Teaching Individuals with Autism

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Teaching Individuals with Autism Other Severe
Learning Deficiencies Effective Methods for
Teachers Computers

• Karl Smith
• Accelerations Educational Software
• Mariam Al Rashdi
• Middle East Representative

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Low Functioning Students

• Severe learning deficiencies
• Poor learning behaviors

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Severe Learning Deficiencies

• Severe learning deficiencies can be a combination
  of a poor ability to
• Imitate
• Understand observed relationships
• Learn skills quickly
• Generalize skills
• Retain information
• Communicate effectively fluently

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Poor Learning Behaviors

• Tolerance of boredom
• Repetitious behaviors
• Content with the familiar/successful
• No tolerance to insecurity (no self confidence)
• Uninterested to extremely fearful of the
  unfamiliar
• Does not like change
• Does not tend to explore
• Does not want to fail
• Does not want to fail again

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Poor Learning Behaviors

• Focused on limited set of abilities and interests
• Sometimes quite strange from our standards
• Simple cause effect
• Extreme interest and ability in very or
  relatively narrow topic(s)
• Escape
• Easily distracted
• Does not pay attention
• Does not comply
• Runs or pulls away
• Tantrums
• Attacks (pinches, hits, kicks, bites, head butts)
• Self Injury

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Learning

• Learning involves doing things that the student
• Has not done before
• Has not done much
• Has not been successful with before
• Past Learning Experience makes the learner
• Cooperative
• Slightly Uncooperative
• Uncooperative
• Combative
• Poor Learning Experiences
• gtgtgtgt develop Poor Learning Behaviors

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Autism

• Students with some of the most
• Severe Learning Deficiencies
• gtgtgtgt Extremely Poor Learning Experiences
• gtgtgtgt Extremely Poor Learning Behaviors
• Effective methods have and are being developed
• Addresses learning deficiencies
• Addresses poor learning behaviors
• Shown to be effective with other learning
  disabilities
• Extensive amounts of 1-on-1

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Effective Teaching

• Motivate to do what is difficult or of no
  interest
• Find appropriate reinforcement
• Fade reinforcement
• Change reinforcement to maintain motivation
• Do not reinforce inappropriate behaviors or
  incorrect answers
• Teach at the appropriate level
• Sometimes need to break down even further

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Effective Teaching

• Sufficient support
• Start from where student can not fail
• Build to where student can be independently
  successful
• Control step size and practice needed
• Use full range of prompt and prompt fading
  techniques
• Maintain skills
• Generalize skills
• Contrive learning situation
• Adapt teaching to learners needs

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Effective Teaching

• Build history of success
• Provide sufficient Frequency and Intensity
• Monitor teaching effectiveness
• Collect and analyze data
• Change teaching methods as necessary
• Micromanage the learning process
• Adapt intervention intensity

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A Lot of Work

• Explicitly teach most of what we need student to
  know
• Provide extensive human intervention using
  effective methods
• We need inexpensive computer software to provide
  some of the instruction

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Computers Can Help

• Computers can also implement effective teaching
  principles for these difficult to teach students.
• Great environment to provide reinforcement
• Great at collecting data and providing reports
• Great at assisting the analysis of data
• Infinitely patient will not tire or get
  frustrated
• Can be made to be adapted to students needs
• Can mimic various teaching methods
• Can support independent use by even low
  functioning students

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Common Software Problems

• Most currently available commercially available
  teaching software has little accommodation for
  independent instruction of some of our most
  difficult to educate learners. Here are some of
  the problems
• Most software inadvertently reinforces incorrect
  answers and inappropriate behaviors by making a
  sound or a little visual effect. Our learner
  will consider success making that sound or visual
  happen over and over.
• Most software provides no ability to choose
  learner specific reinforcement. Some learners
  have intense interests and we need to tap into
  these interests to get instructional control.

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Common Software Problems

• Most software reinforces all the time or very
  frequently. This breaks a fundamental principle
  of fading the reinforcement to the minimal level
  necessary to maintain the behavior. From a
  practical viewpoint, frequent reinforcement also
  decreases instructional time and thus slows
  learning. Another consequence of frequent
  reinforcement is that the reinforcers will more
  quickly lose their motivational value. In fact
  initially positive reinforcers can become boring
  or even annoying and thus de-motivating.
• Most software does not provide an ability to
  change the reinforcement as needed to keep the
  reinforcement interesting and motivating. The
  learner that learns extremely slowly will
  generally tire of the same reinforcement before
  he learns much from the software.
• Most software can not start from where the
  learner can not fail. In software terms this
  means having the capability of presenting only
  one answer.

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Common Software Problems

• Most software uses very limited prompting and
  prompt fading to support the student to
  independent success.
• Most software has limited or no ability to start
  the learner at an appropriate level in a sequence
  and provide a learner specific size of steps and
  amount of practice.
• Most software has limited ability to keep the
  learner from getting stuck. Exploratory
  environments usually do not work since our
  learner will tend to just do the same thing. Our
  target learner has limited ability to follow
  instructions and is not well self directed.
• Most software is not structured such that a low
  functioning learner can be taught to use it
  independently.

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Common Software Problems

• Most software provides little or no ability to
  adapt the teaching method. Even with very
  careful control of the stimulation, some learners
  will be derailed by software features. If there
  are no options concerning these features, the
  software is of no or limited benefit for the
  student.
• Most software does not focus the learner on the
  critical concept. Some of the problems are busy
  screens, use of drawings and icons instead of
  photo icons (photos with backgrounds removed).

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Example Effective Software

• DT Trainer was designed using behavioral teaching
  principles
• DT Trainer is designed for independent use even
  by low functioning students

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DT Trainer

• Controls the stimulation to insure that
  inappropriate behaviors or incorrect responses
  are not inadvertently reinforced.
• Provides complete control over the reinforcement
  frequency.
• Contains a large variety of reinforcers and
  allows users to add reinforcers.

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DT Trainer

• Allows the user to change the number and selected
  reinforcers at any time.
• Can start by giving the learner only the correct
  answer to select.
• Combines two methods of prompting and prompt
  fading.
• Can start the learner at any point in the
  training sequence.

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DT Trainer

• Structured to keep the student from getting
  stuck.
• Designed for independent use by even very low
  functioning individuals.
• Provides defaults for teaching options but allows
  user to change as required.
• Uses a clean teaching environment and photo icons.

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Contact Info

• malrashdi_at_dttrainer.com
• www.dttrainer.com/middleeast