Strategies to Support the COIN
Strategies to support the curriculum
The curriculum is supported by the following strategies. These are used for specific pupils to help enhance their learning/communication.
PECS
The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) was developed over 20 years ago. It allows children and adults with autism and other communication difficulties to initiate communication. PECS begins with teaching students to exchange a picture of the desired item with a teacher, who immediately honours the request. For example, if they want a drink, they will give a picture of 'drink' to an adult who directly hands them a drink. Verbal prompts are not used, thus encouraging spontaneity and avoiding prompt dependency. The system goes on to teach discrimination of symbols and how to construct simple "sentences." Ideas for teaching commenting and other language structures such as asking and answering questions are also incorporated.
For more information visit PECS
TEACCH
Founded in the early 1970s by the late Eric Schopler, Ph.D., TEACCH developed the concept of the "Culture of Autism" as a way of thinking about the characteristic patterns of thinking and behaviour seen in individuals with this diagnosis.
The "Culture of Autism" involves:
- Relative strength in and preference for processing visual information (compared to difficulties with auditory processing, particularly of language).
- Frequent attention to details but difficulty understanding the meaning of how those details fit together.
- Difficulty combining ideas.
- Difficulty with organising ideas, materials, and activities.
- Difficulties with attention. (Some individuals are very distractible, others have difficulty shifting attention when it's time to make transitions.)
- Communication problems, which vary by developmental level but always include impairments in the social use of language (called "pragmatics").
- Difficulty with concepts of time, including moving too quickly or too slowly and having problems recognising the beginning, middle, or end of an activity.
- Tendency to become attached to routines, with the result that activities may be difficult to generalise from the original learning situation and disruptions in routines can be upsetting, confusing, or uncomfortable.
- Very strong interests and impulses to engage in favoured activities, with difficulties disengaging once engaged.
- Marked sensory preferences and dislikes.
The long-term goals of the TEACCH approach are both skill development and fulfillment of fundamental human needs such as dignity, engagement in productive and personally meaningful activities, and feelings of security, self-efficacy, and self-confidence. To accomplish these goals, TEACCH developed the intervention approach called "Structured Teaching."
The principles of Structured Teaching include:
- Understanding the culture of autism.
- Developing an individualised person- and family-centred plan for each client or student, rather than using a standard curriculum.
- Structuring the physical environment.
- Using visual supports to make the sequence of daily activities predictable and understandable.
- Using visual supports to make individual tasks understandable.
For more information visit TEACCH
MAKATON
Can you imagine what it would be like if you couldn't understand speech?
How would you cope? It's a situation which is similar to the one you might experience if you were in a foreign country and couldn't speak or understand the language.
What would you do? You would probably begin to gesture to explain what you wanted, and hope that others would understand your gestures and would gesture back. You might also start to draw pictures and diagrams to help get your messages across.
Makaton combines all these elements in a highly successful teaching approach.
How was Makaton developed?
Firstly a research project identified the words that we all use most frequently and need in everyday conversation. Then signs from British Sign Language, used by the deaf community in this country, were matched to these words, so that as you speak you sign and speak at the same time. Signs are often pictorial and convey the meaning more easily than words, which are more abstract.
How is Makaton used?
Makaton users are first encouraged to communicate using signs, then gradually, as a link is made between the word and the sign, the signs are dropped and speech takes over.
This might surprise you, as you would perhaps think that signing would prevent speech developing. But research suggests very strongly that this is not the case. In fact the opposite occurs, as signing seems to positively encourage speech development. Many hundreds of thousands of children and adults have been helped significantly in this manner.
