Flexible thinking skills are crucial for children developing in the real world as they promote important learning and social skills and behaviours. Solving Classroom Challenges Using Positive Reinforcement & Executive Functioning Skill Building, Adapted Books: a Literacy Based Solution for Engaging IEP Instruction, Creating a Communication-Rich Environment for Your Preschoolers to Improve Literacy and Independence, Using Your Academic Data to Making Curricular Decisions, Using Organization and Structure to work with Individuals with Disabilities, Data Collection: Making it Easy and Useful, Literacy Instruction for Children with Autism, Reducing Problem Behavior Using Function Based Interventions, Behavior Change – the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Seven Steps for Setting Up a Stellar Autism Room. And play is the best tool to teach and develop flexible thinking skills of children with autism. Skillslivechannel 1,599 views. January 8, 2021 by Courtney Gutierrez, M.Ed., BCBA, LBA “Being flexible” is a skill children with autism may struggle with often. Ummmm- NO THANKS. Once a rigid routine starts it is so much harder to change. We will discuss everything from creating an efficient classroom schedule, the physical structure, using visuals, creating a data system, and beginning your curricular planning. Children with autism may put something in one group, and not be cognizant that it can also belong with another group. Your email address will not be published. So it’s best to practice this intentionally. You add pictures, laminate it, and teach them to use it. We will discuss scheduling, grouping students, training paraprofessionals, and more! Sometimes my boys will be watching/scripting/reenacting certain movies or focusing a narrow range of special interests for a period of time. In this session, learn how to make your data system work for you. Grandin described a metaphor of mixing colors to illustrate concepts that may not have a “right” or “wrong” answer. If my job was always to see six clients in a day and then one day without warning I was asked to see 12, no chance I’d do it without complaining. Plus, sometimes the last cookie breaks, and bananas get brown spots and favorite cups break. In the long run that won’t help, and even in the short run it will reach its limit of feasibility very quickly. For instance, a blue cup may be used for drinking in the kitchen. These maps are an ABA based intervention and help identify the ABC pattern of behavior (antecedent, behavior, consequence) and will give your student or child a concrete way of understanding that “if, then” relationship – “If you do this, this will happen.” In this session, audience members will explore the purpose & use of Behavior Contingency Maps as well as leave ready to implement this strategy immediately in an effective and positive way! Autism — what we know (and what we don't know yet) | Wendy Chung … If you went to the library after lunch last Tuesday, go before lunch this Wednesday. You can create games that encourage your child to take initiative in thinking for solutions. Below are some tips and language to use in your daily life that can help your child become more flexible: Celebrate the ways that inflexibility is … We will also examine how appropriate and purposeful use of visuals helps build executive functioning skills with our younger learners. Places close, restaurants run out of things, schedules change, people get sick, cherished things break. We are creating systems to help them understand change and see it coming, so that when it inevitably happens they will be able to adapt without unnecessary stress. Last minute changes. No matter how great your data system is – if it’s too complicated you won’t use it. Not all quests for consistency and same is bad. (Is it sensory? Instead, make a schedule that allows for change. There are a thousand reasons that every routine will eventually be challenged. Flexibility is hard for people with autism, but everybody who is autistic should at least try to be as flexible as they can — depending on what level of capacity they have. Imagine your frustration if your toothpaste was suddenly in a different place each day, and you couldn’t predict where to find it. “This prevented rigid behavior patterns from forming.”. 88 - Duration: 8:51. I like to drink my coffee out of my favorite Yeti metal mug. I can count on my to do list to show me what I have to do, but I can’t count on it to always be the same length or contain the same activities. On the surface, we are doing a great job. It didn’t negatively affect our life. Park in different parking spaces, take different routes to familiar places, rotate favorite cups/shirts/shoes etc. #3 Proactively Teach Flexibility. Tips for Teaching Flexibility WITH Visual Schedules Teach the Schedule. We will review instructional planning, activity ideas, and specific interventions. You don’t want the first time this happens to be at a moment that’s out of your control. #1 – Is This Something That Needs To Change? And when they can do them, we mark the goal as complete. Staff training is also essential. There are many ways to do this- one is by simply modeling flexibility in your own life. All Rights Reserved 2021, Creating Autism Interventions that Promote Flexibility: Your Ultimate Guide, If you’re ready to teach flexibility, it’s essential that you teach your clients to look at their. And let’s face it, in our daily lives, even the most functional routine is subject to change. Shine a bright light on the how and why of flexibility by teaching it out loud during your everyday lessons. Audience members will learn how conduct a thorough Functional Behavior Assessment, select appropriate and function-based strategies, and analyze data to determine growth and next steps. Support Routines and Transitions. This is great for home because both of you have the plan and have agreed to it. Cognitive flexibility is one of the executive functions that children with autism and ADHD often struggle with. If my schedule is always the same, I’ll probably stop looking at it. In addition to autism, a student may have OCD or an anxiety disorder separate from autism which can have some overlap in these areas. Autism Using Structure To Help Autistic Kids Build Flexibility A tool to develop flexibility. Heck no. In this session, we will review using rubrics, rate of responding, frequency count, and tracking prompt levels to take data on both basic and more complex academic skills. That’s not realistic. In this session, learn how to make your data system work for you. Temple Grandin PhD, is one of the most well-known autistic adults, and she shared four steps for helping autistic children learn flexibility: Maintain a variety of activities in a variety of environments. We will discuss everything from creating an efficient schedule, the physical structure, using visuals, creating a data system, and beginning curricular planning. You may also need to change up your activities, instructions, and your to-do lists. Taylor an intervention based on the WHY you think the behavior is occurring. If you make a schedule that will stay the same and laminate it, not only will your clients not use it, they will also expect it to remain the same. What does that mean? Learn how you can incorporate these strategies into your functional literacy instruction. Begin this process by identifying each learning and behavioral challenge as a Can’t Do or Won’t Do. When we first began to suspect that my oldest son, Greyson, had some kind of developmental delay, I examined his behavior as if it was under a microscope. One thing we know about the learning style of people on the autism spectrum is that there is often a strong adherence to routines. If the instructions are always the same, our kids will likely learn to ignore the instructions, and they may resist when we eventually try to change the activity. There are fieldtrips and fire drills; parents have appointments and holidays; weather interferes with our outdoor plans. When this did happen the terror in my son’s eyes was tangible. I usually paint my nails on Thursdays, clean my toilets on Fridays, and go grocery shopping on Sundays. Organization is the major component to a successful data system. Gravity always keeps your furniture on the ground. 3. This workshop highlights ready to use interventions and real-life scenarios. Imagine the child who always comes into the classroom, hangs their backpack, washes their hands, and then gets out their supplies. We want our kids to learn the same from the very beginning. Here are the two types of changes you need to be able to show: Day to day changes. Epub 2014 Sep 26. Learn how you can incorporate these strategies to effectively teaching reading to students with autism. The answer is to teach our clients with autism flexibility. The day begins with an in-depth look at the importance of building vocabulary for all preschoolers. Browse autism flexibility resources on Teachers Pay Teachers, a marketplace trusted by millions of teachers for original educational resources. Is the world so unpredictable? Make it Fast! #2 Now What? Or what if you came home and your furniture was on the ceiling. Students with autism benefit from structured tasks, the use of visuals, multiple exemplars, discrimination training, and routine based instruction. Learn how to create curriculum that is engaging, appropriate, and at your child’s level. If your answer is yes, don’t worry. Teaching Flexibility To Children With Autism - Skills Live, Ep. Instead, show them the changes on their schedule. Working with the adult population can be very challenging. But these differences in flexibility may also hold the key to helping young people on the autism spectrum to “get stuck” on being more flexible and using big picture thinking. If we are too rigid, demanding and insistent on having things a certain way, it will really complicate our life and create stress for everyone. If you’re working with a child who is more rigid, it’s important to make changes early and often. Flexibility in kids with ASD - Card activity to teach this social skill to children on the autism spectrum Children with Asperger’s and other autism spectrum disorders have a lot of problems with rigidity. Fluency Instruction – Make it Functional! It just needs to show your clients what to expect. Aggression and other problem behaviors can be the biggest obstacle to running a successful classroom. A Unique Perspective: Autism, Concrete Thinking, and Flexibility. Many of us will be tempted to write goals that don’t consider flexibility, and when our clients meet their goals we simply consider them done. This may take time to fully understand. Then, make a neutral change. Alter routines. “I was really hoping to go to TJ Maxx today, but since I don’t have time I’ll go a different day.” Flexibility is not my middle name, so this takes work for me too. Staff training is also essential. Learning to be flexible is essential in creating a successful life with someone on the autism spectrum. Change your spot at the kitchen table. The child always starts with the same activity, does four tasks at the table, plays with the same selection of toys, gets a snack, and leaves. The goal for all general education and special education students is to be learning, engaged, and independent. These maps illustrate the consequences that result from both appropriate and inappropriate behaviors. Teachers, parents, clinicians, and other support staff will benefit from this proactive and real-world based perspective on behavior change. Understand that rigid thinking has been a protective mechanism in their life, and work to teach them how to be more flexible overall. Is he doing that because he has autism or because he’s two? Broken cookies created tears and were immediately exchanged for perfectly round cookies. Go to different public parks, at different times, on different days. The same goes with sharing. An autism diagnosis often demands predictability and routine. Rainbow Thinking is a strategy that helps us stretch our thinking from rigid-inflexible conclusions, sometimes called Black or White or perfectionistic thinking that promotes anxiety and despair to adaptable-flexible solutions that help us feel empowered and hopeful. This may mean checking things off of a list, moving pictures or objects to finished, turning pages in a flip book, or even using objects functionally. This can make it especially hard for your child to cope. 2015 May;56(5):566-76. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12324. This session will provide detailed instruction on strategies to teach pre-reading skills, oral reading fluency, sight word recognition, reading comprehension, and word attack skills. Once you have all this data, you need to know what to do with. Temple Grandin PhD, is one of the most well-known autistic adults, and she shared four steps for helping autistic children learn flexibility: Learning skills to increase flexibility can create more stress in the short term, but can significantly decrease future anxiety and increase independence. Remove something the child enjoys. But teaching our kids flexibility is so much more functional for them in their lives, and also much more rewarding to us as therapists. This helps them have a positive experience of last-minute changes. On the day when the friend was nice, the paint was nearly white. Parents and teachers often find themselves responding to the behavioral outcome of the stress and anxiety involved with this “inflexible thinking,” rather than teaching flexible thinking in a systematic way. This keynote presentation is perfect for a varied audience. In this workshop, we will investigate how to increase positive behaviors, decrease negative behaviors, and how to handle emergency situations where nothing goes as planned! “Being flexible” means dealing with a change to what was planned or what was expected. If you want to dive deep into how to teach your autistic clients to learn in a way that promotes flexibility (and so much more), sign up to be the first to know when registration opens again for my autism self study course. This can sometimes really work to their advantage. This full day workshop will offer practical solutions to foster increases in positive behaviors and decreases in problem behaviors. For your clients who are working on sharing materials and playing flexibly, it’s best to start practicing this right when they get a new toy. Behind every behavior- there is a reason WHY it occurs. 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