If you've got an autistic child or if you work with autistic children, you'll
want to learn today how to support and teach children who are on the autistic
spectrum. I'm here today with Kristen Wilson. Welcome to Live on Purpose TV.
-Thank You. -Kristen is a speech-language pathologist
which is how I kind of got to know you. Because you and my wife went to school
together. -Exactly. And so, we've known each other for a while, as well. -Yeah. -But she
has also developed some expertise and experience on our topic today. Which is
autism and the autistic spectrum. How we're working with kids who are on the
spectrum. Kristen, we've started to talk about this
differently in the last several years than we did in the past. And I'm grateful
for that. Maybe you'll have some comments about that. But Kristen is also an
administrator and is helping to head up an educational program for autistic
children. I think it's called Spectrum Academy? -Yes.
-Is that correct? -Yes. -And that's a local, it's right here. -Yep. -Locally. But you may
have something in your locality that's similar. She's the one. And that's why I
brought her on here today. Kristen, can you get us started here with how do
we work with kids who are on the spectrum. Because there's some
differences and some things we need to be aware of. -Yeah, absolutely the number
one thing that I recommend to anybody who's working with the child with autism
is to establish yourself as a big reinforcer for that child. So, really
building on the relationship that you have. Because if that child begins to
trust you and see you as someone really fun and exciting, they're a lot more
likely to work for you. When it comes time to do teaching. This can be a
challenge because one of the things that is a diagnostic indicator of autism or a
spectrum condition is the the social disconnect. -Right. -In
fact, sometimes you might have a child you're working with, for example, who
doesn't do any eye contact or there's different levels, right? -Yes.
But establishing yourself as a reinforcer, sometimes you're not going to
get all the cues back from them that you've accomplished that. -Absolutely. The
relationship is still really important. -Yes. I like to think of it as turning
yourself into the giant chocolate chip cookie in the room. So when the kid sees you, they think, "Oh my gosh
my life just got so much better because the cookies here." -Mm-hmm. -And that takes a
lot of work. And you're right. A lot of times it's not necessarily a teaching
situation, it's play. -Right. -And it's talking to them even if they can't talk
back to you. And it's having fun together doing things that they are interested in.
That you think they should do. -Something I've noticed about that,
Kristen is that you... I love the chocolate chip cookie idea. Because you need to be
seen as a provider of good times and good things. -Yes, absolutely. -So, it's not
our agenda. It's not like "Oh, this is someone who can help me." No, they're not
thinking that way. -Right. Provider of good times and good things. You become the
chocolate chip cookie. -That's right. I love it, too. -Okay. So, Kristen once we've
set up this chocolate chip cookie relationship with these kids, there's
things that we can do, right? Environmentally. I'm thinking about the
context of where we are. -Yeah. -Help us with that. -Yeah, absolutely. In behavior
analysis world, we call this antecedent manipulations. And all that means is, we
are manipulating or changing the environment before behaviors happen.
That's the antecedent part. -Brilliant. -Yeah. -Yeah. So, we don't end up having to deal
with the behavior because we've set it up
before hand. -Right. So, all of this is done without the child necessarily even being
involved in it. You're setting up the situation or the environment first. -Can
you give us an example of what that might look like? -Yeah, you bet. So one of
the most important things for kids on the spectrum is to take a look at their
sensory needs. -Oh, yeah. -So we've got lots of kids who they can't handle loud
noises. -Right. -Can't handle bright lights, crowded places, things like that. So
before any kind of teaching experience, you would want to understand their
sensory needs and have those things provided for. So maybe
the room is a little darker. At our school, a lot of teachers have fabric
coverings for the fluorescent lighting. So that it just dims the lighting in the
classroom a little bit. -Softens it up. -Right. Our kids have access to headphones
either noise cancelling or maybe to listen to preferred music for them to
block out some sound. -I have a client, a little guy who's really really sensitive
to sounds. And especially the sounds that come from people's mouths. -Oh yeah.
-Right? -That's a real thing. -The little clicks, the little set, you know, just it's
normal. -Yep, but he is super tuned to it and his parents got him these
noise-canceling headphones where he doesn't have to listen to all of the
little clicks and and slurps and little sounds that come out of a person's mouth.
-Exactly. Absolutely. And in a teaching situation, maybe you're setting your
table and chairs in a certain way. So that the child is next to the wall and
the teachers on the other side. Just kind of block them from leaving that area. But
in a kind of a gentle kind way. So, you're setting up the environment first of all
to get ready for any kind of teaching. -This is called Live on Purpose TV. And so,
you're purposefully planning. It's an intentional, anticipation of what might
come up and then arranging your environment in
your setting in a way that optimizes the outcomes. -Yeah, absolutely.
-Wow, beautiful. -Another really important thing is having visuals for these kids.
-Okay. -They're much more inclined to be visual learners than auditory learners.
And so, as many pictures as we can give them in their environment, the better. At
our school, every classroom has a schedule in the classroom. Whether that's
pictures or words written out or posted. So, that the children know what we're
doing now and what's coming next. Gives them a little map so that they
know what to expect. -Right. My experience in working with kids on the spectrum
also is that they get very customed to routines. Any deviation from that routine
kind of dips them over a little bit. -Yep. -So, what you're saying is just create
this visual map for them so that they know what to expect, what to anticipate.
If there's a change, you at least need to give them some cues that that's coming.
-Absolutely. That visual schedule really helps them
to know what's coming next. -There's some interesting dynamics. I
think this is true of any kids that we work with but maybe you've got some
insights about how this shows up on the spectrum. But in terms of control and
having some choice and some ability to direct what's going on... You're nodding.
What are you connecting with on those lines, Kristen? Giving children with
autism a choice in whatever is coming next reduces a lot of those meltdowns
that we see. So, choice can actually be built in to anything that you're doing.
It doesn't have to be, "Do you want to do math? Or do you want to do this worksheet?"
It can be, "Do you want a red pencil or a green pencil?" For parents, it can be, "Do
you want to ride on the left side of the back seat? Rr the right side of the back
seat?" -Hmm. -But your work in some kind of choice into every
situation to give them that little bit of control. -Keeping in my examples that
you used were beautiful. Because keep in mind that you need to be okay with
either choice. -That's right. -If you're giving them, "Well, you can do this, you can
do that." And you're not okay with the one, (-yep) guess where they're going? -Absolutely. (Both Laughs)
-So, make sure you're okay with either choice. That's why I love this red pencil
or green pencil. Either way we're doing math, right? We you don't have to say
that part? -Right. You simply emphasize the choice and that
gives them a little higher sense of control (-Yep) over a life that doesn't
feel very controllable. -Right, 100%. And it works for children who are verbal or
nonverbal. If they can point and they can indicate a choice. They can even look
towards one toy or another toy then they can make a choice. -Wonderful. Now, one of the places we
get into trouble as parents or as educators, what are the best consequences
to use? We all know that consequences are important but I think that there's some
special considerations when we're working on the spectrum. -Yeah, absolutely.
I look at consequences as just what is happening directly after the behavior
that you've seen. -Okay. -So, there are some things we can do. We talked about
manipulating those antecedents, the things that come before, right? Now, we're
going to look at manipulating what happens after a behavior. One of the things we
can do there is provide redirection. We can just simply gesturally redirect a
child... -Change their direction. -Exactly. We can move a hand down. We can ask them you
know, "Oh, please put it here." And just gently provide some redirection if
they're starting to go off track with their behavior a little bit. You know an
acknowledgement here, Kristin. Because when we talk about consequences. It's
really easy to interpret that as punishments or (-Right.)
rewards. You're just saying a consequence, and this really goes back to the root of
the word. The sequence part of consequence has to do with what follows
what. -Right. And the cone part it has to do with width. So, it comes with a
sequence. It comes in sequence with something (-Yep) that... And we don't have to
break the whole word down. But what I'm trying to get to is that it's not
necessarily what we would traditionally think of as a punishment or a reinforcer
or reward. It's simply what comes with this behavior. What immediately follows
it and it might be a redirection. Which is it's not a punishment? -Nope. -So, that
takes some of the pressure off, hopefully. -Right. Helping them make a different
choice. -Right. A more appropriate choice. And and at a teaching a learning opportunity
(-Right) for that child. -Right. Another thing that we do that I love and recommend all
the time is called (Here comes a fancy word) Non-contingent reinforcement. -A
non-contingent reinforcement. Okay. All it is, is providing some kind of
positive reinforcement that is not contingent on whatever behavior was
previously there. So, it could be that every 15 minutes, you check on a
child and make sure you're giving them a pat on the back, a thumbs up, a way to go
buddy, you're doing awesome work. -I'm thinking of chocolate chip cookies. This
is how you do it, right? You want to be seen as a provider of good times and
good things. -Yeah. So, completely unrelated to their behavior, you're simply popping
in with something positive, something good, something that they want and enjoy
which helps to make you the chocolate chip cookie. -That's right.
And a lot of times kids on the spectrum crave attention but they don't know how
to get it in appropriate ways. -Right. -This is a strategy that really helps with
that. Because you're already providing that attention. Maybe on a very schedule
time frame. Like I said, every five minutes, every 15 minutes or maybe more
variable as to what you see that child needing. But you're providing them with a
lot of that good stuff. -I'm seeing Kristin that these suggestions would
work really well in a school environment. Like, where you are? You're in an
educational setting with autistic kids and spectrum. I can see that there's a
lot of applications here for mom or dad at home too. -100%. -Or even a babysitter or
a daycare provider. These are powerful strategies. -Yeah.
And when we're looking at how to change behavior which I know some of your
viewers have asked about. How to teach or support kids with autism. We have to kind
of have our tool belt of these different strategies to use to work with these
kids. -And be ready to be flexible. -Yeah, absolutely. -Because they may not be. -Oh, at
our school, we call it Bendy Brains. Always having a bendy brain. And that's
the adults and the kids. -Right. And I think that helps with the perspective
because we're not here to make sure that things happen a certain way. Be really
tolerant and accepting. Not only of these kids but of yourself too. -Absolutely. -Just
give yourself an opportunity to learn these skills as you go. It's not easy but
there's a lot of resources available too. Yes, a lot. It's a hard job and we
understand that. The last thing I wanted to mention is something another
consequence strategy to change a behavior.
It's called "Extinction". And sounds a little weird and scary maybe, right? I don't...That (Laughs) -But
that's the idea, right? Exactly, wiped out. That's the idea, wiped out. What it really
is technically is not reinforcing something that has been reinforced in
the past. -Yes. If there's something maintaining a behavior. For me as a mom
it was letting that kid into my bed in the middle of the night.
Because I was too tired to do anything different. -To do anything about it, yeah. -I didn't
necessarily want them there but there they were. -Yeah. When you apply extinction,
it looks like this, I had a teacher who had twins. Imagine this. Twin 1 year olds
who got out of bed and got into mom and dad's bed all the time. So, they decided
to apply extinction and say, "Okay, tonight... Starting tonight, no more." So then..." -I can
anticipate how this went. -Exactly. Something happens. It's called an
extinction burst. -Yup. In other words, it gets worse before it gets better.
That usually is you're doing the right thing. -Yes. Want to know about those
twins? -Yeah. -Guess how many times they got out of bed that first night. -Oh, it's
probably going to be a lot, yeah. -Come on, give me a number. About 50? -Try 175.
-Oh, man. -Can you imagine? -I can. -Those poor parents, right? But, the next night it
was reduced by about half. And the next night about half of that. Took about a
week and those babies were staying in bed all night. -You know what happens is
this kid is thinking, "Man, this always used to work." -Right. I must be losing my
touch. -Yeah. -I'm better turn up the volume. -Yeah.
100%. That's the burst, right? -Yeah. -And what happens if you cave in after they turn
up the volume? -Then it's going to take you even longer... -Because you just told them,
"Oh, yeah. That's it." -Yeah. -If you don't get what you want just turn up the volume.
-Exactly. -Right? So, you're saying you got to endure through that burst, get over
the hump and then it's going to come back down. -Exactly. -It's been my experience as
well. -Yeah. -Well. Thank you Kristen for that input. It's great to have experts
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