Building Relationships

Working with disruptive young people in mainstream education is a challenge, not only for the teachers, but also very much so for the young people. 

The most powerful strategy in the outstanding teacher's skills chest is developing positive relationships with learners. Building such relationships within our social settings are plentiful, but these are among our chosen friends and relations. It is quite a different task to develop positive working relationships with young people who themselves, find forging relationships difficult. A seven-pronged approach based on empathy, respect, role-modelling, consistency, flexibility, resilience and listening beyond emotions form the springboard from which the teacher can dive into the turbulent currents that are the lives of learners with BESD.

1) Empathy

There is much to say about empathy from a psycho-educational point of view. Leaders in the field of psychology, counselling and behaviour management are all in agreement that empathising with a young person experiencing emotional and social difficulties (existential discomfort) is the foundation of developing a supportive relationship with that person. This is even more true when working with young people that, in addition to their age appropriate developmental angst, experiences difficulties to associate with a community and world that they don't understand and have difficulties to adjust to. 

To have empathy with the young people we work with is to, firstly, accept that their experiences of our lessons and the relationship we have with them is as real and influencing as our own. Even more so, teenagers tend to experience all their interactions in the superlative degree, especially those that they consider to be unknown and threatening. We might allude to our own adolescence and remember that insecurities go hand-in-hand with having empathy with our students. However, time is a great eraser of emotions and we often find ourselves having reminiscing that we would never react in certain ways at school...the truth is often a combination of our own memories of our adolescence and knowing that even in the days of Aristotle youth was seen as a time of folly and rebellion. Why would ours have been different?  Also having empathy with our students doesn't mean that we no longer have high expectations of them! We still expect excellence and commitment. However, we understand that the process of achieving excellence is a difficult one.

2) Respect

Embodied in the word respect lies a myriad of assumptions and presumptions. We grow up with cultural norms that prescribe good manners, compliance and adherence to unwritten codes and we use the word respect to refer to this. However this complex set of culturally variable codes is not all that lie at the heart of respect. Acceptance of the individual as a whole, with warts and all, is key to developing a promotive relationship with the young person we are working with. Having empathy with the young person is not enough, showing acceptance (respect) of their experiences, dreams, needs, fears and hopes makes having to say difficult things about their behaviour easier for both the teacher and the young person. A conversation that I have had many a time with disruptive students sound like this: "I accept that you are finding it difficult to deal with your anger now, I respect the fact that you feel angry and confused, however, I do not accept nor respect the behaviour I have just experienced." 

However, the words we utter are only a small pat of showing respect and acceptance. Saying good morning (often first, teenagers need to experience role-modelling before they show acceptance and respect themselves), remembering something positive and specific to that individual young person or giving a garden variety complement (I like your haircut, nice trainers and the like), speaks volumes to the hyper-sensitive teenager and shows respect and acceptance.

I want to be clear that acceptance and respect does not imply that poor-to-fit behaviour is or ever will be accepted. Nor does it suggest that we do not address such behaviour or succeed to low expectations. To the contrary, having acceptance and respect shows the very opposite. We do have high expectations and are very aware that poor-to-fit behaviour will only lead to mediocrity and that is not what we want from our students.

3) Role-model

The third and often most difficult part of working with disruptive young people is being a role-model. How often do we catch ourselves reverting to the adage 'do what I say, not what I do'? The fact is that role-modelling is how everybody learns. From the very first moment in our mother's arms to dealing with immediate crises, we find that our first reaction is often instinctive, but instinct from where? We act and react in the same way we see our role-models act and react, whether they are at home, school or in the public eye.

This insight allows us to also understand why young people with BESD often act and react in specific ways. They, at the spur of the moment, react like they have seen their role-models (parents, teachers, sport heroes etc.) react. It is instinctive and often governed by the amygdala. That doesn't mean that such behaviour is set in stone. We often change our view of our role-models and with the development of the frontal lobes, the teenager is highly receptive of such role-modelling to build new behavioural and cognitive pathways. In a nutshell, the teacher's mantra should be, "do as you see me do."

Being a role-model is not hard work. As a matter of fact, it is the most natural position we could take in our relationships with young people. How do we deal with stress? How do we motivate ourselves? How do we relate with others? Our young people watch what and how we do things as a matter of their natural state of being.

4) Resilience

A scraped knee is more protective than all the kneepads in the world. The irony of the way that we as a society try to protect our children is that we often do them more harm through over-protection. To develop resilience the young person must experience both risk and protective factors. Resilience develops when there is a balance between these factors, however, if any of the factors (either protective or risk factors) outweigh the other, resilience does not develop. Thus the young person that grows up in a overly protective environment is less likely to be resilient than the young person that has faced poverty or even neglect, but has had significant protective experiences to balance the risks out. Another aspect of the phenomenon of resilience is that it is closely related with time. The longer the risk factors have had an impact on the young person, the longer the protective factors will have to be in place to help the young person become resilient. This is often where behaviour intervention strategies fall short off the mark. Too often we say too soon that this is it. There is nothing I can do for this young person any more...

How does resilience influence the way we work with young people with BESD? In two significant ways: the first is that we must often take the role of a significant adult in the young person's world that acts as the counter balance for the risk experiences. Some times we as the significant adult must communicate our disappointment with him if our expectations are not met and some times we have to enforce sanctions for poor-to-fit behaviour - no matter how much empathy we have with the young person. Facilitating the young person to develop resilience is not an exact science and as teachers we often have to depend on that 6th sense we have all developed (the eyes in the back our heads) to know when to intervene and when to all the young person to find a creative way to deal with the risk experience.

The second and very significant way to support the young person through resilience is by having balance in our own lives. It is important that we as teachers too have an outlet, work-life balance and clinical guidance. The concept of clinical guidance is not foreign in therapeutic environments, however in teaching the expectation is that we keep a stiff upper lip, keep calm and mark our books. This is not realistic and an over-worked dissatisfied teacher can make irreparable damage to a young person's self concept and beliefs. The reality is that "sticks and stones may break my bone, your words will seriously harm me."

The managing support structures for those teachers who work with disruptive adolescents (pastoral leaders, SEN teachers, school counsellors and learning mentors) should include an opportunity to discuss their experiences and concerns. We must be very clear that such guidance does not enter the performance management procedures and that the same confidentiality afforded by a counsellor is part and parcel of the clinical guidance for the teacher. There is still much research to be done on the impact working with young people with BESD has on teachers.

5) Flexibility

The teen brain develops from the back (amygdala) up and forward to the frontal cortex, where thinking takes place. This seemingly trivial piece of knowledge plays an important role in our everyday interactions with young people. The amygdala is where our fight or flight instincts are seated. The emotions that are as basic as breathing, eating and our drive to procreate. The frontal lobes, which develop later in adolescents, is where our ability to reason, interpretation and show empathy comes from. During the first few years of adolescence the injection of testosterone (contributor to aggressive behaviour), the lack of developed frontal lobes and a myriad of social and developmental factors give rise to more aggressive behaviour in teens. Understanding this neurological process is the first step to being flexible, thus allowing ourselves as the adult in the room to put our own emotional responses aside and evaluate the unfolding situation in terms of the developmental stage of the young person - in balance with the sustained high expectations. The second step to being flexible is planning ahead. Take for instance, Abbi, a 15 year old lad that should have been diagnosed with ADHD or Executive Memory problems: he cannot remember what to do in lesson one simple step to another and naturally this causes him to be in trouble more often than not. In addition to not coping with the pace of the lesson, he has sudden outbursts of "remembering" (I need a ruler or where is my behaviour report) and reacts to these instincts without consideration of time and place. To make life as Abbi's teacher even more interesting, he has an internal drive to have his book in a perfect state and often takes an hour to get the date and heading perfect rather than doing the work in class (some might call this OCD). This has left Abbi labelled with the lay diagnosis of acute "That Child!" syndrome.

Planning ahead for Abbi's lesson includes having short step by step tasks ready for him, placing him close to my teacher-station and having something that needs to be taken to Ms X urgently (to allow him to get out of his seat for a reason and not just to release his pent up energy). I also have a ruler at hand and I ask him for his report even before he enters the class. Such interventions are not standard operating procedure in schools but being flexible in a way that still upholds the high expectations we have of learning, allows Abbi to cope in lessons. Some children have an urge to hold onto an object while working, I have stress balls, a single Lego block and a tattered Sponge Bob to solve this tactile urge.

6) Consistency

On the face of it, the concepts of flexibility and consistency seem antithetic, however, these two concepts are not mutually exclusive. Consistency in our high expectations of ourselves and our students enables us to establish positive habits - the behaviour for learning. Time tested strategies such as negotiating the rules or behaviours for learning at the start of every term, expressing learning behaviour at the onset of the lesson and whole school standard operating procedures (SOPs) can be augmented by implementing Academic Mentors or Leaders (also sometimes called a learning champion) in each class and having managers to support the teacher in general tasks such as handing out books, learning equipment and updating classroom displays.  In addition, seemingly obvious actions such as meeting and greeting your class at the start of the lessons and having clear exit procedures and wishing them a good day at the end of a lesson establishes the mutual expectation of consistency and trust in the learning environment. Developing learning habits enhances the young people's (especially those with behaviour difficulties) ability to self-regulate their behaviour and internalise their drive and motivation to achieve. 

7)  Listen Beyond Emotions

When we look at teens, we often see fledgling giants towering up in front of us. We often forget that a 12 year old is not half a 24 year old. As a matter of fact the human brain only starts it second growth spurt in adolescence, when the cognitive process moves from the amygdala to the frontal lobes where rationality tries to fight its way through all the grey matter. As adults we often express our disbelief in the apparent lack of rationality of the adolescent's choice-making process: "What were you thinking?" being the mantra of any and all that work with adolescents. The fact is that they were not thinking at all. The development of the frontal lobes is a slow process and in the absence of fully developed thinking skills, the teen reacts; irrationally and emotionally at the best of times. With our understanding of this phenomenon as foundation, it is now easier to suggest that as teachers we should listen beyond the emotions that envelop the reaction of the young person.

There are two prerogatives we have to consider if we want to develop our skills in listening beyond emotions. The first is to have empathy for the individual in front of us. Having a good understanding of the home, school and community relationships the young people find themselves in, their education needs, abilities and developmental stage is a good starting point for the teacher to develop empathy. The second is for teachers to develop their own emotional awareness. Teaching is a high-paced stress-filled vocation. More often than not, if we are honest with ourselves, we engage in battles with teenagers to prove that we hold the higher ground. I often listen to an exchange between teachers and difficult students and as a result of not being emotionally involved in the conversation, I often hear a much different message than the teacher...The grand standing and refusal to comply with the most insignificant of standard operating procedures is as a result of the teen brain not knowing how to react to the conflict of embarrassment and confusion generated in the process of finding his or her place, worth and identity in this world.

Listening beyond the surface emotions allows us to access the deeper concerns and fears of the young person. It allows us to consider the correct form of action for the development of the young person and most importantly it allows us to develop empathy for his/her situation - the groundwork for developing positive relationships.

In conclusion, it is worth remembering that inclusive education depends on the full participation of all learners and to merely integration into aspects of mainstream education. Being the significant adult in a young person with BESD's life is often a role that many of us did not anticipate taking on. To be that significant adult, to be the balancing factor between the risk and promotive experiences, to be the one they may aspire to be like is a tall order, but one that now lies at the heart of making an outstanding teacher. Gone are the days when talk and chalk sufficed as a pedagogical strategy. Developing promotive relationships with the young people in our classrooms now form the basis from which every lesson should be planned.

The Ghastly Gifted

The Ghastly Gifted

"You have to do something about the boy!" a mantra I have become accustomed to. "Apparently my subject is obsolete and my teaching methods antiquated! What 11-year-old uses the words obsolete and antiquated?” I took a bag of chamomile tea from the top drawer; popped on the kettle...

Josh is a force of nature. Despite the probability that he has Asperger’s Syndrome, he is by far one of the most ghastly of the gifted students in our school. We have talked, at length, to his mother about a possible diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome and the benefits of having s Special Education Needs Plan to meet his learning needs. She insisted that she did not want to have any labels attached to Josh, not even the label of gifted. This made me think about the usefulness of diagnoses, labels and statements used in education and I asked myself how inappropriate it would really be to just help the boy without a tag around the neck. (I am not about to wade into a debate about labeling and to be honest I don’t often think about the issue. If I did spend time thinking about it, I would probably find myself sitting solidly and comfortably on the fence...clinging on for dear life.)

All I know is that Josh is a very clever kid who is causing chaos from lesson to lesson as his need for stimulation is not met. That being said, I have not had the pleasure of his presence in any of my lessons and that was when I decided to gather some anecdotal evidence of his reign of terror. Responses from his teachers were entertaining and concerning at the same time. “Josh doesn't answer questions, questions the answers.” And “Has Josh swallowed the Oxford English Dictionary? Can somebody get him to answer in English please? I don't do Latin!” And most tellingly, “I'd rather teach Ricky.”

I invited Josh to my office to get to know him better and to discuss his learning needs with him. Armed with a pile of teacher feedback I was ready for quite a stimulating conversation. By the third sentence into the conversation I was ready for another cup of chamomile tea. I was asked whether my lexical choice extended to include a more complex range, as this would probably make him understand the point at hand. What 11-year-old uses "lexical choice"? I changed tactics. Tell me about your interests. This time I anticipated a "what's the use, you won't understand", and interjected with "such as quantum theory." Quantum theory it was, and thanks to Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Almost Everything and my fascination with Brian Cox, I could continue to talk with Josh. This one conversation put me in my place and I realised I had to do something about the boy.

Aside from his leaning needs, there were also concerns for his emotional development. It was pretty clear that his social capacity was in question and I had previously provided his teachers with a series of strategies to help him in social situations. What concerned me most was his tendency to burst out in uncontrollable sobs when he did not get the top grade in the test or when his teacher showed him an area for improvement. His behaviour and tendency to yell at peers that he “despised” them, has opened Josh up to bullying and name-calling. His mother suffered the same manipulative behaviour at home and she agreed to also use strategies in the family so that we could have consistency.

Josh asked that teachers would recognize his distress when he is crying, but not react. He was very clear that his sobs were a distressing mechanism and that trying to console him was “a waste of time.” I explained to him that his crying had an effect on both teachers and his peers and that ignoring him in such a situation would be very concerning for his peers. “What if they felt that their needs would not be met if they were sad, because they see the teacher ignoring you crying?” I asked. Josh found it difficult to show empathy for the possible distress of his peers in such a situation, but did agree that we would ask teachers to recognize his distress and give him an exit card to calm down in the corridor. Josh and I also agreed that he would be limited to questions about the work in 10 words or less - as he had a tendency to string out a series of questions that seemed relevant to him, but not the actual learning plan. He would jot down related questions in a My Questions Diary and have time every lesson to use the Internet to do research on these. I decided to push the limits of teacher’s views on learning and created an opportunity for Josh and a group of three other to tackle advanced Maths problems through weekly access to self-organizing learning environment (Expert Voices). This not only helped him to socialize more, but also provided an outlet for his intellectual energy. All of this was communicated with his teachers and Mum and off we went into the unknown.    

Josh is not the only cause the gifted student that has crossed my way. I have noticed an escalation of verbal abuse of teachers by students from whom such behaviour would never have been expected. I strongly believe in restoratives justice for both teachers and students. Repair and Rebuild (R&R) meetings take on the form of mediation between two equal parties. At the start teachers were concerned about how such a repair and rebuild session would influence their authority in the classroom. I discussed the process with each of the teachers that agree to mediation and in the majority of cases both parties left feeling that they have been given an opportunity to have a voice. During such the R&R sessions I facilitated between teachers and ghastly gifted students, two main themes prevailed: boredom and elevated feelings and opinions.

Aberdeep comes from a very strict cultural background. His family’s expectations are only surpassed by his expectations of himself. And if the teaching and learning he experiences in class clashes with his highly critical self perception, his tendency to voice his opinions overrides his adolescence capacity to stand back and adjust his prescriptions: he becomes rude and abusive. This has become more and more common in a specific teacher’s in lessons. When his Maths teacher approached me during a behaviour surgery session, time after school when teachers have the opportunity to download, I try to help then find solutions to deal with disruptive behaviour in their classes. We looked at the possible antecedence for Aberdeep's behaviour. As his teacher shares a cultural background, we imagined that this placed her in a unique position to understand the lad. We established that this could be one of the reasons he feels frustrated in her lesson, insofar as he might expect that she should understand the familial pressure he experiences. That he might feel that she is not helping him enough. In one of his rants Aberdeep shouted, “You of all people should understand, but you don't!”

We agreed that an R&R between Aberdeep and his teacher is the best way to give him the opportunity to voice his views. I asked Aberdeep if he would be willing to participate in an R&R. He was apprehensive about the procedure and aim of such a meeting and said he didn't want to just sit there to be told off by his teacher. I explained to him that I would facilitate the meeting band that the aim was to press the “reset button” on the relationship between him and his Maths teacher. He agreed.

During the R&R we first agreed our specific aims for the meeting. We agreed on ground rules and established that no mud slinging and manipulation would be allowed. Both Aberdeep and his teacher had the opportunity to express their perceptions, there needs and expectations (I call these the happy trilogy of R&R). We then took some time to contextualize these perceptions, needs and expectations in terms of the classroom, academic outcome and progress. We aligned these different expectations with each other by agreeing on small changes that each of them would make to ensure that their trilogy does not clash. To support sustainability of their new relationship, we agreed on a cue that both Aberdeep and his teacher would recognize if either of them felt an imbalance between their needs and expectations. In this case, Aberdeep’s teacher would place a laminated amber card on his table. Aberdeep’s cue would be to ask his teacher for an extension activity. I agreed to host a follow up meeting in one month’s time. To keep the concept of restorative justice in mind and to ensure that Aberdeep understands that rewards and sanctions are an integral part of our lives, we also agreed on a set of sanctions for Aberdeep's behaviour that led to the relationship break down in the first place. For restorative justice to take place both the teacher and the student must feel that both sides’ needs and expectations have been heard. The student must understand is that every action will have an equal reaction and in this case we felt that Aberdeep’s behaviour needed a sanction. He would complete two hours of detention with me during which time, I expected that he had to revisit his Maths notebook and made it more presentable. I also took time to discuss typical behaviour of ghastly gifted students and strategies to deal with these students with the teacher so that that a similar breakdown with similar students are minimalized.

The Ghastly Gifted tick box:

1) Students that are gifted are good at guessing but they are not good at the skills that show progress.

Strategy: Develop a culture of evidence based writing in your lessons. Teachers that teach Maths, Science and practical subjects may object with this strategy, however not only does it develop the literacy skills of all students, it also helps students to develop joined-up thinking as a life skill. Evidence based writing is merely an activity where students face a research question that has to be answered in a structure that requires a point, evidence to support the point, explanation and contextualization of the evidence, and impact on the audience. All English teachers in the world will know this structure.

2) Gifted students showing strong emotional reactions to the smallest of situations.

Strategy:

Ignoring an emotional outburst is not the easiest strategy. It is most certainly not a preventative strategy. Ensuring that lessons are effectively differentiated and that the gifted student’s tasks are actually challenging enough takes time to perfect. Just giving an additional task after the gifted students has rushed through all the activities is usually seen as unfair and acts as an antecedent to heightened emotions. Differentiating for a gifted young person should be based on Bloom’s taxonomy and is most successful when the students has to assimilate knowledge from other areas to solve a problem, not just follow three easy steps. Gifted young people thrive when they have to construct meaning from a series of puzzles and challenges. Hence the reason why wild horses couldn’t drag Aberdeep away from his Xbox.   

3) Gifted students have a way of introducing wild and silly ideas outside of their learning context to take the boredom away.

Strategy:

Taking time out of a well-paced lesson to listen to the conspiracy theories of the gifted young person can cause much anger from both peers and the teacher. “Not you and your stories again…” is the surest way to alienate the gifted young person. A combination of “10 words or less” and “relevancy check list” strategies could help to keep the lesson on track. Josh would try to redirect any topic to his favorite topic: the Illuminati. To get him to focus on the work at hand he had to phrase his questions in 10 words or less (see below) but also go through a relevancy check list: Does your question lead us to the next lesson objective (as stated at the onset of the lesson)? Will the answer be better answered by researching the Internet? Using these two questions, Josh has managed to control his urge to redirect the lesson and because we allowed him time in the self-organised learning environment, he was happy to stay on track in the lesson.  

4) Gifted students tend to disrupt the flow of teaching and learning by requiring or relating elaborate details about a point they consider important.

Strategy:

Josh had to phrase his questions in 10 words or less. It took him some time to master this, but once he realized that, it took considerable skill to ask succinct questions and that it made him “sound even more clever”, he was keen to develop his questioning skills.

5) Gifted young people initiate projects but never follow through.

Strategy:

Group work is an easy way to stop gifted students to jump from one project to another. Giving the gifted students a role of researcher or manager would probably be a mistake. Taking charge of recording and presenting suits the gifted young persons ability to push themselves and explore new ways of doing things without incurring the wrath of peers or derailing the project locomotive. 

6) Gifted young people tend to manipulate information to suit their emotional outcome.

Strategy:

Facilitating an R&R based on Josh or Aberdeep’s accounts only could lead the most skilled of mediators into deep waters. All of the gifted young people I have worked with have a tendency to manipulate information to place emphasis on their side of the story. The manipulation ranges from blatant fibs to craft fully interpreting words and expressions to suit their need. I have found that when working with a gifted young person to do a role reversal is an effective way to get the facts from them. I take the role of Aberdeep (and since I have got to know him well, It is quite an easy role to play) and Aberdeep takes on the role of either the teacher or peer antagonist. The task is easy - I usually state - get Aberdeep (played by me) to comply.  A minute later, he stops his attempts and declares, “ I get it sir”.

7) Gifted young people tend to be very argumentative and always want the last word.

Strategy:

Trying to have an argument with the gifted young person is a sure way for you to get frustrated and is a source of entertainment for them. You can be sure that the gifted young person has a solid grasp of what you explained but for them having the final word is paramount. The strategy that has worked best with both Josh and Aberdeep has been to state your case, allow them to provide a counter and then let it be. You don’t have to have the last word. More often a clear “thank you”, is powerful enough to retain your authority without becoming involved in a he-said-she-said scenario.

Asperger's Syndrome - Sally in the Sky with Diamonds

Timetable Russian Roulette. That is what we call the annual dissemination of teaching groups at the onset of the academic year. The Head of Department hands out that single sheet that holds the future. Much like the oracle at Delphi, a knowing nod, smile or expression that says “I’m sorry”, would accompany the ritual bestowing of the teaching class upon each teacher. “I’m sorry”, I could see that Ron was genuinely empathetic, “you have Sally this year.”

We have all taught the awkward kid that “just doesn’t get it.” The child who is so disorganised and doesn’t understand the simplest of instruction, the one that can’t remember from one minute to the other and doesn’t react to any hint or direct instruction to adjust behaviour. This student, in my case, is Sally. She is 12 years old and in her second year of secondary school. The first year was not the most successful of transitions and everybody has become acclimatised to the deathly hallows of a Sally Tantrum. It has even become an abstract noun. “What’s wrong with Mr J?” we would joke in the staff room. “Not much, he’s just having a sally…” It was only later in the year, after much work from the Special Education Needs Coordinator (SENco) that Sally was diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), more specifically, Asperger’s Syndrome. 
  

Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
ASD encompasses a very wide range of behaviour. When we think of Autism or Asperger’s Syndrome, we (unfortunately) have a traditional image of repetitive behaviour; severe language impairment and images of Rain Man frequently pop into our imaginations.  This is not always the case. We also imagine that mainstream education is not the right place for a child with ASD. This is most certainly not the case either.

General Problems

Children with ASD generally face some (not all) of the following problems:

•   Poor short term memory (executive memory)
•   Difficulties with motor skills
•   Limited understanding of instructions
•   Disorganisation
•   Problems with visual thinking and imagining (empathy is thus a problem)

They may also experience one or more of the following specific problems during the day:

•   Slowed response to questions
•   Information overload results in sleepiness or hyperactivity
•   Panic attacks and anxiety
•   A lack of curiosity
•   Poor awareness of danger (health and Safety)
•   Lack of understanding social cues and other people’s motives

Slow responses to questions:

It might look like Sally is not responding to me, but she is actually processing the question, instruction or task. I would say to Sally that I am going to ask her a specific question and then give her time to arrange the question and response in her mind. In the beginning she would shout out the answer as soon as she knew what she wanted to say. We worked on this together. I would stop her and remind her to wait for me to ask her the question first.  Now I can often see if she is ready to answer or she will say to me “I can answer now".

I also found that it is best to ask her assessment questions on a one-on-one way rather that whole class. To build her confidence, and alleviate overload, I tell her the question before hand, give her time to give the answer and then ask her to respond.

She often puts her hand up and volunteers an answer. In the beginning I experienced this as disruptive because I have moved on in the lesson while Sally was processing a previous question. I now use this as a positive opportunity; as a mid-lesson plenary or progress/exit reflection for the whole class.

Mono possessing – bite-size teaching

Sally can only process one thing at a time. Because her spoken communication is quite good and she often uses words that we find surprisingly advanced, we forget that her capacity to multi-task is diminished. Like many children that have attention problems (and quite often boys in Year 7 and 8), Sally is prone to mono processing and she needs to receive instructions one step at a time. This strategy works well for students with low reading ages as well and I found that it isn’t an intrusive strategy in my class.

I already use timed activities as a teaching strategy in my lessons. However, I realised that for Sally this causes anxiety if she has not fully processed the first step of the task. When I set the timer, I ensure her privately that she can take her time – but I keep an eye on her that she doesn’t get busy with other activities. I have her seated close to my teaching base so it is easy to keep an eye especially when she has information overload.

Information overload

Intellectual narcolepsy is something I am used to when I teach 16-year-old boys. But when Sally started falling asleep in my lessons, I became very concerned. I contacted her mother and asked if Sally gets enough sleep. “If Sally suddenly lies on her arms and becomes unresponsive to you, it might mean that she feels anxious about all the information she has to be busy with.”  I felt relieved that it was not my boring lessons that sent her into an enervated state. However, I found that this often happens when she has not yet coped with learning objectives and I wanted to move on in the lesson.

To help Sally I pre-printed a sheet with the lesson objectives on for her. As she enters the class she practises reading the objectives and at the start of the lesson everybody now knows that it is her task to read the objectives out loud to the class. Even after several months, she still lets me know that she has a reading age of 7 and that she will find reading the objectives difficult. I constantly ensure her that she can do it and that the class likes it when she reads the objectives.  While the rest of the class is busy with the starter activity, Sally practises reading the objectives. I found that she also likes being busy with the starter worksheets and quite often this is the most she manages in a lesson. The most important aspect of teaching Sally is time. I have learned that rushing myself and Sally always results into information overload.

The other students in my class found Sally’s sleeping disruptive. I explained to them that she is taking a break and to be fair I included a break session in every lesson. After approximately 20 minutes I have everybody stand up, turn around, stretch and then sit down again. This is our time out and everybody, including Sally and myself, benefit from this. I also use my strategy to remove the stimulus (as I discussed in Low-level disruptive behaviour last week) when Sally’s behaviour becomes too disruptive. It took some time but the other students in the class now don’t respond to Sally’s behaviour.

Not all students with Asperger’s will fall asleep when they have information overload. Some might get up and walk out of the class, become busy cleaning up the area around them or repetitively open and close the classroom door. Sally's mum suggested that a light tap on the shoulder is the best way to re-focus her again. It is always best to talk with parents about strategies they use to avoid information overload. 

Executive Memory

The child with Asperger’s Syndrome can often be described as being impulsive and off task; even hyper-active. Many people claim that children with Asperger’s have comorbidity with ADHD. This can be debated. In the case of Sally this is very much true. She often goes off task or if the conversation in science is about velocity, she will want to talk about a car they were driving in while going on holiday. If not stopped she can talk the whole hour, jumping from one topic to another. I found it best to kindly redirect her to the velocity question and explain to her that she needs to remember to think about science and not her holiday. Sally also forgets what she is supposed to do to complete the activity: read a text or find words.

Sally might often be late to lesson, this is often because she gets confused between going to lesson or lunch. At the start of the day she might feel anxious about her PE kit and even if PE is at the end of the day, she will not be able to deal with the problem at the appropriate time. She is often found to wonder around in the building. We now have an arrangement with all the adults in the building that if they see her, they know she are not truanting and they escort her to the correct lesson.  We arranged with her mum that her timetable is always kept in the second section of her bag, in an orange folder and everybody knows not to remove the timetable from the folder as it makes her anxious.

Classroom Management

Seating Plan

The best place to seat Sally is close to me. Not all children with ASD shy away from social interaction. I found that it is ok to have Sally seated as part of a group as this helps her to develop some social skills. During group activities it is best to explain to her what her role during the activities is. She loves group games and being involved with group activities but when things don’t go her way she gets anxious.

Some children with Asperger’s don’t do well during group activities and it is best to have a set of language games or a favourite activity ready for days when group work forms the spine of a lesson.

Body Language

Sally finds it very difficult to read body language. I often use body language to manage behaviour in my lessons. Crossing my arms at the front of the class and waiting for silence, or the hands up signal, has no meaning for her. I have to walk to her and say that I am now going to put my hands up in the air and that when I do that I want everybody to be quiet.

Verbal Reminders

Many teachers use humour as a very effective tool to manage classroom activities. Sally finds this difficult to understand. She takes tongue in cheek remarks as literal and this has caused her great confusion and even anxiety. That doesn’t mean that I don’t use humour, I just explain the humour as well as the intended effect to her in a very literal way afterwards.

Using Your Opera Voice (shouting)

Sally seems to not really respond outwardly to a teacher’s “opera voice”. She has told me that when she is on the receiving end of the cadenza (shouting), it does distress her. She does not know how to respond and will often show no response. This is not because she doesn’t care about what the teacher is saying, she just doesn’t know how to respond.

Consistency, Consistency, Consistency

The key word in working with a child with ASD is routine. Consistency in routine is particularly true for subjects such as D&T and Science where experiments health and safety is crucial.

Sally will follow a routine religiously once it has been put in place. She has elected herself to be the “Class Monitor”, telling me who have been doing what. This has been a source of conflict and I have had to be honest with the class and explain that out of bounds Sally will report behaviour to me and that it is not “snitching” or “tattling”.

Sally took some time to get used to my routines. It was not necessary to change my routines just for her. However, consistency in the procedures in my lessons was beneficial to all my students.

However I found that when I planned to do something out of the ordinary, I had to let Sally know some time in advance (a day or so). She felt very anxious when I suddenly took the class outside for a lesson and she was not able to join in the learning. When Sally has time to prepare herself, she is great in outdoor lessons.

Sanctions

I expect Sally to adhere to the same rules as all students. That being said, giving her a sanction is a different ball game all together. I found that it is best to discuss sanctions with her mother. Sally once made a highly inappropriate comment during lesson. My immediate reaction was to reprimand her immediately. but I did not follow up with a sanction. This gave the student on the receiving end of Sally remark a sense that social justice did not occur. I received the phone call soon after the end of the day. Charlie’s mother wanted to speak to me about my lesson today.

I realised that I should have talked to Charlie as well and explain that there will be social justice, and that to ensure that such a comment doesn’t happen again we have to make sure Sally understands why what she said was offensive. By the time I could call Charlie’s mother, the Head Teacher had received a call and what was a small oversight on my behalf became an official complaint. I phoned Charlie’s mother and invited her to come to the school. I explained to Charlie’s mother that giving Sally a sanction was not that easy and that I needed to talk with her mother first. We set a day and time for me to give her feedback about what the actions I was going to take.

In the end we had a repair and rebuild meeting between Charlie and Sally. I met with Charlie first and explained that he should not expect the normal body language, facial expressions and tone of voice that will be typical of an apology.

Sally’s sanction was to be in a detention for an hour. This was agreed with her mother and Charlie’s mother also found this to be an acceptable consequence. I used the hour to help Sally understand that some words are hurtful. Her mother and I agreed on a specific example to explain this to her. My conversation with her was reinforced at home.

Contact Home

The parents of children with ASD are always on the alert. This is a syndrome that has an impact on the whole family. Sally’s mother is very good with communication, but to ensure that we support her as much as possible, we agreed that the SENco will always be the primary contact from the school’s side. In the case where Sally needed to receive a sanction, it was my colleague who phoned her mother and helped me to set up a meeting to discuss an appropriate sanction for Sally.

Social Development

Sally is very open about her ASD and given the opportunity she will talk freely about it. This is not always the case and as with all behaviour difficulties one size does not fit all. Sally often tells her peers that she is autistic and even though this is a positive, we as a school have had to ensure that all students have respect for the condition and for Sally. This was not dealt with through whole school assemblies, but rather by keeping our ears to the ground and having many individual conversations with students where we suspected they didn’t understand.  

Sally tends to misinterpret social cues from her peers. This can cause conflict and she gets quite explosive: Sally has developed a very strong right hook! We are trying to establish a procedure where she remembers to come to the SENco when she gets angry. This has not been too successful and we all still need to keep our eyes open during break and lunch times. If she gets into a skirmish, all the adults in the school, and the peer leaders know to bring both parties to the SENco to sort the problem out.

I enjoy having Sally in my class. She helped me to look at my own teaching (and learning) in a new way. When she is anxious and has a "sally", I know I have to adjust my practise. When she has a  good day I feel invigorated and proud. She reminds me of the song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, because when she has a good day, she sparkles. 


This time the Timetable Russian Roulette rolled in my favour.  

Below are a list of general strategies that are quite useful. I coloured the strategies that worked well for me to support Sally.

General Strategies

Prepare the pupil before the session/lesson by outlining what it will be about

Support oral presentations /explanations with charts, diagrams, pictures, real objects or mime

Set tasks with clear goals and write worksheets in step-by-step form

If pupil becomes anxious allow him/her to remove self to an agreed calm-down area

Seat pupil in an area of classroom free from busy displays and distractions

Teach/use clear classroom routines, e.g. have all pupils hold an object when it is their turn to talk. Display classroom rules and routines, illustrated by pictures, for pupil to refer to. Illustrate them visually – for example, use a traffic light system to indicate whether pupils can talk or not, or symbols for different noise levels (partner voices, group voices, classroom voice, playground voices)

Use a visual way of showing the pupil what they/the class will be doing, such as a sequenced series of pictures (a visual timetable) , clock face divided into sections, or written list

Use short simple instructions. Give one at a time and check for understanding. Repeat instructions in same words rather than different ones. Write instructions down as a list for pupil to tick off when completed.

Use pupil’s name before asking a question or giving an instruction

Avoid or explain metaphorical language and idiom like ‘pull your socks up’, ‘it’s raining cats and dogs’, ‘in a minute’

Explain any changes of routine to the pupil in advance

Involve the pupil by asking direct, concrete questions at their level of understanding

Support writing with writing frames, templates (e.g. writing up a science experiment), mind maps, gapped hand-outs

Allow pupil to work alone rather than in a group where possible. If  in a group, give clear roles within the group and put the rules and roles into writing

Use visual prompts on cards or photos , or consistent non-verbal signs (sit, look, listen, hand up, wait , quiet)  to show pupil the social behaviours expected

Prevent repetitive questioning by giving pupil a set number of question cards to give you each time they ask a question – when cards are gone, no more questions

Don’t ask the pupil to talk or write about imagined experiences

Avoid tasks which depend on empathy (e.g. in literature, history, geography, PSHE and citizenship)

Set explicit and clear expectations e.g. how many lines to write, how many questions to answer, how long to listen (use timer)

Put a green ‘start’ dot on the pupil’s book and a line to show where to finish. Use in and out boxes for work to be done and work that is finished.

Provide pupil with a symbol card to display when he or she wants help

Expect to teach pupil social skills e.g. what to say/do when praised, how to ask for help. Always tell the pupil what to do rather than what not to do.

Provide a structure for unstructured time e.g. chess club rather than break time outside

Model to the pupil that making mistakes is OK and a part of the learning process

Use incentives based on pupil’s interests e.g. a pause every hour to focus on their interest or obsession, once they have completed their work

If pupil goes off at a tangent, direct conversation back to the topic in  hand. 'Right now we are talking about volcanoes’

Use immediate and individualised reward systems e.g. collecting a number of stickers

Also see a review on Worth Reading.