This issue of NASET’s Classroom Management series was written by Dr. Camille Brandt. In the article, she addresses issues surrounding anticipation and autism and the keys to understanding a child. After reading this article, you will see that anticipation paired with sound age-appropriate goals has the potential to result in positive outcomes at both school and at home for children with ASD.
Anticipation: the word evokes different meanings for those who read it. I think of the ketchup commercial with the Carly Simon song in the background. You may think of something entirely different. In the spirit of common language, ‘anticipation’ for us is the vernacular as a noun: ’to expect or predict’.
Let me introduce you to Amy, not her real name, of course. Amy is 4 years old. Her parents are professionals, and she is an only child. Amy’s family is new to America. They speak several languages at home, although they have communicated almost exclusively with their daughter in English.
Amy’s parents enrolled her in a Montessori preschool, wanting to give their child a well-rounded early education experience. Montessori classrooms apply the constructivist approach to early learning, basing a child’s lessons on direct observations and data collection. This was appealing to her parents because they desired an environment that focussed on each individual child; Amy had missed several developmental milestones in social, emotional, and communication areas, and was receiving speech-language services several times per week to address her delayed and disordered speech. Although she had not been firmly identified with autism, Amy presented with all of the traits for her age and a label may have opened up additional targeted therapy and support for the family (but that is a different topic altogether).
In her preschool multiage-environment, she was a member of a class of ten children who were three to five years old. Observations over the course of her first five days yielded the following information:
- Amy did not use language to request, deny, engage, gain, or acknowledge people or items in her environment, she did not engage with other children or the adults. She would repeat words and phrases.
- She made some eye contact but this was rare.
- She walked on her tiptoes.
- She was drawn to objects that were long, thin, and flexible such as pipe cleaners or zip-ties and would sit and handle them for long periods of time even when offered play objects or books,
- At transitions, she would flail her limbs, fall onto the floor, and make a loud clicking noise with her tongue in protest.
- She would engage with activities that included stacking, inserting, painting, water, & music.
It was agreed that the primary goals for Amy were to address her global communication and her behavior during transitions. While time and collaboration would certainly yield many useful strategies, to expedite her success it was important that the teachers immediately prioritize understanding her behaviors in order to anticipate when and how to intervene and instruct. Consultation with the speech-language specialist was arranged. Further classroom observations resulted in strong environmental practices that yielded fairly rapid results.
It was found that Amy was consistent in several of her behaviors (and if we agree that behavior is a close cousin to communication, this next section will make a good sense). A typical play-based activity example for Amy is her sitting at a table interacting with, let’s say, small plastic animals, placing them into various little animal houses and taking them out again; at such as activity she was observed to be engaged contentedly for up to fifteen minutes. Amy’s behavior would then change; the animals would be flying around the room, the animal homes would be tossed onto the floor, or she would pick up an animal and begin to chew on it. At first, she was directed to pick up the toys, was redirected with modeling on how to play with them, or was directed to remove items from her mouth. This resulted in the behaviors similar to the aforementioned limb-flailing floor-tantrum observed at transition times, which led to a light-bulb moment: was her change-in-play behavior pattern actually a way of her saying ‘I am done with this and want something new to do’?
Thus, ‘anticipation’. Her teachers put together small play ‘kits’ on child-size wooden trays containing play materials she was most interested in. When Amy first tossed an item onto the floor after a period of independent play, she was shown a new set of play materials, and was asked to pick up the toy so she could then have something new to do. The toys were taken away while being prompted with the sign for ‘all done’ and the word ‘done’ modeled and repeated with her, then the new material was given to her immediately after while being paired with the hand-sign for ‘want’ and the words ‘I want’ to encourage age and behavior appropriate communication.
By anticipating Amy’s intention and behaviors, her teachers were able to introduce her to functional communication strategies while focusing on independence and play within the classroom. Within the second week of preschool, Amy was able to move from activity to activity with few interruptions, and began to use the words ‘all done’ independently. This progress was shared with her parents, and they began to use the strategy at home as well. Anticipation paired with sound age-appropriate goals for this child resulted positive outcomes at both school and at home, which is a pretty wonderful thing.
Dr. Camille Brandt
camille.brandt@bemidjistate.edu
Dr. Camille Brandt has experience teaching and leading in public and private elementary schools and has taught in higher education for 15 years. She is a trained New Teacher Mentor and frequently provides consultation to providers working with students impacted by ASD. Her areas of expertise include Autism Spectrum Disorder, Inclusive Education, and Curriculum and Instruction. Dr. Brandt has provided professional development on these topics and has presented on related themes at state, national, and international education conferences. She may be reached at camille.brandt@bemidjistate.edu.
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