Alan: A Grade 5 StudentConsider the following profile:
Alan, a student with autism, is currently integrated full-time into a regular Grade 5 classroom. He was late in achieving some of the
developmental milestones of early childhood. He started to walk at 18 months and was slow to talk. Hisearly language was almost exclusively
repetitive echolalic speech with limited communicative message. As a young child, Alan’s play was repetitive with seeming unawareness of
others. He did not like to be touched by or to be close to other children, but accepted touch and cuddling from his mother. He often used
his sense of smell to investigate objects. He had an unusual interest in small objects such as keys or switches.
When Alan was three years old his mother, who is a single parent, consulted with a clinical psychologist. Thefamily has seen the
psychologist regularly, and his mother has participated in parent training in behaviourmanagement. She continues with the strategies
recommend with success. Alan was evaluated by a speech and language therapist at age three and has had ongoing speech therapy and updated
evaluations.
At age 10, Alan still has behaviours that require significant support. He functions in the classroom with adapted assignments and an
individualized visual schedule. The classroom routines include a token economy managed by the teacher assistant assigned to the class,
with reinforcers to maintain appropriate behaviour. Alan is highly inflexible about the schedule and becomes aggressive about transitions
if unexpected changes are made. Problematic behaviours were infrequent in grade four but have escalated now that he has started Grade 5.
The behaviours of concern to the teacher, teacher assistant, and Alan’s mother include: banging on the desk or table, head-banging,
agitated response if other people around fail to use specific cues, ignoring adultdirection, yelling, and throwing objects. These
behaviours pose a threat for physical harm to himself and disrupt the orderly functioning of the classroom. Alan does not have difficulty
separating from his mother.
Alan’s academic skills are below grade level. His reading decoding is estimated at the Grade 3 level and his math computations skills at
the Grade 4 level. Math problem-solving and reading comprehensionappear to be at the Grade 2 level. Most academic tasks can be adapted for
Alan. It is difficult to evaluate his knowledge using standardized tests or criterion reference measures because he may refuse to do
unfamiliar tasks. Alan likes to make detailed drawings, but tends to repeat the same subjects, usually cars and trucks. He enjoys music,
especially listening to quiet music on his ipad, but will not participate in music activities that require interacting with other students.
He has difficulty in gym period and follows a modified physical education curriculum with low order games assisted by the teacher
assistant.
Behaviour Tracking Data: use this information to deepen your understanding of Alan’s behaviour
Student: Alan
Behaviour: banging desk/table/head
X – indicates behavior incident
Period Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Literacy
xxxxx xxxxx xxx xx xxxxx
Nutritional/Fitness x x x x
Math xx x xx xxx
The Arts x x x
Nutritional/Fitness xx x
Science xxx xx x x xx
Gym xxx xxx xxx xxxx xxx
Focus: The focus of this assignment is to use the information from the case study to understand the skills and items of knowledge the Alan
has/has not. Then to adapt our strategies that are used with Alan to meet the learning style of a student with autism and to support his
effective learning.
Task:
1. Clear explanations of the challenges that Alan faces (communication, social, behavior and education).
2. Detailed descriptions of the possible environmental strategies that you would use to support Alan in each area (communication,
social, behavior and education) and how they would benefit Alan.
3. Detailed descriptions of the possible instructional strategies that you would use to support Alan in each area (communication,
social, behavior and education) and how they would benefit Alan.
Expectations:
It is critical that you use the lecture material to complete this assignment.
• Use 12 font and double space your work.
• Use the following rubric marking sheet as a guide in completing your assignment.
• This assignment is marked out of 20 and is 30% of your course mark.
• Submit your assignment to the appropriate dropbox