Teaching Students w/Autism 3.3: School-based Intervention

Social narratives, or social stories, were developed by Carol Gray in 1993. A social narrative is a story told in first person to help a student understand a challenging situation. The story explains what a student should do in a specific situation, why the situation is occurring, and how other people involved are thinking and feeling. (Baker, 2001, p. xvi).

For example, a social story might go over a skill like how to ask to play with a toy someone else is playing with by breaking down the steps, providing the language, and sharing the feelings of the other child involved.

Social stories can be created and shared as an intervention for challenging behavior or to teach a new skill. To create a social story, follow these steps:

1. Identify the social situation for the intervention

2. Define the target behaviour or skill

3. Collect baseline data to assess the target skill

4. Write the social narrative in language appropriate for the learner

5. Choose the length of the story and amount of text per page

6. Include photos or images appropriate for the learner

7. Implement the social narrative and practice routinely

8.Monitor learners progress

9. Review data and make changes to the social narrative if necessary

10. Move to generalizations and maintenance of target behavior or skill (Wragge, 2008)

Why use social stories?

A social narrative could be easily implemented in my early primary classroom with little support and provide many students with the opportunity to learn through explicit instruction appropriate ways to engage in a number of situations from asking a friend to play to turn taking to polite interrupting. Furthermore, the students can practice with each other in a safe space after reading.

Students can also help with the creation of a social story for specific skills necessary to our classroom, which can build on literacy skills while helping to support our student with ASD.

References: 

Baker, J. (2001). The social skills picture book: Teaching play, emotion, and communication to children with autism. Arlington, TX: Future Horizons. PP. xiii-xv

Wragge, A. (2008). Social narratives: Online training module. (Lincoln, NE: Nebraska Department of Education). In Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence (OCALI), Autism Internet Modules, www.autisminternetmodules.org. Columbus, OH: OCALI.

Play groups can provide opportunities for students with ASD to engage in play with peers of the same age and practice social and communication skills. Activities and games are selected to help with skill-building and teachers scaffold and support students as they play.

How to implement:

1. Choose 1-2 students with exceptional needs that would benefit.
2. Choose 2-3 students that are kind, helpful and good listeners to help with the activity.
3. Select 1-2 goals for the group.
4. Select the activity that matches the interest of the students.
5. Gather materials for activity.
6. Play activity for under 30 minutes.
7. Lead play whole-class group during choosing time or group activities

Why use structured play groups?

Structured play groups can be a safe way for students with ASD to practice communication and social skills as well as work on building relationships with classmates.

I think the structure enables students that might feel anxious the feeling of security, and can also improve relationships between students with designations and without.

Reference:

Structured play groups. (n.d.). Retrieved June 06, 2020, from https://ahrc.eq.edu.au/services/fba-tool/help/structured-play-groups

Scripting involves creating a verbal or written model for a certain skill. It is practiced many times before a student utilizes the model in a real situation and helps learners anticipate what may happen during an activity and help them participate appropriately. (Wong et al, 2013)

Scripting can also support students who may find communication in certain situations stressful. An example of scripting intervention could be using a script to teach a child language to initiate and play a game such as “Go Fish”. A teacher could teach the language around asking a friend to play, and then language used in the game such as, “Do you have a [card number]?” and “Yes. Here you go.” or “No, I don’t. Go fish.”Modeling, prompting and reinforcements are also important when practicing the script before it is used in a real life situation. 

How to implement scripting:

1. Identify the skill you will be targeting and outline the steps in language appropriate for the learner to use and understand .

2. Practice the steps in the skill repeatedly prior to using the steps in a real situation. 

3. Once the learner is using the script appropriately in a real situation and begins to generalize within the situation, start to fade the script out. (Fluery, 2013, as cited in Tslat, n.d.)

Why use scripting?

Scripting provides a great opportunity to safely practice social and communication goals for many students. We already use forms of scripting in Zones of Regulation when identifying feelings and strategies to deal with them, and I have found providing students with the language to discuss this very effective. I think providing students with scripts to engage in other situations, particularly around play and asking for help, can help students develop independence and learn to take risks.

References:

Tslat. (n.d.). Scripting (SC). Retrieved June 04, 2020, from http://www.txautism.net/interventions/scripting-sc

Wong, C. et al. (2013). Evidence-based practices for children, youth, and young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder [PDF]. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, Autism Evidence-Based Practice Review Group. Retrieved from http://autismpdc.fpg.unc.edu/sites/autismpdc.fpg.unc.edu/files/2014-EBP-Report.pdf

Two strategies that have proven to be successful are 1. peer-mediated social skills intervention and 2. self-monitoring.  

Peer-mediated social skills intervention is utilizing peers, pre-taught or not, to teach a target skills. Henry noted many positives in his literature review such as: increased social initiation by students with ASD, very little adult intervention necessary, popularity with students of ASD on the playground increased after peer-mediated intervention, promotes inclusivity at school and self-confidence and self-esteem of students with ASD.  

How it works: Teacher chooses a skill that a student with ASD finds difficult and chooses peers that are: around the same age, good at following directions, willing to participate, have good attendance, are high social status, and have age appropriate socials skills to either be trained to teach a skill or participate in practicing a skill with the student with ASD and other students. The group meets over a course of six to eight weeks to learn and practice the skill. Modeling, prompting, reinforcing and direct instruction are imperative roles of teacher and peers. Students used a peer-monitoring strategy to note if their partner had completed the skill accurately and documents it. When a student with ASD has been able to successfully perform a skill three times, the teacher records the intervention as successful.

Henry noted that follow-up is important for this and a “booster” session necessary so that the skills are long-lasting and used into adulthood.(Henry, 2017)

Why peer-mediated instruction and intervention?

I really like the idea of using peer-mediated intervention, and used it last year in a playgroup when I had consistent SSA support. I can see this being very successful for all involved. Korkiamaki noted, “Children are able to support, control, and build their own capacities and by extension, those of their peers.” (in Henry, 2017, p. 36)

References:

Henry, C. (2017). Using Peer Mediated Interventions to Enhance the Social Skills of Pupils with Autistic Spectrum Disorder. Reach, 30(1), 36–44.

According to Wong et al., visual supports are, “Any visual display that supports the learner engaging in a desired behavior or skills independent of prompts. Examples of visual supports include pictures, written words, objects within the environment, arrangement of the environment or visual boundaries, schedules, maps, labels, organization systems, and timelines.” (2013, p. 22) Visual supports are important for people with ASD because they provide concrete, stable information that tend to engage learners. (Baker, 2001, p. xiii) 

Visual supports are useful universal supports as well, so they benefit all students.

Why visuals?

I like to use visual supports in my classroom to support a student with ASD as well as other students. I find that the use of a visual schedule (shape of the day)is very useful, so the student can refer to the schedule when she arrives in the morning and perform the first task independently. Other ways I use visual supports in the classroom are though visual cue cards (hands up, full body listening, Think-pair-share etc. that I have made) as well as a communication book for my particular student, and access to an iPad to share new vocabulary that crops up.

References:

Baker, J. (2001). The social skills picture book: Teaching play, emotion, and communication to children with autism. Arlington, TX: Future Horizons. PP. xiii-xvi

Wong, C. et al. (2013). Evidence-based practices for children, youth, and young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder [PDF]. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, Autism Evidence-Based Practice Review Group. Retrieved from http://autismpdc.fpg.unc.edu/sites/autismpdc.fpg.unc.edu/files/2014-EBP-Report.pdf

Video modeling is a strategy used to teach students with ASD how to respond to social interactions with peers and teachers.The use of video modeling followed by skillstreaming, social skills intervention developed by Goldstein, has shown to be effective in students with ASD achieving target skill mastery after three to six intervention sessions. 

1. 1. Teacher identifies necessary target skill to be taught and creates a script modeling correct social skill procedure. 
2. Each component in the social skill sequence is performed by a student of similar age to the child learning the target skill and a teacher. It is important that the people are familiar with the student learning the skill. 
3. An ipad is used for both recording the video and viewing it. 
4. After showing the video, large visual cards are used in sequential order to break down the skill 
5. The cards are used as an additional prop during intervention

Why video monitoring?

I think this is a great idea that a class could undertake to create videos for a student with ASD. It would be a fun way to review certain skills, promote literacy (script writing), cooperation and collaboration, as well as create a useful resource for students that need the intervention.

References:

Kocaoz, O. E., Little, M. E., & Gallup, J. (2019). Impact of Video Modeling Combined with Skillstreaming Teaching Procedures on the Social Interaction Skills of Middle School-Aged Children with ASD. Education & Training in Autism & Developmental Disabilities, 54(3), 237–248.

For a link to a fabulous handout containing this information, please see my Canva handout HERE

There are plenty of resources available to you for planning meaningful interventions for students with ASD such as:

• POPARD
• Teaching Students with Autism: A Resource Guide for Schools
• Ministry of Education Planning Tool