Unit III: Educational Program (Primary & Secondary)

1. Social and Play skills

2. Language & communication skills

3. Motor & self help skills

4. Academic skills

5. Pre-vocational skills

Children between the ages of 10 to 13 or 14 years are grouped under secondary level. Once the primary group of children achieve 80% of the curriculum content in the primary level, they can be promoted to secondary level (see flow chart – SESM-1, Block-2, Unit-3). In case of children with low ability the teachers have to continue teaching in those tasks which the students have not achieved. They are grouped as Primary II (See SESM-1, Block-2, Unit-3). Though the same domains/.core areas as in the primary level are included in curriculum at secondary level, the content and complexity of the activities is increased keeping in mind the learning characteristics of children at this level. This is also noticed in general education. For example, in every class, students have to study the subjects English, regional language, Hindi, mathematics, science and social studies/environmental science. The complexity of content in each subject is increased in every class keeping in mind the learning characteristics of children.

1. Social and Play skills

Play is voluntary engagement in self motivated activities that are normally associated with pleasure and enjoyment. Play may consist of amusing, pretend or imaginary, constructive, interpersonal (play with others) or intrapersonal (solitary play) interactions. Play is the way that children learn about the environment, their bodies
and their place in the world around them.

Social skills are the skills we use everyday to interact and communicate with others. They include verbal and non-verbal communication, such as speech, gesture, facial expression and body language. A person has strong social skills if they have the knowledge of how to behave in social situations and understand both written and implied rules when communicating with others.

Supporting social interaction is an important piece of the student’s educational plan. Student’s with autism often have the desire to interact with others, but do not have the skills to engage appropriately or may be overwhelmed by the process. Some students are painfully aware of their social deficits and will avoid interactions even though they desperately want to connect with others. Others will engage in attention seeking behavior to connect with others until they build the skills they need to interact. Social development represents a range of skills, including timing and attention, sensory integration and communication, that can be built and layered to improve social competence. Building competence will result in further interest and interaction.

Here are some strategies to support social skill development in your students with autism:

• Reinforce what the student does well socially - use behavior-specific praise (and concrete reinforcement if needed) to shape pro-social behavior.
• Model social interaction, turn taking and reciprocity.
• Teach imitation, motor as well as verbal.
• Teach context clues and referencing those around you (for example, ‘if everyone else is standing, you should be too!’).
• Break social skills into small component parts, and teach these skills through supported interactions. Use visuals as appropriate.
• Celebrate strengths and use these to your advantage. Many students with autism have a good sense of humor, a love of or affinity for music, strong rote memorization skills, or a heightened sense of color or visual perspective. Use these to motivate interest in social interactions or give a student a chance to shine and be viewed as competent and interesting.
• Identify peers who model strong social skills and pair the student with them. Provide peers with strategies for eliciting communication or other targeted objectives, but be careful not to turn the peer into a teacher strive to keep peer interactions as natural as possible.
• Create small lunch groups, perhaps with structured activities or topic boxes. (The group to pulls a topic out of a box and discusses things related to this topic, such as ‘The most recent movie I saw was…’ This can be helpful for students who tend to talk about the same things all the time since it provides supports and motivation and the benefit of a visual reminder of what the topic is.)
• Focus on social learning during activities that are not otherwise challenging for the child (for example, conversational turn-taking may not occur if a child with poor fine motor skills is being asked to converse while cutting.)
• Support peers and student with structured social situations. Define expectations of behavior in advance. (For example, first teach the necessary skill, such as how to play Uno, in isolation, and then introduce it in a social setting with peers.)
• Teach empathy and reciprocity. To engage in a social interaction, a person needs to be able to take another’s perspective and adjust the interaction accordingly. While their challenges may distort their expressions of empathy, people with autism often do have capacity for empathy. This can be taught by making a student aware - and providing appropriate vocabulary - through commentary and awareness of feelings, emotional states, recognition of others’ facial expressions and non verbal cues.
• Use social narratives and social cartooning as tools in describing and defining social rules and expectations.

2. Language & communication skills

Language and communication is a medium for socialization. As discussed earlier, due to disability you notice developmental delays in all the areas of development among children with . One of the developmental areas is language and communication.

Point to remember:

• Select the words which are commonly used and seen in child’s environment in the beginning for teaching. For example, in vegetables, select words, potato, onion, green chilli rather than cauliflower, raddish which are seasonal.
• See that you follow the principle “concrete to abstract” while planning your lesson plan for teaching (see SESM-3, Block-2, Unit-1).
• Select action songs in regional languages that explain a concept (For example, “this is a bus, bus has four wheels….”, “elephant has a long trunk, four legs……”) Let all children participate actively while doing actions. Use puppets, masks, or dramatize the character for better understanding of concepts. These type of activities sustain the interest of children and motivate them to continue the activities.
• Story telling using puppets/role play are all important for language development. It helps in developing listening skills, narrating in a logical sequence, answering questions, and understanding cause and effect relationship.
• We use a lot of gestures along with words. For example, you tell a student to “close the door” (a verbal command). If she understands the instruction and does the activity, you don’t have to be using gestures. Otherwise, you point to the door, and show with hands to give meaning to the sentence “close the door”. If you use gestures, slowly fade them (See SESM-3, Block-2, Unit-2).
• Children have to develop both receptive and expressive language skills. Children with ASD show more deficits in expressive language than receptive language. Therefore, we need to develop alternative communication skills. There is a need to encourage children to use non-verbal modes, along with verbal expression of words they have in their repertoir for communication, as proper communication skills are essential for building good interpersonal relationships, group behaviour, group acceptance and for learning performing various activities and above all social competencies.

3. Motor & self help skills

Children with disabilities often need additional assistance developing life skills. Consequently, many kids are taught what is referred to as ADLs, or activities for daily living, while in the school setting.

These learning opportunities are designed to provide kids with the skills they need to function in their everyday life. Depending on their age, kids may be taught everything from how to make a sandwich and how to follow a daily schedule to how to take public transportation.

These skills, which can also include doing laundry or shopping for groceries, are sometimes called "life skills" or "skills of daily living." While these skills aren't critical, they are important for anyone who plans to participate in a modern community.

Strategies for Self-Help

This section of the lesson will provide several strategies for teaching self-help skills to students with autism; we'll explore these ideas, using Carson as an example. Keep in mind that these self-help skills have been selected among many to demonstrate specific teaching tools. Your students may or may not need the same instruction. It will be up to you to assess the needs of your students and adapt these ideas to fit their unique learning styles.

Checklists and Routines

Carson learns better and behaves more appropriately when he follows a consistent routine. Like many kids with autism, Carson does not like changes in his schedule. To help Carson practice getting ready in the morning, Mrs. Gibbs works with Carson's mother to create a clear checklist for him to follow. The checklist includes the following tasks:

• Get dressed
• Eat breakfast
• Brush teeth
• Comb hair
• Get backpack
• Get on the school bus

This short checklist helps Carson understand exactly what is expected of him and provides him with a visual reminder of what he should be doing. As Carson follows the same routine each morning, using this checklist for support, he is learning to do more on his own.

Task Analysis

Children with autism typically have trouble communicating with others. They often need short, explicit instructions in order to understand what they're supposed to do. For example, if Mrs. Gibbs asked Carson to 'make a peanut butter sandwich', he could easily become overwhelmed. Although a typical 10-year-old could figure out how to make a sandwich, Carson needs more instruction. Task analysis is when we break down a skill into small, manageable steps. This is how Mrs. Gibbs has task analyzed making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich:

• Get two pieces of bread and set them on the counter.
• Get the peanut butter and set it on the counter.
• Get the jelly and set it on the counter.
• Get a butter knife.
• Put the butter knife into the peanut butter and scoop some out.
• Spread the peanut butter over one piece of bread.
• Put the knife into the jelly and scoop some out.
• Spread the jelly onto the other piece of bread.
• Put the bread with jelly on top of the bread with peanut butter.
• Make sure the edges of both pieces of bread are lined up.

 ●    Executive Functioning Skills

These are organizational skills that are needed to plan the day, break down a task, create a “to-do” list, and plan for chores, outings, etc. It will be an on-going process to build this skill, as it is something that is challenging for most of those with ASD.

●    Practical Living Skills

These skills encompass finding information (internet, books, newspapers, etc.), money skills (budgeting, bank accounts, credit cards, making change), travel (reading a map, using transportation, planning a trip), clothing (care, laundering, organizing), home care (garbage day, house cleaning, doing dishes) cooking, and shopping. One of the best ways to teach these skills is by involving the child in a daily routine, rather than doing everything for them. The earlier the adult includes the child in activities such as cooking, cleaning, and laundry, the longer they have to develop comfort and routines in these important areas.

●    Personal Care

This involves personal daily hygiene, exercise, nutrition, dealing with an illness, and coping with stress. Create and rehearse relaxation routines, make task breakdown lists for showering, toileting or toothbrushing if steps are missed without prompting.

●    Job Skills

How do you look for a job? Create a resume? Get work experience? Be a good employee? A good place to start to gain job experience may be through volunteer work. If parents volunteer for an organization, take the child along too to gain some experience.

●    Personal Safety

A tough topic to teach! Many children will memorize rules like don’t talk to strangers, but will not know when to break those rules if necessary. Under stress, some people lose their ability to speak. It may be a good idea to carry around a card with a few statements on it for those stressful moments when it can be hard to gather one’s thoughts. Teach what risks are, and how to avoid unsafe situations. For example, one rule may be not to use public transportation after dark if in a big city.

●    People Skills

This would fall under the topic of social skills. Areas that need to be developed are working in a group, making friends, asking for help, dealing with family relationships, communicating over the phone, conversation, etc. Social skills is a broad topic. Although social rules and etiquette can be taught, if the child is high functioning enough, think about teaching flexibility in thinking and perspective taking.

●    Self-Advocacy

A topic that is often forgotten, children need to be taught how to get their needs met effectively. They need to know how and when to ask questions, who to approach for help, when to give their opinion, and how to say no.

Sensory and Motor Issues. Finally, a variety of sensory and motor concerns may interfere with learning self-help skills. These issues may be present at a very early age for some otherwise typically developing children but rarely persist beyond the first three or four years of life. In contrast, children with autism may have ongoing sensory and motor issues, such as an extreme sensitivity to the texture of toothpaste or a struggle with the fine motor skills needed for buttoning.

Arguably, deficits and excesses in these areas will make teaching and learning self-help skills more challenging; but there is no evidence that their absence predicts failure for the development of self-help skills. However, the instructor must find another way to teach and for children to learn. Many learners require an approach that relies heavily on breaking the target skills into very small steps and directly teaching the skill one step at a time – often accompanied by direct physical prompts for desired responses that later must be faded. Similarly, adherence to routines and sensory and motor deficits will make teaching more challenging and may extend the time it takes to learn a new skill; however, it does not mean that instruction will be unsuccessful.

4. Academic skills

The number of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) who enter secondary school settings and access the general education curriculum continues to grow. Many educators may find they are not prepared to adapt their instruction to meet both state standards and the diverse needs of the full spectrum individuals with ASD, which has implications for postsecondary success. In this article, we present an overview of current knowledge around academic instruction for this population, specifically (a) how characteristics associated with ASD can impact academic performance, (b) academic profiles of individuals with ASD across content areas, and (c) interventions that have been successful in improving academic outcomes for this population, including special considerations for those individuals who take alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards.

Functional skills are those skills a student needs to live independently. An important goal of special education is for our students to gain as much independence and autonomy as possible, whether their disability is emotional, intellectual, physical, or a combination of two or more (multiple) disabilities. Skills are defined as functional as long as the outcome supports the student's independence. For some students, those skills may be learning to feed themselves. For other students, it may be learning to use a bus and read a bus schedule. We can separate the functional skills as:

• Life Skills
• Functional Academic Skills
• Community-Based Learning Skills
• Social Skills

Functional Academic Skills

Living independently requires some skills which are considered academic, even if they do not lead to higher education or the completion of a diploma. Those skills include:

• Math Skills - The functional math skills include telling time, counting and using money, balancing a checkbook, measurement, and understanding volume. For higher functioning students, math skills will expand to include vocationally oriented skills, such as making change or following a schedule.
• Language Arts - Reading begins as recognizing symbols, progressing to reading signs (stop, push), and moves on to reading directions. For many students with disabilities, they may need to have reading texts supported with audio recordings or adults reading. By learning to read a bus schedule, a sign in a bathroom, or directions, a student with disabilities gains independence.

Students with high-functioning autism HFA in secondary settings often experience difficulty with academic and social success in school because general education teachers may not be familiar with the characteristics and/or best practices associated with teaching students with ASD.⁶ A contributing factor is that scientific research is limited as to effective instructional and behavior management practices for older students in general education.⁷

Educators and other key stakeholders in the student's life must understand how characteristics of HFA may be manifested in inclusive classroom settings, in order to design and implement instruction to maximize student success.

An additional consideration is the reduced special education support available to students with HFA because of the need to take classes associated with graduation requirements and preparing for high-stakes testing. In most cases, secondary settings do not have enough special education teachers available to support students in all classes (in comparison to elementary settings). Knowledge of the evidence-based practices (EBPs) recommended for students with HFA can help Individualized Education Program (IEP) teams make informed decisions about instruction, behavior management and support needed for students with HFA.⁸

General education teachers may be unprepared to meet their social needs, or understand the connection between social skills and functional academic skills needed for students to succeed in real-life situations at home, school, work and in the community. Frequently referenced concerns among students and families of individuals with HFA include how easily their needs are overlooked and/or dismissed by school teams because there is not an obvious impact on what is often considered educational progress. Teachers may believe the behaviors are "typical" and should not be taken too seriously because the student will likely "outgrow" these behaviors. School teams must recognize that communication and/or social skills are vital components of functional academics.

5. Pre-vocational skills

Students with ASD within the age range of 15 to 18 years belong to prevocational group. At prevocational level children are of two different groups - prevocational-I (high ability group) and prevocational-II (low ability group) as discussed earlier. However, the major focus of curriculum at this level is to prepare students to acquire skills which prepare them to live independently as far as possible. Independence implies personal, social and occupational independence. Hence, much stress is given on a more functional curriculum. As it is a preparatory stage for the future of the young people with ASD, most of the training emphasis is application oriented and should include training in natural environments. The curriculum is naturally the extension of secondary level curriculum.

Personal skills
The extension of secondary level curriculum under each domain is discussed below.

Once the child learns eating and drinking by self, the skills can be further extended to make them a part of independent living skills.

Generally, when the child grows older, we do not provide glass of water to him/her, rather we expect him/her to get water from the filter, refrigerator or pot and drink on his own. Children with ASD also are expected to learn all these skills. In the school, teacher can train the students to:

• Pour water in the glass form the water bottle during lunch time.
• Get water in a glass form the water-cooler.
• Fill the bottles of the teachers from the water cooler.
• Help the younger children in getting or pouring water in the glass.
• Clean up if spilt without reminder.
• Serving water to everyone during meal times.
• Identifying/asking for drinking water during outing.

In order to practice and maintain the learnt skills, these activities should be carried out at home. Family members can be informed to carry out the activities at home.
By regular practice at home and in school these activities can be made as part of routine activities of the students during pre-vocational period.

Eating: In addition to self-feeding, eating behaviour includes
(a) appropriate manners while eating, (b) serving food to others; (c) arranging table (d) cleaning the table, (e) storing the left over food, (f) cleaning the utensils, (g) giving order for food at restaurant, etc.

Parents can be informed to train the students at home in serving food for self as well as for others. While training, the sequence in serving can be:

• Roti, puri, bread, idly, which do not spill.
• Pickle or chutney, which is not hot (temperature).
• Fried dishes, rice, curry, dal.
  While serving the food, the amount to be served need to be indicated to the students.
  As part of regular activity, the parents can instruct the child to:
• Arrange the dinner table (again non spilling, not hot items first).
• Clean the table after meals.
• Store the left over food in bowls and keep them in storing place/fridge.

During the initial stage of training, unbreakable bowls may be used to avoid possibility of damage of the utensil.

Students should also be taught to clean the utensils. Begin with, simple dishes like plates and small bowls (unbreakable) can be used.

Points to remember while teaching washing utensils:

Dressing: The students with ASD need to learn how to maintain their own clothes. This includes:

• Washing clothes.
• Drying clothes.
• Folding clothes.
• Ironing clothes.
• Keeping the clothes in the cupboard.
• Stitching broken buttons/mending it torn.
• Giving clothes for stitching.

In the school, the teacher can train the prevocational group students by instructing them to: ? Keep the dress neat (by using napkins for wiping).

• Use of apron while engaged in cooking activities.
• Stitch buttons in the dress/mending.
• Iron napkins, towels, aprons, and gradually their dress.

Students during prevocational period should also be taught to select their clothes, for themselves. Hence, the family members can be informed to give them opportunity to:

• Select their clothes for different occasions.
• Dress appropriately to attend different parties and functions.
• Choose dress materials for themselves in the shop.
• Select appropriate seasonal dresses.
• Maintain the seasonal dresses properly to use them when needed.

In class, initiative conversation on above topics and elicit responses from the students.

Social skills: Social behaviour of the students plays a vital role in their vocational habilitation. Limitations in social skills of the disabled students form the major barrier in the process of integration. During the pre-vocational stage, students are expected to behave appropriately in different settings, use public places appropriately, be able to seek permission for using belongings of others and should be able to participate in social functions independently. All these behaviours require student’s competency in language and communication.

In school, focus on:

• Wishing everyday.
• Involving in group games.
• Story telling.
• Narrating experiences.
• Discussing important news (TV/newspaper/neighbourhood).
• Receiving and passing on telephonic message to appropriate person.
• Getting involved in various functions celebrated in the school.

Home activities can include:

• Greeting the guests.
• Interacting with family members and guests.
• Attending social functions.
• Sharing experiences with siblings.
• Receiving telephone calls and taking message.
• Participating actively in various festivals celebrated by family members.
• Going for outing with family.

In addition to developing appropriate social behaviours, we have to reduce the socially inappropriate behaviour through behaviour management techniques.

Menstrual hygiene: An important skill to be taught to the girls with ASD during secondary/prevocational level is menstrual hygiene. To make the girl independent (as far as possible) in personal skills, lessen the burden on the mother and avoid embarrassing situation, right type of training can be provided to the young adolescents at home. While providing training on menstrual hygiene, take care of the following points.

• Pads, available in the market can be used (If the parent cannot afford, make pad using cloth/cotton).
• Well fitting panties are to be used.
• Two strips of cloth like pockets or elastic strip can be stitched at the lower base of panties (which are to be used during menstruation) to hold the pads in place.
• Dates in the calendar can be marked and the child sensitized to it.
• Too much of exhaustion can be avoided during the periods.

While training in menstrual hygiene, instruct the student to -

• report when there is stain in the panty.
• Change the panty immediately after noticing the stain.
• Insert the pads into the strips stitched in the panty.
• Change the pads when it is adequately stained.
• Roll the paid, put in nontransparent (paper/plastic) bags and throw it in proper place.
• Clean the panty and dry in separate place.
• All the way through, ensure privacy.

Shaving: Proper fine motor skill and eye-hand coordination are important pre-requisite skills for teaching shaving. Following points are to be considered while training.

• Task analysis should be done carefully watching an adult (father/elder brother) performing and then taught with appropriate prompts.
• Use a mirror. Provide assistance from behind.
• If the student has motor difficulties or uncontrolled epileptic fits, it is better not to train in shaving. InN such cases, train them to recognize when it is time to shave and ask for help from adult at home/go to the shop and get done. Teaching him the competency to get the shaving done.

Occupational
As the name – “prevocational” indicates, this stage is most important for “preparing the students for suitable vocations”. Through the joint efforts of school and home, appropriate work habits (punctuality, regularity, sincerity, persistence), proper work behaviour, hand functioning, eye hand coordination, and required community living skills (travelling, shopping, banking skills) can be developed in the students.

Eye hand coordination and hand functioning which are important prerequisite skills for any vocation can be improved by:

• cutting, pasting.
• Using different hand tools (hand saw, files, pliers, etc.)
• Screwing, unscrewing.
• Stitching, knitting.
• Garland making.

In the school, engage the students in various simulated activities to assess the interests of the student.

• wood polishing, cutting, nailing, screwing.
• Assembling work.
• Labeling different items/tools (in the workshop).
• Binding and printing work.
• Hand stitching, machine stitching.
• Packaging work.
• Gardening work (cleaning gardens, watering plants, plantation, etc.)
• Operation of different machines.
• Management of school canteen.

Teach various community living skills by organizing following activities for students –

• preparation of list of items to be purchased.
• Making the budget for the items to be purchased.
• Going to the shop.
• Going to the bank.
• Tying the leafy-vegetables into bundles for selling among the school staff.
• Completing group assignment on time. Family members can be instructed to discipline the students and develop proper work behaivour by entrusting responsibilities such as:
• getting milk packets from the milk booth.
• Packing lunch boxes for everyone.
• Getting vegetable once a week.
• Giving clothes in laundry and keeping an account of it.
• Getting postal items form post office and dropping letters.
• Stitching the broken buttons.
• Decorating the house during festivals.
• Giving complaints when telephone is out of order.
• Booking for gas when it gets over.
• Paying electric bills, telephone bills etc.

Parents can be instructed to follow a daily activity schedule for their child (with disability) at home. Depending on the improvement in various skills, the activities can be increased. This schedule will help to discipline the students behaviour and improve work habits in them. While selecting the activities for the students, the socio-cultural factors, socio-economic status, sex and abilities of the students need to be considered.

Domestic skills:
Under domestic skills the prevocational group of students can be taught housekeeping skills by involving them in the domestic activities like:

• Dusting, sweeping, mopping.
• Making bed and folding bed.
• Cooking.
  - keeping the grocery items in proper bottles/tins.
  - Sorting and storing the vegetables.
  - Cleaning and washing rice for cooking.
  - Washing the cut vegetable before cooking.
  - Measuring required quantity of item (eg. Rice, dal, salt, sugar, etc.) for cooking.
  - Preparing tea/coffee.
  - Kneading wheat flour.
  - Rolling chapatti.
  - Frying chapatti.
  - Preparing meal (rice, dal and curry).

While involving the students in cooking proceed form simple to complex task.

Before teaching the students to light the stove they should be taught to switch off the stove. To begin training in cooking activities the mother/family members should be near the student throughout the training period and should give necessary physical and verbal assistance. Of course, for many of the cooking activities, (preparing idly, dosa, tea, coffee, etc.) the students need to learn functional academics (measurement) which is discussed in detail in part II of this unit.

 Recreation skills:
Like us, persons with disabilities also require time for recreation. Many a time, they are unable to decide the activities for their recreation.

At school, fix a particular time for recreational activities when students can be given opportunity to participate in various activities like:

• arts and crafts.
• music/dance.
• decoration. 
• gardening.
• embroidery/knitting.
• making decorative pieces out of wood.
• indoor and outdoor games.

Family members can involve students in:

• house decoration.
• participation in family functions/festivals.
• going for movie/picnic.
• listening music.
• indoor games.
• watching television.

· playing with siblings