Children With High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder

The PEAK (Promoting the Emergence of Advanced Knowledge) Assessment and Direct Training Module was developed for use with autistic children or those with related developmental disabilities. It is an ABA based therapy and assesses skills in manding, tacting, labeling, social and emotional descriptions, the usage of metaphors, and developing effective social exchanges (Daar, Negrilli, Dixon, 2015). PEAK consists of four separate modules each with their own assessments consisting of 184 questions. Each module of assessment has its own relational training system that corresponds with skill deficits of the individual. Through collecting and recording each assessment level on the Performance Matrix Triangle, the results are visually organized and easily interpreted.

The method describes the participants as two children diagnosed with autism and had language skills that were appropriate for the Social Stories intervention. The participants were in two different general education kindergarten classrooms, full-time at a public elementary school. The fist participant, Matt, was a 6-year-old Asian American boy who had a teaching assistant assigned to his classroom and the second participant, Ted, was a 5-year-old Caucasian boy who had a teaching assistant assigned to accompany throughout the school day. The participants received training sessions one to four times per-week that were conducted in private rooms for 10 to 20 minutes in the morning before class at each participant’s school. The participants only read Social Stories that only pertained to their individual targeted behaviors for intervention. The stories used had no pictures, only large text on white paper. The participants were read one story per

Autism is a brain disorder that is characterized by slow and difficult comprehension of spoken and non-verbal communication and repetition of behaviors. Autism is normally noticed in the first two years of a child (Myers & Johnson, 2007). Asperger syndrome is an autistic disorder that has almost the same similarities with autism. People with Asperger syndrome have little comprehension of the world and its surroundings and poor communication with other people. People with Asperger syndrome are hard to recognize, as they do not show on their outward appearances. They are average or above average intellectually and have fewer problems in terms of speech and specific learning disabilities unlike in autism. These difficulties include dyslexia, epilepsy, and attention

This case study focuses on Connor, a Year One student diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Observations and assessment of Connor’s specific needs, current level of performance and modifications to the learning and teaching environment currently being made to cater his individual needs will be analysed. Consequently, a range of teaching strategies, assessment strategies and resources to support Connor will be discussed and Individual Learning Plan (ILP) offered. Finally, a reflection on the strategies proposed and their influence on Connor’s learning needs will be detailed.

Two researched based journal articles offer therapy techniques which benefit students with intellectual disabilities. The first article, describes a functional curriculum which aims in strengthening practical skills students with ID need to become independent in society such as shopping, cooking, directions, and ordering food (TEXTBOOK). During the therapy session with the two young girls, the SLP went over map reading and how to understand directions. According to the SLP, the exercise was aimed to assist the two students in case they were ever lost and needed to follow directions on a map. Unfortunately, those who have intellectual disabilities have difficulty with obtaining employment, adjusting to their life post schooling, and living independently. Thus, including these functional techniques in middle school can help them effectively transition into adult life. The second technique known as instructive feedback can teach students with intellectual disabilities more information about a target topic (TEXTBOOK). An example of instructive feedback begins with a student reading the word “directions,” the teacher gives positive verbal reinforcement and then adds information to the word stating, “if you get lost you can ask for directions from a map to find your way home.” According to ------, studies have shown that instructive feedback helps students with ID learn additional information without overlooking target information (Olivia Loughery, T., Betz, A. M., Majdalany, L. M., & Nicholson, K. (2014). Using instructive feedback to teach category names to children with autism. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 45, 425–430.) As teachers, displaying positive reinforcement and instructive feedback helps all students with embedding categories and relationships in their stored

According to the U.S. Department of Education, autism is defined as a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interactions and verbal and nonverbal communication. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may also display attention deficits, engage in repetitive behaviors, resist environmental changes, have unusual sensory experiences, and may exhibit inappropriate behaviors that have adverse impacts on educational performance (Delano, 2007). The incidence of children identified with ASD has steadily increased and has thus changed the dynamics of education. Due to the number of children diagnosed with autism dramatically increasing over the last fifteen years, the demand for research-based

For their study Spooner et al., 2014 used four male elementary aged students diagnosed with autism. The teachers at the elementary school selected participants; all four students were nonverbal ranging from age 8-12. The interventions were held in two Special Ed classrooms in an elementary school located in the southeast. Five other students and a paraprofessional were also present during interventions. Four books were chosen for the study and modified to include a repeated storyline in order to highlight vocabulary. The four books were Where the Wild Things are, Rainbow Fish, Stellaluna, and Officer Buckle, these books were chosen because of their inclusion in a research-based literacy curriculum (Browder, Ahlgrim-Delzell, Flowers, & Baker, 2012; Zakas & Schreiber, 2010). The books were modified to ensure content validity; there were six listening comprehension questions for each book. One of the six questions was randomly assigned to be used for each

When compared to their peers without an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), children with high-functioning autism have unique handwriting patterns. In academic progress, activities related to writing account for 30 to 60 percent of a student’s daily school activity. If a child with an ASD has difficulty writing, he or she becomes fatigued. This fatigue frequently leads to problems coping with the cognitive, social and functional challenges he or she faces on a daily basis. Researchers state that a child who has to finish copying text from the board may miss recess, which impacts his or her ability to practice social skills: When assigning tasks to students with high-functioning ASD, teachers should take these differences into account.

Many decades have passed since Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) was first introduced to the school system. With the increase in students with ASD, it has been essential for special and general education teachers to be prepared with the necessary skills to perform and provide high quality instruction. One major focus for high quality instruction is in the area of reading for these students. The five major components for reading success are phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

In this study, the researchers were comparing two groups of children with high- functioning autism that received interventions. The treatment group participated in an intervention that was a modification of another treatment designed to improve social skills but had been adapted for children with high functioning autism. The control group received the original treatment. The researchers believed that the group receiving treatment with the adapted program would have a better grasp of taught skills than did the control group. As was hypothesized the results indicated that the children in the treatment group (and their families) had better outcomes than the control group. (Derosier, Swick, Davis, Mcmillen & Matthews, 2011)

Many children have to live their entire lives under the shadow of a disorder that entirely alters the typical life of a person. Autism Spectrum Disorder is a common neurobehavioral disorder that is caused during prenatal development. This specific disorder affects 1 in 68 children in Canada and is increasing every single year. “More children will be diagnosed with autism this year than with AIDS, diabetes, and cancer combined” (KenCrest). Children who are affected often don’t get diagnosed until the late years of elementary school; Parents, caregivers, and teachers need to know how to recognise Autism so affected children can get the help they require as soon as possible.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a disability that affects many aspects of life, including reading comprehension levels. The University of Southampton has conducted a experiment on how people with ASD compared to TD (Typically Developed) or the “normal” people when it comes to their lexical, (figuring out the meaning of a word in a particular sentence) syntactic, (making connection between the words) and semantic(encoding the meaning of a word after hearing it.) processing. ASD is a known disorder found on the autism spectrum. Often those diagnosed with Aspergers have a difficult time understanding language versus visual communication. Both written and spoken communication can be even difficult to understand due to the way their brains process language. Summarizing and conveying back what's communicated can be more difficult. In this study, scientist wanted to know how a diagnosis of Aspergers affected reading comprehension.

The first article that I reviewed is titled Using Story- based Lessons to Increase Academic Time in General Education Classes for Students with Moderate Intellectual Disability and Autism. The purpose of this research study was to analyze the impact of a general education teacher and a special education teacher working together to implement shared story-based lessons in a general education classroom and the impact on the amount of time students were engaged with autism or with a moderate intellectual disability. The study wanted to observe if a special education teacher could implement 12 step story-based lessons, if the classroom teacher implements 10 step story-based lessons in a general education classroom and if the story-based lessons improved the amount of time that students with disabilities were engaged in the classroom. The steps could be considered strategies or accommodations to better facilitate level for the grade level text.

Knight, Smith, Spooner, and Browder (2012) carried out a single subject design study on 3 elementary-aged students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to investigate ways to teach science content to students with learning disabilities versus just teaching vocabulary. Since inquiry-based instruction is growing, especially in science classrooms, the authors are demonstrating steps to build the basic content knowledge of students with learning disabilities to better prepare them for inquiry-based classrooms and combine the understanding, as well as, the application of vocabulary into one lesson. “There are few studies addressing this content for students with developmental disabilities”, according to Knight et. al (2012); therefore, studies

Autism or Autism Spectrum Disorder is one of many developmental disabilities that affect students learning. In fact, in the United States, Autism is the fastest-growing severe developmental disorder (“What is Autism,” n.d.). Also, the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder is 1 in 68 children and the prevalence in boys is 1 in 42 children (“What is Autism,” n.d.). Furthermore, Autism Spectrum Disorders also affects the way a child learns and over the years, several teaching strategies have been developed to help teachers to effectively educate students with Autism. Research has also been conducted to develop and test new teaching strategies for Autism and continues in playing an important role in the education of students with Autism.