Thread: Autism specific classrooms??

Just a thought, but it generally works better if placement is done with the goal of addressing the educational needs of the students rather than sorting them by labels . . .

No I totally agree, although what I was saying is that this occurs in NC all the time we actually have classrooms labeled as AU for autism or BED for behavior emational disorder which does make it veryy difficult for SPED teachers because they are trying to teach a million different levels of students. Ericka Faison

Originally Posted by ericka faison

I would love to teach in a classroom for students with Autism when I graduate. How do you feel about having students placed in classrooms strictly based on disability categories? This post is a requirement for a class I am taking so I would greatly appreciate some good responses!!

The question you ask can lead to very heated debates.

Our experience from having our son placed in a such class for kids with HFA was that it bordered on neglect and child abuse. It robbed our son of quality of life, self worth, it reduced his ability to learn and initiated behavioural problems that that we are still trying to contain.

It is initially easy for the kids to be in those environments as they face limited demands, and behavioural problems are essentially accepted as part of "the culture of autism"

You can read substantially more in these threads - with the warning that there are sections you should skim rather than read.

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Clearification: There are kids that initially benefit greatly from a shielded environment, but to me it is important that the goal is to give the kids the internal ressources to cope with normal society. That focus seems to be lost, and kids are instead placed in a cradle to grave system, that is disrespectful to the person with autism.

KR Jens

Originally Posted by ericka faison

No I totally agree, although what I was saying is that this occurs in NC all the time we actually have classrooms labeled as AU for autism or BED for behavior emational disorder which does make it veryy difficult for SPED teachers because they are trying to teach a million different levels of students. Ericka Faison

But that--"trying to teach a million different levels of students"--is often what education is all about. You need to know your students, have a good knowledge of the approaches, and be able to assess and understand what is working and what isn't. This is true no matter if the students are in a SpEd classroom or in a general ed classroom. SpEd classrooms and SpEd teachers are just additional teaching tools and specialists that are used to meet the goals of education.

For all students, differing approaches work with differing levels of efficacy; what works for one may not for another, and vice-versa. As teachers, part of the job is making this all work.

For one student, TEACCH may be the right approach, or ABA, or something like Greenspan's Floortime; often the best results are achieved by a combination of approaches depending on the student, the task, and how things are going.

Student placement needs to be considered in a similar manner. What are the identified needs of the student, in real terms? Don't look at some vague statement like, "Tommy needs to work on social skills," but rather, look at what specific skills Tommy needs to work on, in what contexts, and just what does "need to work on" mean?

Then we have to consider aspects of LRE; maybe we think Tommy would do well in a special classroom (an ASD classroom, for example), but could he do equally well in a gen ed classroom with appropriate support? What would those supports be? Can we work out a split schedule, with some time in SpEd, some time in GenEd, and some time with a resource teacher?

What are the long-term plans and goals for the student--where do we see Tommy in three years? Five years? Twenty years? How can we get there--what do we have to do?

Sorting students by category--into the "AU class" or the "BED class" or whatever--doesn't adequately meet these requirements. Actually, I guess it might--people do win the lottery after all--but like winning a lottery, having random placement by diagnostic labels meet the needs of a SpEd student is just a matter of chance.

Originally Posted by JustJim

For all students, differing approaches work with differing levels of efficacy; what works for one may not for another, and vice-versa. As teachers, part of the job is making this all work.

For one student, TEACCH may be the right approach, or ABA, or something like Greenspan's Floortime; often the best results are achieved by a combination of approaches depending on the student, the task, and how things are going.

Student placement needs to be considered in a similar manner. What are the identified needs of the student, in real terms? Don't look at some vague statement like, "Tommy needs to work on social skills," but rather, look at what specific skills Tommy needs to work on, in what contexts, and just what does "need to work on" mean?

Then we have to consider aspects of LRE; maybe we think Tommy would do well in a special classroom (an ASD classroom, for example), but could he do equally well in a gen ed classroom with appropriate support? What would those supports be? Can we work out a split schedule, with some time in SpEd, some time in GenEd, and some time with a resource teacher?

What are the long-term plans and goals for the student--where do we see Tommy in three years? Five years? Twenty years? How can we get there--what do we have to do?

Sorting students by category--into the "AU class" or the "BED class" or whatever--doesn't adequately meet these requirements. Actually, I guess it might--people do win the lottery after all--but like winning a lottery, having random placement by diagnostic labels meet the needs of a SpEd student is just a matter of chance.

What a beautiful comment! You are absolutely right that diagnostic labels often fail to describe a person. What is important is what gives progressive developmental possibilities right now, and at the same time, respect that situations are fluid. It is important to have a solid quality assurance system in place that will guide you when things are not obvious or consistant.

Thinking of Tommy in three years? Five years? Twenty years?

Michelangelo said it 100% correctly;

The danger is not that we set our goals to high and don't reach them!

It is that we set them to low and do reach them!

KR Jens

I think if the teacher is capable of doing the inclusion style they should.

I do understand that this will really depend on how much each child needs and what their problems and limitations are. It will also depend how many of these children are going to be in the class at one time. And yes, there are some students that can't and won't be included in this styled class due to too much interuption.

At the time he turned 3 our son was non-verbal but could use PECS and signs. 2 things occured at roughly the same time.

First, I started using the TEACCH method at home right after he turned 3. At homeschool time he could look at the photo schedule and know what was expected of him. When he was looking at the pictures their label or name was stated by me. Around the time he was following the homeschool picture schedule on his own I started stating the instructions and the pictures were there as a reminder of what to do.

Second, Our son started preschool in an inclusion styled class. At the end of his first year he was talking quite a-lot at home but wasn't transferring this skill to school, as far as they were concerned he was still non-verbal. Fortunately he was signing at school so there was some communication with them.

His second year was in a preschool class with the same teacher as the first year. Same inclusion style. By the end of that school year he was becoming an old pro at transferring his new skills and they were amazed at the progress.

His dad and I had noticed by this time he was doing many normal boy behaviors that I don't think he would have seen to learn in a purely autistic class. Not to mention some of the other bad behaviors he would have learned in it.

Thanks for reading.