Autism Spectrum Disorder the Objective

Autism Spectrum Disorder

The objective of this study is provide complete descriptions of research-based instructional strategies that will be used in working with students and to state a reason why these have been chosen.

Students Desire to Serve

The writer of this study has chosen to work with children with autism. This study will examine how these strategies address specific weaknesses and utilize the strengths of children with autism. The writer of this work has chosen the ages of 11 -- 13, children in the eighth grader with autism spectrum disorder to work with. The studies reviewed in this report have served to provide the writer of this work with information that can be applied in the instructional environment.

Instructional Strategies

The work of Thiessen, et al. (2009) relates that discrete-trials teaching (DTT) is used on a common basis to initiative applied behavior analysis treatment for children who have autism. Autism is a developmental disorder that has specific characteristics including deficits in social and communication skills, behaviors that are repetitive and whose interests are limited in their range. Various strategies have been examined for teaching staff and parents in the implementation of DTT. Studies are reported to have achieved a great deal of success in the instruction of participants in the correct implementation of DTT. One is stated to have the inclusion of a generalization assessment and another to have the inclusion of procedural integrity assessment, while only two were inclusive of a social validity assessment. Many instructors including educators, parents, and tutors are required to make provision of DTT training sessions in ABA early intervention programs for autistic children therefore the work of Thiessen, et al. (2009) reports an investigation of an alternative that would be effective for training instructors in DTT and primary in the use of a self-instruction manual. The self-instruction manual is reported to have been revised by Fazzio and Martin (2007). The revised manual was investigated in a study reported by Thiessen, et al. (2009). The study involved four female university students enrolled in a second-year undergraduate psychology course. Generalization assessment sessions with a child with autism were conducted in the home of the child who was 4.5 years old and who had received training in the program at St. Armant for one year's time. Reported as the dependent variable in the study was the accuracy of the student while implementing DTT to teach three tasks to a control and to a child with autism. The Discrete Trials Teaching Evaluation Form was used to measure accuracy. Findings state that the manual was both effective and efficient in training undergraduate students in the implementation of DTT in instructing three tasks to autistic children. The work of Rodriguez and Thompson (2012) states that restrictive and repetitive behavior in autism has received little attention in research when compared with the other diagnostic features in autism. The work of Turner (1999) suggested that restricted and repetitive behavior should be divided into higher level and lower level categories. Included in the higher-level restricted and repetitive behavior were complex behavior including such as routines that are rigid and invariable such as eating, dressing, and playing and lower level restricted and repetitive behavior, which includes such as flapping of hands and manipulation of objects that is repetitive. The study reported by Rodriguez and Thompson involved three participants who were attendees at a special school and residential program for autistic individuals. The data collected was on arranging and ordering for the participants. The first participant, Jim, a 15-year-old male followed simple instructions and spoke in very short sentences. Jim is reported to have high rates of lower level restricted and repetitive behavior, which included vocal stereotypy and repetitive touching, and tapping of items and surfaces. Jim was noted by teacher to be difficult to interrupt and difficult to redirect and this presented difficulty in working with him. Jim would even sometimes push the instructors out of his way in his arranging and ordering of objects. Another participant in the study was Christie, a girl 15 years of age with autism. Christie followed simple instructions and used small sentences. Christie had behavior that was compulsive like in arranging and ordering items. It is reported that for the two males students in this study an avoidance contingency was consistent with observations that were naturalistic in which the two males took part in behavior that was compulsive like before moving on to a new activity at a new location. Stimuli other than explicit instruction are reported to have likely signaled the beginning of a new activity. In the case of the female student, Christie it was related that arranging and ordering was not an escapist activity as it had been for the male participants to avoid responding to instructions. In the case of one of the male students the ordering and arranging was believed to be due to lack of other stimulating attention. The work of Gongola and Sweeney (2011) report discrete trial teaching which is an educational instruction practice that is characterized by a fast pace that is delivered repetitively and which enables instruction that is intense is a short period of time. Discrete trial teaching sessions are reported to take place in environments that are highly structured. The area in which this instruction takes place should be as free of distractions as possible. An instructional team that is cohesive is characterized by one individual coordinating the discrete trail teaching implementation. The materials should be available for each skill to be taught and should be organized and labeled according to each skill. The teacher should conduct an assessment of preference with the student in order to understand what motivates the student to work. It is necessary that a hierarchy of prompts be identified. Intertrial intervals are reported to mark the ending of one trial and the beginning of another trial. Time intervals should not be extended very long. Discrete trial teaching should involve the students being motivated by reinforcement and contingency rewards. The learning experience should be one that is pleasant to students. Parker and Kamps (2010) report a study involving written task analyses with self-monitoring in the teaching of functional skills and verbal instructions to two autistic students who were labeled as high-functioning students with peers in a social setting. The study reports a social script language intervention geared toward increasing the amount of verbal interaction between students and their peers. The results were analyzed and the conclusion stated that the intervention packages brought about an increase in completion of independent tasks, resulted in peer-directed verbal interaction and activity engagement for the participants with autism during cooking activities and social and game activities.