Communication, social skills, and behavior management techniques I learn at the Little Tree

As a special education major, I was required to take SPE205 along with my SPE400 class this semester. This class was specifically for observing a real classroom for children with special needs for a duration of four hours a week. I was required to complete various assignments and a weekly report form for each visit, and include any other interesting events or lessons I learned that day. Some of the assignments focused on Applied Behavior Analysis, others on individual programs or group activities, safety procedures, helpful materials used, collecting data, and general surveys of the teacher that I worked under.

The Little Tree, the school I was assigned, is an early intervention school that focuses on autism. The classrooms, however, consisted of half typical children, while the other half were of the autism spectrum. Here, the importance of early intervention became very clear to me (more so then I already assumed.) All people learn more in their first five years then they will learn for the rest of their lives! There are several major techniques and lessons I learned observing at this school, and I feel very lucky to have been able to gain this experience and learn from these very talented teachers. In this blog, I will discuss communication skills, social skills, and behavior management techniques.

One of the greatest and most obvious characteristics of autism is poor social interaction and communication skills. The teachers at the Little Tree do a great job working on these skills all day long. Nonverbal children are taught to sign certain basic needs, wants, and objects. If the child is verbal or partially verbal, the teachers require the child to (as best as they can at the time) form the most complete sentences possible when requesting something or running through their individualized programs. For example, one child may want a teacher to push them in the swing. Their first reaction may be to gesture towards the swing or cry. This is not an acceptable way of requesting. The teacher will ask, "What do you want?" The child must first either sign or speak, "I want push, please!" the best way that they can. Teachers also teach communication skills and social skills by requiring eye contact and prompting speaking in any way possible. Autistic children also benefit socially from being around typical children in the classroom from a young age.

Another interesting technique used at the Little Tree for behavior management is what they refer to as the WASSD (wait, ask, say, show, do) checklist. The first step of directing a child to a task is stating the task. (i.e., "It's time to wash your hands.") You then WAIT for the correct behavior for 3 seconds. If the child complies, praise them. If the child does not comply ASK, "What do you need to do?" Again, if the child complies, praise them. If the child still has not completed the task the next step is to SAY, "You need to wash you hands." If the child does not comply, SHOW the child what to do by modeling or gesturing with no verbal prompts. As with the previous steps, if the child then completes the task, praise them. If the child still has not complied, DO by providing gentle assistance in helping the child perform the task with no verbal prompts. After this is done, praise the child for completing the task. The word "no" is never used at the Little Tree when directing a child. I found that this checklist provides each student an opportunity for decision making, independence, and for those who may not process information quickly, time to understand the task given. Teachers do not use this behavior plan for all children, however. WASSD is the first approach. If certain behaviors do not improve after an extensive trial with this plan, that child's case manager will form a different proceeder to try. This also leads me to another great point about special education that I learned from the Little Tree. Record EVERYTHING! It is especially important to record negative behaviors such as head banging or screaming each time it happens. With so many very different children in one classroom, it is hard for the teacher to know whether or not they are making progress with a certain child without recording everything. This is also a good way to have concrete evidence legally of all techniques and proceeders attempted in case of a legal issue that may occur.

In all, the Little Tree taught me more then I could have ever learned from a book or lecture. It was a very eye opening experience and I hope that I will have the opportunity to visit there again for my student teaching or practicum. I will talk more on what I learned from the Little Tree in latter posts. To learn more about the Little Tree, please visit: The Learning Tree Website.