This is my first year in an autistic, self-containted classroom.
For those who aren’t famliar with educational jargon, self contained simply means that the students remain in my classroom all day. They only leave for physical education. After several years of teaching, I felt I was fully capable of teaching in an autistic classroom. Funny thing is, I’ve found out the most important thing in such a classroom are the schedules.
The children have a schedule for everything. Most autistic classrooms are set up bascially the same, no matter where one might go. It is all based on research and best practices for these students. There is a snack schedule when the student’s enter the classroom. Every room has some sort of token reward system, and mine is located as the student enters. The child is directed to the snack choice board, and picks one of three snacks. That is the snack that he is working towards for the day. It is much simplier to offer only a couple of choices for the children, as too many gets confusing.
The next step is for the children to check their schedule. Each child has a vertical schedule that states where they will be every minute of every day. There are picture cards for each area. In each academic area, there is a larger version of the picture card, on which the child places his picture. All of this is of course held in place by velcro. I now hate velcro!! I joke about this often with my paraprofessionals, but I have never seen so much velcro in my life. I often go home with velcro attached to some part of my body.
We rotate as a whole group through breakfast, physical education, and morning meeting. After this, the children are divided into three seperate groups. One attends direct teacher instruction – that’s me! One group attends academic group, which usually is some sort of game or fiile folder activity that enhances their goals, and the last station is the independent work box area, which encourages future work skills through some type of assembly work. Some of the work box skills are also education, as in sorting colors. Each group runs for twenty minutes. Each child will be told, after the timer goes off to check their schedule. As metnioned previously , they will take their picture to the larger picture in that area. While I run the direct instruction area, my paraprofessionals run the other stations.
There is even a seperate schedule for the work box or independent areas. There are about 40 work boxes, and they are divided according to ablity. So child A might do the four easiest. I found the best way to label these are by numbers. So child A will do boxes 1through 5. He will find the work boxes with those numbers, take his indivudual work box schedule numbers, and velcro them to the matching number on the work box.
We of course have activity time, which is student’s choice, such as a book, blocks, or puzzles. Again, they chose which activity by picking a picture from a choice board. . After all of this it is lunch, and the whole schedule again. The day ends with music, which is my addition as I am very musical and play the piano, story time, snack and P.M. meeting
We of course can’t forget our bathroom schedule. Each child’s picture is on a poster board, along with six pictures of a toilet. There is velcro on the bathroom door, so the child will place his picture on the velcro and his bathroom picture in the discarded, used section of the board. This still does not prevent students opening the door on each other, but at least it keeps it down to a minimum. Also, they soon learn that when you are out of pictures, you are out of bathroom chances.
Sounds rather boring? At first, I thought it was. But I have noticed as the year has progressed, that behavior problems are less frequent. Anyone who has dealt with autistic children can attest to the fact that they have numerous behavior problems that often occur from a lack of structure in their environment. As our daily picture schedule has become more effiicient, negative behaviors have reduced. The children feel as if their is some comformity to their otherwise hectic world. They know where they are to be each period of the day. They seem calmer and more able to work while in their specific areas.
Research also shows that autistic children learn best by repitition, more so than the average child. A routine schedule provides this for these children and they seem to learn better and retain what is taught. This provides them with a better chance to learn not only educational skills, but also much needed social skills.
It has been very hard on me to become acclimated to this type of classroom. I am a very creative, free-spirited scattered person, and I am having to learn to deal with routine and structure. I have even joked that someone with obsessive compulsive disorder would do well in an autistic classroom. Maybe before the year is over, I can say I have dealt with my attention deficit behavior by learning to become more organized. I can only hope! In the meantime, I will continue to pursue perfecting the schedule for the sake of my students. I am willing to try anything that will make their lives more managable.
Reference:
- Experience
