Nina Finkler the president of “Nina Finkler Autism Services” presented an edWebinar about “Selecting Goals for Students with Autism” at Wednesday, October 23, 2019 @ 3:00-4:00 pm EDT. She sheds the light on the needs of students with autism, and on what areas should be looking at when planning and teaching them.
First, autism definition is a brain processing disorder that significantly impairs the assimilation of information, causing problems in social behavior, communication and learning, but such students may have a variety of skill areas to be addressed, including communication, academics, self-care, and social and leisure skills.
How do you determine the primary goals for a student with autism?
In this edWebinar, Nina Finkler shares ways to identify and assess skills to plan goals for students with autism (measurable, achievable, include generalization). She discussed different methods of choosing goals, including standardized measures and observation, and reviewed some skill areas that should not be left out when planning an educational program.
In this edWebinar, Nina Finkler shares ways to identify and assess skills to plan goals for students with autism (measurable, achievable, include generalization). She discussed different methods of choosing goals, including standardized measures and observation, and reviewed some skill areas that should not be left out when planning an educational program.
Second, how is this person processing information and to what level, is a vital issue that each teacher must keep in mind.
According to the learning challenges, they face:
1- Difficulty with imitation, where social awareness is needed
2- Concrete thinking ( difficulty with making questions)
3- Language comprehension difficulties (verbal and non-verbal)
4- Attention and focus
5- Generalization (no specific rule, but it is very important not to do it since they view every skill very specifically even with specific people or specific material)
6- Motivation (reinforcement to learn new skills)
7- Narrow thinking (in terms of ideas and interests)
According to assessment, it is not for curing autism students, it is a planning investment for their future were it gives a good learning about them. It should be functional for their ages and must address areas associated with known ASD deficit. Some assessment tools: VB-Mapp, ABLSS, AFLS, Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale and they can be purchased for each student.
Always keep in mind:
1- Difficulty with imitation, where social awareness is needed
2- Concrete thinking ( difficulty with making questions)
3- Language comprehension difficulties (verbal and non-verbal)
4- Attention and focus
5- Generalization (no specific rule, but it is very important not to do it since they view every skill very specifically even with specific people or specific material)
6- Motivation (reinforcement to learn new skills)
7- Narrow thinking (in terms of ideas and interests)
According to assessment, it is not for curing autism students, it is a planning investment for their future were it gives a good learning about them. It should be functional for their ages and must address areas associated with known ASD deficit. Some assessment tools: VB-Mapp, ABLSS, AFLS, Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale and they can be purchased for each student.
Always keep in mind:
1- Productivity; that can be translated into how much is their level of focus? How much is the time?
2- Choice making skills
3- Independence level
4- Communication skills; where it should be known that there is a great difference between understanding the language(comprehension) and expressing it (verbal or non-verbal)
5- Prerequisite skills
Example: If a student is great in one area, the teacher should not assume that he is good at another; so if he can read that does not mean he can comprehend.
Functional skills: the teacher must think of these questions to decide whether the skill is usable / good or not and the questions are:
1- Will someone have to do it for him/her?
2- Is there any ability to grow with this skill?
3- Why are we teaching this skill?
Moreover, here are the domains that should be focused on when assessment:
1- Learning Readiness (learn how to follow simple directions, eye contact for focusing rather than staring, waiting in line…)
2- Pre-Academic / Academic
3- Communication/ Language
4- Play/ Leisure ( occupy time carefully)
5- Self-Care (example: toilet training)
6- Vocational
7- Behavior
8- Social Skills
