Home Program Evaluation
I hope my coming helped and that these notes are useful. CK is doing great. I am impressed. He has a ways to go, but I am imnressed. Lea is doing great too. Sometimes everything is a little overwhelming, but I hope by watching she got a few ideas on ways to include CK. Hope things are going well in all areas of your lives. I will talk with you soon. Let me know if there is anything else I can do for you. Thanks
Lea—
You are doing a good job. There are a lot of notes, but they are here for your benefit. This is something that takes a long time to become natural. Especially facilitating social language and play. It will come though. Don’t get upset if you miss an opportunity, you will know to look for it the next time a similar situation happens. Try your best and have FUN. Your doing great. Especially for only working with CK for a few weeks. I can tell you already know what to expect of CK in certain situations. Use that to your advantage. Read into what you think CK will do next and try to be one step ahead. Make the other kids think that CK is cool to hang out with. You will be surprised at what they will want to do to help him. And
remember again, HAVE FUN. I hope this helped in some way. Good Luck, CKley
Autism Basics
- Make sure you have child’s attention before giving Sd, command, or asking a question.
- Limit language when child is in behavior or in a situation which may be over stimulating. (i.e. “Stand up”,” Come here”, “Sit down” vs. “Come over here and sit down in the chair.”)
- Follow through when you give an Sd or command. These are not choices and should be treated as such.
- Pick your battles, then follow through.
In the Classroom
Goal #1 - Social Interaction with peers.
An class, encourage children to get closer to CK when they want to get his attention. A boy in his class tried to get CK’s attention 2 times, then walked away and gave up. If this happens too many times, the child will stop making effort after a while.
Have CK talk and ask questions with friends. This may take prompting. Be there to help out, give him a chance to initiate, if it does not happen, prompt a phrase or question. If children tend to answer you, ask them to wait until CK has asked. This is a place where follow-through is very important.
Goal # 2 - Transitions and expanding areas of interest.
Encourage CK to play in all areas. This not only provides interwoven transitions, but also will expose CK to new activities and interests. If an area is unmotivating, more than likely CK does not feel successful at it (i.e. art projects, or writing), with time and YOUR enthusiasm and verbal reinforement CK will begin to enjoy most of these. Make the time at less motivating activities shorter, follow them with something CK really enjoys, such as legos or sensory table.
Giving CK time to play alone (or with an adult) as a reinforcement is also good. He should be encouraged to interact with peers, then can have a few minutes to play by himself
Goal # 3 - Interaction at Circle time.
First of all Circle is TOO LONG and over CK’s head. I’m not saying that it is all bad, but there is no way he can be expected to get much out of it at this point.
Things that may be to advanced for CK at this time: spelling (names, days, months, colors), the Bear routine of “Today” “Tomorrow” and “Yesterday”, counting days as “first, second, third....”
Things that may help:
- Have CK learn songs, calendar routine, poem, etc. at home in a more controlled setting.
- You may want to discuss having CK only attend the portions that are relevant to him and have him do a “job” during the other part of circle so he doesn’t interrupt other children from learning. A Job could be something like taking recycling to the office, or get a few independent work tasks set up so that he could do them in the big playroom. Give me a call if you want ideas.
- I observed most of CK’s boredom and loss of attention during these times of the circle. He showed this by yawning, putting his head down, and stimming on his hands or eyes and moving around.
- The first circle that I observed did have LOTS of down time and all of the children seemed to be a bit restless.
- The second circle went better for CK. There was a sharing time in which CK shared his lego picture. You may want to pick an item and discuss it for a few days before he shares because he did not really know what to say when the teacher was asking him questions. CK quietly mumbled what he did say. His attending was excellent when a friend was sharing a toy dinosaur (something CK loves). This circle also had a tape story which CK seemed to be listening to.
Goal #4- Appropriate standing and walking in line
CK is doing much better at this, however remember to use verbal and maybe even tangible reinforcement during these times. (such as “nice
walking feet”, “nice hands down, CK”, “Good standing with your friends”, etc.)
Overall, have fun and remember that there are always opportunities for learning
At home
Note, I only observed at home for a short while, things looked good. I only have a few comments.
Remember to spontaneously reinforce good sitting.
When you notice CK sitting appropriately, use phrases such as “good sitting”, or “Nice job sitting”. Phrases like “I like your quiet hands” and “Wow, that’s the way I like to see you sit for work-time.” Positive feedback tends to be more successful than a negative alternative such as “Hey CK, that is not the way we sit.”
When using expanded trials in his programs, be sure to vary the Sd with maintenance or mastered tasks. Start with 1 or 2 mastered tasks between the target Sd. Once CK can do this, slowly add more maintenance Sds. This provides a greater amount of time between target responses. Once this has been mastered, move target into Random Rotation with other similar targets.
CK General
First off, CK is doing Great. He has come a long way and you should be proud of what you (and CK ) have accomplished. I am just going to note a few things that I saw, you probably know these all, but oh well.
Comprehension of questions is not quite there. Specifically Who,What, When, Where questions.
Two examples of this were:
Therapist: “What are they doing?”
CK: “They’re green LGM’s.”
And, Therapist: “Hi Buzz, how are you?”
CK: “I’m Buzz in my ship.”
CK’s Play skills:
Both CK’s independent and play with adults is great and imaginative. Wow is he imaginative.., the stories.., my goodness. His peer play needs a lot of work. I would suggest having CK learn a game or play script at home, then try to create, or recreate it in a one-on-one peer situation at school or home, whatever you can come up with.
You may need to do this sort of “scripting” for a while, but from what I’ve seen of CK, he will pick up on it.
Fine Motor Skills
CK’s fine motor has come a long way, it is MUCH improved since last year. I observed him painting and tracing his name with the paints. You may want to come to a consensus about how you want him to do his letters, if you want them uniform throughout, or if it doesn’t matter. I mention this because I noticed he was writing his name in all capitals, I used to have him write his name as CK. I don’t think it matters all that much, but will help him if everyone’s expectations are the same.
Intervals
Lea is doing REALLY good with this. I observed them talking about a whale and dolphin book in the classroom, also with CK’s work/play materials at home. The one thing about this that I notice with CK is his use of filler words to give himself more time to answer.
Therapist: “What are you looking for?”
CK: “I’m looking for... .I’m looking... .I’m ... .1 want a blue and white one.”
Or,
Therapist: “Hey CK, what do you see?”
CK: “Oh... look at the very big guy. He is certainly blue.”
This is another case where prompting may be effective. “I see a blue guy.”
He is getting his point across, it just takes a while. I think that with the precision teaching, he will get the idea quite fast.