Learning more about Autism, ADD, ADHD and ODD

My school bought a copy of this book as recommended by our RTLB Georgia. 

My DP gave it to me to look at so I could get some ideas for Ryan. 

Click here for more information.

I took photos of anything I thought was important, inspiring, challenging or relevant to me. That way I could give the book to another teacher. 

I took a photo of this because it resonated strongly. This week and last, I have been trying so many things with Ryan and none seem to be working. This reminded me that its never going to be that easy.. 

I thought it was interesting that girls and boys with ASD present differently. I didn't know that before.

Ryan also has ODD, and I suspect other students in my class do as well. Before this year I had never heard of it...

This sentence was huge for me after the week I've had - 'doesn't mean they're acting out on purpose'. I need to remind myself that and not take Ryan's behaviour as a personal attack on my teaching or leadership ability. 

Yup..

Yup..

Tips to use in the future.. 

This sentence stood out to me from this section; "students on the spectrum often don't realise you are speaking to them if you don't include their name". I purposefully will use Ryan's name every time I address him and see if it makes a difference...

Number 9 is so true lol. 

This was so relevant. Some of these I already have in place as part of normal classroom practice, such as having a set way and location for students to line up when we are going somewhere. I also often ask Ryan to be the leader of the line so he has a set position in the line. He likes to walk next to me instead of actually 'leading' the line but its better than him playing at the back soo whatever. The organisation tip I implemented straight away, by giving him his own 'box' where all of his books will go (rather than the books being in seperate maths/reading group boxes). We'll see how that goes. 

This was hugely relevant as well. In my own humble opinion, Ryan acts up 99% of the time when we are outside of the classroom, and only 50% of the time in the classroom. Every time we are Kiwi-Can, Kiwi-Sport, assemblies or music something will happen with him. The changing environments bullet point talks about this. All staff know about him and often check with me (via a 'look' and/or quietly asking me whats up) about his behaviour. I'm not sure what it is that causes these upsets, because he knows when we will be going (these times are consistent throughout the year) and he knows what to expect/what is expected of him. Ryan does not get any teacher assistant/aide time at all, so this point was not relevant for me.

There are 2 things from this page that connected and stood out. Ryan's mum is really on board with his learning, realistic about his behaviour and understanding when the school or myself approaches her to talk about him. She's really good. Eating for Ryan is also an issue, but not because of smells or noise as suggested. After talking to his mum about it, I understand now that his 'Miss I'm hungry can I get something from my bag' at 9.15am and 10am is not him trying to avoid work. He actually eats breakfast before 7am due to mums work schedule, and by 10am he genuinely is hungry. Now that I understand this properly, I do let him eat something in the first block as a break.

These are good tips. Ryan does have people he regularly asks for help and seems to have 'rotated' these students all on his own. I think I do need to give him some visual tools to help him though.

This is like a goal sheet they suggested. This was also suggested for Kian by his RTLB last year, but we never implemented it. I'll give it a go.

I have never used a timer for Ryan, but might try it out using some of these tips.

I really struggle with this. Ryan's 'special interest' at the moment is playing Online Launchpad on his netbook (which he is really good at by the way). However.. He does it all the time, when he should be doing his work. Normal protocol says I should take his netbook off him, as he is not using it appropriately. But this says I can't. When his 'special interest' is his main learning tool, that already has its own rules applying to it, how can I then treat it differently?

I am the first two. I'm trying for the others..

This might be less relevant for me as his teacher, but I know that he has issues with sleep so its good to reflect on anyway. Maybe I could have a sheet he could wrap himself in (Point 15.) as part of his 'calming' corner.