Copyright held by author. Reprinted with permission. One of the most difficult challenges teachers and local educational agencies face today is educating students with pervasive developmental disorders such as autism. Teachers frequently describe these children as unique, puzzling, mysterious, and difficult to teach. They often comment that their students with autism rarely interact, communicate, or appear motivated to participate in academic or social activities. A committed teacher provided the following comment before receiving training,
"He came into my room the first day and cried and showed absolutely no interest in anything, I was at a lost".Given the wide spread behavioral deficits characteristic of autism and the limited resources available, teachers repeatedly face an enormous task as they strive to help these children learn. Aside from posing a challenge to teachers, LEAs are recurrently in a quandary in forming policy and developing curricula. Unfortunately, LEAs typically commit their resources to a single approach and quickly discover that one approach does not easily serve all of their students with autism.
The Center for Technology in Education (CTE), a partnership of Johns Hopkins University and the Maryland State Department, is developing a hybrid paradigm that involves infusing technology-based instructional and behavioral supports into existing curriculum activities to help promote gains in communication, social skills, academics, as well as to increase the children's overall involvement in classroom activities. Based on interdisciplinary research and years of educational experiences, this paradigm has three central components.
First, rather than delineating an ideal piece of technology that might "travel" with the child across all activities and situations, this paradigm emphasizes that different activities may require different "light or high technology" such as voice output communication devices, picture systems, sequence and cue cards, touch screen, modified key-boards, switch access devices, or even sign language. In defining the technology for a given situation, the educational team must know the individual child's needs and strengths, specify the environmental and task demands in the particular situation, and delineate the projected goals for the child.
Second, of great importance to this approach, is the idea that technology alone is not the answer; in that, teachers must incorporate technology into their curriculum activities using effective behavioral teaching principles. Aside from the use of fundamental procedures such as clear instructions, prompts, and effective consequences, teachers must incorporate more recent findings on strategies for educating children with autism such as the use of natural/direct reinforcement, shared control, as well as other methods for increasing appropriate spontaneous interactions and independent functioning. In addition, it is vital that significant others, such as parents, are taught to use these principles in less structured settings.
Third, the LEA and educational staff must have an overall curriculum guide that allows for both individual specificity as well as inclusion into large group activities. In delineating target behaviors and skills, emphasis must be placed on promoting not only acquisition, but also generalization. Aside from targeting individual behaviors, teachers need to shift to targeting
An example of applying this paradigm is as follows. Charlie, a five year old boy with autism, had considerable difficulty participating in group reading activities which necessitated the students to remain focused on a large book as the teacher read the story. In each story, there was a phrase in which all students read upon the teacher's verbal cue. Given, that Charlie was nonverbal and was "unable to read" he had difficulties staying on-task and participating in the activity. While he rarely responded to verbal cues, his teacher was able to use visual cues such as gestures frequently to get his attention. To facilitate his involvement in this activity, a simple single switch activated voice output device was incorporated. As the teacher read the story and verbally cued the other children to participate, she began to visually cue Charlie to activate the switch using a gesture. Charlie began to particpate by having the device "say" the phrase along with the other children.
Educating students with autism is a serious challenge for even well trained teachers. Successfully working towards their inclusion in regular educational settings is often considered an insurmountable goal shared by teachers, LEA administrators, and parents alike. Aside from facilitating gains in academic areas, and in social and communication skills, incorporating technology-based behavioral and instructional supports appear to promote changes in the student's social roles, self-image, self-esteem, and the ways in which others perceive them. Given the advancement of assistive and instructional technology in recent years, there has begun to emerge considerable optimism among educators and other professionals working with students with autism. Under the direction of Dr. John Burke, CTE will continue to form partnerships with schools and LEAs to help promote the infusion of technology into educational practices to allow teachers to advance the educational services for students with autism.