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Connecting Wisconsin
February 1998
Learning in the Community
Heidi Mendonca (assisted by Vicki Syring and Judy Coenen-Eichhorn)
Community-based instruction (CBI) involves working on IEP goals in community settings. Such instruction is essential to the educational programs of most students with autism/PDD. CBI is as appropriate for students with significant challenges as it is for students with milder forms of autism/PDD.
Many highly verbal students do well within a school routine but have extreme difficulties in unpredictable community settings.
Community-based instruction is not a reward for "a good week" but a vital part of each student's educational programming. If a student is not allowed to participate, that student is missing out on a learning experience. Participation in CBI should be based on behavior while in the community not dependent on behavior in school or at home. Appropriate
skills for success in community settings need to be taught and practiced on a consistent basis to insure generalization to a variety of settings and people; and to promote as much independence as possible.
Community Based Instruction Is:
- 1-3 students learning in community settings accompanied by school staff
- small group instruction that focuses on specific skills from students' IEPs which takes place on a consistent basis (weekly, etc.)
- consistent instruction focused on skills students need to be more independent now and in later life (for example: crossing streets safely, placing orders, using money/carrying wallets, finding appropriate bathrooms)
- instruction in a variety of actual settings where students will need to have life skills (libraries, grocery stores, department stores, discount stores, laundromats, movie theaters, fast food restaurants, sit-down restaurants, post offices, etc.)
- instruction that varies slightly from time to time (teaching students to be able to generalize skills from place to place without getting locked into identical routines each time in the community)[If a routine is allowed or encouraged, it is not reasonable to expect the student to understand and to remain calm at a later date when the routine must be changed.]
Community Based Instruction Isn't:
- 5 or more students going together to community settings
- large group/field trip type activities
- inconsistent instruction that doesn't allow skills to be learned or generalized into a variety of settings; instruction in different types of settings all the time (for example: one week to a laundromat, the next week to a movie and the third week to a restaurant)
- instruction in community settings that are not "high frequency" sites for typical life (museums, concerts, "behind the scenes" at McDonalds, etc.)
- instruction that is identical each time (same restaurant each week, same place to sit on the bus, same path to walk, etc.) [If a student's only use for money is to purchase food, will that person know money can be used to purchase other items?; If a student always uses a bus pass, will he/she learn that money is okay to use also?]Editor/Author's note: Highly verbal students need to learn many of these same skills. Generalization is very difficult. For example, if taught that this particular librarian will check out your books, many students will need to be taught that other librarians can help too...or they will wait forever for that first librarian.
Community-Based Instruction . . . Some of the Things One Student is Working on during Community-Based Instruction
(This is not a complete list!)
(This student is a sixth grader with limited verbal skills.)
- street corners: stopping; looking left and right with eyes open; saying either "car/bus/truck/van" or "okay"; crossing quickly when it is "okay"
- signalled corners: stopping; watching for walk signal; looking left and right with eyes open; crossing quickly when it says walk and is "okay"
- walking: staying with the group; leaving personal space; indicating when you want to go somewhere by verbally saying "I want to go" and pointing; staying in designated walk areas (sidewalk, crosswalk, etc.)
- social interacting: saying "hi" and "bye" to others in group; holding doors open for others in your group; personal space; remaining calm when there is a problem such as a lost wallet, not enough money or a missed bus
- keeping track of personal belongings at all times: placing items on chairs, etc. not on floor; keeping belongings with you
- wallet use: carry in back pocket; access and put away bus pass, ID card, library card, etc. as needed; keep track of wallet including holding on to it at all times (not setting it on counters, etc.); putting change in zippered compartment of wallet or front pocket of pants
- outerwear: unzipping, zipping coat as needed; putting hat, mittens, etc. in safe place (pockets, sleeve); recognizing that mittens, hat, etc. should come off when inside buildings; carrying items as needed when inside; putting over chairs as appropriate (vs. the floor)
- bathrooms: identifying appropriate bathrooms (men vs. women); shutting stall doors; taking personal belongings into stall (not throwing on floor); flushing, washing hands with soap, drying hands; verbally indicating the need to use bathrooms; waiting for open stalls
- bus riding: having bus pass/transfer ready when entering bus; waiting for driver to punch bus pass or take transfer; say "transfer" as needed; replace bus pass in wallet once seated; maintain possession of transfer paper; sit in a variety of different seats; refrain from licking windows; identifying which bus to ride; watching bus route and pulling "cord" at correct time; using bus schedule to figure out routes and to get to bus stops on time
- lunches: selecting a place to sit; using communication book to select restaurants and items to eat; (selecting a variety of different things to eat); carrying book to counter; presenting book to counterperson so the person can see it; getting out wallet and providing money as needed ; getting straws, napkins, etc. as needed; carrying tray to table; eating neatly (2 hands on sandwiches, chair close to table, eating over a tray so less ends up in lap, using napkin to keep face neat); disposing of food leftovers and tray appropriately; waiting for friends to finish eating; gathering personal belongings
- stores: being careful about not breaking things (carrying belongings without swinging them, walking a safe distance away from shelves and others,); identifying prices on items; recognizing if you have enough money to purchase items; next dollar strategy for purchasing items (if it costs $3.67 you pay $4.00); carrying merchandise in your hands (in full view); finding check out area; purchasing materials; getting out appropriate amount of $ to purchase; carrying merchandise out of store; identifying a variety of people who can help you clerks/librarians/etc.; waiting in lines as needed
- grocery stores: finding aisles; reading food categories (dairy, produce, etc.); pushing cart without banging into things or other people; not eating food/opening packages before purchasing
- escalator/elevator riding: waiting your turn; one person per step; personal space; holding railings; waiting away from elevator door to enter; pushing correct numbers
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Theory of Mind versus An Overwhelming "Feeling of Relationship"
written by an adult with autism
Editor's note: This is an interesting perspective reminding us that wishing to turn someone into a carbon copy of our ownself takes away what that someone already was.
Theory of mind sounds like just another way of saying "If you don't think like the rest of us you need to be fixed."
Modern mankind chooses to style itself as a "social" animal species, and to praise and emulate such "successful" role models as Dolphins in their schools, Starlings in their flocks, Ants at their picnics, Germs on their gelatin and Lemmings at the seaside; yet Christians have tried to exterminate Jews, Jews to exterminate Muslims, Muslims to exterminate Christians, and Afro-Asians, not yet detoxified from milliennia of hemispheric feudalism, seem content for the moment to simply exterminate themselves and their nearest neighbors.
Some society!
Yet the animals that charm us most are solitary; most folks who would not even turn their heads to observe a termite colony of millions go all soft and simple at the mere mention of a singular Koala, Panda, Puma, Polar bear, Tiger, Hedgehog or Orangutan, and often harbor more respect for the unseen
Wolverine, Shark or Boomslang than they hold for the guy in the next apartment.
Collectively we herd together in squalid cities, leaving the
fields and forests that nurture us in the hands of greedy tycoons; individually we long for the wide open spaces and splendid isolation that we have sold for another pair of Reeboks, while willingly paying to ship our kids off to public schools that are manifestly in the business of socialization first and education last.
So which is the more basic instinct? Probably survival trumps both, as tribes of all regions and individuals of all species are methodically hunted down and caged or killed if they won't be tamed.
But man is also a thinking animal, and must ponder, survival aside, which is the Nobler instinct, and must wonder, while society is busy defending us from all ills, who will defend
us from society? Never mind the occasional Aspie (person with
Asperger's)...we desperately need a cure for NTs (neuro-typicals).
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Body Sox
from the Internet
Body Sox are available from the Southpaw Company ($32-41). The company can be reached at 1 (800) 228-1698. Body Sox are pieces of lycra/spandex that are sewn into rectangle shapes that children can go into and be covered completely. They can see through the material and can stretch and push at it. For the children who don't like their heads covered, they can keep their heads outside. "We just got it today and it was an instant hit with three out of our four preschoolers. It would be easy to make something like this as well. The kids love to go inside, stretch out the material and get the feedback that the elastic material gives them. We are thinking about these as Christmas gifts. It sounded kind of strange to me when our OT suggested getting this item, but it seems to have real potential."
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Silent Tears
Ann VanAsten
She hears, but does not comprehend.
She sees, but has little eye contact.
She hugs, but only when she craves touch.
She smiles, but only for a short time.
She screams, perhaps it's a cry for help!
In Our Own Words and Pictures
Contributions to the Newsletter by People with Autism
OnceUpon a caterpillar
Mary Ingold
There was once a little green caterpillar
all soft and furry
eating leaves in a hurry.
Why do you hurry so much?
To become fat and chubby?
Little do you know,
While you crawl around to find food.
Little do you know,
while you eat all night and sleep all day.
Little do you know, while you hide in the leaves of greenish-gray
You soon crawl restlessly around.
Why are you so restless, my furry friend?
To find a place for your chrysalis?
Little do you know, while you crawl endlessly around to find a twig.
Little do you know,
while you spin a line of silk.
Little do you know,
while you split into your chrysalis form.
Soon your chrysalis becomes clear.
Why are you turning clear?
To emerge as something new?
Little do you know,
while you change from brown to reveal your rainbow colored wings.
Little do you know,
as you split out of your old self.
Little do you know,
until you look into a window.
How little did you know that you would change from something so ugly,
to something as beautiful as a butterfly!
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