Young Autistic Children and Group Learning

Occasionally a young child with autism can sit in a floor group and participate appropriately. But usually, there are complications.

Some questions and concerns that I have heard frequently include:

Why is this child so difficult in circle time? She sits in the middle, not around the edge of the circle. He flops on the floor or on his classmates. He runs around before we start. She reads the posters on the wall instead of listening to the activity. He blurts out answers. He starts talking about unrelated topics. He leaves for the bathroom just as I start to give instructions.

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There are numerous other group lesson problems (such as: he insists on sitting by a certain child, she answers incorrectly on purpose, he bosses other children, needs to be first or win, echoes the words the teacher is reading, keeps asking “What’s next?”, and so on), but let’s stick to that first bunch for now.

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The social and language deficits of autism contribute heavily to these classroom problems.

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Probably the autistic child does not understand the presumed social rules underlying the activity. It is not obvious to him that he should do what the other children are doing, or even that they are all doing approximately the same thing, so he does not know how to imitate them in order to conform. He would not know whether to follow the girl going to the water fountain or the boy picking up blocks or the two children who have gone to sit on the carpet and wait for the lesson, all of which may be happening as part of the transition to circle time.

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She almost certainly knows what a circle is, and ?perhaps she can name a trapezoid and rhombus too, but she sits in the middle of the circle because she doesn’t see the big picture of how the individual children have arranged themselves to create a circle. Or maybe she sits in the middle because the middle is “in” the circle and the teacher said, “Go sit in the circle.”

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??????????? He doesn’t know what to do when there is unstructured waiting time, probably can’t readily converse with peers while he waits and may be anxious because all the moving bodies create too much stimulation. If he can’t predict what is next, when it will happen and if he knows how to do it, he may do something inappropriate like wander, hop and flap, or flop onto a classmate for sensory input or to get a predictable “Don’t do that!” response.

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He may not know the teacher is talking to him when she says “Everybody do…” or he may think she’s only talking to him and therefore it is okay to answer whenever he wants. If he has a paraprofessional with him, he may be less likely to attend to the teacher, but if not, he may require a large percentage of the teacher’s time and attention just to stay with the group and focus at all.

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Perhaps the language load is too complex. Even kindergarten teachers give multiple step directions about the next few activities, and autistic children, including those who learned to read before starting school, soon get confused and stop listening, or they may become frantic and start asking questions. It is also very hard for people with autism to follow conversations that jump from person to person in a large group. Even when teachers carefully control verbal turn-taking, the autistic child often can’t see how one child’s idea relates to the next. Once confused, he is unlikely to be able to pick up the thread of the discussion and catch up, though he may make a word association and start talking about something that seems irrelevant. For example, if the teacher says, “Everyone’s ideas count,” he may say “I can count to 400” and proceed to do so, which increases his comfort level while stressing everyone else.

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?Once he has given up attending, the child with autism is apt to revert to playing video games or movie scripts in his head (or out loud!), try to talk to the teacher on a topic more to his liking, lie down or lean on people to get sensory input to more of his body, or leave, with or without bothering to ask or notify you.? This is most apt to happen when there is a group discussion or you are introducing new work, but is also common in story time where, again, poor comprehension is the culprit. He will do somewhat better with routine activities like calendar time and activities with a strong visual component, especially if it involves printed words or numbers, like reading a morning message or writing a note. Many children do better during repetitive lessons such as a pattern of activities that is always used to introduce a new letter (and letters are often high interest topics for these students). When stuck in a situation where we don’t understand, we too might mentally check out, but we’d probably have the social skill to at least look like we were listening. But then, we don’t have autism.

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So, what can we do to make it better? First, it helps to recognize that this is nobody’s fault, it is not deliberate noncompliance, and it is happening in classrooms everywhere, because autism is everywhere. But it needs to improve so everyone can learn. As with everything about autism, a lot of individualized problem solving is required, but here are some general components that often help:

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Meet his sensory needs by providing a lap or bean bag to sit in, a person to pat his back or squeeze his shoulders, a fidget toy, a sit disc, chewing gum.

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Help her organize spatially by walking her around the outside of the circle, calling it “the circle” and showing her how to find a place in it. Give her an assigned seat, a carpet square or air disc to sit on, or a chair perhaps. If there is an adult helper, use the transition time to work on finishing and picking up the previous task. Try to get to circle time just before it begins to minimize the wait time difficulties.

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To encourage attention, speak to him by name frequently and ask questions that have factual answers and visual prompts such as, “Derek, what is the title of this book?” He probably won’t do as well with open-ended questions about what might happen or how a character feels or what he thinks about a situation. Save these questions for individual instruction times.

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Draw his attention to visual props such as the pictures in a book or the numbers a child is writing on the board. If you are describing how to do a paper, stand close and point to his copy as you give directions or let the paraprofessional show him the paper as you talk. Don’t assume he’ll pay attention because he is told to look at the speaker; looking at the “thing” will focus him better.

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Consider when group learning is appropriate and when she would do better to be working independently or with her assistant away from the group. She may be happier and learn a lot more by counting coins at a desk than by reading the wall posters out loud while other children take a turn counting coins in the group. Don’t keep practicing undesirable behaviors by insisting on a certain amount of group time.

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?Remember that calm support, clear expectations, and predictable routines will help, and there will be progress, but group learning is a challenge for autistic people of all ages.

Link to books:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=elizabeth+ives+field&crid=1R4T2MSL9Q5OJ&sprefix=%2Caps%2C78&ref=nb_sb_ss_recent_1_0_recent

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