Behavior Support Program - Case Study Example

Behaviour Support Program for Ian Introduction This Behaviour Support Program (BSP) is targeted at Ian, a child suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Treatment and Education of Autistic and Communication related handicapped CHildren (TEACCH) was adopted in this program. Ian has been noticed to have symptoms of ASD to warrant an early intervention program to support improvement in his behaviour. 2. Program’s behavioral objectives While this writer’s BSP essentially captures the coterminous integral variables within the defined spectrum of autistic child’s behaviour, a priori and a posteriori articulations of theoretical paradigms on enabling and empowerment, enhancement and rational sustenance presume the equally compelling need for a broader approach to deductive reasoning, inductive/reflective acculturation process and application in the predefined school environment of the autistic child. The writer/therapist in this paper places emphasis on the school/classroom environmental paradigm as the basis for the synthesis of the triangular process of observation/coping, intervention/empowerment and follow up (Sicile-Kara and Grandin, 2003). Next, in the process of application in the professional environment, the professional psychotherapist would immensely benefit from prior learning and intelligence in creating and sustaining effective intervention if such intervention helps the professional to increase by significant margins the application related environment-based learning/teaching outcomes. Such margins have to be defined with reference to a measurable framework of metrics such as on a range of positive achievements, e.g. greater degree of participation by the subjects as defined in the BSP. Nonetheless purely theoretical constructs are less likely to have a conclusively proven benchmark of success on the practical parameters in the actual practice environment. Cognitive behavioural dimensions were adopted as the main criterion for this BSP by the writer. It is due to the fact that cognitive behavioural dimensions of the autistic child would facilitate this kind of study. 3. Strategies This therapist adopted TEACCH as a strategic intervention technique through continuous involvement. However, rather than placing emphasis on clinical services this therapist placed emphasis on didactic techniques. In addition training and instruction were adopted in the classroom environment. The therapist carried out series of one-on-one observations of Ian’s behaviour before designing a coping up strategy. It included a systematic behaviour recording process (http://www.hnreach.on.ca). 3.1. Coping up strategy The coping up strategy of this therapist was focused on enabling Ian to learn basic skills. In other words it was focused on learning self help skills such as eating food and taking drinks. In the process this therapist identified how best Ian could cope up with simple tasks like holding the spoon and the fork and learning table manners. 3.2. Intervention Based Strategy As a corollary to this writer’s BSP which embodies the basic tenets of the psychological approach and intervention enunciated herein, the following premise fundamentally hinges on the alternate paradigm that despite a host of negative attitudes that persistently encumber specialized approaches to autism, there is an enormous potential to design and create highly practical programs in specialized settings for silent but diligent intervention on the part of the aspiring professional therapist. This institutional-pedagogical intervention determined approach to environmental adjustment/readjustment contingency-specific programs would be considered as a more suitable alternative to many other approaches. Thus the delineation of associated outcomes would depend on a perspective focused analysis of the seminal literature on the subject of autism (Hannah, 2001). Follow up Strategy The primacy and immediacy of the school’s environmental specificity have been partially ignored by autism program designers and planners thus leading to an abandonment of an a priori reflection-in-action approach on a broader level. Thus this therapist adopted a follow-up action based strategy to improve communication skills of Ian. Lack of communication and withdrawal from societal intercourse was apparently interpreted as shyness by those who are not familiar with such children. Then it was a very regular occurrence to see that while the latter formed a more cohesive well integrated community of learners, the former just sought, though unconsciously, to isolate as individuals. What the therapist noticed was an apparent lack of community feeling among the autistic children. Conventional approaches have often failed to identify the underlying nuances of concepts associated in the world of the autistic child with none other than evolving behaviours (www.webstersnewworlddictionary.com). Rationale for the BSP Available literature on the subject places less emphasis on exogenous variables perhaps due to the fact that it has been conclusively proved that autism is a genetic disorder. Despite this proof there is also a parallel attempt being made by teaching communities at large that behavioral tendencies of the autistic child could be altered with dynamic combinations of internal and external factors. Some researchers have extensively focused on the use and abuse of freedom to achieve predefined goals on resource allocation and utilization. TEACCH is one such approach that this therapist found out to be of greater significance. While the specialized classroom setting might be sparsely populated by autistic children, a positive correlation or a regression cannot be established with flimsier data gathered through a haphazard process of researching on the instincts of the researcher. This phenomenon has been illustrated by many writers on autism especially with reference to the specialized classroom structure and the autistic child’s place therein. What such theoretical paradigms put forth as inherent classroom management practices would have a bearing on the outcomes of overall programs. The autistic child not only occupies the center point but also is the center of attention that invariably leads to far reaching outcomes for further research (Moyes, 2002). Some writers stress the need to focus on antecedents of autistic behaviours rather than the consequences. Their argumentative line essentially presumes the existence of a positive correlation between autistic behaviour and the magnitude of non-intervention. The latter is occasioned by the generalized approach to autism in which mainstreaming and inclusion are ruled out as divergent contingency planning in controlling autism. There is also the need for an analysis of the causal factors that enhance teaching/learning outcomes in the special education classroom management context. There has been a degree of negligence in this sphere in autism related intervention programs. Failure to define appropriateness and timeliness of intervention under TEACCH approach could have been a major reason behind the mismatch between efforts at the specialized classroom setting level and external environmental intervention which often fails to acknowledge the existence of a dynamic relationship between the therapist and the autistic child. Data based on previous intervention programs Table 1.1 BSP Intervention No of weeks 8 No of sessions 40 No of hours for group activity per session 2 No of hours for individual activity per session 1 No of hours for teacher pupil interaction per session 1 Effectiveness of BSP Individual autistic child’s response to an otherwise free environment alone ought to signify the raison d’être behind the very design and execution of a teaching and/or learning process in that environment. While the significance of the absence of professional’s prior learning might be factored into the weighing of learning outcomes of autistic children and the efficacy of the BSP, there is very little else by way of exogenous variables to consider in the TEACCH approach. By way of inference, intervention based on such an approach to managing a specialized classroom with autistic children would necessarily have an impact on the transformation and subsequent outcomes though the extent to which a lack of intelligence, gathered before from the available literature on creating and sustaining effective intervention of practice by the professional therapist, would hinder his/her capacity to manage the BSP (Hesmondhalgh & Breakey, 2001).The logical outcome is that professional efficiency in reflecting on action while involved in practice is influenced by prior learning to a certain extent though it’s not conclusively desirable in creating and sustaining effective BSP related environments that are specialized settings or classrooms. However, it’s pertinent to point out that Ian was more influenced in his speech and task skills learning process at the end of the program. General Description of the school Ian attends a special primary school for students with disabilities from preschool to year 7. The school offers 4 programmes. Two programmes are designed for children who are 6 years of age and below in early intervention programmes. The other two programmes are designed for children from 6 to 12 years of age. One is a programme for those with physical and multiple disabilities and the other is a programme for those diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The school uses the TEACCH approach in teaching children with ASD and the Assessment, Evaluation and Programming System (AEPS) curriculum is used to teach children in the other programmes (Fitzpatrick, 2004). Ian’s class is a 4-hour session class that comprises of 4 students inclusive of Ian. The children’s age range is from 5 to 6 years and they are all diagnosed with autism. While two of the children are non-verbal, the other two are able to speak using 2 to 4 word phrases. Activities that are conducted in a group (entire class) are circle time, art, housecraft, hydrotherapy and snack. The individual needs of the students have been considered in the physical layout of the classroom. There are specific areas for specific activities and furniture is used to create clear boundaries for the students. Each student has his own work area and there is a common area where group activities are usually held. In addition, there is also a “rest” area and a “free play area”. Preventive Strategies This teacher/therapist adopted a strategy based on behaviour change and modification. It was determined by the qualities embodied therein – developing a vision, inculcating the vision in the subject, leading the subject and defining goals and achievements. Thus the outcomes would have been influenced by the need to design and implement the follow-up preventive strategies. A qualitative positive paradigm shift in the behaviors of the subject researched and sampled in this effort was achieved to produce a subsequent preventive strategy based on the positive outcomes of the BSP. The emphasis is on the parental intervention to support children with such disabilities so that the role played by the parent would enhance the quality of designing and implementing the relevant program (http://www.teacch.com/). A degree of greater convergence on cognitive behavioral paradigms was noticed in the subject with regard to intentional and unintentional behavioral response to such intervention. This outcome of the BSP serves as a preventive strategy-centric approach though the extent to which it can be utilized in therapy sessions in specialized classroom settings depends on a number of other extraneous factors. BSP was solely designed and implemented with special attention focused on the strategic preventive initiatives and measures that were designed in conformance with the school curriculum though special classroom environments were designed to achieve a greater degree of convergence in the autistic child’s behaviour. In fact Ian’s attitude towards change was qualitatively influenced by the BSP and thus preventive strategies like special settings centric changes were smoothly integrated into the BSP with particular emphasis on transformation and convergence. The qualitative shift in the BSP came from a behaviour transforming strategy that was so assiduously pursued by the therapist to achieve predetermined goals. Teaching skills for social interaction Autism is associated with the impairment of brain development leading to a lack of social intercourse and communication. Such children, usually before 3 years of age, also display repetitive behaviour. Since it involves a range of symptoms, a more convenient term to use is the autism spectrum disorders (ASD). For instance some milder signs might indicate a low level of impairment. Webster’s New World Medical Dictionary defines autism as “a spectrum of neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by deficits in social interaction and communication, and unusual and repetitive behaviour. Some, but not all, people with autism are non-verbal”(www.webstersnewworlddictionary.com ). As much as learning outcomes have been of greater relevance in the current BSP context, especially against the backdrop of an evolving paradigm for theoretical and conceptual framework development for the specialized setting classroom management by teachers and therapists, there is a particularly stronger need for a pedagogical convergence model to identify and construct a system of norms for the teacher to acquire autism related teaching skills. This is invariably so with regard to didactic reasoning in the specialized classroom management contexts. Autism is a behavioural disorder that requires a substantial amount of teaching skills to be utilized so that the classroom is not only better managed but also its subjects better taken care of (Nadesan,2005). This specialized classroom management task requires social intercourse to be of a particularly higher order. It’s here that the pedagogical skills are shaped and reshaped. It’s in fact a contingency demand for the teacher’s social interaction skills which vary in dimension and depth. Strategic teaching skills require a degree of capacity enhancement from the viewpoint of the society. The teacher is both a catalyst and a rejuvenator. In other words social intercourse on the part of the teacher is not simply limited to meeting parents of autistic children but also extends to such diverse skills as those related to persuasion and transformation of attitudes. REFERENCES 1. Autism Spectrum Disorder & Behaviour Support, Retrieved from http://www.hnreach.on.ca/index.php/counselling-a-supports-for-children-a-youth/developmental-services-for-children-a-youth/autism-spectrum-disorder-a-behaviour-support, on October 30, 2010. 2. Definition of Autism Spectrum Disorder, retrieved from , www.webstersnewworlddictionary.com ), on October, 31 2010. 3. Fitzpatrick, M. (2004). MMR and Autism: What Parents Need to Know, Oxford, Routledge. 4. Hannah, L. (2001). Teaching Young Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders to Learn. London: Autism Asperger Publishing Company 5. Hesmondhalgh, M. and Breakey, C. (2001). Access and Inclusion for Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders: Let Me In. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. 6. Moyes, R.A. (2002). Addressing the Challenging Behavior of Children with High- Functioning Autism/Asperger Syndrome in the Classroom: A Guide for Teachers and Parents. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. 7. Nadesan, M. (2005). Constructing Autism. Oxford: Routledge. 8. Sicile-Kara, C and Grandin, T 2003. Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Complete Guide, Ohio: Vermilion Publishers. 9. TEACCH Autism Program, Retrieved from http://www.teacch.com/, on October 30, 2010. Read More