There are certain types of characteristics that come with ASD yet the primary concern about ASD is that they have impairment in social interaction, communication and restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behaviours. They may have a delay in spoken language and they may also have difficulty starting or continuing a conversation. For example, a child does not answer or ask questions to keep a conversation going or they may not be keen in bringing up topics of conversation.
They may show at least one or more repetitive and inflexible behaviors. For example, they may have perseveration such as rigidly following non-functional routines. They may demand doing things the same way every time such as sitting on the same chair, using the same color cup or taking the same route to school each day. They may have fixations on rigid and restricted interests. For instance, they may obsessively play with or discuss about things that interest them or over parts of objects such as focusing on the wheels of a car instead of the car itself.
They may have rigid and repetitive body movements which are often referred to as self-stimulatory behaviors (SSB). For example, jumping in place, hand flapping, toe walking or spinning in circles. They may also seek visual sensory stimulation such as eye gazing or peripheral eye gazing – when they look out of the corner of their eyes. Visual SSB may also occur when a student gazes at their hands or other objects such as watching items spin, watching items fall or looking at items that are arranged.
Finally, they may gain sensory input through touch. For example, they may have favourite materials to touch such as soft or fuzzy items or through repetitive smelling behaviors such as picking up items and smelling them before using the items or smelling their hands. Developmental aspects They have difficulty using non-speech behaviors for social interaction. For example, they may have trouble making eye contact.
Other examples include difficulty using gestures, facial expressions or tone of voice in their interactions with others. They may fail to develop peer relationships with children their own age and they may not spontaneously seek to share enjoyment, interests or achievements with others. For instance, typical children may come up to an adult to show them their artwork. However, children with ASD may only approach others in an attempt to get something they want. They also may lack social or emotional responding. That is, they may not respond when other people try to get their attention.
They also may not respond when other people show emotions. For example, if someone gets hurt, a typical child may ask the person if they are okay while a student with ASD may not notice. Furthermore, students with ASD may lack varied spontaneous make-believe play or social imitative play. A typical child may imitate each other when they play while children with ASD have trouble imitating others. For more information and details on ASD, refer to appendices. Dyslexia Characteristic There are certain types of characteristics that come with Dyslexia but the main thing about Dyslexia is that it is a disorder in children who fail to attain the language of reading, writing and spelling commensurate with their intellectual abilities.
Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede the growth of vocabulary and background knowledge. Oftentimes they will look at the first letter of a word and guess or they look at the picture and try to figure out what the word is but they don’t really know how to decode or how to put those sounds together to figure out what the words are. They also tend to be terrible at spelling that tends to be the last thing that could be changed.
Developmental Aspects
Children who have dyslexia are generally late talkers. They start to speak a lot later than their typical peers. In general, children start to speak around twelve months of age where they will say their first words and then by eighteen to twenty-four months, it is noticeable that they are starting to put two to three-word sentences together. Once they begin to start speaking, they are often difficult to understand.
Sometimes they will have a very global speech difficulty where many sounds are difficult for them to say or they will mix sounds and syllables within words. As children begin to learn their letters and their sounds, they have a lot more difficult than their typical peers and they need a lot more repetition and they need to practice the sounds and work on the letter sounds and letter names a lot more than their typical peers. As they begin to learn reading words, they might be able to read out phonemes but as they try to blend in the letters together, they will have a hard time to pronounce the right word. They will either say something similar or something that is completely unrelated in a sound structure. For more information and details on Dyslexia, refer to appendices.
Case Study
Based on the information provided in the case study, analyze Tana’s behavior and describe some atypical characteristics that Tana exhibits, and the developmental disorder Tana is exhibiting. From what I have analyzed in Tana’s behaviors, there are some atypical characteristics that she exhibits and I think that there is a call for concern with her communication. In the case scenario, it was explained that she was unable to engage in verbal communication with people as they have a hard time trying to decipher what she was trying to say which she eventually gets frustrated and starts to show tantrum. This was seen in one of the characteristics in children with Attention Deficit Disorder ; Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or AD/HD. Whatever that frustrates her will affect her behaviour and how she respond to the situation is based on how she is able to control her feelings which including having a difficult temperament and poor emotional control. She has poor sleeping habits and does not sleep during nap time no matter how tired she is.
Rather than going to sleep, she would wake her friends up during sleeping time. It is stated in one of the characteristics of children with AD/HD, it has stated that one of it was having poor sleeping. Besides that, other characteristics in AD/HD child including being fidgety were seen in Tana as she has a high level of activity even when she is tired which includes the reason on why she was seen twirling on her own until she falls instead of joining her class during music and movement activities. When the teachers talk to her or when her name was being called, she does not respond by not looking at them as if she had not heard them. In characteristics of AD/HD, it was mentioned they have a poor sustained attention and vigilance. Most of Tana’s atypical characteristics and developmental disorder that she exhibit were seen in children with AD/HD which is a call for concern for early intervention on how Jeanie could help Tana.
Discuss and identify at least two methods to collect information and identify the probable disorder of the child. Give the rationale for selection of the methods. As Tana exhibits some of the atypical characteristics and developmental disorder that were analyzed, and I have chosen to use two methods to look into Tana’s behavior. Anecdotal Records I chose anecdotal records since it enables me to focus on what is significant and record in sequential order to focus on the critical insights about Tana. It also allows me to focus on Tana’s single area of development or cover various formative of developmental areas at once. I would be able to record what Tana had said and done, her non-verbal communication, facial expressions and her tone of voice.
Anecdotal records will be a useful method of recording significant events or activities that tell us something about Tana’s development, interests, skills, abilities, and needs. Such as observing Tana’s emotion, will provide a data on her emotional development or observing her interaction with the class will tell me about Tana’s social developmental. Time Samples I picked a time sample to record the event of Tana’s behavior and monitor the occasions her behavior happens throughout the day. I would be able to count to record the particular time or a timeframe her behavior occurred. Time sample is effective in lessening Tana’s negative behaviour by understanding why and when a specific behavior is happening during the day. Time samples can be taken every thirty minutes over a day or for shorter intervals of five to ten minutes.
Discuss how you would facilitate the collection of information with all those involved with the child such as: Parents: What strategies do you use to mitigate Tana when she begins to throw a fit or when she starts to cry for simple reasons? E.g. When she tries to get her most loved toy. What are the best strategies that work for you to engage Tana in some of the activities? What are Tana sleeping habits like at home? What type(s) of discipline does Tana generally react to? Colleagues How have you dealt with Tana that usually interrupts the class? How do you educate and encourage socially acceptable behavior from your students? How would you guarantee that Tana receive the right type of help?
Should Tana’s learning be mainstreamed with other children? By asking these questions to Tana’s parents and Jeanie’s colleagues, I would be able to understand how to manage Tana’s cognitive, emotional and social development better. This way, I would be able to learn on how to manage Tana if there are any specific ways or strategies her parents have used that are useful or what are some of the methods Jeanie’s colleagues have used on children with similar behavior as Tana to help Tana. How to ensure that the information is shared and kept confidentially? To ensure that the information is shared and kept confidentially, I will ensure that Tana’s parents and my colleagues are aware with whom information will, or could be shared with, and seek their agreement unless it is unsafe or inappropriate to do so. Whenever there is a need to share information or not, I would keep a record on what I have shared, with whom and for what reason.
Whenever I would like to seek advice or have any doubts on how I can help Tana, I would disclose her identity where possible to ensure personal information about her are kept confidentially for safety and well-being of Tana. If you are Tana’s teacher, how can you include her in the class activities? What must be done? What are the changes needed? As Tana tends to throw tantrum, bite or hit the teachers and scream whenever she gets frustrated and gets distracted by finding something that she is interested in and stay with that toy or activity for hours, one of the changes that need to be done is to change her seating position. When most of the teaching takes place, I will get Tana to sit as close to me as it is easier for me to monitor her attention levels as well as reduce distraction from other children. It will also limit the open space for her to walk around or twirling on her own that may encourage hyperactive behaviours.
Whenever she has to be involved in the class activity, I will try to ensure that there will be no other interesting activities that are going on in one corner of the room or even visual distracters in the environment to ensure that she does not get distracted. As she has difficulties in communicating properly with people as she is unable to pronounce words properly, I will use gestures as a way of letting her understand instructions and her inappropriate behaviour while praising and giving her positive feedback whenever she was seen showing appropriate behaviours. I would also like to work collaboratively with parents and other teachers and support staffs or enrichment teachers to help Tana which includes regular consultation regarding her progress towards her social, emotional goals. Ongoing communication with Tana’s parents also will be able to foster a supportive relationship which includes providing a clear explanation about her, regularly work on her progress towards the goals set, giving expectations by providing clear measurements, keeping accurate records of interactions with parents and really listening to parents. I will also ensure that parents are able to use positive reinforcement to ensure that the practices that were used at school and home are consistent.
For example, giving her a sweet whenever she was able to get a task done or on that particular day, she did not throw any tantrums. Recommend 2 strategies to manage Tana’s atypical behaviour. For the first strategy, as she throw tantrum, bite or hit the teachers and scream whenever she gets frustrated, one of the strategies that I will use is that I will work on her strengths by using her interest which is whenever she begins to show signs of anger or frustration, I will get her to draw a picture to express herself better. This way, I would be able to understand her reason on what make her really angry.
By using this method, I will be able to use differentiation learning for her. Instead of getting her to write, I will let her draw or paint. For example, the activity would be about numbers and instead of writing down the number as the answer, I will accept her answer whenever she drew any items that are needed as the answer. Instead of writing number ‘2’, she can draw two apples as the answer. Secondly, as she was unable sleep, she would usually disturb other children during sleeping time.
To avoid this, I would try behavioural and educational interventions by building up of habits among her family or her parents that will be able to contribute in helping her to sleep during their sleeping time, such as setting up a good schedule to have a clear expectations and having clear rules that Tana will follow through. Resources Appendices ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) Characteristic/ Atypical behavior Impairment in Social Interaction A failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to his developmental level – lack peer relationship A lack of or failure to spontaneously share with other people his enjoyment, interest or achievement A lack of social or emotional reciprocity Awkward way of interacting with others – limited expressions of emotions, as well as lack of empathy with or responsiveness to others, can affect the development of social relationships and friendships.
Impairment in Communication
A lack of the development of spoken language (delay of functional communication) Stereotyped and repetitive use of language (echolalia) A lack of varied, spontaneous make-believe play or social-interactive play appropriate to developmental level (pretend play) Odd speech and language Inability to understand unwritten rules – undermine their social behavior because many of our social rules are learned implicitly through social and emotional cues and responses. Restricted Repetitive and Stereotyped Patterns of Behaviours A preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus – a persistent preoccupation with parts of the object An inflexible adherence to specific, non-functional routines or rituals, and display of motor movements such as rocking or spinning Dyslexia Characteristic Appears bright, highly intelligent, and articulate but unable to read, write, or spell at grade level. Seems to “Zone out” or daydream often; gets lost easily or loses track of time.
Difficulty sustaining attention; seems “hyper” or “daydreamer.” Confused by letters, numbers, words, sequences, or verbal explanations. Reading or writing shows repetitions, additions, transpositions, omissions, substitutions, and reversals in letters, numbers and/or words. Reads and rereads with little comprehension. Spells phonetically and inconsistently. Has extended hearing; hears things not said or apparent to others; easily distracted by sounds.
Difficulty putting thoughts into words; speaks in halting phrases; leaves sentences incomplete; stutters under stress; mispronounce long words The trouble with writing or copying; pencil grip is unusual; handwriting varies or is illegible. Clumsy, uncoordinated, poor at ball or team sports; difficulties with fine and/or gross motor skills Can be ambidextrous, and often confuses left/right, over/under
