Autism: an observation of an autistic child and the creation of learning environment

Observe a special needs child/adults activity when they try to learn new information. Create a learning environment for them, considering three learning theories.

Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder that affects the functioning of the brain. The extent of the condition can range from acute to mild, and when someone is diagnosed with autism, they are said to be on the ‘Autistic Spectrum.’ Autism is found is both sexes, but is four times more likely to be found in boys than girls.

Autistic children are often innately withdrawn, both psychologically and socially thus having many problems with social interaction and communication. Such children will often feel intimidated in social situations and prefer to play alone and not interact with other children and find it difficult to form relationships. They will also feel uncomfortable if alterations to their environment or routines are made.

Teaching autistic children in mainstream educational settings is sometimes very difficult, as they will find it difficult to cooperate and relate to their classmates in group activities. Autistic children find it notoriously difficult to understand facial expressions and predict the consequences of actions that are new to them.

One condition that is recognised as falling into the autistic spectrum is Asperger’s Syndrome of High Functioning Autism (HFA). This is viewed as a milder form of autism, the person concerned being often above average academically. Unlike classic autism which is often diagnosed within the first three years of age, Asperger’s syndrome is unlikely to manifest itself until the child is much older.

Section 299.80 of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) defines Asperger’s Syndrome as the display of six characteristics:Qualitative impairment in social interaction;The presence of restricted, repetitive and stereotyped behaviors and interests;Significant impairment in important areas of functioning;No significant delay in language;During the first three years of life, there can be no clinically significant delay in cognitive development such as curiosity about the existing environment or the acquisition of age appropriate learning skills, self-help skills, or adaptive behaviors (other than social interaction); and,The symptoms must not be better accounted for by another specific pervasive developmental disorder or schizophrenia.

(DSM-IV)People with Asperger’s syndrome learn differently. Often, a child with Asperger’s will be obsessed with one or two topics at a time and refuse to spend any time on anything not related to these topics, for example: dinosaurs or computers.

Often above average academically and with a higher IQ than perhaps expected of someone of their age, such a child may be classed as an under-achiever in a school setting due to their unwillingness to learn new information.

There are many ways in which teachers can tackle Asperger’s syndrome in their class. In this study I will look at three established learning theories and devise activities based on these learning theories to aid the social development of a child with Asperger’s.

Behaviourism is a well-established school of psychology. Behaviourists believe that human learning should be based on observable behaviour in the subject rather than unseen factors. Behaviourists believe learning is a change in a person’s behaviour that occurs as result of environmental stimuli.

Branches of behaviourism have aided our understanding of how people learn. Classical and Operant Conditioning are just two of these branches.

I will now explore these theories further.

Watson (1925) the founder of behaviourism said that we are the product of our environment. Any child can be taught to be for example, a doctor, as long as he/she is brought up with that premise. Learning is in no way related to race, background, talents or preferences.

B.F Skinner (1953) proposed a branch of behaviourism called operant conditioning. This theory suggested that desired behaviour in a subject can be achieved through positive and negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement means when the desired behaviour is displayed, praise or reward should be given, and if it is, the behaviour will be displayed more often. A pleasant stimulus upon display of the desired behaviour encourages the subject to repeat that behaviour.

Negative reinforcement is when an undesirable behaviour is displayed and this is followed by an unpleasant stimulus or sensation e.g. an electric shock. The unpleasant consequence of the action will deter the subject from repeating the undesirable behaviour.

Edwin Lynn Thorndike (1874-1949) developed Skinner’s idea with his ‘Law of Effect’ theory. This theory said that any response which leads to an outcome satisfying to the subject is likely to be repeated.

Skinner through these theories says that we learn through environmental stimulus, rather than biological or instinctive aspects.

Skinner however does not take into account biological or social factors, gaining him critics, one being Albert Bandura (1925).

Social Cognition TheoryAlbert Bandura believed in cognitive psychology. This means that we are thinking beings and this means learning is not only due to outside factors such as stimuli. Bandura said that we learn in a variety of ways including modelling. Modelling is when learning is achieved by observing others in their behaviour through reinforcement. If a child sees another being rewarded for perhaps, holding a door open for someone else, it is likely this child will copy that behaviour in the hope of getting the same praise. Bandura used the acronyms P,B,E to display this theory. P stands for the person and their thoughts, B stands for the behaviour and the action and E stands for the environment in which this is happening. He called this triadic reciprocal determinism and coined it in his work ‘Social Cognitive Theory’, 1989.

Bandura believed that we may find something difficult to learn because we are cognitive beings, and may not see the long term benefits of learning something, therefore do not try.

Bandura said the consequences of behaviour play a role in learning, learning can occur without any change in behaviour and we learn by observing others.

Another approach to learning is the Humanistic Approach.

In 1962 the Association for Humanistic Psychology was founded in reaction to behaviourism and psychoanalysis. This school of psychology had four main principles:The experiencing person is of primary interest.

Emphasis on human choice, creativity and self-actualisation.

Study of human and social problems.

Dignity of the person.

The beliefs of humanistic psychologists are concerned with the self, self-actualization, health, hope, individuality and creativity.

Carl Rogers (1902-1987) said:’Individuals have an innate tendency to move towards growth, maturity and positive change.’- actualising tendency.

Actualising Tendency is the striving for self-actualization, the instinctive need of all humans to make the most of themselves and their abilities.

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) was a member of the humanistic psychology association. He conceived the Hierarchy of Needs. Often displayed in a pyramid format, this theory stated that humans have instinctive needs that he then put into a hierarchy.

The base of the pyramid is physiological needs, like food, water, breathing and sleep. The next level up is Safety needs: safety in body, employment, in resources, in health.

Next is called Love/Belonging: friendship, family, sexual intimacy.

The next level consists of Esteem needs: self-esteem, confidence, achievement, respect.

The top level is Self Actualisation. This consists of morality, creativity, problem solving, acceptance.

Maslow believed that once a person reaches the apex of the pyramid, they can experience transcendence, state in which they realise their full potential, and the potential of other human beings around them.

Unconditional positive regard is a theory stemming from Humanistic Psychology. This means being given the sense that children are valued by their parents and others even when their feelings, attitudes and behaviours are undesirable. Rogers maintains that no matter what a child does, he/she should always be made aware how valued they are so as to reach self actualisation in the long term. Any subject must feel he/she is seen in a positive light. He says that this, empathy and congruence are the three essential factors for positive change.

In application to learning, Carl Rogers coins the phrase: Facilitative Teaching:This is a guideline as to how a student would learn best according to humanistic psychology. In a learning environment, Rogers says there must be:response to student feeling;use of student ideas in ongoing instructional interactions;discussion with students (dialogue);praise of students;congruent teacher talk (less ritualistic);tailoring of contents to the individual student’s frame of reference (explanations created to fit the immediate needs of the learners); andsmiling with students.

Rogers and Freiberg (1994).

For the purposes of this study, I am applying the three aforementioned theories to a seven year old boy called Riki (pseudonym) who has been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. I worked with Riki in a mainstream classroom of twenty-seven pupils.

Riki has a lot of trouble interacting with his classmates. Speech and language are a problem as, common to Asperger’s sufferers, Riki has trouble initiating conversation. Being of a very high IQ and displaying much ability beyond that expected of his age group, Riki is very knowledgeable on mechanical objects, history and computers. If on the rare occasion he does begin a conversation, he may begin with a fact, like how long ago the dinosaurs became extinct, thus immediately alienating other children who may not share his passion or his intelligence. Riki will not listen let the other person speak until he has finished whatever information he has decided to contribute, information which is often unrelated or inappropriate.

Riki also finds teamwork very difficult. When put into groups in the classroom and set a task, Riki will either become distant and uninterested, isolating himself from the rest of the group, or become nervous and start explaining in great detail a topic of no relation to the task the group have been set. If Riki is uncomfortable with the topic the group is to concentrate on, he will often completely change the subject onto something he knows a lot about.

Riki is hugely lacking social skills. He is often aggressive and rude to classmates. Sometimes he is distant and unresponsive, and parrot-like and disruptive at others. He also has no concept of friends. When asked to define friendship he said a friend was someone who gave him things.

It was decided that radical moves must be made to aid Riki’s social development. A framework was set out for the teachers and assistants to
follow:These learning goals aimed to teach Riki:to listen to and react appropriately to discussions with his classmates.

to restrain his hostile behaviourto contribute properly in group circumstancesto learn to interact with his classmatesWe then set out to design activities to help Riki. These activities must develop his social skills but also must be challenging enough for a child who is above average academically. The tasks must also fit with the rest of the class who may not be so gifted. This was an opportunity not only for Riki, but for the rest of the class. Through these activities the pupils could learn from one another and respect each other’s skills.

The first activity we designed to aid Riki’s social development was a class newspaper project. The class was split into groups of four pupils and asked to design a page for the newspaper. The group who designed the best page would receive a prize.

We chose to keep the groups small so as to not overwhelm Riki with social demands. Riki’s group were given the front page to design. The children were told to decide amongst themselves who was to do each part of the task. One person was responsible for the ‘Interesting Fact’ section, another was in charge of the artwork, and another was responsible for the headline story and another for putting the design onto the computer.

This meant that Riki had to cooperate, negotiate and converse with his group to decide each person’s responsibility. Riki was given the task of computerising the final product, thus showing off his skill with computers to his classmates.

Riki learnt from this task how to negotiate with other people, when it is his turn to speak and also got to demonstrate his skills to the group.

We based this task on Behaviourist theory. Behaviourism states that children learn through operant conditioning. Through receiving praise for his work from both teachers and classmates and there being a prize at the end of the task, Riki was more willing to participate. Positive reinforcement used throughout this exercise improved Riki’s social skills.

The second activity we designed was based on Social Cognition Theory. Its founder, Albert Bandura stated that we learn through seeing the positive outcomes and are more willing to take part if we have seen others achieve positive results.

The class were told to recreate a simple shape, mostly outlines of animals, given to them, then provided with a large collection of various materials to do this with. They were told they can paint the shape, make a collage, build the shape with Lego or make the shape on the floor with their bodies. The teacher showed the pupils the results of another class doing a similar task and told them how the whole class had received special stars for their efforts.

Groups were slightly larger this time, at six pupils per group. Riki’s group were given a fish outline to recreate. Involving no computers, Riki’s skills were to be tested in this task as he had to get involved more fully into what the group were doing.

Riki’s group decide to make a collage of the fish on some sugar paper, using netting, glitter and blue paint. Although the original concept of the collage was somewhat challenging for him as he displays a difficulty with creativity, he soon began to contribute by getting the materials needed from the drawers and offering his help sticking them to the paper. Riki, although at first hesitant, became very involved in this task and his group were rewarded by having their collage pinned to the classroom noticeboard.

We used Bandura’s ideas of modelling in this activity. By showing Riki how the previous class had been rewarded by completing the task, he was more willing to participate and in turn, developed his social and creative skills with his classmates.

The third activity designed to aid Riki’s social development was based on the humanistic approach. This theory states that a child must be aware of how he/she is valued in order to achieve self-actualisation and must be aware of how they have achieved learning themselves.

As we have designed the activities we have added to the amount of people Riki is directly in contact with. At this time, we decided to ask the class to re-enact a scene from the book they had been reading as a class for the last month in literacy hour and we split the class into only two groups meaning Riki was in a group of 13 children supervised by a classroom assistant. This massive addition of people to Riki’s immediate environment was a big step, but the scene he was given contained two teams of people, so once it was decided which team he was going be in, he was only in direct contact with half of the group, so as not to overwhelm him. The child’s efforts would be filmed and watched in assembly the following week by the school. It was stressed how important everyone was in doing this task as it was to make up the assembly.

The group had to decide who was to play what in the scene, who was going to be the narrator for the parts without dialogue and how they would act the scene out. Riki was very confident in the choosing of teams and seemed happy to be involved. This task involved massive amounts of social interaction, negotiation and performance.

Upon completion, the teacher filmed the children’s re-enactments on a camcorder and announced when they would be shown to the class.

Although hesitant when it became his turn to speak his part, Riki soon became at ease with this task and reported later that he wanted to do it again, but this time the whole book!The Humanistic approach is prevalent in this task. It states that a child must be aware of the value of him/herself in the process of learning and how they must see results of how they have learned for themselves for them to appreciate their acquired knowledge. Through stressing the importance of the assembly, the teacher got the all the children excited about the project and through showing them the video of themselves, allowed the children to appreciate their work.

The learning objective of the conception of these activities was to aid Riki’s social development. Through these varied tasks, he learnt how better to interact with his peers, how to react appropriately to others and how to deal with large group situations.

After these activities were conducted, when asked again to define friendship, Riki pointed to four of his classmates and replied with ‘Him, him, him and him’.

To conclude, the three learning theories used in this study used together provide a framework for a learning environment, which facilitates the child’s needs.

Bibliography

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social-cognitive theory. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Given, B. K. (2000) Learning Styles. Learning ForumPajares, F. (1996). Review of Educational Research, 66(4), 543-578. Retrieved March 2007, from http://www.emory.edu/EDUCATION/mfp/PajaresSE1996.htmlSkinner, B. F. (1938). The behavior of organisms. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.

Sternberg, R. (1988) The triarchic mind: A new theory of intelligence. NY: Viking PressPervil, L. Social Cognitive Approach. Retrieved April 2007 from http://condor.admin.ccny.cuny.edu/~hhartman/SOCIAL%20COGNITIVE,O.A.S.I.S – Online Asperger Syndrome Information and Support- What is AS?Retrieved March 2007 from http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/Schwartz, B. et al. (2001) Psychology of Learning and Behaviour. W.W. Norton & Co.