On the carpet, Masih has learned to be able to keep quiet, usually through use of concentarion. This can backfire as if he begins to touch something like a string or loose piece of shoe he will find it impossible to stop following it with his finger. If he sits near one of his friends, he will nt be able to stop talking to him, and will hae to be asked to move. He cannot also be sat by a chair otherwise he will not be able to stop touching it. If these factors are overcome he will be able to sit silently for as long as any other pupil. However his actual listening is very selective. He makes eye contact with the teacher for only brief periods and when he returns to the table, he is completely unable to begin working without polite prompting.
This is all that is required to encourage him to write and he never refuses to work or refuses instructions.
Masih becomes upset only when he enters into a verbal dispute with another pupil, in which case he usually cries and claims that the other person is 'bullying' him or 'not being fair' to him. If Masih is ever physically hit by another pupil, which occurs rarely due to Masih's selective play, he immediately hits back using distinct karate moves. Masih practices karate and swimming as well as attending an Iranian school on saturdays. I have tried to find out how he behaves at these classes as it seems strange that a child with such a low attention span could even function in such an environment, but there is something fiercely dedicated about Masih to his pursuits. There is also something extremely methodical about his behaviour in this circumstance.
I asked Masih a few questions about school and how he feels about it.
What's your favourite subject? Numeracy. And ICT! I love ICT.
Why do you like ICT? Because I can go on the Internet and look at Pokemon.
What's your worst subject? RE and PSCHE. And Literacy is boring.
Who are your best friends? AH!, AH, AH. And HM.
This child, 'AH' (initials used to cover identity) is worth mentioning. He is certainly a strange child. Although he has no type of SEN statement his behaviour can only be commented on as sub normal. The other children seem to use him as a kind of living punchbag. He is always grabbed, thrown, knocked down, sat on, given wedgies and wrestled. However, AH seems to actively enjoy this and simply laughs. In class, this child produces nearly no written work at all. He cannot sit on the carpet for more than thirty seconds without touching somebody or something, rolling over or rocking. Master M spends most playtimes chasing this boy round the playground, and seizing him from behind underneath the arms, similar to a full-nelson wrestling hold. Again, AH seems to enjoy this. Master M is often heard shrieking this boys name in delight when something noteworthy should occur.
The other mentioned child, HM, shares Master M's specialised interests such as Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! and mainyl connected with Master M as both boys enjoyed speaking to me in the playground about their interests (which, as a specialist LSA, I have become familiar with to expert level.)
Who is your favourite teacher? Humm, Mister Walker!
It is natural he would say that as I am right in front of him.
Except for me. I'm not really a teacher... Miss D! (Codename, 'Red Queen)
Why do you like her? She doesn't shout at me and she's kind!
Interesting, as 'Red Queen' certainly does shout at Master M, although she is certainly kind and projects that 'friendly aura' that makes her an instantly likeable person for both children and adults. Master M may be referring to the fact that she is not as strict as some of the other teachers.
Go on then Masih, tell me about your favourite things.
Oh Well! (excitied inhalation of air.) I like DS, X Box, Sonic, Mario, Incredibles, Pokemon, YuGioh, um, Pokemon, and um...killing people.
The odd comment at the end is Masih's little 'joke' which he throws in when he has chosen to be less than serious. These 'jokes' have taken on a dark theme recently, as he often refers to things and people as 'evil', 'from hell', 'murderers' or 'being murdered'. There seems to be no meaning behind this other than the flippancy and ridicule involved with the statements. Some of the things Masih says are completely out of this world and may even suggest dual personalities.
'There's like, an eye following me, and it scares me at night, but my invisible friend chases it away. That is, before my evil friend shows up and kills him. It's so scary.'
He does not sound scared when he tells me this, and although these types of statement are rare, they can escalate to levels of sheer fantasy, such as:
"Last night, now I think about it, there was actually a UFO over my house, no seriously, there was!"
"I was watching Doctor Who on the Internet, and do you knw what Mr. Walker, there is actually a film of Dr. Who called "Dr. Who and Master M", well, it's weird, because Dr. Who isn't actually in it, Rose and K-9 are in it, but instead of Dr, Who it's Masih, and they're fighting all of Dr. Who's greatest villains."
In recent months, he has not made any statement of this type, and claims never to remember them if mentioned.
Masih excitedly discusses various parts of the games he likes. His area of competency is in video games rather than board or card games, and I suspect this is because in a video game, the rules are clearly defined and are impossible to contravene. Master M can get upset if he is losing a game and claims it's not fair. This seems to be a common syptom of Asbergers' He will often add extra rules and then complain that he is not winnning. He recently becames upset during a Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament as he insisted on playing with certain cards which should not be used in normal games. He was repeatedly advised that while he could play like that, he would not be able to win as he had not included the right cards in his deck. The Yu-Gi-Oh game requires quite precise deck consruction skills in order to produce a set of cards that will defeat the opponent effectively. Simply put, Masih wanted to change the rules. When he inevitably lost the game, he became very upset. Masih normally prefers to simply swap the Yu-Gi-Oh cards than actually participate in the game. During an outdoor game, where players had to dodge the football and defend against it with their arms, Masih put different coloured plastic rings on his arms and informed me that he was now able to shoot blasts of fire and ice from his hands alternately. I informed him while that was fine, it would have no effect on the gameplay as there were no fire and ice hands in the rules. Masih became disenchanted and eventually upset, twisiting the script into the fact that the gae was essentially unfair. Therefore, the importance of rules and turn taking is often reinforced in one-on-one sessions. Masih does not usually participate in whole-class games, often wandering on and off when he feels like it. This can be attributed to a common symptom of Asperger's
Most of Masih's coversations are not really worth transcribing due to their specialist nature. I have included a few with attempts to translate for the uninitiated.
Do you like Internet games? Oh yes I like flash and normal games but some flash games, they don't work, some are really beautiful and some are evil, well, kind of evil, kind of nice, like Pokemon kill 2, I played Pokemon kil 2, and you kill Pikachu, and there's a jigglypuff, and it bounces all over, even iff you keep shooting it.
Masih is talking about some unsuitable game on the Internet where players are able to blow the heads off Pokemon. It follows the trend of this game that it is crude, stupid, features no real gameplay. It is similar to the trite ' Punch George Bush' or 'Blow Up Bin Laden' type of timewaster. This is one of the problems with Masih being very competent at accessing the internet.
So, which is your favourite Pokemon? Oh well I love Deoxys, he is so cool? He can have four forms, and he has these moves, and have you seen Destiny Deoxys? He is fighting Rayquaza, and it's so amazing, he goes up the building, like, whoooosh! (accompanied by spinning finger moves) And he is not even a normal Pokemon, he is a thing from space, like a disease but a good one? He can split up, into, like other ones, and the other ones are alive, like bits? And the bits like, make something alive, and its like a neat pattern? It is called DNA. I think I am in love with him,not as much as Pikachu or Kirilia but Deoxys is my favourite.
This confusing report is just Masih describing the Pokemon 'Deoxys'. What is quite surprising is that Masih seems to understand the nature of this character despite it being so obscure. 'Deoxys' is based on DNA or Deoxyribonucleic acid, and from the video clip Masih is speaking about, one can see Deoxys break up into thousands of smaller versions of itself, spinning around so that the creatures resemble a huge strand of DNA. Masih seems to recognise what this is, even telling me that DNA is 'something little making us up'. I felt that the entire concept and design of the Deoxys character was really quite complex and generally unappealing, which made it strange that Master M would be so interested in it. However, the action clip Master M showed me was certainly exilhirating, depicitng an epic battle between this creature and a large dragon named Rayquaza. I am imagining that Master M saw this clip before anything else and his interest snowballed from there. The alien nature of this character may also connect with Master M's long running interest in aliens, space and science.
"Deoxys' brain is not situated in its head but rather in the crystal on its chest. From there, Deoxys has the ability to use psychic attacks on its enemies. Deoxys's Pokédex entry and the Pokémon movie indicate that Deoxys is actually a that came to earth inside a and mutated into a Pokémon when it was "exposed to a beam". The viral nature of Deoxys is reflected in many of its aspects, its name being one example.. The incredibly high offensive statistics of Deoxys coupled with its weak defensive and health statistics mirror the fragility of a virus as well as its destructive potential once inside a host. Its sight is obstructed in the presence of strong electric fields. Deoxys is one of the few Pokémon that is somewhat ." (www.wikipedia.org)
Interestingly enough, also according to wikipedia.org,
"In early 2005, began a cross-promotion with Nintendo and the Pokémon Company to provide an "" program to children across the United States by Internet, teaching the science behind various Pokémon characters as they appear in Trading Card Game expansions. In the first segment of the program, based on the newly-released EX: Deoxys Trading Card Game expansion, they used the character of Deoxys to teach children about outer space, anatomy of a virus, the meaning of DNA, the existence of the ozone layer, and a definition of an extraterrestrial. Since then the program has had two other segments covering the next two expansions: EX Emerald and EX Unseen Forces."
Master M and I have already looked at viruses and DNA based on this eclectic character and it seems that NASA have begun similar initiatives.
Masih also has a very adult understanding of certain concepts and is noted for saying things like 'Oh my good god' or 'Damn it!' when minor things go wrong. In this respect, his character is almost totally unique. The barriers to his learning would be his attention abilities and word recognition. His adult attitude carries him through social situations relatively easily, and a weekly speech workshop and one-to-one sessions allow him to have both normal and what we call 'specialised' conversations like the ones detailed above. He seems to understand and appreciate the difference between the two. Overall, he can participate well in regular class activity. His word skills must be constantly reinforced through schemes like the Five Minute Box and similar activities, and his social skills can be built up through team games with clear, simple rules. Master M actively prefers complex, involved games, but has a tendency to invent the rules himself. We have created many board and card games together that Master M feels are 'fair'.
Bibliography
Least Restrictive Environment Implementation Policy Paper (Mills R, May 1998)
http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/publications/policy/lrepolicy.htm
Action Steps Healthy School Environment
Adapted by permission of the publisher from Marx, E. & Wooley, S. F. (Eds.) (1999). Health Is Academic: A Guide to Coordinated School Health Programs. New York: Teachers College Press., © 1998 by Education Development Center, Inc. All rights reserved.
http://www2.edc.org/MakingHealthAcademic/Concept/actions_environment.asp
www.wikipedia.org - Deoxys
2: Literacy Difficulties
The key ingredients for a successful reader could be defined as follows:
Goodman (1967), cited in Adams (1993), calls skilful reading a 'psycholinguistic guessing game', but Adams seems to suggest otherwise. He reckons that the key to successful reading is visual knowledge of words, which in turns demands solid visual familiarity with the groups of letters. This would emphasise the important of letter pairs and phonics to form the sounds so that children can read words they have never seen before.
Adams (1993) lists several other factors for being a successful reader or speller.
1) Learning to read is not natural (Liberman and Liberman, 1990) and depends on certain insights and observations that are not common to most children.
2) A well developed knowledge of composite sequences of letters along with the connections of those spellings to speech and meaning.
3) Solid familiarity with letters of the alphabet.
4) Interest in the use of letters.
5) Solid sense of the function of print - to entertain, inform, communicate, record, the value to themselves.
We carried out two informal assessents with Master M. Firstly, he was asked to write a list of every word he could think of in one minute. I knew that giving him 'carte blanche' as it were was a bad idea as Master M has great problems producing writing from his mind without prompting. He was then asked to produce a piece of 'free writing' in two minutes, which had the same handicap as the first exercise.
During the writing exercise, Masih would simply not attempt to write, making mumbled comments through constant laughter. I was pleased to see that he began writing but sadly many of the words he wrote are copied from a wall display. It is worth noting that he spelt 'Pokemon' correctly of his own accord.
After he had calmed down a little, he was asked to write a few sentences on any topic he wished. This in itself was a little problem, as when Masih is asked to create or retell something, he replies 'I have absoloutely no idea'. After a brief prompt, he usually replies 'Oh my god' or 'Oh yeah' and laughs. He should then be left in a calm environment to ensure the highest level of productivity. For this excercise, he suggested a huge range of topics including Master M 'fakes' which he will often say for what he considers to be comedic effect. These often include strange things such as 'going to hell' , 'killing people' or 'everybody dying'. In Year 2, he exhibited a similar behaviour but used slightly less morbid themes, namely 'banana' and 'things going in the bin'. Eventually he settled on the following sentences. In fact, he had decided to write about his sister, whom Masih holds in extremely high regard. According to Master M, she is a scientist, a film maker, an actress and a sportsperson. I am aware only of the facts she is 19 and attends Oxford university. Oxford is a place of extreme wonder to Master M, and many of his stories and ideas feature fantastical events occuring in this city.
Free Writing - Transcript
my sister is Going to biy me a pokeano in ebay. it wil de pekachu and polerl and carmander. my fririt si diosis becas he acne uos crstis Lasir.
Translation:
"My sister is going to buy me a Pokemon on Ebay.
It will be Pikachu and Poliwhirl and Charmander.
My favourite is Deoxys because he can use Crisis Laser."
I was glad that he was able to use full stops without being prompted.
It is worth noting that the 'Deoxys' character has all kinds of crazy special moves, but none of them are called 'Crisis Laser' although Master M could mean 'Cosmic Power'.
List of Words in 60 Seconds
Oh
sonic
a
i
pokemon
Every
chiLd
Matters
Be
stay
safe
helthy
Enjoy
and
achieve
phse
Re
sex
I am assuming the final word was meant as a hilarious joke as it promoted plenty of laughter on Master M's part. I was surprised as he has never used this word before in any particular context. He managed to spell 'Sonic' and 'Pokemon' correctly, which most children struggle to do.
Master M finds it incredibly difficult to recall vowel sounds or how to construct words. This is not to say he does not know how - he is able to take and pass spelling tests just like any other child, but when writing under his own power, he finds it impossible to spell accurately or write neatly. His strengths are clearly his (slightly twisted) imagination and his high level of understanding. In one-on-one work, Master M has come out with ideas for stories which would make fantastic Hollywood movies, but these ideas just cannot be trancsribed onto paper. He also knows a lot of words which he is not able to put into sentences, and chooses the same words where available each time. For instance, everything bad is 'evil' whereas anything good is 'beautiful'. Masih's word building skills also ensure that he spells words differently every time he writes them. He also exhibits common symptoms of dyslexia, mixing 'b' and 'd' and 'p' and 'q'. I am still working on a concrete strategy to answer his much asked question, "Which way is a bee?"
Based on Adams (1993) ideas for a successful reader, there are some immediate problems. Most notably, Master M basically believes that he knows exactly how the world works. In this world he has created, writing words is simply not that important. Phonics and letter groups are pushed aside to make room for what he considers more relevant information. Point number 5) is also lost on Master M. He does not believe that writing serves a function. He does not see the point in writing about a topic that interests him, either, often commenting "it's already written somewhere, I already read it". Although the shortcomings of this attitude have been outlined many times to Master M, he will still return to this point at various times. He also has little interest in it, as per point number 4) - when asked what he thought of Literacy, he merely replied "boring". This is a fair comment from Master M - in his world of space aliens, fast paced video games and extraterrestial viruses battling ancient dragon deities, the adventures of Fantastic Mister Fox or the Gruffalo do seem slightly in comparison. Master M's reading ability far outweighs his writing ability. The important thing to note is that he is certainly capable of producing neat, competent writing. The fact that he usually does not is a sort of choice that Master M may have not actually made by his own decision.
It may be worth nothing that despite all his difficulites Master M's literacy level would be about the midway point in the class of Year 3.
Bibliography
Adams, MJ (1993) Beginning to Read: an overview. In R.Beard (ed) Teaching Literacy: Balancing Perspectives. London: Hodder and Stoughton
3: Social Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties
"Children compete for uniqueness. If they can't attain uniqueness in socially constructive ways they will seek to attain it in other ways."
Bishop, B.: Mutual Respect Psychology. Armidale University Press, Armidale, 1980., cited on http://alex.edfac.usyd.edu.au/LocalResource/Schooldocs/respond.html
For this section of the module we will look at another statemented child in Year 3. We will call her 'M-A' She is listed as having emotional, social and behavioural difficulties, mainly stemming from a difficult family situation. She is part African, part Carribean, which she seems to have turned into some kind of persona identity crisi, often changing her surname to tha of other families.
For the most part this girl is very softly spoken and sweet, although she carries a constant look of contempt in her eyes. She finds it very difficult indeed to follow any kind of instruction at all, deliberately disobeying the most simple commands. She will hang around in the classroom after all the children have left, causing personnel issues as a staff member will have to supervise her until se finally leaves, whether under threat of punishment or constant cajoling. She responds especially badly to loud noises, apparent threats and direct orders. She will often indulge in a low level unwanted activity such as writing out times tables during reading or simply doing the wrong thing. She will never put her pencil down when asked. On the carpet, she sits away from the rest of the class, as if signifying she is different. If nescessary, she will be very rude to an adult, even going so far as to physically strike a supply teacher in the swimming changing room. This may have been the most extreme display of her aggressive behaviour.
The most controversial aspect of her behaviour is her tendency towards violence. There is a little problem in our school with 'cussing'. This is the practice of insulting somebody, probably though lack of anything else to say, by mentioning their parents or family. The most common 'cuss' is simply 'your mum'. No actual insult needs to be used. The conflicts caused by this utterly nonsensical exchange are numerous and enormously frustrating when trying to create a peaceful environmnet. Unfortunately, should 'M-A's' family be 'cussed', she will respond with vile language and immediately strike the person responsible. She is very strong and powerful. She will also resort to te time honoured practice of listing a host f friends and family members who will apprarently beat the opponent up. This behaviour is really quite tiresome and pointless. It is probably used to cover up her own insecurities and prove to the other person that she has a large number of friends (when of course, she has none.) Her academic skills are excellent and she will often demand to continue working after having been asked to stop. She often completes work twice, getting up and 'stealing' another sheet as if to prove herself. She will also often involve herself in the business of others as an 'enforcer' whether she has been invited to or not. She used to have many friends, but, inevitably, she now has none. I practice social inclusion in the playground and she often comes near me but does not join in the games or conversations and will not readily communicate. She also has a major problem with telling the truth, from making up pointless lies about things she has seen or read to distorting the flow of events in a situation involving her.
Let us examine Driekurs' 'Four Goals of Misbehaviour', then.
Driekurs (1972) described the Four Misbheaviours as
1) Attention Seeking
This behaviour is usually typified by silly noises, calling out and other seemingly nonsensical actions. It is also idealised by behaviour that is so obviously 'wrong' it is considered 'naughty'. In this researcher's opinion, this type of misbehaviour has dwindled dramatically in recent years. Children who are talking out of turn are more likely to be saying something they consider important than trying to upset the class environment. 'M-A's' behaviour does not really fall into this category.
2) Power Seeking
This is the behaviour associated with authority issues, defiance, refusing, and refusing insructions. It could be considered overall the most frustrating and quite frankly dull behaviours exhibited by children. It is also probably most typical of 'M-A'. If a child challenges the teacher's authority, then the school system stops working momentarily. The enjoyment found in learning will utterly disappear and teaching will become a battle. This researcher finds it hard to believe that children actually enjoy this behaviour. If 'M-A' is sent out of the room she will often refuse to leave. A very common strategy, described by Rogers (1996) would be the directed choice, informing her "You can either stay here and I'll get the deputy head, or we can go out with some dignity". It may take a couple of tries but as long as the teacher's tone is pleasant and clear, she will storm off with a look of utter malice on her face. Once out of the classroom, she will begin to calm down. However, she may well run off once out of class, but this is usually to get to the Head's office. This seems fine, as the Head can then be informed that she is misbehaving. However, this will not prevent the behaviour from occuring again. As 'M-A' is an intelligent and physically powerful girl, it would seem most likely that she wishes to assert herself by power. Her social background must also unfortunately have given her the idea that adults are weak and untrustworthy, and that she must become powerful to survive. Clear setting of goals and calm conversation will usually cause her to adjust her behaviour.
3) Revenge
This can be as simple as picking on a seemingly weaker classmate, destroying or stealing the property of others, or exploiting other's weaknesses. Children who exhibit these behaviours are often labelled as bullies. 'M-A' is very capable of this destructive behaviour, often scribbling on other's work or destroying it. She is also prone to destroy her own work as if seeking revenge against herself. The biggest problem with this behaviour is the hysterical overreactions exhibited by children who have their effects tampered with. Although not unreasonable, enormous shrieking matches can escalate over minor marks on Literacy sheets. This behaviour is linked to power seeking as it clearly results from low self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy. (Katz 1995).
4) Withdrawal
This type of misbehaviour can occur sometimes as a 'last resort' when other behaviours have failed to garner attention. Common symptoms include not working whilst telling the teacher 'I don't understand' when this is clearly an out and out lie or refusing to join in any other activities. While this behaviour is displayed by a number of boys in our class its only aspect visible in 'M-A' is her choice of carpet place, a clear sign that she does not feel like part of the class. The teacher constantly talks to her one on one when possible and many inclusion strategies are utilised such as group work and partner interaction, often facilitiated by the TA (myself).
Effective Strategy
Above all the strategy that works best with 'M-A' is praise. Lots and lots of praise. Her work is, without doubt, excellent, so it is easy to do this. There is also something likeable about her and one cannot help but feel somewhat sorry for her. Unfortunately, feeling sorry for a child is no kind of strategy at all, and it is with constantly reinforced goals and clearly defined rewards such as the rental of toys, special stickers and games that her self-esteem can be boosted.
The 'Red Queen', codename for the Year 3 teacher, has been working especially hard with 'M-A'. She always selects her if she has her hand up quietly and always considers her for class tasks. She constantly commants that she is 'sitting beautifully' or 'showing me a lovely example' whenever possible. Of course, she attempts to mix this up with the other pupils so as to promote a harmonious environment, but if one is looking out for it, she calls on 'M-A' more than any other pupil. The constant positive attention seems to be working however, she is not rude to adults any longer and will often not refuse simple instructions (at least not more than once). Unfortunately she still has a terrible temper and until the 'cussing' craze dies down a little, this will still be a problem. However it can be treated as a class-wide (or school-wide) issue and dealt with as such. 'M-A' is also seeing an anger management counsellor, the effects of which have yet to be seen.
Bibliography
Bill Rogers, Classroom Behaviour, (1996)Paul Chapman Publishing
Fran Hill and Lynn Parsons: Teamwork in the Management of Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties (2000) David Fulton
Understanding the roles and directing the characters...goals of misbehaviour and how to respond (http://alex.edfac.usyd.edu.au/LocalResource/Schooldocs/respond.html (1996))
Lillian Katz(1995), How can we Strengthen Children's Self Esteem?http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content2/Strengthen_Children_Self.html
4: Speech Language and Communication Difficulties
We have been observing 'Master M', a 9-year old mild Asperger's sufferer in a Year 3 class.
Master M has no other medical needs other than Asperger's. This does of course seriously affect his concentration levels.
When sat on the carpet, Master M will stare intently at the teacher for approximately five minutes. This time is shorter depending on the proximity of one of Master M's friends, nost notably the pupils described in Section 2, 'AH' or 'HM'. It is worth mentioning that the entire class attention span is frankly poor. Again, Master M is absoloutely by no means the least attentive member of the class. A number of pupils in this class appear to be suffering from various social dysfunctions which causes the class environment to suffer. However, let us focus on Master M. The noise level often present in the class does little to help Master M. He sees loud noise as an invitation to do whatever he wants, which may cause him to simply get up and move around. Once discipline has been enforced, and a quiet environment has been established, Master M will then gaze downwards, usually finding an insignificant object to toy with such as a fleck of dust or piece of string. He will not be able to put this object down until it is physically removed from him. There is never any complaint about this as he knows full well it is not permitted.
Strategies
Masih exhibits many of the traditional symptoms of Asperger's. He is very intelligent and aware of his condition, often making his own provisons to overcome it.
Masih has been taught to clasp his hands together gently when they begin flailing around. We practice this daily and he has built it up into a very effective system. Similar effective social cues have been developed, such as if Masih is getting to excited, the other children or adults are able to make a 'stop' sign which Masih understands means 'slow down!' This strategy was designed alongside Master M with his agreement, and works well in all social situations. Master M seems to simply find it hilarious when he talks too mmuch and might put his hand over his mouth while in fits of laughter.
A strategy that has often been employed in classrooms is to allow a fidgeting child to hold a small soft toy, preferably one that can be squeezed or pulled. This strategy proved ineffective for Master M as he would assign fantastical properties to the toy and cause it to leap and spin in the air, often 'attacking' children sitting near him, whose attention skills are only less by definition and are only too happy to join Masih in what appears to be a fun game. This ties in with a common symptom of spectrum disorder cited by Packer (2001-2005)
"Children with an ASD often do not play with toys in a conventional way, but instead spin or flap objects or watch moving parts of toys or machinery for long periods and with intense concentration."
We see now that this strategy was totally ineffective for a child with Master M's condition. Rather, the toys are now used as a whole-class system for good behaviour, and Master M can observe the children holding the toys 'correctly'.
Another common strategy is the use of 'rule cards' or social stories to enforce the expected behaviour of the child. Master M has had these in place since Reception, but it is fair to say they have no impact at all on his behaviour. When I shared social stories with him in Year 2, he considered them 'stupid'. Master M knows exactly what the school rules are, openly admitting that
"If I want to do something I will just do it".
This led to a simple discussion about the consequences of unwanted behaviour and the positive rewards available for good behaviour.
When focussing Master M on a writing task, a simple yet effective strategy is to ask him to devise a sentence verbally and then transcribe it onto a whiteboard for him. If the teacher asks the class to put their pencils down, it works best to simply remove the pencil from Master M's hand. A simple but effective strategy is to simply press down on Masih's shoulder or head when he continues talking after silence is requested. A slight weight causes him to instantly refocus on the current situation.
Of course, there is the reward system, which allows Master M to have some Internet time or play with a soft Pokemon toy for a while. This is suggested by Mike Connor (1999) who says:
'Allow some access to obsessive behaviour as a reward for positive efforts.'
This has been the most effective strategy so far, and by becoming familiar with Master M's favourite topics, I will speak with him on these subjects at playtime as well as reward him with related toys and games at key points thoughout the year. Although a high level of consistency and severity is nescessary for this to work, a simple reward system heightens Master M's enjoyment of the school environment and opens up new areas of interest that I am able to introduce to him.
Bibliography
Dr. Leslie Packer Ph.D, 2001-2005
Classrom Tips for Asperger's Disorder
http://www.schoolbehavior.com/conditions_aspergertips.htm
Mike Connor (19990
Autism and Asperger's Syndrome
http://www.mugsy.org/connor1.htm