Considerations for Using AT to Support the Educational Goals of Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (2005) - Kerry Randle (2005)

introduction

Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have a developmental disability which makes it difficult for them to understand some of the sensory information they receive from the world around them. This difficulty results in a number of social, communication, and behaviour problems that require specialized programming in our schools to ensure that these students learn the functional and academic skills needed to live as enjoyable and independent life as possible.

The term Autism Spectrum Disorder or ASD is not a specific diagnosis as identified by the Diagnostic Statistical Manual 4th edition (DSM-IV) but is a term that refers to and includes the following diagnostic groups: autism, Asperger's Syndrome, and Pervasive Development Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS). This term is useful when discussing educational programming because students with these diagnoses tend to fall somewhere on the continuum from severely affected to minimally affected. Instructional goals are generally similar for all students on the spectrum with instructional approaches to support those goals adjusted as necessary to accommodate the individual student's level of functioning.

In the past decade, a tremendous amount has been written about this neurological disability as researchers explore and examine the causes, characteristics and educational strategies for supporting these students. There is a significant body of pedagogical knowledge that has emerged to assist educators in planning and implementing programs which will accommodate the unique needs of individuals with ASD. The most effective pedagogy addresses the complex profile of strengths and deficits of each student and works toward improving his or her functional social and communication skills.

While no two students with ASD are alike, they do share some common characteristics. These characteristics help us understand their general needs and this, in turn, should direct instructional approaches in the classroom. Effective instructional approaches for any student utilize a variety of tools and the same is, of course, true for students with ASD. In addition to more common instructional tools, technology-based tools can be particularly effective for this student population.

A great deal of information on the causes and diagnosis of autism is available in print and on the internet. This document will not address these issues in particular but instead will focus on the common characteristics of the disorder, what instructional approaches can be used to address them and what technology-based tools work well to support these approaches.

Currently many teams around North America are implementing a variety of technologies with students with ASD. Unfortunately, a very limited amount of research has been conducted to determine the best strategies for implementing this technology in the students' educational programs. (see lit review) However, an examination of the general characteristics of the disability and the instructional approaches that address them offers clear direction for selecting and implementing appropriate technology-based tools. It is critical to view technology as a tool to address students' needs and to support educational goals, and not as the goal itself.

the common characteristics of autism

The BC Ministry of Education Special Programs Branch Resource Guide entitled "Teaching Students with Autism" (2000), identifies seven categories of characteristics which are common to most students with ASD. Individual students will have a unique combination of strengths and deficits in these areas and so will require more or less individualized instructional approaches depending on their specific profile. Their categories include:

• Communication characteristics
• Social Interaction characteristics
• Behavioural characteristics
• Learning characteristics
• Attention characteristics
• Sensory stimuli characteristics
• Anxiety characteristics

It is convenient to organize these characteristics for the purpose of presenting instructional approaches that address each one, but there are obvious areas of overlap. For example, an instructional strategy that is implemented to increase a student's functional communication with peers at lunch may also decrease inappropriate behaviours at the same time.Technology-based tools can help support instructional approaches that address all seven characteristics. In this discussion we will concentrate primarily on the first four characteristics.

communication

One of the central characteristics of autism spectrum disorders is deficits in language comprehension and communication. There is quite a range of abilities in this area – about 50% of those with autism are non- or minimally-verbal and will remain so for their lifetime. Those that are verbal can have extensive language but have difficulty with pragmatics or the social use of language. Even those students who communicate relatively effectively may not see a reason to do so and may not initiate communication with others in a normal manner. Communication difficulties may present in any number of ways:

Difficulty interpreting and understanding non-verbal communication like facial expression or gestures
Difficulty establishing or maintaining shared attention on conversation
Delay or lack of expressive language skills, both oral and written with restricted vocabulary
Repetitive and/or idiosyncratic speech patterns
Echolalic speech
Tendency to perseverate on specific topics, both orally and in written communication
Difficulty with conversational pragmatics – initiating, maintaining, turn taking, adjusting Difficulty understanding verbal instructions, particularly long or sequenced instructions

As each student with ASD has a very unique communication profile, assessments conducted formally (by a speech language pathologist) or informally (by members of the school based team) are needed to create an effective instructional plan to help guide the choice of instructional approaches and, subsequently, the tools (including technology) that should be used to support those approaches. Instructional approaches should support communication goals which emphasize the development of functional expressive and receptive communication skills useful in a variety of settings. Development of communication skills so students can express their wants and needs, interact socially, share information, express emotions and advocate for themselves should be a priority.

Chart A summarizes some of the instructional strategies and technology-based tools that will support students with ASD in developing their oral communication skills. The chart is not meant to be comprehensive, but rather suggestive of ways in which technology can be effectively implemented to support oral communication goals. For more detailed information, click on the links in the chart.

Chart A

social interaction

Students with autism spectrum disorders have difficulties with social interaction and with establishing and maintaining relationships. Their inappropriate social behaviours often make it uncomfortable for their peers to initiate or continue communication with them, particularly for those who use AAC systems. Research is demonstrating that the reluctance to initiate communication may be more than a lack of motivation – it may be a result of an inability to process information from the social interactions and then understand how to respond appropriately.

These students often miss important social clues, facial expressions or gestures. Since so much of our social communication is non-verbal, they end up missing important information that would help them in social situations. This, combined with their social cognitive deficit known as ‘theory of mind', makes it very challenging for them to understand and respond to other perspectives. Along with not understanding what others might be thinking, they often cannot articulate what they are thinking as well since they often cannot make the connection between thoughts and action.

Each student with ASD demonstrates this complex deficit in unique ways. Students at one end of the spectrum may have very few social skills and avoid interactions all together. At the other end, higher functioning or Aspberger students may be able to carry on fairly normal conversations but appear odd or eccentric in their social behaviours.

With other students, social skills develop early from a combination of direct instruction and incidentally by observation and participation in social interactions with adults and peers. Students with ASD do not learn social skills in this way and direct instruction of even the most obvious social skills is necessary. One of the challenges for these students is to overcome their rigid and overly literal perceptions of people and situations. They may believe that rules apply to one situation only (you only use a fork when sitting in the blue chair to eat), that everything people say is true and literal ("keep your shirt on" means to keep your actual shirt on), and when you are confused, do nothing. These beliefs obviously make navigating the complex world of social communication very difficult and teams must help these students learn effective and appropriate methods of interacting with peers and adults.

Once a student's social competencies are assessed, a plan for social skill development can be created. A variety of instructional approaches can be used to teach social skills and, as with communication skills, technology-based tools can be very effective in supporting those approaches.

Chart B summarizes some instructional approaches and technology-based tools that will support students with ASD in developing social skills. Click on the chart links for more information.

Chart B

behaviour

Students with autism spectrum disorders often have unusual and challenging behaviours that do not respond to typical redirection. For some behaviours, particularly those that are not under the student's control, the issue is management of the behaviour, not extinction. As with communication and social skills, a plan for direct instruction for self-monitoring of behaviours is an important component of any ASD student's program.

Many of the unusual behaviours associated with autism spectrum disorders are a result of factors such as hyper- or hypo-sensitivity to sensory stimulation, anxiety, and difficulties with social situations and changes in routine. When planning effective intervention strategies, school based teams should consider the function of the problem behaviour and plan to teach alternative, appropriate behaviours to the student. For example, if a student gets an adult's attention by throwing something, the plan would include teaching him or her more appropriate strategies like putting up their hand or handing the teacher a symbol card. The most successful behavioural management strategies often involve adapting the environment to decrease the undesirable behaviours or to provide a way to learn and express appropriate ones that perform the same function.

Through collaborative problem solving with those in the student's environment, a behaviour intervention plan can be established to manage his or her unique combination of behaviours. Instructional approaches to support that plan include many of the strategies described earlier because positive behavioural programs include many opportunities for predictable and rewarding communication and social interactions. Technology-based tools figure prominently in supporting positive behavioural goals because so many of the instructional strategies involve visual supports of some kind. In addition, the use of computer technology is very motivating for students with ASD and, consequently, this can be used as a reward for positive behaviours during the student's school day.

Charts A and B offer some suggestions for technology-based tools which can provide support for behavioural management programs.

learning

Students with autism spectrum disorders have complex cognitive profiles that indicate strengths in some areas and deficits in others. Each student has a unique profile but research is pointing to some common cognitive features of the disorder:

• difficulty paying attention to environmental and social cues
• receptive and expressive language impairments, especially with abstract concepts
• difficulty with concept development and abstract reasoning
• social cognition deficits including lack of joint attention and ‘theory of mind'
• lack of planning, organizing and problem solving ability

In addition to cognitive issues that affect the student's learning, there are often motor coordination issues which can impact on the student's expression of what has been learned. Most students with ASD have some gross and/or fine motor planning difficulties. This results in:

• difficulty with physical tasks that require coordination (team or individual sports, balancing, and so on)
• poor or illegible handwriting (large, poorly formed letters)
• laboured handwriting (takes much longer to handwrite anything)

Particularly for higher functioning or Aspberger's syndrome students, the tendency to perseverate and their drive for perfection can make handwriting so frustrating that they become extremely anxious and unable to produce any written work at all. It is in the area of writing support that technology-based tools can really make a difference in students' acquisition and expression of knowledge.

Because many students with ASD have strengths in the area of visual-spatial tasks, may have a tendency to “think in pictures”, and have difficulty processing oral and written information, the use of visual supports for concept development is the cornerstone of most autism programs. Technology-based tools, particularly computer programs that can provide visual as well as auditory support, can be used very effectively to address the unique learning characteristics of this student population.

One of the basic goals of any educational program for these students is the development of the functional skills necessary to be able to enjoy a happy and relatively independent life. Most functional skills programs address five basic domains: domestic or self-care skills, vocational or job skills, social and leisure skills, community skills and academic skills. Technology-based tools can be very effective in all five domains of a functional skills program by providing visually supported skill development and rehearsal activities.

Chart C summarizes some the five domains of functional skills and offers suggestions for technology-based tools that can be used to support their development.

Chart C

For higher functioning students, development of functional skills is still very important but the academic skills of reading, writing and mathematics are also critical. Since knowledge is constructed in social systems, many of the instructional approaches and technology-based tools discussed earlier for Communication and Social Interaction will help students develop their academic skills as well. However, acquisition of knowledge is only part of the picture - the motor planning issues that students with ASD have makes written expression of that knowledge very challenging. In addition to motor planning issues, these students often have other learning difficulties. It is here that technology-based tools really make a difference to the students' academic development.

Chart D summarizes the common instructional approaches and technology-based tools used to address some of the higher functioning students' learning difficulties.

Chart D

These suggestions are only a small indication of how many different ways technology-based tools can help support the instructional approaches and strategies that are needed to address the unique needs of students with ASD. In general, technology can serve three main functions in a student's educational program:

• as a tool for school based teams when creating instructional and visual resources
• as a tool for students to support their communication, functional skills and academic goals
• as a tool for school based teams for researching instructional best practices and for recording data collection and student progress

For students with ASD, technology really creates a bridge from their world to ours. It is one of the most powerful tools we have to reach across the communication gap and help them towards a happy and successful life.

"One of the things you have to work at is to have enough human resources and to plan ahead... be willing to take responsibility for making the arrangements and building the bridges." Barbara Feldon

View the bibliography for this article.