functioning.
And we have to be really careful of that
because we have some individuals with autism
who are non-verbal, who are very bright.
And then, on the other hand, it also can, for some people,
signify because they're high functioning,
maybe they don't need a lot of support,
and we also know that isn't true.
So although what I will tell you is we don't really have
a better term to use at this point,
but there is some controversy in the world of autism
about that terminology, high-functioning autism
and Asperger's syndrome was a medical term
that is no longer in the DSM.
But again, sometimes you'll hear that term out there.
As far as autism goes, individuals can fall
anywhere on this spectrum.
So they may not fall on one end or the other.
They may fall in the middle of the spectrum. Okay?
So variance in characteristics and a variance
in their levels, their developmental levels
in a variety of areas.
So this kinda just shows you that we talk
about the spectrum and we talk about those areas
as like social, communication, restricted interests,
and those repetitive types of behaviors our kids might have
and then some of those sensory pieces,
each one of those is almost a spectrum of itself, okay?
And our kids can fall anywhere along the spectrum
in any of these areas, and all of our kids
will most likely fall in different places.
So this is sort of where we say,
if you've met one child with autism,
you've only met one child with autism, right?
So I know a lot of you have probably had multiple students
with autism that you've worked with and my guess is
they've all been very different
and that's really what we're trying to get at here,
and that's why we're calling,
that's why we call autism a spectrum.
Okay.
So remember I said, the most important thing you can do
is understand those characteristics.
So social, communication, restricted interests
and patterns of behavior.
So those are the three areas that we are talking about.
That's so funny, I didn't even touch the screen,
and that went, that's so interesting.
Hopefully it's not on a timer.
That wouldn't be good.
And so, when we talk about social, lots of you know this.
Significant difficulties or differences, or both,
in interacting with or understanding people and events.
Communication can be significant difficulties
or differences, which extend beyond speech and language
to other aspects of social communication,
both receptively and expressively.
It's where that pragmatic piece falls in.
And then, those repetitive activities
and restricted interests, a lot of our individuals
will seek consistency in environmental events
to the point of exhibiting significant rigidity in routines
and display marked distress over change.
Okay?
And also has significantly persistent preoccupation with,
or attachment to object or topic.
So those are those restricted interests.
Again, I know this is review for many of you.
So I just want you to take a look
at the different characteristics here.
If you have an example of a characteristic in either,
in any of these areas and wanna put that in the chat box,
that would be awesome.
Okay, so I'm gonna touch on some of these,
but feel free to add anything
because this is by no means an exhaustive list.
The three in red are the three areas on our rule 51
that we need to look at for identifying
a student with autism in the school district.
And that sensory is underneath restricted interests
and repetitive behaviors, 'cause quite often,
many of those things are gonna fall into that category,
many of the things you see in the sensory category.
So for communication, we've talked about things
like delay of, or absence of spoken language.
Some of our kids have that repetitive
or nonfunctional use of language.
Some of our higher kids, difficulty initiating
or sustaining conversation,
understanding those conversation rules and body language.
So does anyone have other examples of characteristics
in the communication area?
The chat box is very quiet.
If you think of any, put them in the chat box.
So for social, difficulty understanding
social rules and relationships, especially friendships,
lack of social reciprocity, unconventional and awkward,
inappropriate methods of interaction.
This one's pretty important if you're working
with specially, some of our kids, upper elementary,
middle and high school, social maturity can be one third
to two thirds of their chronological age.
So they may be acting way younger
than they actually are because of that,
their deficits in the area of social.
And then, for some of our younger kids, lack of varied,
and/or spontaneous play skills.
Restricted interests, so lots of things can fit under here,
but especially that need for sameness and routine,
the narrow areas of interest,
some of the repetitive motor behaviors you might see
with some of our kids, some of the repetitive rituals
you might see with some of our kids
fits into that area also.
And then, with some of our kids, you will see
some sensory differences or difficulties.
So experience information to the senses in different ways,
may seek or avoid activities that provide input.
Sometimes, you may see a fight or flight response
with some of our kids when it comes to being,
you know, too overloaded when it comes
to some of the sensory pieces.
Like I said, not an exhaustive list,
but just to get you thinking about those characteristics.
So if you are working with a team member
or you yourself have not had a,
kind of an introduction training to autism,
we highly recommend you do that
before your new student comes.
So here are a variety of options,
including Autism Spectrum Disorders and Females,
who do present very differently than males.
There is also, so there is one that's kind of
just a general one.
There is one that is tailored to those individuals
with average cognition, and verbal skills.
There is one specific for administrators, and then also,
we have Including students with ASD in Specialist Classes.
And so if you, we just don't wanna forget about the fact
that our kids are going to those other adults
in your building, and they need some supports
and help in some of those classes.
And lots of times our specialist teachers
don't have that information.
So these are all live links.
So if you pull up the PowerPoint as a PDF,
you should be able to click on any of those
to go to the webinars.
Another thing that you should really spend
a little time visiting with the current team members
to become familiar with characteristics of autism
and especially the specific ones that affect your,
or impact your student and one of the good ways to do that
is observe them in their current environment,
discuss those characteristics with their current teachers,
their parents, or their guardians.
And if you're not familiar
with the underlying characteristic checklist,
especially if you have a student
who's coming to you brand-new, meaning,
maybe outside the district,
nobody's had experience with this student,
you might consider in the first few weeks
doing the UCC with, the team might consider doing this
on that student.
There is many options
for the underlying characteristics checklist,
one for early intervention, high functioning, classic,
adolescent self-report and adult self-report,
and regional coordinators can get you these,
and you can do these as a team
or as you know, as a SPED teacher,
if you just wanna go through and see
which characteristics your student is showing,
this can really help you to get to know your student.
And then it also can really, really help
as far as understanding what supports your child needs.
So it's an option that is out there.
Then, if you want some more information about sensory,
we also have a lot of fabulous webinars on sensory.
And so the Sensory Processing Overview and Strategies
is actually done by Jamie Lewis,
hosting our Training Tuesday today.
And then we have some from just YouTube .
"Through My Eyes" is a young lady on the spectrum
who wanted to do a video to show what the world's like
for her because of her sensory differences and difficulties.
And then Brain Works has some really,
really great videos for teachers,
especially our gen ed teachers,
to understand some of the difficulties
kids with vestibular issues can have in a classroom
and those proprioceptive issues.
Those last two videos are short
and they're just really, really good.
They really help you understand why your kids are rocking
in their chair or why they're standing up
or why they can't sit still,
or why they're leaning on the wall
when they walk down the hall,
all of those kinds of things that quite honestly,
as teachers, kind of upset us, but if we maybe understand
where it's coming from, it can make a really big difference
and they're short and right to the point.
Okay.
And then, also I think it's really important
that you find out what kinds of sensory needs
your new student might have.
So in a lot of these sections, it is gonna talk
about observing your student in their current environment.
So I hope in the next few weeks,
you might have time to set that up.
If this is a student who's in your district right now,
spend time meeting with the current team
in order to learn the unique sensory needs of that student,
ask the current team members, and don't forget
about the occupational therapist.
What supports or tools help that new student
regulate throughout the school day?
Specifically, what are they using?
Does that student use, drink ice water during the day?
Do they sit on a exercise ball?
Do they take breaks, walking breaks?
Whatever it happens to be.
Lots of times we see those kids, if they're in our building,
or we hear that they've got some sensory needs,
but we don't specifically ask,
and it's really, really important that you do that
so you're ready on day one for the kinds of things
your student might need.
And then what, are their activities or times of day
that are harder for your student and what helps?
Okay, what works best for that student
during some of those times?
So specifically asking team members, you know,
if it's an older student, it might be passing periods.
You know, if it's a younger student,
it might be cleanup time, whatever it happens to be,
but knowing that ahead of time means
that you can put a support in place to help that,
and you could avoid having some of those behaviors,
difficulties, those kinds of things.
Okay, and don't forget that our kids with autism
and our young adults with autism
have some amazing strengths.
Strong visual performance skills for many of them.
They do a fabulous job learning and following routines.
So we can use that to our advantage,
if we can teach them a cool-down routine.
So we teach it when things are good,
and then when they're starting to get frustrated or upset,
they can use that routine to not only help calm them,
but would at oftentimes, just the whole fact
that it's a routine that they're familiar with
will really, really help to deescalate quicker.
Great focused attention when related to special interests.
So we know our kids can attend.
We may have to figure out how we can get them attend
to what we want them to attend to in order to earn
what it is that they are really, really interested in.
Strong rote memory for many of our kids,
and oftentimes very, very honest, right?
These are the kids that are gonna tell you
if they don't like your hair
or if they don't like your shoes,
or if they think that's an ugly shirt.
Please, please, please do not take that personally.
Okay?
It's important that our kids do learn that those things
are not okay to say, okay, because they can hurt
people's feelings and if they hurt people's feelings,
they may not want to be around you, okay,
but you can't take it personally, okay?
Because in many, many adults on the spectrum
who have presented, will say, it's just a fact.
In my brain, it's just a fact, that's all it is.
So if you have staff members that don't understand that,
you need to be sure that they do,
because otherwise it can be a rocky road, okay,
getting started with kids that possibly can be too honest.
And then it offends teachers and teachers get upset,
so, or staff members get upset.
Okay, so let's talk about a checklist of some things
that you can be thinking about putting in place
for your kids with autism as you get started.
So the very first thing you should be thinking about
for your new student is reinforcement.
So important because what we know about reinforcement
is 90% of the effectiveness of a program
for our kids with autism is reinforcement.
They are not reinforced the way
our neurotypical kids are reinforced.
So they are not doing things often to please you,
they are often not doing things to please Mom and Dad.
They are often not motivated, okay,
by high fives or good jobs or a pound.
Now when some of our kids get to know you,
okay, and you start to pair with them,
then many of those things do become more reinforcing,
but oftentimes, not reinforcing enough to do the hard work.
Okay?
So I always say to folks, whatever reinforcer's in place
has gotta be strong enough for our kids to do the work.
And for some of our kids, doing the work is tough.
Okay?
It's difficult for them to do.
And for some of them, they don't really understand
why they have to do it because maybe it's not
a special interest of theirs.
So we need to make sure that we have
that reinforcement in place.
Reinforcement is what makes the behavior
more likely to occur in the future.
And it should immediately follow the behavior
you want to strengthen.
Reinforcement should be consistent, okay,
and I'm gonna show you some examples
of how we can make our reinforcement visual for our kids
so they understand when they can access reinforcement.
But if you have a skill you want to happen again,
you need to reinforce it.
Okay, this is a principle of behavior.
So be careful because no matter what you reinforce,
it's going to happen again.
So we can accidentally reinforce inappropriate behavior
and then have that happen again.
So we wanna be careful to reinforce only the things
that we want to happen again.
It's easier said than done. I absolutely know that.
So, but keep that in mind.
So a couple of things that I think are really important,
especially when you're working with staff
and your team and even paraeducators,
these little statements can be super powerful.
You don't get the behavior you want,
you get the behavior you reinforce.
Okay? So keep that in mind.
And it's for most of our kids, it's not, they're just gonna,
they're just gonna change because you want them to.
Okay, that's probably not gonna happen.
What they're gonna do is they are going to use
that behavior that we're reinforcing.
Okay, and then also your reaction determines
whether a behavior happens again or not.
To change a student behavior,
we have to change our own behavior.
Really, really important,
especially with a lot of our kids.
So to learn more about reinforcement, and I wanna recommend
that, especially if you have paraeducators that are new
to working with some of your kids,
that you guys take just a few minutes and take a look
at our really short reinforcement virtual strategy.
Jamie, I'm gonna try to go to this,
but I'm not really sure if it will show.
You'll have to let me know.
Can you see it on my screen?
How about- -: Anybody?
-: Hello?
-: No, do you have a link for it, Teri?
I'd be happy to put it in the chat.
-: Well, there's a live link on their PowerPoint.
Jamie: Oh, okay, super.
-: So a problem at all. So hang on.
Now I gotta reshare, sorry.
Hold on one second. Possibly.
Okay.
Oh, the wonderful world of technology.
Okay.
So there's a live link on your PowerPoint for this.
It's really short.
It's what our virtual strategies are,
is just a little bit of information,
and then a video example,
a little video description and example.
So you can sit down and just do the quick little video
with your team and then you can talk
about your specific student
and what you're gonna use for reinforcement.
So that's a really, really important piece.
Now this, there probably isn't many things
more important than this, okay?
That if you spend a little time before the student comes
and find out what their preferences are
and what things they love and have those things ready,
day one, things are gonna go a lot smoother.
Okay, so before the school year starts,
interview parents or send home a preference assessment.
And you're gonna have access to a folder of these,
talk to past teachers, current team members,
anyone who's spent time with that student
and find out what they love, okay?
And it could be things like items, toys, topics of interest,
different activities that they love,
even things that they like to eat,
things they like to drink.
Okay? And this is important.
It doesn't matter how old your student is.
I mean, we have high schoolers that are working
for those Fire Doritos or they're working
to buy a Mountain Dew, okay?
So it doesn't matter how old they are.
Any of these things, we need to find out all these things
about whatever, you know, any age of our kiddos.
So, and you could use one of the preference assessments
you find in this link.
Again, live link, a folder of a variety
of preference assessments.
And there's some specific to middle and high school.
There's some, there's a lot, there's quite a few
that are specific to younger kids.
There's one very simple one that just has the categories
and just a box for parents to fill out.
Things they like to play with, things they like to eat,
things they like to drink, movies they like to watch.
But having all that information ahead of time
is going to be a lifesaver for you.
So, and then for day one, you wanna gather some items,
and remember, we're just, you're not sure
which ones will be the highest preferred,
but have a variety of things that is,
the parents and others have said that they've liked.
You can even throw in a few things you just wanna try,
to see if maybe they'll like.
Give the student time to try those activities
at the beginning of, sometime during day one, okay?
Set those things out, see which ones they pick.
Older kids, you can have pictures of things.
Hey, what do you wanna work with, work for?
We're gonna set up a system and you're gonna get
to work for something.
And so, for those kids, it could maybe
even just be pictures of things.
Determine which of these things are highest preferred
so you know what it is that your student
can work for during the day.
And I'm gonna show you some visual systems
that you can put in place with these preferences.
Okay?
Now part of reinforcement is pairing ourselves
with our student, and this is so important
at the beginning of the year.
I can't, again, overstate it.
It goes along with reinforcement.
You have to have this stuff in place.
You need to pair yourself and all the new adults
and even some of our peers, oftentimes,
have to pair with our kids.
So starting slow, who's initially, so maybe they're,
and I'll talk to you about, over summer,
some things that we've done,
but having the adults who are in that child's,
so maybe the special ed teacher, the gen ed teacher,
the SLP, beginning of the year, we're gonna make sure
those people are spending some time with that student
and with their highly preferred items, toys, topics,
snacks, whatever it is.
Okay?
You're gonna set up some specific times to do that.
You're gonna spend time talking
about their special interests.
The whole idea is we're pairing you with their reinforcers
so you become as awesome as those reinforcers.
So now they want to be around you.
We always say the surefire way to know
if you're paired or not, does the student come to you
or does the student run away from you
or turn away from you or avoid you?
If they are avoiding you, you are not paired with them,
and you can't often pair with our kids
the way we do with neurotypical kids.
We stand in front of a class and we talk
about the game Friday night,
or we do these, which is fabulous.
Our kids love, our neurotypical kids love that.
That's not how you can pair
with some of our kids with autism.
It's gotta be about their special interests
and their reinforcers.
Okay?
Now you can start the school year,
and even like over the summer, we have kids
that will go visit the classroom,
and I'll say to the teacher,
I really need you to get some Spiderman stuff in your room.
Okay?
I need you to get that picture up on the wall,
behind your desk.
I need you to have that comic book on your desk.
Whatever it is, okay?
We have kids that have liked car magazines.
We have kids that like trains.
We have kids that like Power Rangers.
We wanna have that preferred stuff in our space
so that when they visit, they're like, man,
this person's the cool person.
I wanna be around this person
'cause she's got the good stuff.
Okay?
And so that's a really easy way, even during visits,
when you're starting in May
to kind of get to know that student.
The other thing that we've done is FaceTime or Zoom
or whatever it is over the summer.
This is probably way easier this summer,
'cause everybody's used to Zoom
and all the different, you know, platforms we're using.
And so, you know, get ahold of that parent over the summer,
get your face in front of that student
so that they see you and talk about the things they love
or have those items there or say to Mom,
I'm gonna drop off a couple things, but can you wait
to open it until we're on Zoom together?
So then you can open that stuff, and you know,
you can say, oh, you know, Mrs. Smith brought this over,
and I can say, yeah, open the bag.
Let's see what's in it.
And now, they're opening it up.
Surefire wire to pair.
So now that student, when they come to school,
wants to be with you.
So those are some ideas and ways to do that over the summer.
You do have a handout that is some tips for pairing.
So if you wanna take a look at that, and then also,
when you start the school year with other staff,
such as paraeducators, those, our specialist teachers,
all of those folks.
So sometimes at the beginning of the year,
or if the child is new to the building
and has not had those specialist teachers,
they might go down, and we might have them delivering things
to that that specialist so they can get to know them.
When they deliver it, the specialist teacher might hand
that kiddo a snack bag with a couple,
two or three Skittles in it, here you go.
Now we're starting to pair that PE teacher
or that music teacher, whatever it is with that student.
So and you can do that by having quick, fast interactions
that also include reinforcement.
Okay? So individualizing reinforcement visuals.
So these are generally for those younger kids,
even some of our elementary kids will use some of these.
They always generally show what they're working for,
and so throughout the day or throughout a work session,
they are working on using these kinds of visuals.
So we will try the videos and see if they work here
as a token system in action.
Jamie, let me know.
-: You do have three tokens.
Two more for Goldfish.
Keep working!
Thanks for getting started right away.
Wow! You are working so quickly and quietly.
Nice work, Paige!
Look it, you've earned a Goldfish.
-: Now what Mom's gonna do is pull those off.
We did these for parents during COVID, but-
-: You'll earn Goldfish again.
-: She'll start putting it back on quickly.
Now know that because it's a younger kiddo,
we initially start doing it really quickly,
and then it might be that a teacher just walks by
and puts one on or some of our kids actually have
things like these chart moves,
and this teacher just says to them, you know,
John move your bear to number 4.
I love how you are doing work or oh, you're sitting quietly.
Move to number 5.
Okay, and so that is one, some of those can be done
without adults right next to the student.
There does not have to be an adult
next to a student all the time.
Again, some of the videos were done to help parents
during COVID, but it's the same process we use
in our schools with our kids.
Here's one for, it was actually a high school kiddo.
And some people are, 'cause of the pictures,
wonder about that.
But for some of our kids who are very bright,
they oftentimes, when they're upset or struggling
need the pictures too.
So it's important to remember that.
So this kiddo had two paths they could take.
Both paths were absolutely fine,
but there is two different ones.
They can bring their materials, follow a class agenda,
complete their work, go to the Health,
go get some coupons for snacks in the cafeteria
or the Health office, or they get some time for MINDCRAFT.
Okay, so there's some reinforcement built in
for doing those things.
Another path they can take is pick up pass in the office,
go to the class, but guess what?
This isn't working, so I need to go,
show the pass to the teacher.
Now they go to either the office or room 154,
which was a resource room.
Okay? And they complete their work there.
Okay, now there was some reinforcement built in
if they completed work in those rooms,
but it was not the same reinforcement that they earned
if they were able to hold it together and stay in class.
We want to reinforce the fact that a child
successfully understands I can't do this
and I need to go someplace else.
And so there was absolutely reinforcement built in
at either their office spot or in room 154.
If they got there and they were able to do some work there,
reinforcement was built in because we want to
absolutely reinforce that self-regulation
of being able to manage that,
especially with our older kids, for sure.
This is one we did for a high schooler and this kiddo
wanted to earn some, a couple, a few different things
they wanted to earn, and we simply asked him,
what do you wanna work for?
He likes to draw. He wanted just time to think.
So he just wanted to hang out
and do some thinking, which was awesome,
and he also liked doing comics.
So we got a site called Make Believe Comic ready for him.
And he earned minutes in his classes for specific things.
Okay, so at the end of class, the teacher would come over.
They would work together to fill this out
or the teacher would come over while the child was working
or when they completed the assignment
or when they turned it in and add those minutes to there.
And this guy earned time, I think around lunchtime,
he had a break and then the end of the day
and the break time depended on the minutes he earned.
Okay, any questions so far?
Some people are nodding, thank you.
I can get that verbal...
All right.
Let me see, is there anything in that chat box?
I think Jamie would let me know.
Nope, I don't think so.
Okay.
All right, sorry, I don't know how I keep bumping ahead.
So now we're gonna talk about structuring the environment,
another really important piece.
And this is important at every level, again for our kids,
but how much structure they need
is gonna be individualized for the student.
But having some structure during the day
for the kids will help to reduce stress, provide comfort,
help to increase independence.
Again, help with individualization
helps with our kids' visual strengths
because when they look at things,
they kinda know what they have to do.
And then also with organization.
For many, many, if not all of our kids on the spectrum,
oftentimes need information on four specific questions
in order to understand and know what's expected of them.
And so, that is what work do I have to do?
How much do I have to do?
When do I know I'm done and what do I do
or what do I get when I'm done?
That last one can generally be reinforcement
or they maybe get a break, which could also
be considered reinforcement for many of our kids.
And so, these questions are really important.
And I am gonna show you how you can do this,
even in like curriculum work.
Provide them with this information as they're doing things
like worksheets and those kinds of things.
But first, some of the structured environment pieces.
Some our kids need some visuals
to understand their boundaries.
So they can move their chair around,
but it needs to stay in that box, okay?
They got a little extra room on their table,
but stuff needs to stay within that taped area.
For a little one, there is a little partitioned area
for this one to go to when things are getting too chaotic
in the classroom and they need a place that they can go.
And for this guy, doing some of the structured tasks
was actually quite calming for him.
So this was a really nice area to be able to go to.
Some of our kids have work systems set up.
So these are two different examples of those.
They might go to a work area and take the 1 off the table
and move it to the organization,
the organizer shelves that are there.
I'm not sure what those are called,
I should probably have a name of those,
and put the 1 on there, open that box,
take out what they need to do,
finish it and put it in the blue tub for complete.
So today, when they come over to the table,
there's gonna be two things for them to do
because the 1 and the 2 is out.
So some of our kids are gonna do some work system
kinds of things, and that could be curriculum work,
extra curriculum work they didn't get done,
or it could be work on other areas.
So fine motor kinds of things, grooming kinds of things.
So life skill kinds of things, repetition.
So they can practice and not lose some of their skills,
all of those kinds of things.
These areas are often very calming for a lot of our kids.
They like to go to areas where things make sense.
And for here, it makes sense, 'cause I know
what I have to do, I gotta do number 1 and number 2.
I know when I'm done, because number 1
and number 2 are gone.
They're already matched.
What do I get when I'm done?
Hopefully, there is a visual schedule
or something right by this kiddo so that they know
what to do or what they get when they are done
doing those first two, those two tasks that they have to do.
Home Base is a place that's similar,
as far as providing a place for our kids to go to
that can help them refocus, can help them calm,
can help them regulate.
It is not a punishment and it is not a timeout. Okay?
It is a place that they can go to in order to, again,
kind of refocus or calm down.
They just sort of need a break
because there's a lot going on in a school, right?
There are, there's a lot of movement.
There's a lot of noise.
There are all different kinds of lights
and different things going on.
So a lot of times, our kids just need a place
that they can go that maybe you turn off
the fluorescent lights and maybe it's quiet
and they can just go and sit, relax, read,
whatever it is that that calms them.
Home Base visits can be scheduled
or they can occur on an as-needed basis and may be used
to work or they could just use it to calm down.
And I'll just show you a quick example
of what that might look like.
Okay. so here's just one setup in a classroom
for a kiddo to go to, and again, we wanna be really,
really careful that we're not making kids earn time
in Home Base, because this is something
they might need in order to even be successful
doing their work, and so it's more about our kids
recognizing their body signals and us supporting
and helping them to be able to do that
so that we can tell when they need to go to Home Base,
we can put parameters around it.
There can be timers that we use for that.
Okay, and/or it could be that you can go, you know,
however, however you wanna do it.
I don't wanna say, you know, so many times a day
or things like that because it's gonna be
very individualized for your student.
I think what we've found, and I think others have probably,
that have used these know, kids don't generally abuse it.
They actually use it when they need it.
And then we have some kids that need it,
but really we struggle to get them to use it.
And so for those kids, we might schedule it
so we make sure that they do take the opportunity
to go down and sort of regroup and those kinds of things
Oh, plastic reinforcer cards, thanks Jamie,
for answering that, yes, and I will tell you
that I never used any of the fancy,
I didn't have any of the fancy plastic reinforcer cards.
So we generally did Oak tag and then laminated it
and then laminated the, you know,
we would just literally use stickers that we cut out
on Oak tag and laminate those for the tokens.
So if you don't have the fancy plastic,
although they are nice, especially if kids are, you know,
destructive with things, but if you don't have those,
then you can, you can use other things, so.
Okay, visual supports is the next area to be thinking about.
So for kids with autism, and this means all of our kids,
whether they are very bright and very verbal or non-verbal,
we need to be very, very careful to not overdo the verbal.
So we say to a lot of our teams,
we need you to stop with all the verbal and use the visuals
because what happens with a lot of our kids with autism
is they get very dependent on the verbal prompts
and then they are not independent
because in order to get through a task,
they need us to verbally step them through it,
which means they can't do it on their own.
So what I always say to my teams
is verbal prompts do not lead to independence.
So anything you are verbally prompting a child to do
on a daily basis, you need to figure out a way
to make it visual, okay, so that we,
because they can do it by themselves with a visual.
Okay, they don't need you there if they have a visual.
And that's what we wanna strive for, that independence.
So for some of our kids, visual schedules,
I think a lot of you probably know that.
We do such a good job in our state with visual schedules.
They can be very simple, show a picture and the kiddo goes,
they could match a picture.
It could be a first, next kind of thing.
It could be something that shows the first part of the day.
If you have kids, please be careful, the one thing
I will say here is that Boardmaker pictures
are oftentimes used for kids that are not at the level
to use those pictures.
So because Boardmaker is easy
and lots of our districts have it,
I find that all the visuals are made
with Boardmaker pictures.
And we got a whole bunch of kids,
whether they're real little or in high school
that are not at a representational level
to do those line drawings from Boardmaker.
So really, really be careful about that.
We have early learners of every age, okay,
so an early learner could be a high schooler,
but who is at that lower cognitive level.
Boardmaker pictures are high for those kids.
So you need to be sure that they are at
a high enough representation level for that.
And I say to my teams, actually, real pictures
are more age appropriate for even high school now,
because high school kids, everyone,
they got pictures of everything.
High school kids are all about photos.
So it's almost even better to use photos
because those Boardmaker pics are actually,
actually seem younger, okay?
'Cause sometimes we use those because we think
they're better because the kids are older.
Just be careful with that or at least think about that.
For some of our kids who are readers,
so they're verbal and oftentimes, or maybe not,
they could be non-verbal and be a reader,
but written schedules are fine for kids who are pretty good
have pretty good reading ability.
Okay?
We wanna be sure that they can read the word
and they know what that means
if you're not using a picture at all.
We like this schedule on the left a lot.
It was one that was done at the beginning of the year
for a student in middle school.
So it is a written schedule.
It's just typed out, but it actually has pictures
of all of the teachers, and so they used this initially.
And then once they got to know the teachers,
we took those pictures off.
And then the other thing we did is we added sticky notes
to the schedule when things changed.
Okay, so if there was gonna be a sub
or if there was an assembly or any of those kinds of things,
we had to have a place to put that on the schedule.
So remember to keep in mind
when you're making your schedule for your new student,
how am I gonna let them know if something changes?
What's gonna alert them to that. Okay?
Is it something highlighted?
Is it a sticky note? Is it a change card?
Whatever it might be.
Some of our kids, especially elementary aged kids,
might need some mini-schedules and supports for recess.
So these are just a couple examples of those.
And you do not need to be fancy
with mini-schedules, especially.
So a lot of our high school kids,
and even some of our elementary kids who are readers,
we don't have to get fancy.
We can use a simple sticky note
and write the three things they need to do on it
with either checkoff boxes or teach them to cross off.
And sticky notes are well accepted.
So when we get to our kids in middle and high school,
they do not want anything fancy.
Okay, so they don't want any of those picture things.
Okay, but a sticky note works really, really well.
And some of our kids can verbally tell you
the three steps or four steps they have to do,
but they still will sit there and not get started.
If you teach them to do a checkoff, I promise you,
it will help because they get the first one done,
they check it off, they know where they go next.
It's right there.
Just because they can verbally tell you
does not mean they know where to start.
And that's a real issue with a lot of our kids
and it's maddening for our teachers, right?
Because tell me what you have to do,
and they repeat all the steps they have to do,
but then they don't do it, because actually when,
I've read about individuals with autism,
I've heard them present.
They're like, yeah, I can tell you what I have to do,
but I don't know where to start.
Okay, and that's where these little notes come in handy.
Super fast and easy, too.
On the right is something was used in an elementary
and then even a middle school classroom.
And it was just so kids could say,
and all the kids in the class had it, okay?
So it was for them to say, I know what to do.
I understand, but I have a few questions,
I need help, and I don't know what to do.
Now, a modification for that,
for even some of our middle and high school kids
is just to have a colored sticky note in their binder.
If they need help from you, all they do
is take a blank sticky note out
and put on their desk or on top of their binder
or on top of their iPad, whatever it happens to be,
and that signals to the teacher, they need help.
Now, why do we do that?
Because at least now they are initiating
that they need help.
If you come over to them and say, why aren't you working?
And they say, I need help, and then you say,
well, you need to ask, and they say, I need some help.
Okay, all that's great, right?
I mean, we know they need help now
and so we're gonna help them,
but we want our kids to initiate that.
So just by taking a sticky note out,
even though they're not verbally initiating it
or doing anything rhetorically like raising their hand,
they're at least putting a sticky note out
and initiating that they need help.
Visual supports for regulation.
So break cards really can be helpful,
and some of our kids that have Home Base spots
have break cards in their binders.
So they just pull it out and give it to the teacher,
and the teachers all know because we have communicated
with the whole team what that process is.
And then I was talking about a calming routine.
So here's one here,
You take deep breaths, you ask for help,
you tell the teacher what you want.
Okay?
For some of our kids, they do things like deep breaths.
They do isometric pushes. Okay?
They might do more deep breaths,
and then maybe they have like a,
some kind of Koosh ball or something
they squish five times.
And we've taught them that when things are good
and as they've practiced it, we've reinforced it.
And now when the child's getting upset
or nervous or frustrated, okay, we can now go over to them
and give them the picture to do their calm down break.
Okay, or we can use a signal.
Okay, so they know to go and do their break.
Some kids will do those breaks right where they're sitting
and then others will have another place
that they'll go for those breaks.
Sorry, guys. Okay.
And some other visual supports,
these are for ending activities.
Again, these are for, could be used at all ages.
For the younger kids, we'll use a countdown, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Older kids, we do a similar countdown,
but it can just be on a sticky note.
Generally, those are used for highly preferred activities
that our kids don't wanna stop, okay?
For some of our kids that we feel need
a little bit more control of the situation,
we can use a one more minute card.
So I'm gonna show you a few, just a quick little video
of how these work.
Again, these were made at home, but they are,
this is the exact process we use with kids in schools.
-: Paige, I'm taking five off,
4, 3, 2, 1, then we'll be all done.
-: Now we say the same thing every time,
and that's because it's now a routine.
-: Paige, I'm taking four off.
3, 2, 1, then all done.
-: It then becomes a routine for our kids,
and remember routines are a strength.
And so, generally by the time you get to two-
-: Paige, I'm taking three off.
2, 1, then we'll be all done.
Paige, I'm taking 2 off.
One more, then we will be all done coloring.
-: I'm just gonna you what happens
after we get done with one.
'Cause I don't want you to forget this step.
-: I'm taking one off.
That means we are all done.
Pick up your, shut your book and put your lid on.
Nice job cleaning up, Paige. Good for you.
-: She followed directions, so there's reinforcement,
okay, because we want her to do that the next time
we want to, we need to clean up.
This is the one more minute card.
(alarm ringing)
-: Paige, the bell rang. We're all done with Play-Doh.
-: I don't want to.
-: Do you have a one more minute card.
Oh great!
I'll set the timer for one more minute.
(alarm ringing)
Oh, one more minute is done.
It's time to clean up.
-: But I don't want to.
-: Well, do you have a one more minute card?
No? Okay.
Well then what do you have to do?
What do you have to give me?
-: I don't want to, but I will.
-: Great job, let's pick that-
-: Right, I don't want to, but I will.
One of my favorite things,
because I think that's a life lesson, right?
There's some things we have to do in life
that we don't wanna do.
So that is a really, really great strategy for kids
who kinda need that little bit of control.
You can even use it with a countdown.
So you count down, you get down to one,
you pull it off, they want one more minute.
They can give you a one more minute card,
and at that point, sometimes we just set a timer.
So we do the countdown, they ask for one more minute,
we set the timer, then they're done.
So it can be a really, really great strategy to use,
and we found them to be really successful.
I even have high school kids that are doing that countdown.
One guy who likes to look at car part magazines,
and so what they do is they just have a piece of paper there
with the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and as they do minutes,
but as the minute goes over, they do remind him,
one minute's done, you know, 5, and taking 5 off.
Okay, you have four more minutes left, but they,
even with a timer, they still have to visually remind him
so they can get him to stop looking at the magazine, so.
Now there's also a lot of resources available.
I showed you a picture of some work systems.
So there is virtual, I should say virtual strategy.
I'm sorry, not a virtual schedule,
but there is a work system virtual strategy,
just like the reinforcement one.
There's one of those on social stories.
What are other visuals we use a lot with our kids?
Are social narratives.
Also, there's a virtual strategy for visual schedule.
So remember those are quick, fast.
And so it won't take you long to look at those
and kind of see if those are things
that are gonna be helpful for your student.
There's also one for conversation starters.
So for some of those kids that wanna work
on some of the social stuff, there's also,
and usually those conversations starters are visual, okay?
Okay, so when we're talking about what visual supports
does your new student need,
work with the current team members and you know,
and/or observe the student to see
what visual supports are currently in place.
You've gotta see what's happening currently in place.
If the team is not sending those to you,
you need to get pictures of them.
Okay? So, so important.
Because we wanna start the year
with something that's familiar for the student.
Now the only exception to that might be
some of those kids moving from elementary to middle school
and then middle to high,
they might want you to make it look different.
'Cause they might think it's babyish from elementary school,
but you need to at least see what they had,
what components were on that schedule
or what pieces were on that schedule.
Do they have break cards?
Okay, do they have a visual reinforcement system?
You need to see.
So be sure that you're doing that.
Be sure that you observe the student
when the school year starts.
So what tasks and routines during the day
are they needing a lot of prompting?
Remember I said, if you are verbally prompting,
you need to make a visual for that.
And also any verbal reminders that people are giving.
So don't forget to hang your bag up.
Don't forget to hang your coat up.
Don't forget to pull your lunch stick, whatever those are.
You might make a visual for those so we're not being,
having to be with them to get them through those activities.
Remember the whole idea is to help them be independent.
Okay, and then understanding how your student learns.
So I know we're gonna be running out of time,
but structuring up some curriculum work.
We're okay. We got six minutes.
So this is just simple ways to structure up some worksheets.
Okay, so number one, using that,
and this is if you have a reader, okay?
So do the yellow highlighted shapes first.
If it's not a reader,
you might just have a yellow box there, okay?
And it's like, look yellow first, okay?
So they have to do the yellow ones first.
Look, then they get a break in there,
quick little, one minute break.
Okay, then you do the orange and then another quick break.
And that's all they're gonna do on this sheet.
Even though the rest of the kids are doing all of it.
On the right side is an I read you read.
And so when the kiddo opens the book,
they can see that they don't have to do
all of the reading themselves.
They do the yellow reading, the adult does the pink reading.
Okay, so now we've sort of lowered, okay, the stress.
I don't have to do it all.
I just have to read a little and then the adults can also.
You can also use that same system
for I write, you write.
And then here is structure
for a little bit of a work for Paige.
-: Paige, it's time for us to practice writing your name.
-: No!
-: I know, it's kinda hard to do writing,
but look, first, we're gonna write your name,
and then, what do you get?
-: Marshmallow! -: Marshmallow,
your favorite, okay.
So let me tell you what we're gonna do.
-: So now I'm making a visual.
-: Your name.
One time, two times, three.
Do you think you can go four times? I think you can.
You're that good at doing it, four times.
So which color would you like?
-: Adding choices.
(Paige humming)
-: Purple. All right.
Write your name four times.
First, your name, then marshmallows.
-: So she writes her name
and then she gets a marshmallow at the end.
Okay.
Simple way, really quickly, any adult could do that
instead of just saying to a child, here,
you know, you have to write your name this many times
or by the way, your spelling words,
you know how we have to write spelling words
sometimes three times, but the first letter
of the spelling word down three, you know, three times,
and then they know they have to do three times.
What work do they have to do?
How much do they have to do?
When they're done, what they get when they're done.
And then here's another one,
using kind of a little mini-schedule for a worksheet.
-: Okay, Paige, now we're gonna work on some reading.
Let's look at what we have to do.
You first have to do what?
Write your-
-: Name. -: Name.
And then you need to use a marker,
and you need to trace the word pig and the word can.
You don't have to do these down here.
Just the ones in yellow.
Then you're gonna glue the right,
the correct picture in each of the boxes, okay?
Remember, you don't have to do this part.
So we just do this part.
So first, we're going to do our steps
and then what will you earn?
-: Marshmallow. -: Marshmallows, good.
-: Okay. So again, what do I have to do?
How much do I have to do?
When I'm done and what do I get,
okay, that reinforcer when I'm done?
Okay, so when you wanna think about what supports you need
to put in place for your student,
being sure to check accommodations and modifications
for your student during the school day.
You guys all know that 'cause all of you have worked,
many of you are probably special ed,
ask team members and parents, what classes, subjects,
or activities are most difficult for your new student?
Also ask which ones does he or she really enjoy,
okay, and what helps when they are doing really well?
So when they're doing really well in a class,
what's in place that you think is helping that?
And then if they're not doing well, maybe ask
those team members that are currently with the student
right now that you're gonna be getting, what helps,
okay, what's gonna work if they're struggling?
How has the current team structured
classwork or assignments?
So have they used highlighters?
Have they broken things down into sections?
Have they, what have they done?
What might be successful ways to structure work
as they begin the school year,
and then what reinforcement has the current team used
to increase skill acquisition and work compliance?
So for some kids, you gotta use the highest preferred
and for Paige, it was marshmallows,
the highest preferred reinforcer for the hard work.
Okay?
I see there's some questions.
So hang on and we're gonna get to that,
'cause this is the very end here.
So last thing to consider is kind of the hard stuff.
So proactive behavior strategies.
So we wanna figure out what we need to have in place
so that hopefully, if we put a lot of these other things
in place, we're not gonna have difficulties
with inappropriate behavior.
But if you do, just know there's some supports out there.
We have some great webinars on behavior,
so Strategies to Support Better Student Behavior,
a two-part Proactive Behavior Management webinar,
and then one that I did on why escape
or avoidance behavior is happening.
So if you have kids that are trying to escape
or avoid work, that one's a really great webinar
to take a look at that kinda explains why that's happening
for a lot of our kids and what you can do.
And what you can do is a lot of the supports
that we have talked about today.
Okay, getting a lot of those visuals in place,
reinforcement in place, structure in place,
all of those kinds of things.
Okay, so be sure that you meet
with your current team members
and become familiar with any behavior support strategies
that they're using for that student.
Be familiar with the behavior plan.
Okay, or any current safety plans that are in place.
Be proactive.
Remember, have those, find out what they've used.
So if they used visual reminders, do choices work.
What about priming or pre-teaching an activity
so they'd know what book the group is gonna read
during large group time,
because we've already read it to them,
so now it's familiar to them, which most of our kids
will key into it better if it's familiar.
Have they used any social narratives?
Okay, and if so, we know that those are things
we can be doing in the fall.
What prompts or cues or redirection strategies
have been successful?
Can I be silly with this kiddo
and redirect them with silliness?
Okay? Or no, maybe not.
Maybe it is that I have to
do what we call antiseptic bouncing,
which is when I start to notice
that they're starting to rumble, I call it a little bit,
then I might go over with an envelope and say,
Hey, you know what?
I really need your help here.
Could you go deliver this, go with Mrs. Smith
and deliver this next door to the teacher.
Okay?
So now they go out, we get them moving,
we get them away from the situation a little bit,
give them a little shot to calm down, maybe that's something
that works for a student, but we're not,
we wanna ask this current team so that we know.
And be sure you train all team members, including paras,
gen ed teachers, all of our therapists, OT/PTs, SLPs
specialist teachers, bus drivers.
Jamie was just talking to me about strategy she did,
or a training she did for bus drivers,
custodians, cafeteria workers.
We wanna be sure they all know, okay,
what kinds of things will really work for your student.
Okay, and then don't forget that we have some ASD,
a ton of ASD Network websites or resources available.
So one of these is a handout for you, Things to Consider.
COVID pieces are still included on this.
I thought about taking them off,
but we just don't know what the fall will look like.
So I kept them in, but you can ignore those
if you don't need those, but this is a great checklist.
It will remind you of a lot of the things
we talked about today.
Okay, and then don't forget a lot of those webinars
I gave you are from our ASD Network website.
All those webinars are free.
We also have regional resource libraries.
And so the issues that have those libraries there,
so just contact your regional coordinator, okay?
And then just a reminder that you got this, okay?
So this is what we want you to be doing after day one.
(laughs) I'm laughing 'cause you know, I remember a lot
of day ones that were not like this, but you got this.
All right. Sorry.