Question
I am working with a first grade student who has autism. He is able to leave the large group classroom and walk to the speech therapy room, and participates in all language activities. Yet when we walk back to class, he cries and screams because he reali
Answer
It seems that the most practical solution would be to change your method of service delivery from a pullout model to a classroom-based model. It is often possible to successfully address language objectives in the regular classroom, and this seems like the ideal situation! Consider collaborating with the teacher to find time in the schedule that you could come in and lead the entire class in a session that would (1) positively engage all the children and (2) address the target child's treatment objectives. The teacher (along with any paraprofessionals and/or volunteers) would serve as your support personnel to facilitate the entire interaction.
The potential benefits of serving this child within his regular class are numerous. First, the child would not have to leave class or miss anything his peers were doing, and the current behavior problem may be solved. In addition, the child would have the benefit of peer models during the intervention session, thus generalization of skills would be more likely. Moreover, the teacher, paraprofessionals and peers would have the opportunity to observe the techniques you use as part of your treatment protocol, and they may apply these techniques at other times during the school day, further enhancing the effectiveness of your intervention. The typical peers would also benefit from your language expertise. Classroom-based intervention could turn out to be a winning scenario for all involved.
If you feel you must continue to pull the child out of class, here are a few ideas you might try:
- If the class has a time when the students rotate through learning centers, make your language session one of the centers. Several classmates could come with the target child to the language "center", and since it would be part of the regular rotation, no one would miss anything.
- Set up a video camera in the classroom and have someone record the classroom interactions while the child is having his language session. Later, he can watch the video to see what occurred during his absence.
- Collaborate with the teacher to determine the child's least favorite classroom activity, and pull the child out for treatment during that time.
- Have a visual schedule and a timer in your treatment room so the child can know when to expect to return to class.
- Try creating a Social Story (Gray, 2002) or a Power Card (Gagnon, 2001) to describe the reason for the pullout session and provide strategies the child can use to cope with the idea of missing classroom activities.
Dr. Lillian N. Stiegler has been a speech-language pathologist for 23 years. She is associate professor of communication sciences & disorders at Southeastern Louisiana University where she teaches courses on autism spectrum disorders, early language intervention, and neurophysiology. Dr. Stiegler resides in Covington, LA.
