Taped to the top of my computer monitor is a note that
reads, “If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with
autism.”
Within the spectrum of autism
there are many diverse characteristics, and for an individual how those
characteristics are displayed can change on a daily basis.
Back in the fall I had the opportunity to
hear
Paula Kluth
speak as the keynote speaker at
OCALICON.
She described providing interventions, to
students with autism, as playing the
Race Game on The Price is
Right.
One morning I may come
in and pull the handle and have four correct interventions.
The next morning I’m going to come in,
pulling what I think is the same lever, and I’m only going to have one or two,
maybe even zero, correct interventions in place.
The ever changing results, to pulling the lever, are
something I have experienced, in many facets this year, but particularly in the
area of writing. A particular student
was able to write creative stories with no issues last year. However, getting him to write this year has
been a challenge, and the more interventions I try the more he seems to be
resisting. I know the ideas are in his
head, but he is stuck in inertia and I have struggled to help him find a way
out, or to break the inertia. I have
used a plethora of ideas: picture
prompts, sentence starters, scribing his words, word prediction software,
having him type on the computer, graphic organizers, hand over hand initiation,
etc. However, this leads to immediate
tears and refusal to complete the assignment.
Today I finally had a chance to read
I
Hate to Write by Cheryl Boucher and Kathy Oehler, and I’m kicking
myself for not reading it sooner!!!
They
describe the writing process as needing the four areas of the brain; language, organization,
motor skills and sensory processing, to work together to accomplish the task of
writing.
However, the brain of a person
with ASD appears to send far fewer of these coordinating neural messages (Boucher
and Oehler, 2013).
Therefore, writing
becomes an inefficient and very frustrating process.
This amazing book provides teachers with common
concerns around writing, why students with ASD may react in a certain way (with
research to back it up), teaching strategies and “Take It and Use It”
pages.
Within every area of concern, the authors
provide suggestions in how to address all four areas of the brain, involved in
writing, in order to make writing a happy and successful process.
Quickly, I have realized that I was providing interventions
for the student during the process of brainstorming and writing, but I was
completely ignoring his environment before writing. This afternoon I met with the student and had
him do hand exercises, seat push-ups and deep breaths (ideas provided in the
book). I then had him pick a big muscle
warm up (list provided in the book), and complete that activity for 5-10 minutes. This student decided to jump on the
mini-trampoline (only if I would count how many times he jumped, of course).
After he completed these activities I started to talk to him
about writing, and how that process feels for him. Just
at the mention of writing I thought for sure he was heading into a
meltdown. He refused to talk about writing, just the
same as he refused to write. I know he
has the ideas in his head, but they are stuck up there. I immediately pictured a strainer that is
clogged, so it won’t let anything through the holes. Wouldn’t you know it, I happened to have a
strainer in my classroom. I asked the
student if he wanted to play with some rice, and a meltdown was prevented. While he was playing with the rice, I filled
my strainer full of it, and held it over top of his persuasive writing planning
sheet. I asked him if the strainer was
full of rice (ideas).
He looked at me like I was a crazy lady and started
laughing, because it was obviously full.
I told him that when I look at him, I know his brain is full of ideas
(rice). However, no matter how hard I
shook the strainer with rice; only one or two pieces would escape. Just like, no matter how much he thinks about
his ideas, he can’t seem to get them into words.
I then filled the strainer with sand, and all of it quickly
fell onto the planning sheet.
I explained to him that I wasn’t able to change rice into
sand, but I could plan what I put into the strainer to make it fall out onto
the planning sheet. His goal was to be
able to start writing with sand, and not rice, as his ideas. Doing his hand exercises, big muscles
exercises and chewing gum are his strategies to use to turn rice into
sand.
Using this analogy, I’m hoping, is helping this student not
feel at fault or “lazy”, in terms of why he is stuck in inertia. It’s not that he is refusing to work, resisting
the assignment, doesn’t have great ideas or doesn’t have the ability to
write. I believe that when teachers, me included, say
to him to let us know if he doesn’t understand, than he feels guilty for not
understanding. In reality, he does
understand, but he can’t seem to get the rice through the strainer. I have encouraged him to let his teacher and I
know if he needs help turning sand into rice.
This conversation, and experience, has probably been the most excited I
have ever seen this student about writing.
He was talking to me about his persuasive writing idea the entire way
back to the classroom. I believe the
activities prior to our rice/sand conversation helped the sensory part of his
brain communicate with the language portion of his brain.
