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JANUARYá8, 2013 VCU - ACE WEBCAST
Services Provided By: Caption First, Inc.
>> KATHY KALUZA MORRIS: As we look at our slides, at the three areas we are going to
cover, prevention, post prevention, intervention. Another word for post vention would be instructional
strategy. Oftentimes teachers ask, what do I do after the crisis. What do I do after
the meltdown. That is what we are going to cover today.
As we go through, I want to welcome back all the friends who came back from the March webcast.
Wish I could see you. We are going to build on what we learned at that point. But I'm
still going to refer back to some of the things that we have learned in that first webcast.
Here is our agenda. A student with autism spectrum disorder, we want an agenda, we want
a schedule. You notice on the agenda that I have very few time. Often we have a scheduled
time and we go one minute over or stop one minute ahead of time, you might see anxiety.
That is a prevention strategy, helping our students and supporting our students. We are
going to look at a video of a meltdown, as well as two things, a tantrum versus meltdown,
so difference between those two things. Then we are going to get into the prevention,
intervention and post vention strategies. I'm going to share with you a video clip of
a young lady, I'll share it with you right away, a young lady who has a meltdown during
her gifted talented classroom. We are going to meet Eloise throughout this webcast.
You are going to see several strategies that she has in place in her regular second grade
classroom. Twice a week she goes to her gifted and talented program. The teacher is there
twice a week. We had done training on this campus where
all the strategies that you see right there in the back of your handout, your prevention,
intervention and post vention strategies. When I did this video for the Bureau of Education
and the cameras came in, the day before we went to the gifted and talented program, I
was talking to the teacher, asking her what strategies will she be demonstrating, that
she uses with Eloise. The teacher said she doesn't need those things in here. Of course,
my heart stops beating, thinkingá sure enough, she has a meltdown in front of the camera.
That is the first thing I'm going to show you. Throughout the rest of the seminar and
part 2, I want you to be thinking about what could we have done, what could I do if I was
that teacher or counselor or assistant or administrator, if I was the one escorting
Eloise out of that classroom, what kind of instructional consequences would I give her?
Here is the video. >> The sign says the way to divergent safety.
First rule, the more ideas, the better. That is calledá
>> When I first met her, it was the beginning of the school year. She was not part of the
gifted talented program. We did screening testing with her. She qualified easily.
>> In this gifted and talented classroom, Eloise is working in a group of four to brainstorm
words that contain the core word, ring. >> Ring holder.
>> Yeah. >> Wedding.
>> Ring a ling. >> That's a word.
>> Because Eloise is allowed to do all writing, the group activity goes smoothly.
>> She is extremely bright. She has Asperger's Syndrome. Very social. She is very bossy with
kids. >> Let's count them up. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
7. >> Write 7.
>> Eloise controls the group's decision making and turn taking.
>> Ring a ling. >> Let's think about that.
>> As a group member starts to add up their points, Eloise becomes distressed.
>> I want to add it up. >> When the student directly challenges her
behavior, Eloise becomes more agitated and quickly loses control.
>> I wrote over it. >> Time out.
>> No! >> Time out. We are going to take a time out.
>> That was a 9 already! >> Take a time out. What I want you guys to
doá >> The teacher provides a safety barrier and
removes the targeted student, before calling the special educator for assistance.
>> They escalate a situation where Eloise is blowing up. She totally lost control. There
are certain steps that seem to work most of the time, 90ápercent of the time. Get her
out of the situation first of all. Remove her from that room. Remove her to a safe place,
a place with no one else preferably. >> KATHY KALUZA MORRIS: I stopped deliberately
at that point. The Special Ed. teachers did escort her out. As I said, she did everything
correctly. She had a plan in place where they use walkie talkies to alert someone, or in
this case the walkie talkie didn't work. They had plan B in place, where the red construction
paper with the teacher's name was sent and given directly by another child to the Special
Ed. teacher who came immediately to escort her out.
At that point, two things could have happened. Either Eloise would have been escorted out,
which in that case, those of you who have been through crisis prevention realize at
that point it is clearing the room, getting everybody else out of the room.
But luckily, she did go and they went into a room where she was, became calm. That is
the consequences which you are not going to see yet because that will be your job to come
up with some constructive consequences as we go through the next two seminars.
At the meltdown cycle, you are going to see the writing of the left hand side of the volcano.
This is where, my gosh, I'm starting to escalate. Then where you saw Eloise is at the 4. It
is, if consequences are not provided, are given until about a 7. At a 5 you may escalate
things. At a 6 it may still be a little too soon.
You have to wait until the student is totally calmed down, before you finally provide these
instruction consequences. That might mean that it's not that day. It
might mean that it's still too soon. It could be the next morning. It could be the next
day. But bottom line, don't just sweep it under the floor as if nothing ever occurred.
This is a meltdown cycle. We are going to be looking closely at that meltdown cycle
as we go through this webcast. We are going to see the three areas, prevention
strategies, obviously we have prevention strategies, intervention strategies, post vention strategies.
For the full meltdown, all three are going to be needed. They are going to be needed
because oftentimes when we use the prevention strategies, that is when you are going to
be able to prevent what is going on. 90 to 99ápercent of all behavior problems with
autism can be prevented if appropriate visual strategies are in place.
Of course, the problem is, predicting the problem. Some students can be unpredictable.
When do we start prevention strategies? As I said in my March webcast, there are lots
of prevention strategies using the high interest areas.
As we go through this one, we are going to look at some more. Here is warnings of an
eruption. These are signs that you might see, that pacing back and forth. It might be wringing
their hands. They may be increasing flapping of their hands. They may stop talking. Especially
with kids of high intelligence and have huge vocabularies, they may start talking more
and more to themselves. This is where high interest areas, may start
talking about video games, may start talking about dinosaurs, if they are into Egyptology
and going over and over, these are all of your assigned, your cues of it's starting
to escalate. When you repeat those words over and over,
positive breakdowns can occur. Previous questions, able to respond to things like what's your
name, where do you live. Cognitive breakdowns, when it is stressful for him to come up with
some of these. Stuttering [inaudible] wrote a wonderful book
I highly recommend called managing meltdowns, using techniques with children and adults
with autism. It is a reference at the bottom of your overhead.
Another one that we might see and you see distancization from a ritual or routine.
We can see that student escalating, something he clearly loves, his kindergarten, he dearly
loves that computer and now you are asking him to get away from that and go check the
schedule. We talked earlier in another webcast about transition markers.
I'm going to talk more about that as well as we go through this session too.
What you see on the screen, Dr.áQuackmore. I'm Dr.áQuackmore. And I'm going to ask you
in the audience to pretend that you have maybe an ingrown toenail that you are coming to
me for. It might be that you have headaches for days. It might mean that you got a broken
arm. I'm Dr.áQuackmore. You are coming to me and
I right away reassure you, I can fix that. I can fix that. I know how to, I gave a surgery
on gallbladder and I took out that person's gallbladder and that is exactly what I'm going
to do for you. I'm going to take out your gallbladder.
Now, how many of you would come back to me, probably zero. Probably zero. The reason for
that is because I didn't figure out, what is it, what was it that you were coming to
me for? That is the same thing when we look at the
needs. We look at what is the need, what is the function. That old standby from Rudolf
Dreikurs says meet the need and the behavior extinguishes itself.
As we go through this webcast, I'm going to talk about a lot of needs that will be met
using some of these strategies. In the back of your handout, you have resources.
That page with prevention, intervention, and then post vention. You have a lot of resources
right there. Even though it looks like I'm spending a lot of time on prevention strategies,
what you are going to realize is those strategies that are right there in the prevention column,
they may become your post vention strategies. They may originate in instruction consequences.
You may have written a power card as a result of a behavior. You may have written a social
story as a result of a behavior or key chain rule or some of the other strategies I'll
be talking about today. Those strategies now become prevention strategies.
That is the beauty. It is like a cycle as we get through this. Looking at some of the
functions of behavior. 4. We are looking at sensory, we are also looking at attention,
escape and avoidance. We start something and then he no longer wants
to do it. Or he never even starts it. He has no desire to start it whatsoever, that motivation
factor there. Finally, the fourth one, something tangible.
Often when there is communication breakdown or there is lack of communication, then we
see that it's difficult, that they are asking for something, but they have no way of getting
it, so they resort to biting or various behaviors. With all these, we first have to figure out
what is the function of the behavior. This is not the webcast for that. But to let you
know, somewhere along the line you have got to figure this out.
One of the tools that I would recommend is a motivation assessment scale, by Mark Duran.
It is a simple assessment, to be given across the board with several different writers,
several different people who know that student quite well and may be the observer, if they
are able to observe those behaviors during that time.
But this might be one technique of narrowing down the behavior. Prevention strategies,
these are listed at the back of your handout. You are going to notice some of the components
from the teach program, the physical structure, how you arrange your classroom. Looking at
schedules, individual schedules, as well as classroom schedules. We are going to look
at some work systems, job A, job B, job C, and reinforcement.
Transition markers we are going to hit on as well today, a visual cue that will give
that student, go check your schedule. That will tell him you need to go check your schedule.
Communication systems, power cards, social stories, all these that you see listed here,
these are prevention strategies. They are meant to be used consistently. They
are meant to be used on a daily basis. It may not be just one. You may have several
of these strategies in place. What we know about our students, oftentimes,
is one strategy may work for a while and then it no longer becomes a viable strategy. They
get tired of it. Or their interest changes. That is why you have to have lots and lots
of prevention strategies in place. Then we also see more prevention strategies.
On this slide you see behavior cookbook. In the first seminar that we did in March, we
talked about the high interest level and is such a way of including the high interest
level. You are also going to see others like the timer, transition markers.
Right now I'm going to share with you a video on a couple of strategies. One is on the power
cards. You are going to see real teachers using them with real children in the classroom.
You are also going to see another strategy called a key chain rule. Both strategies were
written as an instructional consequence for these particular students.
Now they are being used as prevention strategies, consistently, every day and reviewed every
day. You are going to see the key chain rule used with Eloise in her regular second grade
classroom as an intervention strategy. You are going to see several techniques used.
The first one you are going to see will be power cards. It is used in a high interest
area, that uses that character, so that student will emulate the popular behavior. You are
going to see how they are using this on an elementary campus.
>> You like him, don't you? Nathan worked hard.
>> Power cards are an ideal strategy to use with students who have strong interests or
obsessions. >> A power card uses the favorite character
of the student of the it may be an obsession, a cartoon character, a movie star. But the
point is, we want that student to emulate the positive behavior of whatever character
it is he chooses. >> I will be like Spiderman, I will get up
and go to school every day. >> Power cards connect the character, student
and desired behavior. >> I will be like Spiderman and work hard
at school every day. Nathan, this morning, did you complain about coming to school? Did
you complain? No? Did you tell mom, I don't want to come to school? Good job.
>> Power cards are small enough to fit in a pocket or sit on a desktop and are always
illustrated. >> I can be responsible like a horse.
>> Like social stories, power cards contain clear I statements that describe appropriate
behavior. >> I will stay with the other kids. I will
not go too fast or too slow. Horses are very responsible and I am too.
>> When you areá >> For a student without strong interest,
the power card consists of an I statement and a visual demonstrating the desired behavior.
Just like social stories, power cards need to be reviewed daily, because the cards are
brief they can be read with a buddy. >> When I need help, I will.wait for someone
to help me. >> You guys are always going to start with
25. >> Power cards are excellent tools for redirecting
behavior in a nonconfrontive way. >> Daniel, take a look. Are you connected
with your partners right now? >> Yes.
>> You are? If you are connected, are you making funny sounds?
>> No. >> I want you to read this then.
>> Daniel's power card takes advantage of his keen interest in electricity, to help
him connect with peers. >> To do my best, I will be connected. I will
connect with people by giving eye contact. >> By having Daniel read the power card, the
teacher reminds him of the desired behavior and avoids auditory overload.
>> Another intervention strategy that is quite quick may be just coming over to tap on a
student's power card or social story, to remind the student to follow the behavior.
>> If students tire of or reject social stories and power cardsá
>> Do not read this. >> Teachers will need additional strategies
for prevention and intervention. >> It is vital for our teachers to have a
tool kit, to have some sort of regular strategies that will meet the needs of these students,
mainly because on one particular day, a particular strategy may not work.
>> What you notice from the power cards is that it was used only as a prevention strategy,
but then also one second grade teacher used it as an intervention strategy for a student
who was not connected during that group time. As she used that power card of electricity,
as one of his high interest areas, you saw not only the prevention strategy but also
intervention strategy but they were all made at the instructional consequences as a post
vention strategy. They are used consistently on a daily basis during the common time.
In this next video, you are going to see another visual strategy and it's called key chain
rules. Key chain rules are, originally were done on the outline of a key.
Those key chain rules are specific rules for that student, then put together on a key ring.
This might be appropriate for preK students or kindergarten students or maybe even all
the way to first grade and second grade. In the video, you are going to see Eloise
again. She is in her second grade classroom, her general Ed second grade classroom where
she has a lot of strategies in place. She not only has the key chain rule, she also
has power cards. She has a schedule. She has many sensory things. She also has a lot of
visual reminders that the teachers, two teachers who are in the classroom are using with her.
Eloise loves key chain rules. She saw that the outline of the key was [inaudible] that
is why we did it on different color card stock. She uses the key chain rules every day. She
comes in the morning. You are going to see the teacher uses these as intervention strategies.
>> Eloise, it is about the whole class, not just one person, because if it's one person
go up and talk to them and use the I method. >> How about a student who is very bright,
that is a good syndrome and she had interventions before with social stories. She is tired of
social stories. She doesn't like the length of them but she needs reminders about rules.
When we heard about key chain rules, we thought that's it. Let's try something new and something
different with her. >> Because sometimes that pretend play is
being horses or being babies or being Kitties. >> Or dogs.
>> Or ninjas. >> I need you to remember we have a rule for
taking turns. Everyone gets a chance. Can you find that number?
>> Yes. >> What number is it?
>> 1. >> Thank you.
>> Key chain rules are short statements that target a specific behavior and provide clear
direction. >> It was helpful in that we would sit down
with her and she would help to make up the key chain rules. She took ownership of it.
>> Oatmeal and milk. >> Oatmeal and eggs.
>> Just like power cards, key chain rules are small and easy to keep close at hand.
>> Eggs and milk. >> Put a question mark. They have milk there?
>> They are going to get milk. >> Oatmeal.
>> Remember that other people may say things. >> Cookies and milk.
>> Someone else says it incorrectly, that is okay.
>> The teacher calls attention to a specific key chain rule to fit the situation. Then
quickly moves on, and so does Eloise. >> Recipe.
>> Something else that happened in the story. >> It's before all of that.
>> Got hungry. >> They were hungry.
>> As you notice, she uses lots of key chain rules. These are present in her gen Ed classroom.
She does not have those when she goes into that GT class, gifted talented program, nor
does she have her other visual strategies in place.
Keeping that in mind, if you are the teacher who had escorted her out, what would be an
instructional consequence. As an aside, Eloise had 40 key chain rules by the end of the school
year. Most of them she had written herself either on how to get along with her brother
or different rules about going to different teachers' classrooms. I bring two pencils
to Mrs.áKwan's class, both of them are sharpened. I don't get up until they are both broken.
In Mrs.áAlice's class, I can get up any time to sharpen my pencil.
This gives you insight on how her brain works. The other key is no matter how smart our kids
are, that great level of intelligence, they still need visual strategies. It is easy to
fall in the trap of saying, he is so smart, he shouldn't need these things. That is why
often Asperger's is often called the he should know better syndrome. He should know better.
He is so smart. That is why we want to ensure that throughout our children's careers and
on into their college years, they still might need traditional strategies, they may look
different as they get older but the key is they still have these strategies in place.
Let's go ahead and look at more strategies that can be used as post, prevention intervention,
or post vention strategies. When we talk about the meltdown, there is Eloise right there
at the top, at 4. In order to provide some of the instructional consequences, it is not
going to be until a 7 where we provide instructional consequences.
But you notice with Eloise, she was right there at maybe a 1, and the teacher intervened
probably about a 2, right there about a 2, before she started escalating the point that
she got to a 4, twice. Twice in that day she is using her key chain rules as an intervention.
Those are some of the interventions we want to keep in mind. Some of the intervention
strategies and post intervention strategies, instruction consequences, this is good news.
As I said many of the intervention strategies, prevention strategies and intervention strategies
then become the post vention strategies, instructional consequences.
One of the things we have to realize is, what is the difference between a tantrum, temper
tantrum and a meltdown. In the next two videos I want you to be thinking
about, is this a meltdown, or is this a tantrum? For many of our kids, when they go into a
meltdown, they are no longer aware of what is going on around them. When you saw Eloise
she was no longer aware. Her auditory processing had shut down. Here is the teacher trying
to ask her to calm down, let's regroup, trying to give her some auditory feedbacks and verbal
feedbacks. And it wasn't working. She was beyond that. She was totally in that
meltdown. In this next video and this is just a joke but I want you to look at it, and decide,
is this a tantrum? Or is this a meltdown? (crying).
(laughing). (crying).
Yes, I
think you figured out that last one was a tantrum. Definitely a tantrum.
Hopefully, you also figured out it's a tantrum because he wanted the attention. Not only
did the mother ignore him, but the dog ignored him too. He was still trying to get that attention.
In this next one, it may be obvious to you that it is a meltdown. Here we go.
>> Maddie, stop it. Come on. We can't go to the concert until you go potty. Come on. Shut
the door. Let's go potty. He said he might hit you so don't go near him, okay? Go get
yourself washed. Come on.
We had to drop Brit off, honey. It's okay. Come on. The concert doesn't start for one
hour. We got plenty of time, okay? Come on. Come on, little man. Get on the toilet. Shut
the door. It's icky right there. It's dirty. Come on. Maddie, let's get washed. Mattie,
I can tell you are not crying anymore. Come on. Get up and go get on the toilet. Come
on. Come on, buddy, if you want to go to the concert, you have to get up and get ready
to go. Come on. Put the rug back. Quit trying to destroy stuff. Put it back. Come on. Come
on. I can tell that is not real. Come on. Go get
on the potty. All right. Mom is going to shut the door. Come on. Shut the door. Mattie,
no, no. Come on, shut the door. Lock that so he can't get through the door
anymore. No, don't hit it. Get ready. Do you want to go see Brittany do her concert? Do
you want to go see Brittany? If you want to go see Brittany sing at her concert, you need
to go get on the toilet. Come on. Let's go take a potty break. Come on. You are too big
for me to carry so you have to get up like a big boy and go to the bathroom.
Okay. Mom is going to leave now. All right. When you are done, wash your face, get a tissue
and wipe your nose. >> This is a child who obviously is still
out of control. The whole time, the mother is talking to him and asking him to calm down.
You notice the whole time she's talk, talk, talking, at one point you want to go, shut
up, you are talking too much. Once there is that meltdown, there isn't a
whole lot you can do. It is letting it run its course, make sure he doesn't hurt himself,
make sure he doesn't hurt somebody else. This is a child in this video who may be at a lower
cognitive function level. It is very obvious it is a meltdown.
It could be because there is overload, sensory overload. Often what occurs is some of the
children go into the meltdown because of the sensory overload. With that in mind, let's
go to the next, to some of the instructional consequences.
When you look at the instructional consequences after meltdown, these look almost the same
as the prevention strategies. It might be you have to physically structure
an area, we have to implement using those schedules more consistently. All of these
right here were the same strategies you used, we saw on the slide for prevention.
Some of the things that we didn't see on the first slide were charts. We are going to go
to charts today. They are usually only instructional consequences, we are not able to foresee or
predict what our kids are doing but we can sit down with them and review what was the
inappropriate behavior, and what would be the appropriate behavior.
Some other things you are going to see, cartoons, social autopsy, some things right here are
all instructional consequences after the meltdown. Remember they have to be about a 7, when you
are doing a 5 on the right hand side of the volcano, 5 or 6 may be too early. It may actually
escalate them at that point. In this next slide you are going to see several ways of
meeting the need. Earlier we referred to Rudolf Dreikurs with
meet the need. The behavior extinguishes itself. Here are strategies. First we will look at
addressing sensory needs. In the last video with the little boy over
there by the doorway having his meltdown, more than likely he was on overstimulation.
Overstimulation, at that point he had that meltdown. Because our kids have high sensory
needs, oftentimes, it might be the noise level. It may be tired. It might be a physiological
need. It might be the temperature. It may be too many visuals going on, too much overstimulation.
The very first thing we are going to look at is addressing some of those sensory needs.
We might be looking at some of that through physical structure.
This next video clip is a video clip on a young man who was in college, who did this
to show what it feels like when he is overstimulated. His high interest levels are the transformers.
He loves the transformers. You are going to see him using the transformers as an example
of what occurs when he is overstimulated. It is so valuable because this young man is
so intelligent, he can explain now at 24 years old, 25 years old, what it feels like to be
overstimulated. I'm going to share with you this video. (pause).
>> Get on with the ceremony. (music.) (pause).
>> What are we going to do now? >> You underestimate me. (pause).
>> Bottom line, when we look at change, any kind of change, and it can even be a pleasant
change, it can be here comes a PTA lady, coming through passing out Valentine cookies during
the fourth grade class, math class, and you are thinking this is a surprise to me. I didn't
know they were going to do this. Even though it could be a pleasant surprise, it could
still be change. And any time there is change, that change might equal stress.
When that stress level increases, what the neurology of the brain shows us in people
with autism, is that they are in a chronic state of over arousal.
Think back to a time when you might have been under stress, and hopefully, nobody in here
is going to say I've never been under stress. But most of us at some point in our lives
have been under stress. And it may have been because you were going
through a divorce. It might be because someone, a dear one, a loved one is going through a
terminal illness. You might have an illness. It might be IRS is after you. There are many
chronic states of distress. You think about how you feel when you are in a chronic state
of distress. You realize, I'm not thinking clearly. I'm
more irritable than I usually am. I lose things. I can't find my keys. In those with autism
spectrum disorder, to learn about chronic state of over arousal, they are holding it
together, and now you introduce change. You introduce something that is going to add to
their stress. Here are some ways of minimizing the effects
of change through structure. Through these next few slides let's look at minimizing the
effects of change through structure. This young man was quite distractible. He
was roaming around the classroom. It was difficult for him to focus on his work.
The teacher did put physical structure in place. She adds sensory needs. He was bouncing
around the classroom. He was given a choice of bouncing on a chair or he also had this
therapy ball that the occupational therapist graciously suggested.
What she found out is, he consistently asked for this therapy ball to sit on.
He goes back to meet the needs and the behavior will extinguish itself. When he had his sensory
needs, his needs movement met, he could then focus more on his work.
This next slide, you can actually see the difference, the before and after, in his handwriting.
It is still graphic, but he finished it in a quicker amount of time. On the right hand
side, the before, it is very painstaking. On the left hand side it is actually legible.
It is a big difference. The other thing too is, he is proud of himself.
It wasn't somebody always having to tell him, get back to work. A little bit of physical
structure, and you add that sensory issue, physical structure for their sensory issues,
she had the therapy ball. She was meeting some of his needs. There are many different
chairs as well as wiggle cushions that many of you already might use, some elastic bands.
This young man has two desks. This is a third grader who has so much stuff, that he would
bring his stuff in. He had his social stories, he had Godzilla, he had dinosaurs and all
this stuff. The beauty of this is that Chris got two chairs, two desks. Do you think the
rest of the kids in the classroom were asking, why does Christopher get two desks and we
only get one? The beauty of it is they didn't ask that.
They have seen Christopher in action. They saw Christopher come in. They saw him put
his head in a backpack and never come out of the backpack and then come back to the
desk with his head in the backpack the whole time.
Once he was given a hat to wear instead of his backpack, then he became so much more
focused, and also having two desks that he was given in order to focus on putting his
stuff where it was needed, that he could keep all his stuff there with him, that helped
alleviate much of his anxiety. Going back to the picture, I want you to notice
that he is holding this piece of paper in his hand. That is his Godzilla. Every morning
he would come in and snip, snip, he would cut out his Godzilla.
Then he would take Godzilla in his hand and sit with it while he did his work.
Originally, initially the teacher thought, maybe I need to have him do his work first,
and then he gets his Godzilla. But what she found out, very wisely, was that he actually
needs his Godzilla in his hand, to flick it, because it kept him focused on his work, so
he was able to focus. It is almost the reverse, when you [inaudible] for her, in order to
meet his sensory issues, he needs his Godzilla. That was part of the program. This is in general
education classroom. Looking at how to set your classroom up, you
dream of a classroom where every child can learn. Having a nook, something some place
he can retreat. It might be so noisy. It might be an area that is cordoned off, using a physical
structure with maybe an area that is a break place where he can still go listen. There
is a lot of movement going on. Because oftentimes getting up and moving around, having that
gallery walk so that students can look at other people's work, or look at the work that
is on the wall, moving around can be very important as well. Kids in motion is not commotion.
There is a place in the classroom. They had read Alexander, that horrible guy. I forgot
what the name of the book is. That is when they decided to implement Australia in the classroom. There are other students
sometimes who could go to Australia as well, times when they got overstimulated.
Sometimes the teacher would say, you need to go to Australia too. Luckily, bottom line,
when our kids are overstimulated, here are the implications. They have withdrawal, to
the point. And on the left hand side you see that withdrawal, to the point that it's inappropriate,
that he finally has a meltdown. Over here, may be overstimulated but then he goes to
Australia. That is an appropriate place, to withdraw, come back. He can still listen to
everything that is going on in the classroom. But he has his own private area.
Many have sensitivity to sound. Having earphones available for some of our students, break
cards. This was one that was done on business cards, and because he had such a high interest
area in cards, this is one of the reasons we did the cards.
If you notice on this, it's an I need a break. Several, I'm going to walk one time around
the building. Maybe I need two times around the building. Maybe I need three times around
the building before I finally calm down. Maybe I need a minute, five minutes. Again,
he may choose at first how long he needs, how many times around the building he might
need. This is an example of a young man who was
being taught how to take a break appropriately. He had gotten to, he was escalating from the
2 level to a 3 level. Any minute now he was going at the 4 level on the volcano.
In this video you are going to see escorting out of the room, would like to take a break.
This is a technique called walk, don't talk, by Brenda Smith Miles. Is it one I've used
extensively. Walk don't talk. When you get outside the classroom, you are walking around
the building or the football field or whatever. Don't say anything.
And walk fast. As much as possible, because that movement is what it may take in order
to have the student calm down. Here is the video on let's take
a break. >> Throughout the seminar you saw prevention
strategies that were originally instructional consequences that then were also used as intervention
strategies. The important piece to remember is that these are taught during the calm.
They may have been introduced at the time when that student was at that 7, after the
meltdown. As I said, it is best to do it maybe the next day. But make sure he is calm when
you introduce these. I'm going to end this seminar with something, one of my favorites,
every child can learn, just not on the same day or the same way.
Thank you very much. Hopefully, you will join us again for part 2, because then we are going
to see Eloise again, and we are also going to see her instructional consequences.
I hope this has given you some tools to think about, if you are the teacher, what would
you do with Eloise? Thank you very much.
(end of webcast)