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Educating Students with Special
Needs
Lecture 8
Common Disorders, Classroom Strategies and
Associated Behaviour Problems
Part 1
November 12
Educating Students with Special
Needs
1
1
Overview – Focus: Common Disorders, Classroom
Strategies and Associated Behaviour Problems
Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD):
Learning implications
Strategies for the classroom
Mental Health:
Attachment Disorder
Depression
Anxiety
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Eating Disorder
November 12
Educating Students with Special
Needs
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Autism Spectrum Disorders
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To those of you who
feel that you don’t
belong.
Always remember that
different is cool!
Freaks, Geeks and Asperger Syndrome
A User Guide to Adolescence
...........Luke Jackson 2002
4
What is Autism Spectrum
Disorder?
• A neurodevelopmental disability- a
dysfunction in parts of the brain and central
nervous system
• Begins in early childhood (onset before 36
months)
• It is characterised by a Triad of Impairments.
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Triad of Impairment
Impairment of social skills
Communication impairment
Limited repertoire of play, interests and hobbies
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Wing in 1991 observed.........
“A child with autism lives in a world of his
own while the child with Asperger’s lives in
our world but in their own way”.
Autism is a life long developmental disability.
Their condition will affect them in their own
way.
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Plus Sensory Issues
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Plus Sensory issues
“We tend to view things
differently”
Wendy Lawson
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Tony Attwood:
Children and adults with Asperger's Syndrome
often describe feeling a sensation of sensory
overload.”
The Complete Guide to Asperger’s Syndrome ... P 272
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Plus Sensory Issues
• Differences in the way their senses work
• Each person experiences sensory issues
differently and will respond differently
• Tolerance levels are affected by the
student’s well-being-are they tired, ill, run
down, worried or stressed?
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Plus Sensory Issues
Sight
Hearing
Touch
Smell
Taste
Vestibular (balance)
Proprioception
(body awareness)
• All information travels to
the brain where it gets
processed for meaning.
This is the process that
works differently for those
students with Autism.
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“ Sometimes when other kids spoke
to me I would scarcely hear, then
sometimes they sounded like
bullets.” (White)
“Light touch feels like a cattle prod”
(Grandin)
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Plus Sensory Issues
• Senses can function in two ways:
Hypersensitive- (the senses work too well)
Behaviours you may observe are:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Rocking
Swinging
Hitting ears
Pressing their eyes
Twisting
Flapping
Spinning
These can cause sensations
which help the brain block out
something that cannot be
tolerated.
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Plus Sensory Issues
• Hyposensitive-(the senses do not work well
enough)
Behaviours you may observe are:
•
•
•
•
Bang objects or doors
Seek out noises
Prefer tight clothing
Self injure
These can cause
sensations which will
help the brain get
more information in
from outside.
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Diagnosis of ASD
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Diagnosis of ASD
• Cannot be tested medically
• Involves paediatrician, psychiatrist,
neurologist Clinical Pyschologist and family
• DSM-IV is currently the most reliable
diagnostic tool to measure ASD
• Often difficult if there is an existing
intellectual impairment
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SPECTRUM?
The name used to cover autism and related conditions
is Pervasive Developmental Disorder
Autism
Asperger's Syndrome
Pervasive Developmental Disability-Not Otherwise
Specified
Rett’s Syndrome
Childhood Disintegrative Disorder
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What causes Autism
No single event or agent-idiopathic
One thought..........
Environmental factors working in conjunction
with genetic factors.
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Fact or Fiction?
Childhood vaccines are
one of the causes of
Autism?
Research has revealed
distinct abnormalities in the
brain
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CHARACTERISTICS
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Characteristics that may be observed
in a school setting
• Lack of empathy
• Difficulty
forming
friendships
• Poor non verbal
communication
• Fixation on interests
• Perfectionism
• Echolalia in
speech
November 12
• Poor coordination
Educating Students with Special Needs
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Characteristics
that
may
be
observed
Autism con’t
in a school setting
• Sensory difficulties
• Unusual tone of voice
• Anxiety
• Lack of imaginative
play
• Unusual facial tics
• Flapping and rocking
• Literal
• Dislikes changes in
routines
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Theory of Mind
Theory of mind is the capacity we have to
understand mental states such as believes,
feelings, desires, hopes and intentions. It is
the way we imagine other people’s feelings or
thoughts. We can predict some of those
behaviours and anticipate them and react
accordingly.
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Executive Functioning
Higher level functions of the brain that
allows students to start tasks, plan,
organise information and remember
what they learn.
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In The Classroom
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Supporting Students with Autism Spectrum
Disorder in the Classroom
Learning Implications:
- Students with an ASD exhibit a range of intellectual
abilities
- Students with Autism always have a language disorder
- Students with Asperger's Syndrome have impaired
social skills but average ability.
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Educating Students with Special
Needs
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Supporting Students with Autism Spectrum
Disorders in the Classroom
Difficulty with:
•chalk & talk lessons
• attention; gaining, sustaining and shifting
• transition between activities
•generalisation
• gross and fine motor skills
•receptive language
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Supporting Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder in
the Classroom and beyond.........
Strategies for the Classroom
• Visual timetables & visual cues
• Warn the student of any changes in routines
• Be aware of group situations
and sporting events
• Writing tasks can be difficult
November 12
Educating Students with Special
Needs
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Supporting Students with Autism Spectrum
Disorder in the Classroom and beyond........
•Be aware of sensory likes and dislikes e.g.
videos, music, visual stimuli, noise
•Social stories
•Allow practice with Social Skills in groups
•Provide order and consistency
•Limit the access of their special interests
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Sample Social Story
I am afraid to try playing kickball in the
playground, but it looks like fun. I will talk
. to my teacher or my friend. I will chew
some gum to calm down (or other
calming activity suitable for the child)
while watching others play it, and then I
will join in and play. I can ask questions
about the game. I try playing the game
and I like it. Others ask me to play next
time, so I feel like I’m part of the group.
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Supporting Students with Autism Spectrum
Disorder in the Classroom and beyond........
Strategies for the agitated student:
• Follow their plan
• Give them space
• Change the activity
• Decrease the stressors
• Use relaxation techniques
• Explain the rule: tell them what to do now
November 12
Educating Students
with Special Needs
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Supporting Students with Autism Spectrum
Disorder in the Classroom and Beyond..........
Communication Strategies:
•
•
•
•
•
Avoid repeating instructions
Allow processing and response time
Check for understanding
Do not use sarcasm
Teach a stock phrase when a student has not
understood
• Use visuals
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Mental Health issues in the
Classroom
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Content:
• Attachment Disorder
• Anxiety
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
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“Why did I choose the profession?
Why am I here?
Simply put, I’m here to make a
difference.”
Tommy Lindsey, educator and author of It Doesn’t Take a Genius
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Attachment Disorder
Bowlby the original developer of Attachment Disorder
Latest research has led to a resurgence in popularity
Dr. Dan Hughes maintains:
Children learn how to feel safe in relationships and
how to relate to others and to rely on others
through their early relationships with the carer.
The ability to control mood and feelings is established
in the first few years.
The child learns about themselves with the help of
the carer.
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Attachment Disorder
With fractured attachment comes the
inability to deal with the world
appropriately.
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Attachment Disorder in the
classroom
The student may:
– have an excessive need to control
– display oppositional defiant behaviours
– display intense negative affects – rage, terror, despair
– hurt others and themselves – emotional & physical
– have a poor response to discipline – frustration
– lie, make excuses or blame
– be destructive, steal, hoard
– be manipulative and dissociate their behaviour
– Avoid specific thoughts/feelings/behaviours
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Attachment Disorder-Do’s and Don'ts for
the classroom
Do’s:
• Give them structure which is constant and
repetitive so they know what to expect
• Let them know in advance what the
consequences of their actions will be so
they can see it as their choice
• Impose consequences unemotionally
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Attachment Disorder-Do’s and
Don'ts for the classroom
Don’ts:
• Don’t expect them to believe what you
believe
• Don't expect these children to respond to
behaviour management strategies based on
your belief system
• Don’t use shame or rejection as a
management technique.
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Generalised Anxiety Disorder
• About 13% if young people experience an
anxiety disorder at some point during
childhood or adolescence. Up to one-half of
these children may have at least one
additional mental disorder
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Generalised Anxiety Disorder
• Students with GAD have persistent and
unrealistic fears about everyday life
activities.
• They may appear to be doing well at school
but they may have exaggerated concerns
about schoolwork.
• This leads to constant tension, self
consciousness and pains (e.g. headaches)
that do not seem to have a physical cause.
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Behaviours and Symptoms to look
for with GAD:
• They are often the quietest and best
behaved children.
• Express apprehension about tests,
assignments and grades
• Feel fatigued or restless
• Have trouble concentrating
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Behaviours and Symptoms to look
for:
• Be overly emotional
• Experience stomach aches, headaches
and pains
• Avoid participating in school activities
• Be absent frequently
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Classrooms Strategies and
Interventions...
• Give lots of reassurance and genuine,
specific praise
• Carefully monitor students
• Empathise with a student’s anxiety
• Establish routines and clarify expectations
• Allow for flexibility in workload
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• Establish curricula check-in points
• Modify instruction for diverse learning styles
• Establish provisions for times when students
feel overwhelmed
• Speak with the school counsellor, parents
and outside professionals working with the
child
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Obsessive compulsive disorder
Between 1% and 3% of children have OCD and they will
probably have other anxiety disorders as well
Students with OCD will experience
unwanted intrusive thoughts or images
(obsessions) that can cause them to
engage in repetitive behaviours
(compulsions).
The compulsions can be elaborate and time
consuming effecting their performance at
school.
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Obsessions can include:
•Fear of illness, death or contamination
•Fear of image of harm to oneself or others
•Fear of doing or saying something evil or sinful
•Fear that something bad might happen-not done correctly, in
relation to numbers, throwing something away or something is out
of order
Compulsions can include:
•Avoidance of germs and dirt
•Requests of reassurance
•Frequent praying and confessions
•Repeated checking of locks and doors
•Extreme perfections
•Seeking balance by ordering, straightening or arranging
•Doing activities in certain sets of numbedrs
•Excessive collecting and hoarding
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Behaviours and Symptoms to look
for with OCD.......
Some symptoms may be obvious while others may be difficult
to observe in the classroom (persistent thoughts)
•
•
•
•
Be indecisive and slow to accomplish tasks
Avoid some classroom materials
Wash hands excessively
Be stubborn, argumentative and
demanding
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Behaviours and Symptoms to look
for.............
• Act in a distracted or an inattentive way
• Repeat particular sounds, words or music
• Excessively request reassurance or
explanations
• Be irritable and have erratic mood swings
• Be ostracised by peers
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Classroom Strategies and
Interventions.......
• Provide student with consistent reassurance
• Empathise with student’s difficulties
• Consider reducing a student’s overall
workload
• Allow for flexibility in deadlines and testing
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Classroom Strategies and
Interventions......
• Closely monitor student’s progress with
class work
• Avoid grading students on the neatness of
work
• Create a place where students can calm
down when frustrated
• Eliminate teasing
• If student and parents approve then
educate the whole class about OCD
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• Other common disorders to be aware of are
in High School settings are:
• Depression
• Eating disorders
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• Myles L Coley: Teaching Kids with Mental Health
and Learning Disorders in the Regular Classroom
• Luke Jackson: Freaks, Geeks and Asperger
Syndrome-A User Guide to Adolescence
• Lorna Wing: The Autistic Spectrum-A Parents’
Guide to Understanding and Helping Your Child
• Wendy Lawson: Sensory Issues in Autism
• Gail Anne Ilott: In the Deep End
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• Anna Tullemans and Sue Larkey: The Essential
Guide to Successful Secondary School-A Guide
for Teachers and Families of Students with
ASD
• Megan Hammond: My Life with Asperger’s
• Tony Attwood: The Complete guide to
Asperger’s Syndrome
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