Overview of the student
             I used a child named Daniel in my assessment of social skills. Daniel is a three year old, high functioning child with pervasive developmental disorder. He has very high expressive abilities for his age, but he rarely speaks appropriately amongst his peers. He speaks comfortably and at ease with adults and possess’ a huge vocabulary. He tends to talk about bizarre interests such as elevators, vehicles and smells. When discussing these interests, he speaks fluently and easily but his choice of topics and the times he chooses to bring them up are very inappropriate. For example, during snack time, he’ll be asked if he wants crackers or pretzels and he’ll respond, “I was in a huge, glass elevator and we stopped on every floor to pick up more people.” This is obviously out of context, but is a detailed sentence that many three year olds couldn’t produce.

            Daniel’s social skills when interacting with children are very poor. He frequently doesn’t acknowledge the existence of other peers, and never initiates conversation with them. He will, however, discuss his classmates with his parents but has limited interactions with them. He is also unaware of their presence; he often trips over them or walks on them if they’re in his line of walking. He definitely knows that there is other students in his class, but shows no interest in them unless they are holding a desired toy. In that case, he’ll reach for the toy without any communication with his peer. We are constantly working on prompting verbal language when Daniel is near another child, and with the prompting, he successfully imitates words. There is a lot of potential in Daniel because he has the verbal abilities; we just want him to use them appropriately. Daniel also responds to potent reinforcement, so with that, he usually demonstrates our desired behaviors. He shows major weaknesses in appropriate spontaneous language amongst his peers.
 

Finding of the evaluation
            The evaluation process within my five lesson plans took longer than I expected. (When I discuss the ‘overview of approach’ it will be clearer as to why) I’ve learned that working with a child on the autistic spectrum requires that progress present itself in small steps. Along with small steps, a skill could be mastered for a month and then regression could set in, and the skill could be lost.

            Daniel mastered the first two lessons, but still struggles with the last three lessons. It is clear that the reasoning for that is based on the spontaneous speech aspect of the later three lessons. He had no problem, receptively, with the description of the lessons and the desired expectations. The theory was very clear to him but putting it into practice was extremely difficult.

            I was very pleased that he was able to get to the point of showing an actual interest in another toy, showing awareness of the other child and grabbing (not asking) for the toy. Ideally, he would have asked for the toy, but that skill will come later. The concept of spontaneity still remains a difficult task. Daniel still shows great difficulty with choosing a friend, standing/looking properly at them and initiating conversation. He is extremely prompt dependent, which allows him to succeed in role-plays and following teacher direction. Daniel still struggles with his ability to communicate naturally with his peers.
 

Overview of Approach/Unit
            The way in which I planned these five lessons was very unique. The skill I focused all lessons around was to initiate spontaneous conversation with peers.’ Every goal in each lesson focused around that skill, and every lesson builds upon the preceding one. This approach made sense to me for a few reasons. I think it is important that each lesson becomes harder so that the mastery of the last lesson means that the major skill has been accomplished. This unit is a building unit and requires patience and success in small steps. Having the child master the first few lessons allows them to build their confidence and work harder toward the mastery of the later lessons.

            All lessons occurred during free play with the goal of independence and spontaneity in mind. The first lesson is packed with constant reinforcement, a great deal of role-playing and lots of materials. Each following lesson fades out some reinforcement, practice and materials because I tried to decrease prompt dependency and increase independence. If this wasn’t a ‘social skills’ unit, there would be more of a need to include these things, but social skills is something that should ultimately come from within, without tangible items. However, when teaching, some items are necessary. The criteria for evaluation may seem very simple, but when dealing with PDD children, it’s essential to work in steps personalized for each child. Steps that may seem extremely easy for a typical preschooler could be tremendously difficult for one with special needs.
 
 

LESSON PLANS
    SKILL:To initiate spontaneous conversation with peers.
 

Lesson Plan 1
Goal- To play in the same vicinity as another child.

Materials- Extensive potent primary/secondary reinforcers, clipboard and paper to keep data on time length and any other necessary notes, favorite toys/objects from home

Procedures- Identify the behavior I’d like to see
    -Explain that a reinforcer will be given during steps closer to that behavior.
    -Show him that playing next to someone is nothing to fear (model what it looks like)
    -Point it out when kids are playing together so that he sees that it isn’t harmful.
    -Encourage him to try to attempt playing near another child, with lots of faith and enthusiasm
    -Extensive role-playing, exercises where different children take turns playing in the same vicinity as another child.
    -Discussion on fears and obstacles that could get in the way of achieving this goal.

Evaluation Criteria- has to have 3 out of 4 to meet satisfactory evaluation.
    1. Looked in the direction of another child
    2. Walked toward other child
    3. Showed awareness of the other child
    4. Played with a toy in the same area of the child
 

 Lesson Plan 2
Goal- Shows an interest in another toy that a peer is playing with

Materials- Different reinforcers (primary & secondary), clipboard for data info., a picture of something so exciting that he’ll earn by mastering the goal

Procedures- Model the behavior expected of him
    -Hold an object/favorite toy that he loves, and prompt him to ask for it or talk about it.
    -Role-play the scenario of what he’s about to do so he knows what it ‘looks like’
    -Large amounts of reinforcement if he responds appropriately during role-play or actual lesson.

Evaluation Criteria- has to have 4 out of 5 to meet satisfactory evaluation
    1. Walks over to the direction of another child
    2. Shows awareness of the child, usually by not invading space
    3. Plays with a toy in the same area of the child
    4. Looks at the toy that the child is playing with
    5. Grabs or asks for the toy
 

Lesson Plan 3
Goal- Ask another child if he can share/play with the toy.

Materials- Potent reinforcers, clipboard, favorite toy (set it up so that the other child is playing with the toy; it will be easier to have Daniel show an interest)

Procedures- some verbal role-playing in this lesson because the goal requires verbal language.
    -Model the expected behavior to a few students who could use this practice.
    -Have the student imitate the teacher’s modeling
    -Secondary reinforcement as the child gets closer to the goal.

Evaluation Criteria- has to have 4 out of the 4 to meet satisfactory evaluation.
    1. Plays with a toy in the same vicinity as another child
    2. Notices the child is playing with his favorite toy
    3. Gets closer to the desired toy
    4. Asks if he can share the toy
 

 Lesson Plan 4
Goal- Picks a friend and asks him to play with a certain item.

Materials- Students in class, clipboard, a selection of classroom toys

Procedure- Social exercises amongst kids in the class to see what children have similar interests
    -Social games where kids are paired up in 2’s or 3’s- this forces them to build bonds and relations amongst each other
    -Modeling the desired behavior
    -Limited role-playing exercises to gain practice (don’t want to become dependent on it)
    -Verbal praise throughout lesson

Evaluation Criteria- has to have 3 out of the 4 to meet satisfactory evaluation
    1. Spontaneously finds a favorite activity to play with.
    2. Makes eye contact with other children playing that activity
    3. Spontaneously walks over to a friend and greets them (ex: “Hi”)
    4. Asks a friend to play with a certain item together
 
 

Lesson Plan 5
Goal- initiates a conversation with a peer, using appropriate eye contact and body space

Materials- Clipboard, other children

Procedures- Discussions (no role playing) about verbal exercises, eye contact and body space
    -Social games and exercises
    -No reinforcements (completely faded out by this lesson)

Evaluation Criteria- has to have 4 out of 4 to meet satisfactory evaluation
    1. Spontaneously chooses a friend to stand next to (can be verbally choosing or physically choosing)
    2. Looks at the friend approximately and with correct body space
    3. Asks if he can share a toy with the friend
    4. Initiates a conversation with the peer
 
 

Thanks Gia!
 

Overview of Student

 David is a seven year old male who attends a five day per week private school program.  He comes from a family with a high socio-economic background and lives with his mother and father.  David has no known medical conditions, interacts with many friends in class, and often shares play dates with both the female and male students from the school and neighborhood.

 David is a lovely child who is warm with his teachers and a joy to have in class.  Yet, many of these wonderful qualities are not seen during the day because David is also an easily excited, “hyper child” and seems to lack the social skills of listening and following directions.  Teachers get frustrated by his behavior because his excitement and hyperactivity is displayed during many of the classroom activities.  The behavior he displays  interferes with his ability to listen and pay attention to what is going on in the classroom.  These interruptions also disturb the other students in class during class projects as well as transitional times.  When David loses focus on an activity, it is usually due to the fact that he is unsure of what is needed of him.  He understands that there is an art project on the table to be completed, but he is unsure of the steps that need to be taken in order to complete the task.   This uncertainty occurs because he has not listened to the instructions that were given at the beginning of the lesson.  If we are playing a circle game in which specific directions need to be followed (such as Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes) David loses focus and begins to get distracted.  He may start talking with his peers or begin to laugh out loud, hoping to get attention from the individuals around him.

 David enjoys school, but lately it seems as if he has lost interest in the activities that are around him.  He is having difficultly following directions and seems to lose focus easily.  I am hoping that implementing lessons that help him with his listening skills will enable him to concentrate on the task at hand with the hope of, making his day more enjoyable.

Overview of Approach/Unit

 The focus of the following lessons are to help David with his listening skills and with his ability to follow directions.  Each of the following lessons are either small group lessons or lessons that are done with the entire group.  Lessons involve discussion and great imagination and involve both gross and fine motor skills.  David will have specific evaluation criteria sheets to determine if he has meet his goal.  (See sheets attached.)

 I hope these lessons will help David learn the benefit of listening and following directions.  Currently, David gets upset if he has missed a part of a project or does not understand something that we are doing, and usually this happens because he has lost focus and has not heard the directions.  Helping David with his listening skills will enable him to weed out the distractions that usually occur.  I believe that if I can help David focus more on listening, it will help him with the activities and transitions that occur daily in the classroom.
 

Findings of the Evaluation

 During the week that I implemented the five different listening/following directions lessons, I believe that I made a fairly complete assessment of David’s listening abilities.  He (along with the rest of the class) seemed to enjoy each lesson and especially had fun moving around the room with the movement lessons.  During the first lesson of “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”, David seemed to have some interest and some control with each coordinated step.  The few cues he missed were because he either lost attention, lost interest, or began to speak with his peers.  Out of two, twenty-two steps games, David only missed three steps the first round, and three steps the second round.  This was a big improvement from other days.

 David cleaned up well during our art activity on the second day.  Usually, clean up does not go smoothly for him, but I believe that help from another girl on this particular day made it enjoyable for him.  She was guiding him with which marker caps went with the appropriate markers.  He liked having a helper, and for the future, I will make it possible for partners to share in the clean-up jobs.

 David met the 80% goal for the “Simon Says” game, and it seemed to help David when we had the practice round before the first round.  It seemed to ease all of the students that they had a second chance to “do the game over” if they had to.  On the fourth day of the week that I was implementing the lessons, David made a great house and used all the colors (in order) that I had requested after reading our story.  David met the goals with 100% accuracy as did all of the other students.  This lesson was a big success and I plan to do other lessons like this one in the future.

The last lesson I did was the most difficult and most confusing for David and the other students.  I had to repeat many of the steps for the class (not just David) and it took longer than expected.  What I did find that was interesting was that even though I was struggling and thought that I would lose the attention of the group, the group enjoyed talking about the mistakes that I had made.  Even David stuck though the entire lesson until the end.  He seemed to be interested in the discussions that I was having with my assistant as well as the other students.  Instead of chatting with another students, he was thinking of ideas that we could do as a class.  I was happy to see that he was involved in discussion with the group of students that was around him.

 David seemed to enjoy the week and the lessons that I planned.  I hope to repeat the same five lessons in the early spring and again at the end of the year in June.  I will track his improvements and compare the results in June.
 
 
 

Lesson #1 – “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” (Song/Movement)
Goals –
1.   To have the students listen to the song, hear the parts of the body that are being sung/spoken, and copy the movements from the teacher.
2.   To have the student move with the group and dance with the group.
3.   To have the student not disrupt his peers during the activity.

Goals specifically for David -
1. To have the student correctly match six out of eight body parts.

Materials – Teacher (using her voice), group of students, teacher assistance to help with assessment, assessment sheet ‘A’.

Procedure/Steps –
1. Teacher calls the class over to the rug.  (Teacher makes sure that David is in a place where he can see her.)
2. Class assembles for group time where they will first read a story, (From Head To Toe by Eric Carl.)
3. The class then sings the song, “Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes.”
4. After the song, the class stretches out their bodies.
5. Students and teacher go though the song once, speaking it first, rather than singing it.  The teacher simultaneously touches her head and says, ‘head’.  Touches her knees, says ‘knees’. Etc.
6. Assistant teacher watches David to see how many steps he is following and matching with the teacher.  *(See attachment (A) for evaluation criteria.) After a ‘speaking’ run through, the class sings the song while the teachers assistant marks how many parts David gets correct for assessment.  *(See attachment (A) for evaluation criteria.)
7. Song and assessment are done two times for comparison.
 
 

Lesson #2 – Cleaning Up (during an Art Project)

Goals –
1. To have the students listen and complete the clean up task that is given to them.
2. To have the students not disturb each other while they are cleaning up their assigned job.

Goals specifically for David -
1. To have the student pick up 90% of the markers that are on the table.

Materials – Paper, scissors, glue sticks, buttons, tissue paper, markers, group of students, teacher, assistant teacher, assessment sheet ‘B’.

 Procedures/Steps –
1. Students gather on the circle before clean-up.
2. Teacher sings the clean up song and taps students on the head with their clean up job assignment.
3. Give David the specific job of putting the correct colored marker caps on the markers, and the markers back in the tray, and placing the tray on the shelf.
4. David then sits at a table when he is finished with his job.
5. Using the assessment sheet *(See attachment (B) for assessment criteria) and determine whether David has cleaned up 90% of the markers.
 

Lesson #3 – “Simon Says”

Goals –
1. To have the students copy the teacher’s body movements as she says each body part.

Goals specifically for David -
1.  To have the student listen to the teacher while she is going though the game,       and to match eight out of ten movements during the second game of “Simon Says.”

Materials – Students, teacher, assessment sheet “C’.

Procedures/Steps –
1. Students gather on the rug for a game of “Simon Says.”
2. Teacher explains that they will play a game where they have to listen to what she says and repeat what she does, but only when she says the word, ‘Simon’ before each command.
3. The group plays a practice round.  She reminds them when to copy her movement and when not to, modeling the movements.
4. First, during the practice round, students and teacher play the game slowly, increasing the speed as the game progresses.
5. The assistant teacher uses assessment sheet to determine whether eight out of ten goals were met.
6. Game is played again, with the order of the movements changed.  *(See attachment (C) for assessment criteria.)  Assistant teacher helps again with assessment.
 
 

Lesson #4 – “Drawing a House”

Goals –
1. The students will listen to the directions of the teacher when drawing a house.
2. The students will use the correct colors for the different parts of the house.

Goals specifically for David -
 1. The student will specifically match four of five colors when drawing the house.

Materials –  Paper, markers, assessment sheet “D”.

Procedures/Steps –
1. The class will read the book, Little Red Riding Hood.
2. The class will sit down at the art table to draw a picture of the specific house from the book.
3. The teacher will remind the class that they are drawing a house just like the house they saw in the book, no other kind of house.
4. She will remind them to listen to her words, because she is giving a descriptive visual of what the house looks like and it will guide them in drawing the house. (“The door is in the middle on the house, there are two windows above the door, etc.)
5. Step by step the student draws the house on a sheet of paper.
6. Assessment is complete when each student hands in a picture of the house from the story.  *(See assessment (D) for assessment criteria.)
 
 
 

Lesson #5 – Response Cards for Colors

Goals –
1. To have the students sit and wait to hear the color of an object during a small (five students) group lesson.
2. To have the students sit in a group and not disturb their peers.

Goals specifically for David -
1.   To have the student correctly match four out of the seven response cards.

Materials – Seven colored response cards (brown, black, blue, yellow, orange, pink, green), seven objects/pictures: brown plastic horse, a black eight ball, a picture of the blue sky, a yellow tennis ball, an orange, a picture of a pink farm pig, a green plant), a bag, group of five students, teacher, assessment sheet ‘E’.

Procedure/Steps –
1. When half the class goes to music, have the other five students in a small group of five on the rug.
2. Introduce the seven different objects.  Place the objects on the rug (one at a time) and discuss where you might find them, where/when the students have seen them before, what they could be if students are not familiar with them, etc.
3. Ask each student to say one thing about the object while passing it around the group before you put the materials back in the bag.
4. Mark one thing that David said about each object. (Example: Pink- pigs live on a farm.)
5. Ask the students to go back to the tables, making sure David sits behind all of the other students (so his eyes are towards the other student’s backs.)
6. Have the students put out all seven color cards in front of them. (Mark on assessment sheet ‘E’.)
7. Tell the students that you will start talking about one of the objects from the bag.  (Use the notes that you made repeating what David said about the objects, see assessment sheet.)  As you are speaking of the specific object, ask students to think of its color.
8. When students think of object and its color, have them point to that color card in front of them.  Remind them that they may not pick up the card. (Color cards are directly in front of them so others can not see what they are pointing to.)
9. As the students are pointing to cards in front of them, the teacher assesses how many matches David has made with the objects/colors.  *(See attachment (E) for assessment criteria.)
 
 

SPEAKING       SIGNING

Head   _____      _________

Shoulders _____      _________

Knees  _____      _________

Toes  _____      _________

Knees  _____      _________

Toes  _____      _________

Head  _____      _________

Shoulders  _____      _________

Knees  _____      _________

Toes  _____      _________

Knees  _____      _________

Toes   _____      _________

Eyes  _____      _________

Ears   _____      _________

Mouth  _____      _________

Nose  _____      _________

Head  _____      _________

Shoulders _____      _________

Knees   _____      _________

Toes   _____      _________

Knees  _____      _________

Toes  _____       _________
 

__________________ markers in the tray at the start of the activity.
 

_____________ markers out of the tray by clean up.
 
 

Y    N    Did the student sit when he was finished with his job?
 
 

_________/ _________ markers were placed back in the tray with

their caps by the end of the activity.
 

_________ % of the markers were back in the tray.

Assessment C

Movement     Practice Round  Game

1. Sit      ____________  _____

2. Twist     ____________  _____

3. Hop     ____________  _____

4. Clap      ____________  _____

5. Snap      ____________  _____

6. Touch Nose     ____________  _____

7. Rub Head    ____________  _____

8. Wiggle Ear    ____________  _____

9. Touch Feet    ____________  _____

10. Jump Back     ____________  _____
 

Assessment D (Draw a picture)
 

Assessment E

1. Did the student say one thing about the object when it went around the group?

Brown –

Black –

Blue –

Yellow –

Orange –

Pink –

Green –

2. Did the student go back to the table when asked?  Y   N

3.   Did the student put back their cards in front of them?    Y   N

4.   Did they pick up the card or point to the card?   (Match? Y or N)

Brown  Y N

Black   Y  N

Blue   Y  N

Yellow  Y  N

Orange  Y  N

Pink  Y  N

Green  Y  N

9/13/03