Programs for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder - Literature review Example

Autism Spectrum Disorder Name Institution Date Autism Spectrum Disorder Introduction Autism is a neuro-developmental disorder that may be characterizes by social and language impairments, and the presence of stereotyped and repetitive behaviours (Henderson, 2009). Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is the broader range of pervasive developmental disorders. Students with ASD have had several challenges in their struggle for education and their condition has made it difficult for them to attend the same class as the other normal students. But while these students were previously taught within their own private environments, recent efforts have aimed at have these students included with their peers in the same class. Inclusion has been a subject of discussion, and, as will be seen in this paper, has presented several challenges for the students themselves as well as their teachers. These challenges have been discussed and investigated in the paper extensively. The paper has also investigated the possible evidence-based practices that have been put to use to meet these challenges and encourage the students with ASD to pursue learning in the inclusive environment. 1. Challenges encountered when implementing inclusive programs for students with ASD. Students with ASD have characteristics that present great challenges for the inclusive programs. These challenges may not apply to all the cases of ASD, but will be seen in most cases. Students with ASD will have a difficult time in the classroom environment due to challenges related to social interaction, behaviour and communication, among other challenges that must be addressed by the responsible authorities (Department of Education, 2012). Lack of awareness of the Existence or feeling of others Students with ASD will usually experience significant difficulty when relating to other students. They may act as if the other students do not exist and may only acknowledge their presence when they have a need to met. These characteristics may be demonstrated by appearing to be deaf or failing to respond when called. They may appear not to be listening when spoken to by the teachers and other students, fail to produce the facial expression that is appropriate to the current occasion or produce one that is inappropriate to the occasion. They may avoid eye contact and fail to return or enjoy other people’s affection (Department of Education, 2012). The student will therefore be uncomfortable in the presence of the other students and at the same time make other students feel uncomfortable with the around. It may become difficult to establish cooperation and sharing between these students with others making learning more difficult. Teachers should understand that the social communication difficulties do not mean lack of interest or any unwillingness to interact with the other students. The lack of effective social communication may be a result of an inability to distil information from their social interaction with the other students and the difficulty to use appropriate communication skills to respond. Unusual patterns of attention Unusual patterns of attention have been commonly witnessed in people with ASD. Students may show a wide range of difficulties in this area, with significant implications for social development, effective communication, and attainment of academic skills. Students with ASD may have difficulty recognizing relevant cues or information within their environment and may end up focusing their attention on a restricted part of their environment, ignoring what is relevant. Also common is student difficulty in shifting attention or disengaging from one stimulus to the next. This may contribute to their characteristic resistance to change. These characteristics make it extremely difficult for the student to be at the same level with the other students in class. The teachers will be faced with very difficult tasks trying to make students with ASD cope with the progress of the other students. This makes it inclusion extremely difficult and has been the main reason why several students have been enrolled in specialised institutions. Unusual responses to Sensory Stimuli Students with ASD have been seen to differ from the other students with regard to their sensory experiences. Their responses to sensory stimulation may have been observed to range from hyper-sensitivity to hypo-sensitivity, which means that their senses may be over-reactive or under-reactive (Magnusen, 2005). As a result, environmental stimuli may become disturbing or even painful. As Cohen (2010) adds, recent studies have revealed that there are significant differences between typical comparison groups and ASD with the group with ASD showing presence of higher sensory symptoms. These students therefore find it extremely difficult to activity interact with the other students and may prefer to remain isolated and inactive. This makes them feel out of place and interferes with their willingness to participate in the class. According to a study done by Lindsay et al (2013), teachers have reported challenges relating to including students with disorder to include understanding and managing behaviour, socio-structural barriers and creation of an inclusive environment. Understanding and Managing behaviour Understanding the students and managing their behaviour are one of the most challenging tasks for teachers (Lindsay, 2013). Teachers feel that they do not have adequate information about the condition, particularly when it comes to specific approaches when working with the student in the classroom. During the study, the teachers also felt that they also lacked information on how to manage the students with ASD when a behavioural outburst occurs. Teachers were also concerned with how to handle unstructured time like the field trips or recesses, and the other occasions when routines may be broken since these may cause distress in the student. Management difficulties include engaging students with ASD in lessons. Teachers have found this difficult since these students have specific interests and may not want to involve in what all the other students are doing. They become frustrated when required to what they are not interested in. Establishing a rapport with a student with ASD has been noted by teachers to be important in helping a child in distress to calm down. This has been a difficult task for teachers, making it extremely challenging to have students with ASD included into the same classroom with their peers. Socio-structural Barriers Lindsay et al (2013) have further identified socio-structural barriers that pose great challenge to including students with ASD. Most teachers feel that they lack training as well as continuing education opportunities on how to better work with these students. The teachers argue that there is not enough training on special education while others believe that the additional qualifications courses in Special Education need to have an Autism component. Teachers also believe that these challenges are also magnified by lack of appropriate resources and equipment for the students with ASD. This has been frustrating for the teachers and they have often had to act advocates for the students so as to access these resources. It has been particularly challenging for students with Asperger’s syndrome or high-functioning autism since most resources tend to be directed towards those with lower-functioning autism. Teachers also lack time to be able to provide additional help to children with ASD, and this becomes bigger concern in older grades where classes get bigger. Large class sizes makes inclusion even more challenging since the teacher may never give the specific attention that is needed for these type of students. Large class sizes also mean that the student with ASD may feel greatly out of place given the commotion and the difficulty in ensuring that student’s special needs are met while the class progresses. These classes can be very overwhelming for students with ASD given that the environment has too much stimulants and noise and kids, desk, chairs and everything else that may stimulate them. Creating an inclusive Environment Teachers also experienced challenges when they tried to create an inclusive environment for students with ASD within the school as well as inside the class. This challenge is increased by the lack of understanding and awareness of the condition amongst other school staff, parents and students. Some staff who do not understand the disorder may even become nervous and have misperceptions about the students with ASD. To make the environment more encouraging for these students, some teachers have had to educate their peers on issues to do with ASD and this has been extremely challenging. Teachers have reported cases where parents have failed to play their part or even chose not to identify the child’s condition (Lindsay et al, 2013). A lack of an acceptable formal identification of ASD has been reported to lead to children failing to be eligible to receive support and other resources that could have helped to improve their educational experience. Parents who do not cooperate have missed the chance to contact agencies that could help them. Teachers have also had to not just to communicate with the parents but they have had to manage concerns from these parents. In general, some parents have been a challenge to successful inclusion, making the process more difficult than teachers had imagined. Peer understanding and acceptance has been yet another challenge for inclusion programs. Other children will often realise that there may be something special about the students with ASD, but they may not know how these differences manifest as behaviours. Teachers will therefore find it difficult to make these children understand and create an emphatic climate within the class. The result is that students with ASD will usually be excluded from peer activities. It becomes even more difficult to promote peer interaction for the students with communication, social and behavioural impairments. One of the fears of inclusion is that since at some stage the other students may identify those that have this disorder, and the sick children may become targeted by the other normal children. Aggression and mistreatment of those with the disorder may be the beginning of the failure of the inclusion program. 2. How these challenges can be met through evidence-based practice Smith (2012) says that although the ASD are neurological disorders, the main interventions are specialised behaviour and educational approaches. Again, as the author points out, special medications have been used to help ASD students, but these should not be treated as substitutes for the educational and behavioural interventions. The following strategies may be used to assist students with ASD in the inclusion program: Individualised services and support Studies have shown that the use of particular interests and learning styles of each of the ASD students has been successful in increasing engagement in social and academic activities. The use of objects that relate to preoccupations of students with ASD, for example, may greatly increase the participation of these students in play activities. This approach may also increase their development of skills like asking questions (Smith, 2012). Since these students may experience difficulty in understanding and attending to verbal instructions, the use of pictures may increase their time on task during academic activities. Individualization efforts should also involve taking family priorities into account when selecting instructional goals. Comprehensive/ structured learning environments Students with ASD may often struggle to identify social expectations and they may never know when to make transitions between and within activities. It may also be difficult for them to identify relevant information that they should focus on. Educators may need to address these issues by using visual schedules that will facilitate transition, with timers that will indicate the start and end of activities as well as separate and clearly defined spaces for the different activities. The learning environment may be clearly demarcated and the planned activities clearly described in advance. Children with ASD are likely to be anxious and confused when the physical environment and arrangement of the room is changed frequently, when the room is cluttered or when there are no well-delineated and practiced routines. As Mesibov & Shea (2008) adds, daily class schedules, using written words or pictures, or a combination of the two, can greatly help in the organization of the life space of the student with ASD. When the upcoming events become more predictable, the schedules reduce distress and anxiety often associated with uncertainty about the activities going to happen next (Magnusen, 2005). Recognizing and Meeting the need for Extra Processing Time Children with ASD will usually need extra time to process information and formulate a response. Teachers should realise this need and device ways to deal with these students. The teachers should make sure that this is done without damaging the child as a member of the entire group. Priming has been used for this purpose where the child is called on during group activities only after he has had an earlier experience at an individual level and has become familiar with the process involved in answering the question. The child may also be alerted in advance about the question which he will need to answer later. He may also be directed to think begin to think about it until he is ready to give a response. He may be allowed to indicate that he is ready to respond before he is called to do so. Another strategy may be to note the amount of extra time that will be needed by the student to respond to different types of questions. The student may then be provided with adequate time if this will not significantly interfere with the rest of the group. In most cases, this will be only a few extra seconds and the teacher may and student may share this need for extra processing time with the rest of the students (Cohen, 2010). Use of a Behaviour approach Programs have been developed that focus on the student’s behaviour. These programs have so much in common, although they may use different terms to describe their approaches (Magnusen, 2005). Behaviour management, discrete trial training, applied behaviour analysis and behaviour modifications are some of the behaviour approaches that have been used to enhance student performance. These approaches may use manipulation of the environment to alter behaviour and may also use stimulus, response and consequence. Family involvement It is important to collaborate with the student’s families in education the children, and for students with ASD, the involvement of the family may be critical. By the time students join school, their families already understand several characteristics about the students. Many of these students will have diagnosed by 2 to 3 years and will have already shown specific difficulties before then. By the time they join school, their families will have acquired expertise from experience and from lessons learnt from other families and other information sources. It will be therefore beneficial to take their advice and opinions seriously. Again, involving families is the best way to ensure that information from school reaches home. Due to their communication problems, it may be impossible to obtain school information from these students and therefore there may exists an information gap between school and home. Priming the child for school experiences Priming has been widely accepted as a way of ensuring the students with ASD are prepared for the new experiences at school. It prepares the students for the unexpected changes by exposing them to these potential challenges in a more relaxed environment. As Koegel et al (2003) says, priming can be very powerful for helping children with ASD to more effectively cope with the various stressors that they may encounter in school. Cohen et al (2010) proposes that priming could involve allowing the student to familiarize with the teacher before joining the other students in class. The other strategy could be familiarizing him/her with the physical environment of the classroom and examining the play materials, choosing some of these to use by himself. Priming could also be extended to new activities in the course of learning. The student may be provided with the opportunity to become familiar with the new experience individually. 3. State and describe your position regarding an inclusive approach to education of students with autism Student with ASD are just like any other students except that they have more needs than the rest of the students. These students are able to learn and can accumulate knowledge just like the other students. This condition should therefore not be treated like other mental disabilities which may cause students to have extremely low learning abilities and memories. Given the nature of the disorder, I highly agree with efforts that aim at ensuring inclusion of these students into normal classrooms. This is mainly because inclusion brings with it great advantages for the child in terms of his development and learning process. These children should be encouraged to learn to interact with other student. They may not only learn from their peers but also use these interactions to better their overall social life even outside school. Isolation of these students into their own special schools will only magnify their un-normal traits. While these environments provide better environments for their learning, the students end up learning very slowly as compared with those enrolled in inclusive schools. It is true, however, that such inclusive efforts must go ahead and put in place appropriate support structures for the students. Educators must realise that students with ASD are not just like any other children. They need to be helped to adapt to their environment; this environment also needs to be modified to accommodate them. Teacher training is very important but training should be extended to other relevant staff. Arrangements also need to be done to ensure that teachers find enough time to attend to the specific needs of these students. When proper strategies are put in place, inclusion may be the best approach for teaching students with ASD and will be more widely accepted by more parents and education stakeholders. References Smith T. (2012). Making Inclusion Work for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders: An Evidence-Based Guide. New York: Guilford Press Cohen S., Bleiweiss J, Mouzakitis A. & Fahim D. (2010). Strategies for Supporting the Inclusion of Young Students With Autism Spectrum Disorders. Inclusive Education; vol. 8, no. 1 Henderson K. (2009). Autism Spectrum Disorders: State Part C and Part B Initiatives to Serve a Growing Population. In Forum Lindsay S., Proulx M., Thomson N. & Scott H. (2013). Educators’ Challenges of Including Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Mainstream Classrooms; International Journal of Disability, Development and Education; 60:4, 347-362 Magnusen C.L. (2005). Teaching Children with Autism and Related Spectrum Disorders: An Art and a Science. Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers Koegel L.K., Koegel R.L., Frea, W., & Green-Hopkins, I. (2003). Priming as a method of coordinating educational services for students with autism. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in the Schools, 34(3), 228-235. Department of Education. (2012). Developing and Implementing Programming for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Author: Province of Nova Scotia. Mesibov G.B. & Shea V. (2008). Structured teaching and environmental supports. In K.D. Buron & P. Wolfberg (Eds.). Learners on the autism spectrum (pp. 114-137). Shawnee Mission, KS: Autism Asperger Publishing. Read More