Personalised Learning Plan for Autism Spectrum Disorder
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Personalised Learning Plan for Autism Spectrum Disorder
PART 1
Table one
Context Tom is a student at Brighton Primary School. He is suffering from autism spectrum disorder (ASD). He is undergoing behaviour programs that help in improving social skills and is under risperidone and aripiprazole medications.
About Tom Tom is a bright student with an average performance. He is taught using the strategies that involve classroom accommodations, behavioural interventions, and academic instruction and they have proved useful in his performance. He loves listening to music and playing video games. He often has trouble waiting for his turn to participate in activities an as such he often ends up interrupting processes, being loud and not completing the tasks that are assigned to him.
Stakeholders Participation
Tom Tom actively participates in the Student Support Group (SSG) meetings. However, he does not proactively discuss the challenges that he is facing clearly with his parents and teachers. He also has little time to listen to the directions of his parents and teachers.
Mary and James
(Tom’s parents) Mary and James completes a questionnaire provided by the school prior to the SSG meeting. They provide details about Tom’s behaviour as they are related to his condition. They regard the exercise as useful as it provides insights about the long-term goals that will help Tom to be less aggressive and develop restraint.
Mark
(classroom teacher) The teacher reads the questionnaire completed by Tom’s parents, reads the assessments provided by the clinicians, talks to Tom about the challenges that he is facing and his strengths as he observes him, and speaks with the staff who have previously taught him. Mark further chairs the SSG meeting. He records the discussion abouth the challenges, achievements and strengths of Tom in the strengths-based table. In the meeting, Mark, Mary and James draft a timeline on reviewing Tom’s response to his treatment. They send copies to the stakeholders working with Tom and finalises it after receiving their feedback.
John
(school principal) Monitors the SSG meeting and ensures that the protocol is adhered to. He doesn’t actively participate in the discussion. He checks the PLP draft and comments on any missing points which are immediately addressed. He finally approves it.
Caleb
(speech pathologist) Contributes about the necessary adjustments in the PLP draft at the SSG meeting by provided technical details about ASD. He also recommends the most appropriate reporting strategy to be used.
The wider school community Does not participate in the SSG meeting but benefits given that all students are taken care of in the most appropriate way.
Table 2 – Personalised Learning Plan
Date: May 22, 2019 Review date: September 13, 2019
Barrier identification Impact of barrier Entry Skills Adjustments: Curriculum plan Tier 1
Adjustments: Implementation Plan Rationale Evaluation
The SSG meeting concluded that Tom has several challenges in his social and academic activities. The teacher reported that Tom often rejects tasks assigned to him and that he has activities that he prefers whereby he rejects those that he does not prefer. The parents also reported that Tom often separates himself from his peers when their behaviourdoes not impress him. Socially, Tom faces the challenges of failure to successfully engage in group work and to socialize.
Academically, Tom faces the challenges of failure to gain concepts from his peers and to explain concepts to them. The rejection of tasks by Tom makes it difficult for him to gain knowledge. Taking on the activities that he only prefers denies him the opportunity to learn all the concepts that are i n the curriculum.
Additionally Tom”s him separation from his peers denies him the opportunity to share ideas with them and to learn from them. Tom’s is achieving his level 2 skills and he meets the Australian Curriculum requirements in his social and personal capabilities.
He faces social challenges when working with his peers.
Tom is at his best in socializing with his peers when he is at shool.
He is a hardworking boy who always strives to complete the tasks that he has agreed to work on. The school will apply the guidelines provided by Australian Curriculum Personal and Social Capabilities in helping Tom learn how to successfully interact with his peers as follows:
In self awareness, Tom will be guided on how to compare the emotional responses of his peers with his own.
In self management, Tom will be guided on how to constructively express his emotions while socializing with his peers.
In social awareness, Tom will be guided on how to identify the differences and similarities between himself and others.
In social management, Tom will be guided on how to communicate effectively, work collaboratively, make decisions, negotiate and resolve conflicts and develop leadership skills.
In the classroom, Tom will be guided in peer tutoring whereby he will be required to take both roles as a tutor and tutee and he will be evaluated on his achievements. Small group work will also be used whereby the students will be divided into small groups to interact and share ideas.
He will be explicitly taught on the skills of peer tutoring.
He will be provided with the structured and scaffolded materials for peer tutoring.
Prompts and reminders will be used to ensure that the learned strategies are applied chronologically.
The Australian Curriculum requires all students to be explicitly taught about the self awareness and management skills in their social lives and in peer tutoring.
Structured materials helps the students to implement the skills that they have acquired.
Prompts and reminders help in ensuring that the students apply what they have learned.
Peer tutoring boosts the capacity of the students to develop social skills.
a) Tom will be evaluated on his social awareness, self-management, and self-awareness formatively and summatively.
b) The teachers will be required to review the all the students on self and peer assessment and provide written reports.
c) All students will be required to assess themselves and each other on their interactions.
Tier 2
Adjustments: Implementation Plan Rationale Evaluation
In the classroom, visual gestural and verbal prompts will be provided to tom by the teachers and classroom aides to help him apply the skills that he acquires.
In the clinic, the school pathologist will include Tom in the school’s biweekly social skills program to help him model his individual social management skills. In this program, the students will be organized in groups of threes or fours and perform group work tasks which will be assessed and feedback will be provided. a) In the classroom, the visual, gestural and verbal prompts provided serve to help Tom apply the skills that he has acquired in new contexts. The other approaches that will be used include proximity control, verbal,model and physical prompts.
b) In the clinic, the school pathologist will help Tom and his peers through the biweekly social skills program model their individual social management skills. The standards of the Australian Curriculum for level two students will be applied in evaluating Tom’s development and implementation of social skills and it will be reported to SSG.
Tier 3
Adjustments: Implementation Plan Rationale Evaluation
Tom loves playing with cellphones and as such he will be provided with a phone with the Social Skills for Autism app. The teacher will monitor the feedback provided by the app to gauge the students performance in attaining and applying his social skills. He will then guide him on how to solve the puzzles in the app in a manner that helps him learn and apply new social and communication skills effectively. The the Social Skills for Autism app has fun tasks and games for children which help them gain skills associated with role-playing. The app records the findings on how the child is performing in improving his skills that involve socialisation and communication which are useful for evaluation. The teacher will review the findings recorded by the app and use them to evaluate Tom’s performance. The school pathologist will help the teacher in the evaluation and guide him on the necessary interventions that he should take.
PART 2
Introduction
Autism Spectrum Disorder is a term used to represent a number of related neurodevelopmental disorders that are associated with the victims facing challenges with performing activities related to age-appropriate playing and social engagement which results in failure to interact with their peers as expected for their age. Young people with ASD tend to engage in maladaptive behaviours and passive play instead of participating in age-appropriate leisure activities such as social activities, hobbies, play and sports. Autism Spectrum Disorder is attributed to subnormal development of the physical activity and motor development (Memari et. al. 2015). The management of ASD should involve inclusive education in addition to the other medical interventions to ensure that it is effective. Inclusive training involves addressing and intervening on the different needs of students by ensuring that they all participate actively in learning, societal and cultural activities (O’Connor, 2015).
To effectively ensure that students with ASD are appropriately included in the education program, a multi-tiered approach is used whereby several interventions are carried out concurrently to help the students be at par with their peers. In the case of Tom, the stakeholders involved in educating him formulated a personalised learning plan (PLP) outlining the guidelines the various activities that will be carried out to ensure that Tom maximally benefits from the inclusion plan as is required by the Australian Curriculum. Multilevel modelling was used in the development of the PLP whereby multilevel support systems were adopted. Multilevel modelling indicates that the support needs for ASD are related to household income, parent education, presence of intellectual disability, co-occurring behaviour problems and the child’s age (Hartley & Schultz, 2016). All these factors were considered for the case of Tom while developing the PLP.
The PLP outlined 3 tiers that were to be implemented by the various stakeholders in Tom’s education. In tier one, Tom will be guided on peer tutoring whereby he will be taught the skills that relate to self awareness and management skills in his social live and in sharing ideas with his peers. In tier two, Tom will be provided with visual gestural and verbal prompts which will help him apply the skills that he has acquired in new contexts. The the school pathologist will also help Tom and his peers through the biweekly social skills program to model their individual social management skills. In tier 3, Tom will be provided with the the Social Skills for Autism app which has fun tasks and games for children to help them gain skills associated with role-playing. The stakeholders who drafted the PLP ensured that the guidelines provided in the three tiers were in line with the inclusive service delivery model, the policy and legislation mandates, and evidence based practice. The following discussion elaborates the PLP designed by focusing on the context of Tom as well as its relevance to his social, behavioural, and academic performance.
Discussion
In developing the PLP, several stakeholders including Tom’s Parents, his class teacher, the school therapist, the headteacher, and all the other teachers who have interacted with Tom participated in an Student Support Group (SSG) meeting and identified the strengths and challenges that Tom faces in his social life and academic performance. The class teacher recorded the findings for reference. Tom was described as a bright student with several challenges in his social and academic activities. The teacher reported that Tom often rejects tasks assigned to him and that he has activities that he prefers whereby he rejects those that he does not prefer. The parents also reported that Tom often separates himself from his peers when their behaviour does not impress him. Socially, Tom faces the challenges of failure to successfully engage in group work and to socialise. Academically, Tom faces the challenges of failure to gain concepts from his peers and to explain concepts to them. After identifying his social and academic challenges, the school therapist guided the stakeholders on the action plan to take in order to help Tom in the school environment. Tom will be guided on acquiring knowledge that will help him acquire peer tutoring skills. Peer tutoring serves to help students to work together in a manner that improves their behaviour and academic skills. In peer tutoring, academic sessions are structured in such a way that the lower achieving students, higher achieving students and those students with similar achievements are linked in a manner that encourages partnerships. The teacher will apply various models in helping Tom and the class in general acquire peer tutoring skills:
Class-wide peer tutoring – The teacher will divide the class into groups based on the students’ abilities.
Cross age peer tutoring – The teacher will pair older students to tutor the younger ones.
Peer assisted learning – The teacher will use scripted procedures to pair students with similar abilities.
Reciprocal peer tutoring – The teacher will alternate the roles of a tutor and a tutee between students.
Same age tutoring – The teacher will divide the students into groups of those who are of the same age.
According to Hott, Alresheed and Henry (2014), these models of peer tutoring are effective in managing ASD among students. Additionally, the strategies are more effective for young children and they are, as such, appropriate for Tom. Peer tutoring has proved useful in helping young students with ASD share enjoyment interests, develop relationships, and understand non verbal behaviour. As such, the tier is viable as it requires that Tom is guided in peer tutoring whereby he will be required to take both roles as a tutor and tutee and he will be evaluated on his achievements. Additionally he will be explicitly taught on the skills of peer tutoring and he will be provided with the structured and scaffold materials for peer tutoring. Prompts and reminders will be also be used to ensure that the learned strategies are applied chronologically.
The Australian Curriculum directs teachers to help students understand others and themselves by providing them with the necessary support as they develop their social and personal skills. The development of social capability helps the students regulate and recognise emotions, understand relationships, develop leadership skills, constructively handle challenging situations, work in teams effectively, build and establish positive relationships and develop empathy for others. As such, peer tutoring helps student become confident and creative in addition to having personal identity, self awareness and self worth. It helps the students to manage their physical, spiritual, mental and emotional well being with a sense of optimism hope and optimism about their future.
Peer tutoring helps students develop their emotional and social skills which in turn enables them to feel comfortable about their environment and themselves, as well as engage in teamwork. Last, Tom will be evaluated on his progress and he will be given an opportunity to evaluate himself and others. Giving Tom an opportunity to evaluate himself and others will further help him develop his personal and social capabilities at school. The evaluation will involve communicating ideas, concepts and information, research, posing questions, and gaining discipline specific knowledge (Personal and Social Capability, n.d.).
Visual gestural and verbal prompts will also be provided to tom by the teachers and classroom aides to help him apply the skills that he acquires. Additionally, the school pathologist will include Tom in the school’s biweekly social skills program to help him model his individual social management skills. In this program, the students will be organised in groups of threes or fours and perform group work tasks which will be assessed and feedback will be provided. According to the Department of Education for the State of Victoria, prompting helps students to apply the skills that they have acquired. Prompting is especially useful for the students who face challenges in responding to instructions and cues (Shared writing n.d.). Prompts also facilitate learning that is free of errors given that the student responds correctly and the response is reinforced. Prompting is ideally used along with other strategies to be effective including social narratives, visual supports, reinforcement and modelling. Different types of prompts can be used depending on the situation that is being handled. They include the following:
Proximity control – The teacher approaches a student who is misbehaving and instructs him to change.
Verbal – The teacher uses spoken cues to supply the student with information. In verbal prompting, the teacher instructs the student to use a given set of words and then directs them on how to use them.
Visual – Pictures, texts and photos are used to provide the student with information on how to complete a task.
Gestural – The teacher uses simple gestural prompts to provide the student with information. The gestures may include activities such as pointing to objects that the students need.
Model – The teacher demonstrates skills practically to the student.
Physical – The teacher physically assists the student to complete tasks fully or partially (Prompting, 2017).
Additionally, the school pathologist will include Tom in the biweekly social skills training program. The program will be group based. Dekker et. al. (2018) argue that social skills training programs are have been demonstrated to be useful. However, some researchers argue that social skills training appears to increase social skills knowledge rather than the actual application of the skills. Social skills training has the ultimate goal of improving communication skills in the long term as well as outside the learning situations. The training is based on social learning theory and therapeutic principles.
The social learning theory is based on the idea that children learn through imitation after observation to arrive at behaviour that is modeled (Lyons & Berge, 2016). As such, the social skills training program gives students and opportunity to learn from the actions of others and the resulting consequences of their actions. Tom will learn to avoid the consequences that are disagreeable by not imitating particular actions that have caused disagreeable consequences to others. He will also learn to imitate the actions that have caused rewarding consequences. The program is in line with the Australian Curriculum which directs teachers to teach the students personal and social capability skills (Personal and Social Capability, n.d.).
Mobile device technology has gained popularity in the recent years given its portability and multiple uses. They are good looking and easy to use as compared to the old devices which used to constantly remind the users that they are not normal. They are regarded as pocket communication devices, learning devices and to some it is a life saver. It has several other advantages including affordability, mobility, portability, and storage. The touchscreen provides a useful interface for people whose motor skills are weak through its simple and appealing nature. Several anecdotal reports indicate that mobile devices can be used in a number of ways to improve the quality of lives of children with ASD along with their families. Mobile app use in the treatment of ASD is an aspect of Computer-Assisted Learning. Several other apps can be used in the management of ASD. For example, PARLE (Portable Affect Reference Learning Environment) translates language into simpler versions by eliminating confusing phrases and replacing them with simpler ones.
Mobile Social Compass (MOSOCO) is a mobile application that uses Social Compass, which is comprises of visual supports and an augmented reality that reflects a validated curriculum. It has been proven to be useful in helping children with ASD to apply the skills that they acquire in real-life. The application helps autistic children to identify partners for communication, disengage properly after an interaction, share experiences with partners, reply on conversational initiators, maintain appropriate boundaries and learn to make eye contact. Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS™) is another useful app for children with ASD. It uses the Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) principles and preference for visual processing to supply the children with functional communication skills (Vlachou & Drigas, 2017). Given that different apps have different functionalities, capabilities and limitations, Tom will be provided with a range of apps and the teacher will guide in on choosing and he will evaluate his performance.
The Australian Curriculum advocates for the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) capabilities among students. The capabilities help the students use ICT constructively by accessing, communicating and creating ideas and information, working collaboratively in all areas of learning both in the school environment and outside. ICT capabilities helps the students to learn to benefit maximally from the technologies at their disposal in gaining new ideas and approaches of solving problems while at the same time limiting the possible risks associated with the technologies both to themselves and others. The capabilities of ICT and digital technologies in general are supposed to be applied in performing tasks in accessing information and managing it, creating information and presenting it, empirical reasoning, creative expression, communication, decision making, and problem solving. As such, the tier three guidelines of the PLP drafted by the SSG is in line with the requirements of the (Australian Curriculum Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Capability, n.d.). Using the mobile app for ASD will help Tom learn to deal with the challenges that result from his condition in the long-term.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the management of ASD should involve inclusive education in addition to the other medical interventions to ensure that it is effective and inclusive. Inclusive training involves addressing and intervening on the different needs of students by ensuring that they all participate actively in learning, societal and cultural activities. Tom is a bright student with an average performance but he often has trouble waiting for his turn to participate in activities an as such he often ends up interrupting processes, being loud and not completing the tasks that are assigned to him. Several stakeholders including Tom’s Parents, his class teacher, the school therapist, the headteacher, and all the other teachers who have interacted with Tom participated in an SSG meeting and identified the strengths and challenges that Tom faces in his social life and academic performance. The SSG represented the first step of correctly educating Tom in an inclusive environment. They used the information to develop a PLP which is to be used in helping Tom. The PLP outlined three tiers. In tier one, Tom will be guided on acquiring knowledge that will help him acquire peer tutoring skills. Peer tutoring requires that Tom is guided in taking both roles as a tutor and tutee and he will be evaluated on his achievements. The approach is in line with the Australian Curriculum which directs teachers to help students understand others and themselves by providing them with the necessary support as they develop their social and personal skills. The Australian Curriculum also advocates for inclusive education which is covered by this approach that has been shown to be effective.
The proximity control, visual, gestural, and, verbal, physical and model prompts provided to Tom by the teachers and classroom aides will help him apply the skills that he acquires and he will also be included in the social skills training program to provide him with an environment where he can practice the skills. The prompts provide Tom with the skills that he needs in a simple way that he can understand. The Department of Education for the State of Queensland advocates for the use of prompts in teaching students with ASD. The prompts provided to Tom will help him complete activities and to catch up with students, which helps ensure inclusivity as he will not be left behind. Several studies have shown that prompts are effective in improving the social, behavioural, and academic performance of the children with ASD. Tom will also be provided with a mobile app that is designed in such a way that it engages him in games that help him improve his social skills. Using the app is in line with the Australian Curriculum which advocates for the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) capabilities among students. ICT capabilities helps the students to learn to benefit maximally from the technologies at their disposal in gaining new ideas and approaches of solving problems while at the same time limiting the possible risks associated with the technologies both to themselves and others. Some mobile apps for children with ASD have been shown to be effective in improving their social responses to others. Tom loves playing with phones and as such this strategy is likely to be effective in his case.
References
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