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| International Symposium - Selected Techniques of Supported Inclusion for Young Children with Autism |
| Monday, May 28, 2007 |
| 1:30 PM–2:50 PM |
| Elizabeth G |
| Area: AUT/EDC; Domain: Service Delivery |
| Chair: Joel P. Hundert (Behaviour Institute) |
| CE Instructor: Joel P. Hundert, Ph.D. |
| Abstract: As children with autism move into general educational classrooms, there is a need to develop effective and contextually-practical interventions. There is little evidence that placement of children with autism in a general education classroom setting by itself, will produce significant gains in their academic or social skills. This symposium will present a number of techniques associated with the success of supported inclusion for children with autism. One paper will present data on the use of embedded instruction to teach children with autism within a general education setting. A second study will describe a study of training paraprofessionals to support adolescents with autism in secondary schools. The third paper will present data on generalization across tasks of teaching children with autism to answer why questions. The fourth paper will discuss the use of a transitional classroom to prepare children with autism for supported inclusion and z method of evaluating the match between the expectations of a potential receiving classroom and the needs of a child with autism. |
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| Training Teachers to Develop Inclusive Class Interventions For Preschoolers With Disabilities. |
| JOEL P. HUNDERT (Behaviour Institute) |
| Abstract: Embedded instruction holds promise as an intervention that can be used to teach children with autism in general education settings, particularly when there is a sizeable discrepancy between the academic skill level of a child with autism and the rest of the students in the class. Embedded instruction has been shown to be effective in teaching IEP objectives to children with autism in general education classrooms and has been rated by educators as an acceptable intervention. However, research on the effectiveness of embedded instruction is limited and research on variables associated with the effect of embedded instruction is almost non-existent. For example, typically the total number of embedded instructional trials per day implemented in studies has been between 10 and15. Presumably, increased learning may be able to occur with increased practice of embedded instruction trials. The paper will describe the results of a study in which the amount of embedded instruction practice was increased and effects examined on acquisition and generalization of skills. |
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| The Effect of Paraprofessional Training on Active Engagement of Adolescents with Autism in Inclusive Secondary Schools. |
| DONNA C. CHANEY (Behaviour Institute), Olivia Alexandre (McMaster University), Joel P. Hundert (Behaviour Institute) |
| Abstract: As part of the movement to include children with autism into general education, some secondary schools are attempting to educate adolescents with autism in such general education classes as history, geography, and music. When compared to similar efforts for younger children with autism in elementary schools, the inclusion of adolescents in secondary schools has additional challenges including: a) transition of adolescents from class to class each period; b) the involvement of several teachers in planning and delivering education for the adolescents with autism; and, c) a large discrepancy between the skill set of many adolescents with autism and their typically-developing peers. This paper will describe the results of a study in which secondary school paraprofessionals were taught to develop individualized curriculum materials and provide direct teaching of adolescents with autism in inclusive classrooms. Effects of this training on the active engagement in functional tasks of three adolescents with autism and on the behaviors of paraprofessionals will be described. |
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| The Development and Coordination of A Comprehensive Plan to Support a Youth with Autism in Secondary School. |
| COURTNEY MICHELLE MOODY (Behaviour Institute), Sari van Delft (Behaviour Institute ), Joel P. Hundert (Behaviour Institute), Donna C. Chaney (Behaviour Institute) |
| Abstract: There have been several examples of successful teaching of children with autism tasks such as reading, mathematics, and spelling in general education classrooms in which there is a correct answer associated with each presented question. Yet, children with autism included in general education classrooms may be exposed to learning that does not involve a direct and fixed association between a question and an answer. Such tasks would include answering “why” questions in which there may be a number of plausible answers. This paper will describe the results of a study in which children with autism were presented with three types of tasks that involve answering “why” questions: a) observing a sequence of pictures depicting a story; b) listening to a brief story; and, c) listening to a general question. A multiple-probe design across stimuli was used to evaluate the acquisition of “why” questions and generalization to untrained stimuli for two children with autism. The results indicated that training effects generalized to novel stimuli within the same type of “why” questions, but limited generalization occurred from one type of question to the next. |
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| A Description of a Transitional Classroom to Move Children with Autism into General Education Classrooms. |
| NICOLE WALTON-ALLEN (Behaviour Institute) |
| Abstract: Transition classrooms have been used to ease the movement of some young children with autism from a discrete trial teaching format to learning within the instructional formats more typical in general education classrooms. This paper will describe the Preparatory Class at Behaviour Institute, as one example of a transition classroom. The presentation will describe intervention strategies used for teaching children with autism to learn within a group setting including individualized group instruction, unintrusive reinforcement and prompting procedures and embedded instruction. Also presented will be the method for making a transition from the Preparatory Class to the general education classroom setting and the assessment of the behaviors and skills of the child with autism in relationship to expectations of the receiving classroom. |
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