It is so natural to teach children to say “sorry” that we probably never really stop to think about it.  Certainly I am very glad that my parents and teachers ingrained that word into me - saying “sorry”, and meaning it, no doubt smoothed my way through childhood and continues to help me maintain my adult relationships.  However, should we teach young children with autism to apologise?

I suppose it depends very much on the child’s level of social understanding - autism affects each child in a different way.  I know one child for example who really does seem to understand that saying “sorry” is significant and is very resistant to saying it after he has done wrong.  However, I have worked with many more who just do not really get it.  For those children, teaching them to say “sorry” seems to be more for our benefit than theirs.  Perhaps there is no particular harm in this if there are no other consequences.

However, I think there can be a danger that when we teach them to apologise for unacceptable behaviour all that we teach them in reality is the following sequence:

Perform behaviour (perhaps hitting, spitting, etc), get interesting reaction from adult (perhaps yelling, or maybe just saying predictable phrase like “no hitting”), perform random action (saying “sorry”), get praise (for performing random action of saying “sorry”).

If the child really does learn this sequence, then we are not really teaching him to stop the behaviour, which is what we want after all.

In my view it is much more effective to give your child lots of attention, perhaps through play, when he is behaving appropriately and to withdraw this attention when he behaves in a way that is unacceptable to you.  This way the undesirable behaviour does not get rewarded and is much more likely to stop sooner.

You can worry about teaching “sorry” later, when your child does seem to show more social understanding.

After all, you and your child are more likely to be kept safe by your child not exhibiting the undesirable behaviours than by him exhibiting them and saying “sorry” afterwards.

I’m going to a wedding this afternoon and I’ll be taking my digital camera with me.  As I was putting the battery on charge earlier, I was reminded how much I use the camera with my class and how effective it has been.  So I thought I’d share that here.

Photographs are a great visual aid, but, if you are anything like me with a traditional film camera, the photos can stay undeveloped in the camera for ages - in fact come to think of it, I think I have had an unfinished roll of film in a camera for the past 2 years!

Digital cameras on the other hand allow you to see the image immediately.  It is this immediacy that makes them such a fantastic tool to use with children.  Many children I have taught recently have been fascinated by them.  If you haven’t tried using one with your child, I urge you to give it a try.  Here are some tips:

* Choose a camera with a big screen if you can afford it - I use a camera with a 2.5 inch screen which seems adequate.  This allows you and your child to see the image easily

* Use it often.  Do not be precious about it - it’s a learning tool for your child, if you can afford to let your child play with it, do so.

* Don’t worry about the quality of your photos - the process is more important than how the image comes out.

* After a session of taking photos with your child - review the images with them straight away.  Play back the images on a big screen, at home I suggest using either your computer or your tv (many cameras come with cables that allow this).  At school, I suggest using an interactive whiteboard if you have access to one.

Some of the things that have come out of using a digital camera with my pupils include:

* engagement and focus (especially while reviewing photos)

* motivation (work first then you can use the camera)

* spontaneous speech (eg naming things or people in the photos)

* use of modelled language (eg John is climbing)

* talking about emotions

* personal history - talking about things we have done in the photos

* another reason, if one were needed, for children to use the computer

There are many other things the children get from using the digital camera, and you can probably think of some quite easily.  However, if you are new to this, then I hope this has whet your appetite.

Sometimes I just take photos with the children so that we can review and talk about them.  Other times the children will suggest things to take photos of, eg themselves performing different actions.  However, as a teacher, most of the time I have a focus for the sessions and I know what I want to get from the review session before I take the photos.

Don’t be scared to just play with it though.  You may find lots of learning happening very easily and naturally.

Anyway, I have a wedding to go to!

I am becoming increasingly aware that teachers and teaching assistants are showing interest in this site, so this post is aimed more at them… although if you are fortunate enough to have an interactive whiteboard at home…

A few years ago I was shown how an interactive whiteboard could benefit classroom teaching.  At the time, I was blown away, instantly understanding how children in my mainstream class would benefit from me using one with them.  I remember thinking - “I don’t care what I teach - just give me one of those and I can teach anything!”  I was not even thinking particularly about children with autism at the time.  Unfortunately there was no budget for every classroom to have one then, in fact we only got one for the whole school and that was in the computer suite.

Fortunately, things have moved on a bit and they are now beginning to be fitted into classrooms here in England.  I requested one for my classroom a couple of years ago, and it was fitted a couple of months into the school year.  At the time I was struggling to keep the children’s attention during some of our literacy and numeracy lessons, as some of the children were very distractable.  However, from the very first time I used the interactive whiteboard, I found that I had absolutely no problem keeping the attention of all but one child in the class.

It is often pointed out that many children with autism are visual learners - this seems to illustrate that point well.  If the children really are visual learners, then let’s give them something to look at!  Having got their attention, it was then just a matter of selecting the correct material to put onto the interactive whiteboard to target their learning.  If you are looking for it, there is a wealth of fantastic software available - or try making your own resources.

If anything, I would say that children with autism may benefit even more from using interactive whiteboards than their mainstream peers.

If you have used an interactive whiteboard to teach children with autism, I’d love to hear about your experiences.  If you are a parent, do you know if your child uses an interactive whiteboard at school?  Has it made a difference to their learning?

If you have a child with autism, you probably already know first hand about the fascination with computers.  It is wonderful to watch children who often show little motivation in many other things engage completely with a computer.

Of course, not all children with autism like computers.  However, a good majority of the children I have worked with love them!  Which is great, as this makes a great starting point from which to teach them.  Engagement is key, once you have their attention teaching is so much easier.

Just today I was watching a pupil teach herself to spell words using a powerpoint show I created on the computer.  She repeated each letter as it came up, and laughed in delight.  And she chose to do this over and over again!  This was in stark contrast to some table-top work I had tried doing with her last week, when keeping her attention had been anything but easy - and she definitely did not choose to do it over and over again!

Some people worry that children “playing” with the computer is unproductive.  I say define what you mean by productive.  Firstly, there is nothing wrong with playing.  Secondly, where others may see only a child playing, I see engagement, excitement, joint attention, turn-taking (amazing how well children who generally do not play together can take turns on the computer with a bit of adult support), developing motor skills, creativity, following multiple step instructions (eg to find a particular file), learning from trial and error …

And anyway, I teach children to use specific programs on the computer, so that when they “play” they often seek these programs out to use, and reinforce what they have learnt.

As you may have guessed, I love computers.  If you do not love them, I challenge you to have a rethink - perhaps you are denying your child of a wonderful learning resource.

As ever, I would love your comments.

p.s.  For a limited time I am giving away some of my powerpoint shows as bonus gifts with purchases of my e-book.

According to the Children’s Commissioner for England, existing educational provision for children with autism is shocking and appalling.

This seems to have prompted the Schools Minister to pledge more cash and training.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/5352262.stm

I have a mixed reaction to this story, on the one hand I am saddened that as a country we do not provide appropriate education for children with autism, but on the other hand, I’m glad that autism is on the political agenda, and hope that it leads to significant improvement.

As a teacher, I am often struck by mainstream colleagues’ ignorance of autism, and equally by how interested they are when they are provided with information.  As a teacher of children with autism in a mainstream school, I have found mainstream colleagues to be more than willing to adapt their classrooms to include children with autism.  What they need is training and support.  My colleagues and I have delivered whole school training sessions on autism at my current school to our mainstream colleagues, but this is one school, in one part of London.  There needs to be a sea-change in how we train our teachers during their initial training, and throughout their careers.

The National Autistic Society in England has a campaign at the moment called “Make Schools Make Sense”.

http://www.autism.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=825

If you live in the UK, please get involved.