Autism Spectrum Disorder - Essay Example

Article summary/ critique Autism Spectrum Disorder Summary Autism spectrum is a neurological disorder which cause problems to a child in terms of communication, understanding language, play and mingle with others. Autism, Asperger syndrome, Rett syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder and Pervasive developmental disorder are included under the banner of Autism spectrum disorders. Unlike normal children, the children who are affected by autism spectrum disorders would find difficulties in adjusting with unfamiliar situations. A child is labelled as an autistic child if he/she exhibit problems in social interactions, communication or behavior. However, it is believed that around 2-6 of every 1000 children have some kind of autistic disorders. The exact causes of autism is yet be known. Early intervention is necessary to treat an autistic child effectively. It is difficult to teach autistic children same way like normal children. Special education programs are prevailing in most of the countries to teach the autistic children effectively. Critique This article begins with the story of an autistic child. It helped the author to catch the attention of the readers with ease. The introduction of Ryan’s story helped the author to introduce the various dimensions of Autism Spectrum Disorder to the readers. After the explanation of Ryan’s story, the author defines autism spectrum disorder in simple words. Many people do not know the difference between autism and autism spectrum disorders. The definition of autism spectrum disorder definitely helps the readers to realize that autism is only one among the many disorders under the banner of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Even though this article explains many of the disorders under Autism Spectrum Disorders, it gives only the general symptoms. In other words, this article failed to provide the prominent symptoms or the specific symptoms of each every disease under the Autism Spectrum Disorders. If this article was able to provide the specific symptoms of each every disease under the Autism Spectrum Disorders, readers would have been benefitted more. This article failed to cite the possible reasons of Autism Spectrum Disorders. It is a fact that the exact reasons of this disorder is yet to be known. However, there are some speculations about it. For example, it is believed that heredity and the crazy life styles of the mother (smoking, drug use, alcoholism etc) during pregnancy, can cause problems to the mental development of the fetus. However, the article failed to give lime lights on these beliefs and speculations. Get started: How do I implement progress monitoring in my school? Summary Careful planning is necessary before the implementation of a student’s progress monitoring (SPM) program in a school. Issues related to the goals, staff, logistical and administrative should be evaluate properly before the implementation of SPM. It is necessary to determine whether the SPM is necessary to implement only in certain classes on in the entire school. The long term and short term goals of the SPM should be well defined before its implementation. Teachers should have adequate knowledge about their roles in the implementation of the SPM. They should be able to integrate the SPM with the regular classroom activities. It is not necessary that the SPM tools suitable for one school may be suitable to another school. Therefore, SPM tools should be custom made for each schools. Critique It is a fact that the progress of the students needed to be monitored time to time. However, majority of the tools used for the SPM programs are ineffective in measuring the progress of the students correctly. It should be noted that no students are equal either in terms of mental abilities or emotional abilities. Emotional intelligence (EI) is as important as Intelligence quotient in the learning process of a student. In other words, a student with better EI and lower IQ may not be down when he faces or learns difficult topics. On the other hand, a student with poor EI and better IQ may not be able to do so. Majority of the SPM programs available at present are testing only the surface level knowledge of the students. The cooperation of the staff is extremely important for the successful implementation of an SPM. The implementation of an SPM is a teamwork in which each teacher has specific roles. If any of the teacher fails to perform well in his/her roles, the entire project may be spoiled. Since different teachers have different characteristics and peculiarities, the success and failure of the SPM programs rests in the ability of the team leader in managing or controlling the activities of the team members properly. Helping Teachers Summary As per the emerging thoughts in the educational sector, an educator should think like an assessor rather than a designer. However, it is not an easy task for the educators to think like an assessor all the time because of some constraints related to vocabulary assessment, designing of good assessment and the results of these assessments. The Maryland assessment consortium has developed a program to overcome these constraints. This program has developed seven critical paths to overcome the constraints. They are; give more importance to learning rather than teaching, give more importance to what is taught and learned rather than what is in the curriculum, give more importance to multiple sources rather than text book alone, give more importance to formative assessment rather than scheduled quizzes or examinations, give more importance to the assessment that support the students rather than the assessments that categories students based on their grades, give more importance to team work rather than individual work and consider reading and writing as separate processes. Critique It is a fact that assessment has an important role in education. It is necessary for the teacher to assess the progress of the students time to time to decide whether to make any changes in his teaching strategies or not. Assessment helps teachers to know the level of progress each student is making. At the same time, assessment alone may not help the teaching process very much. Only after the teaching process, assessment comes into the picture. There is no point in assessing the progress of the students without delivering the lessons properly. Delivery of the lessons should be the first thing done by the teachers. The teachers should make sure that the delivery of the lessons took place in such a manner that each and every student understood the points clearly. Assessment comes only after this. Instead of following the curriculum or syllabus strictly, the teacher should make sure that the students get ample information about the topic that was taught. The teachers should collect updated information from all possible sources instead of depending only on the text book. It should be noted that the textbooks are outdated and it gives only information from the past. The students should get current information and for that, the teacher should collect information not only from secondary sources but also from primary sources. Even though team work is advisable in education, the importance of individual work should not be neglected. It should be noted that what a student learns individually is more important than what his team learns. Portfolio assessment in the classroom Summary A portfolio is a collection of student work with a common theme. The importance of portfolios in the assessment of students is big. It helps the teachers to assess the student more effectively. It shows what a student can do with the topics he learned. Traditional assessment tools are helpful only in assessing the knowledge level of the students. On the other hand, portfolios help teachers to assess the knowledge and understandings of the students at the application level. It helps in the learning process of students with special needs. Moreover, it enhances the communication between the home and school or school and community. Another important function of the portfolios is the cognitive development of students Critique Portfolios definitely helps the teachers to get an in depth knowledge about the progress of the students. It helps the teachers to know what a student knows and what he does not. At the same time, it is not necessary that the assessment based on the student portfolios always give reliable or accurate results. It should be noted that students can make attractive portfolios with the help of others. Majority of the student portfolios are prepared by experts. It is difficult for the teacher to identify whether a portfolio prepared by a student is self-made or made by others since portfolios are actually made at homes rather than inside the classrooms. Teachers have less control over the activities of the students when they are at home. Therefore, portfolios may not give the correct picture about the student development all the time. Another important drawback of portfolio assessment is the time consumption. Students usually take too much time for the preparation of the portfolios. It is possible for the students to discuss with experts or fellow students regarding the portfolio creation because of the lengthy time period allotted for it. They get enough time for copying the previous works done in their portfolios. In short, the reliability of portfolio as an assessment tool cannot be guaranteed all the time. References Autism Spectrum Disorder (2010). A publication of NICHCY disability fact sheet. June 2010. Emberger, M. (n.d.). Helping teachers. Damiani, V.B. (n.d.) Portfolio assessment in the classroom McLane, K. (N.d.). Get started: How do I implement progress monitoring in my school? Read More