By Sherry Posnick-Goodwin
Frances Chavez helps student Nishtha rake at Jefferson Middle School in San Gabriel.
Students in Frances Chavez’s classroom begin their school day by going to their cubbies and organizing their belongings. On the white board is a minute-by-minute schedule for the rest of the day.
Her students are still learning to tell time. But like clockwork, some can sense if something’s off schedule by just a minute or two.
“Students with autism need structure,” explains Chavez, a special education teacher for students with moderate to severe disabilities at Jefferson Middle School in San Gabriel. “They need a structured classroom and a structured setting. They really like having a routine.”
Her special day class students, most of whom have autism, are unsettled by loud noises, bright lights and strangers. She constantly asks her students to be “flexible” when something unexpected happens, like visitors. If they are incapable at the moment, she directs them to a “safe spot” in the classroom to regroup.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, after small-group instruction, students take a bus to the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanical Garden and rake leaves. For many, getting out in the world is the best part of school. They enjoy the repetitive motions of raking. Sometimes they gather up leaves in the process and sometimes they don’t.
“Wonderful job,” Chavez calls out again and again. “I’m so proud of you.”
Students with autism need to hear praise often, says Chavez, even if they don’t react emotionally to it. They also need “modeling” of behavior, and need to receive “primary reinforcements” or rewards for a job well done.
“In the past we used food,” says the Los Angeles County Education Association member. “We don’t encourage that anymore because it’s not healthy. We’d rather use something more appropriate and find out what they are willing to work for. It might be something like looking at a book or using the computer. For example: ‘If you finish these addition problems, I’ll let you use the computer for 10 minutes.’”
Learning is easier for students with autism if a teacher gives one- or two-step directions, suggests Chavez. “Everything has to be concrete and sometimes in simple terms that maybe even a kindergartner would understand. There has to be constant ‘redirecting’ to keep the child focused. They become frustrated if they are not getting small doses of success.”
Years ago, a student became extremely frustrated and punched her in the kidney. “I saw stars — and I had never seen stars before. But it wasn’t intentional for him to hurt me. It was him being angry. It was the only time one of my students became violent.”
Sue Allen, a full-inclusion kindergarten teacher at Coyote Valley Elementary School in Hidden Valley, advises teachers to follow their instincts when it comes to teaching children with autism.
“Try different things until you find out what works for a particular child,” says Allen, a member of the Middletown Teachers Association. “I allow one of my little guys to roam around the classroom at the end of the day if he’s done what I’ve asked him to do. He goes to the computer and prints out pictures. It’s the best thing in the world for him. I have another student who freezes when we start to do music and movement. He can’t deal with it. So I started asking him if he’d rather look at a book during that time, and it’s taken a lot of stress off him.”
Students with autism are held to different expectations of behavior in Allen’s classroom. “I had one little boy who couldn’t sit on the rug as long as the others, so I allowed him the freedom to move around the classroom as long as he was not disturbing anyone. The other kids knew he was different, so it didn’t bother them. I’m amazed at how sometimes young people can accept those things easier than adults.”
Working with students that have autism takes lots and lots of patience, says paraprofessional Madeline Cabading, who works with autistic children at West Portal Elementary School in San Francisco. “Every child is different, and you have to constantly encourage them and not get upset with them. It’s difficult because you can think they understand something, but over the weekend they forget and you have to start all over again. You always have to repeat things with them. You can’t get discouraged and you can’t give up.”
Cabading, a member of United Educators of San Francisco, says it can be helpful to appeal to a child’s sense of intellectualism.
“Ask them what works well for them,” she advises. “Make them feel part of the process. Show them that you care for them. Try hard to bond with them. If they don’t show emotion, remember that they can’t help it, but try to bond with them anyway. Often they will bond with you if you are there all the time.”
It helps to watch them, listen to them and figure a way in, says Lisa MacFarland, a teacher at Hayes Elementary School in San Jose.
“I had a student with major behavioral issues who would run out of the room screaming or throw tantrums,” says MacFarland, an Oak Grove Education Association member. “I realized that she was highly anxious, and that these behaviors came out when her environment seemed to be out of control. Once the structure became routine, I saw her anxiety level decrease and lots of behaviors decrease. She’s very, very intelligent, but you have to find ways to access that intelligence in an untypical way. For example, she found writing very difficult, but when you put her in front a keyboard and a computer, she could generate amazing things.”
MacFarland teaches students in grades 4-6 who are “reverse mainstreamed” into her class just to learn social skills. Some of them have a very high intellect and are learning why it is important to interact well with others. She uses Superflex: A Superhero Social Thinking Curriculum by Stephanie Madrigal and Michelle Garcia Winner, designed for teaching students with Asperger’s syndrome, high-functioning autism, ADHD and other social difficulties how to build social thinking skills. Her students learn that each of them have “super flexible” capacities in their brains that can overcome rigid cartoon characters such as Un-Wonderer, who stops citizens from showing interest in others by asking questions, Topic Twister Meister and Mean Jean.
“My students with autism identify with these characters because most of the kids are super rigid,” she says. “Most other kids understand that when you look at somebody it shows you are paying attention and listening to them. But for my kids, it doesn’t come naturally.”
Sometimes, the biggest challenge for teachers is to overcome the label of autism, says Peter Mundy, director of educational research at the UC Davis Mind Institute, which is devoted to the research and treatment of autism.
“Most teachers can be effective with these children if they have the confidence to do it and someone to talk to who has the expertise to help them get over the hump of feeling that they don’t know what they are doing,” says Mundy. “My advice to them is this: Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Don’t try to take all the responsibility; work as a team with special education teachers, general education teachers, parents, psychologists and others.”
The puzzle of autism
The NEA is offering a free online workshop to share strategies to improve education for students with autism. The 90-minute video gives educators and parents the information they need to identify the characteristics of autism and suggests techniques to work successfully with children who have the disability. The video workshop is based on a guide booklet, “The Puzzle of Autism,” a collaborative effort among NEA, the Autism Society of America, the American Speech-Language Hearing Association, and the National Association of School Psychologists. The workshop is presented by two special education experts and includes PowerPoint presentations, handouts and other resources.
To view the free workshop, visit ondemand.neaacademy.org. To view “The Puzzle of Autism,” visit www.nea.org/assets/docs/autismpuzzle.pdf.