Embedding Important Goals for Autistic Students- The Autistic Classroom.
During my work, I learnt to embed the most important learning goals for communication and social skills in the academic subjects. So the subjects, such as art, music, literacy, also had their other goals incorporated into the academic goals to give students with ASD maximum exposure to goals that taught them to talk, use PECS, listen, or work in a group successfully.
I found that if you mastered this skill, you increased the opportunities to engage all children and build on their successes.
An Example of How To Do It:
I always had a wide range of abilities with my students so a music lesson could look like this:
Music Goal: To provide students with opportunities to sing and do actions to familiar songs.
Now how to embed Communication and Social skills individual Goals during a music session. These are goals that would cover a range of abilities of students in the room and, while doing Music, you would be mindful of some of the communication and personal goals and incorporate those during the lesson.
Some examples:
To use PECS to choose a familiar song from a group of 3-5 pictures.
To use an ‘I want’ strip to construct a sentence, using pictures.
To use a whole sentence, using ‘I want’ to request a song.
To use “Can I…?” to request a song.
To do all actions to a specific song.(specify song title, if child is lower functioning, as they may be limited with how many songs they can be successful with.)
To sing a familiar song/chant and do all actions in front of the group.
To use a ‘No’ symbol appropriately when asked the name of the song, from a choice of 3.
To match lines of the song with the appropriate actions and/or be able to say what they have matched.
To be able to sit for increasingly longer periods of time.(specify times)
To do actions to a particular song, with co-active assistance from an adult.
I always had their current goals in view so I could refer to them at group sessions but, after a while, they just 'stick' in your mind.
Remember to move on with a goal. For example, if a student had a personal goal, such as 'being able to sit at group schedule for 10 minutes, using a mini-schedule and a visual timer', and he was achieving this goal consistently,you can move him on to sitting for an extended period (twenty minutes) or take away the timer component. Also, remember to change your strategies as you may need to physically engage him more in activities by having more turns, if you want him to sit for longer periods of time.
Video: This music session has communication and social skills embedded into the program.
Youtube: Jeremy Jensen. Speech Therapy and Music therapy for Autism.
Tuned In To Learning.
Tip: During music, I will always have a list of the children's individual goals visible in the music area for easy referral by me and other staff. This means that I can successfully engage each child at his level and have a successful class program which caters for each child's Individual Learning Program.
