Factors to consider when evaluating the appropriateness
of a program for your child with Autism
S. L. Crum, B.S., M.S., Ph.D.

A major part of my role as a special needs coach is to equip parents so they can productively advocate for their children in the educational setting and in the community in order to prepare their child to functioning as independently as possible in adulthood. For this reason, it is important that I equip you with the tools to evaluate Sesso’s program so that as he progresses through elementary, middle and high school you are able to effectively evaluate the programs he is participating in. Towards this end, I am including in this report an overview of factors to consider when evaluation the appropriateness of a program for your son.

Under IDIEA, parents have the responsibility to insure that the educational program provided to their special needs child is sufficient to provide a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) for their child. Most parents, however, have no formal training in the area of education and spend a number of years just looking to school district personnel for guidance with no idea of whether or not the information given them by the district is correct. This is particularly egregious in the case of children with Autism whose needs are so great. I have written this information to help parents like yourself evaluate proposed programs for your child, so you can determine whether or not what is offered provides FAPE, and to equip you to collaborate with the other IEP team members on equal footing.

INDIVIDUAL EVALUATION:

Did a multidisciplinary team composed of professionals familiar with Autism complete all evaluations? Were medical and developmental histories reviews relative to Autism? Did the evaluations include an assessment of your child’s strengths and how to capitalize upon these to instruct your child, as well as your child’s needs and how to address these?

Did the evaluation include?

CURRICULUM:

Does the curriculum contain written statements of the goals and philosophy that will serve as the basis for selecting instructional objectives, methods, accommodations and program modifications? This is crucial so that the program functions as an integrated whole rather than an eclectic mish-mash of unrelated and perhaps contradictory strategies.

Even though children of different ages may be grouped in the same room,

Is the curriculum adapted to address each child’s age, learning style, and abilities?

Does the curriculum focus on helping each child achieve maximum functional independence not only in school, but also at home and in the community?

Does the curriculum focus on the following?

Does the program emphasis the development of functional communication – that is communication that can be understood by individuals in the general community – through language, non-verbal methods such as sign language and employment of assistive technology such as augmentive communication devices?

Does the program emphasis the development of social interaction skills with younger children, peers and adults through provision of opportunities to interact in various environments with normal individuals?

Does the curriculum focus on the maintenance and generalization of learned skills to move complex environments by doing some of the instruction in the local community at libraries, local Children’s or Science Museums, in local stores, at the post office, at the grocery store, in the local bank, the bus station, the train station or other community agencies the child might routinely be exposed to in the course of normal day to day existence?

DEVELOPMENT OF THE INDIVIDUALIZED EDUCATION PROGRAM:

The Committee on Preschool Special Education (CPSE) and the Committee on Special Education (CSE) or Exceptional Student Education Committee must employ norm reference and criterion evaluation results, parent and family concerns, and present levels of performance in developing individualized education programs (IEPs) to meet students’ needs.

The IEP must address the developmental, health, social, emotional, behavioral, and cognitive needs of the child.

INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES:

The program or a child with Autism needs to include a variety of functionally and developmentally appropriate experiences, activities, and materials that engage the child in meaningful learning without overwhelming those children whose state of psycho physiological arousal makes them hyper sensitive to environmental stimulation.

Instructional activities for children with Autism should:

IEP goals, instructional methodologies, related services, accommodations and modifications are compatible and complementary whenever the program incorporates the use of different intervention approaches.

Instructional Activities need to employ a variety of instructional formats including small group instruction, one on one instruction, student-initiated interactions, teacher directed interactions, peer-mediated instruction, unstructured play

Activities, structured play activities all targeted to the child’s current skill levels and individual needs.

These instructional activities need to be adapted to the range of abilities, ages, and learning styles of all the children with Autism in a particular class.

Daily instruction in communication should include both one-on-one instruction and instruction in a small group. The former's goal being to increase the frequency of appropriate spontaneous verbalizations and the latter's purpose being to foster the development of pragmatic language skills in social interaction.

Daily instruction in academic or pre-academic skills according to the child’s ability levels.

PARENT AND FAMILY PARTICIPATION:

A sign of a good program is one where parents and family members are supported as full and equal members of the IEP decision-making team. As such, they are actively involved in all aspects of their child’s program development, re-evaluation, and modification over time to the maximum extent of the parent’s resources, interests and abilities.

Parents are informed about the range of educational and service options available within the district and options to send their child outside of the district to a State Approved School if necessary. Moreover, it is important that the program developed for the child takes into consideration the language, culture, parenting styles and values of the child’s family.

A crucial aspect of a program for a child with Autism is that it provides parents with parent training that helps parents understand the unique educational needs of their children, provides parents and other family members with information about the child’s ongoing development, facilitates an ongoing coordination of intervention between school and home, assists the family in behavior management at home and in the community, and teaches parents the skills necessary to support implementation of the child’s IEP by training them in skills that need to be practiced at home.

For a program for an autistic child to be successful in providing FAPE it is necessary that the program provides parents with regular opportunities to meet with both professionals and parents in special education support groups focusing on Autism’s characteristics and various treatment and educational methods appropriate for dealing with Autism.

The program also needs to insure maximum parental participation by providing regular communication about the child’s progress towards the goals and objectives on the IEP. Beyond this the program should assist parents in accessing community services for autistic individuals such as respite services, in home behavior management assistance, home health care, and transportation. In short the school district should function as a case manager, assisting parents in the coordination of all services needed for the family to support the child in FAPE and in progressing towards functional independence as an adult.

INCLUSION:

When we speak of inclusion we refer to opportunities for those with Autism to interact with non-disabled peers on a regular basis. This does not necessarily mean that the autistic child would or should be educated in a mainstream placement. Rather, it means that there will be regular opportunities for them to interact with non-disabled peers in informal activities such as school trips, lunch, recess and formal activities such as music, art, and computer lab. Moreover, these opportunities need to be structured in a manner that maximizes successful interaction. This means, it may be necessary to provide the no disabled students disability sensitivity training or specific instruction about Autism. In short, the no disabled students need to be given the support and knowledge needed to encourage their understanding of and acceptance of their disabled peers and to engage in meaningful interactions with them. Accordingly, for this to occur, the school district needs to provide training and education about Autism to all the general education teachers and support staff.

TRANSITION PLANNING:

Both professionals and parents need to work collaborative as equals in facilitating transitions from one classroom, program or service delivery system to another, including eventual transition to the larger community, supervised or independent living situations and day treatment, residential or employment settings. Every aspect of this planning should include the student whenever the student is able to attend and participate. Additionally, parents and other interested family members and friends should be included along with the current educational and private professionals and the receiving educational and private professionals. In short, the school system should involve all parties who have a valid concern for the child in the planning process.

Transition planning needs to begin while the student is in the current placement and to provide the student and the family opportunity to visit prospective new settings, meet teachers, observe other students, and ask all their questions before any setting is agreed upon. The planning process should integrate the environmental demands of the potential future placements such as the skills needed to function in the new setting, and whether the child can develop those skills in the current setting before transitioning to the new setting. Transition planning includes preparing the receiving educators and putting in place any supports necessary to ensure that the student will be able to transition successfully from one environment to the other with minimal stress. Once transition support services for the student are agreed upon these should be provided by a special education teacher with specific background in teaching children with Autism.

CHALLENGING BEHAVIORS:

When children with Autism evidence challenging behaviors, parents need to be certain that the school district program their child is placed in incorporates positive behavior supports for the individual child that have been constructed based upon quality functional behavioral assessments. This includes having a school-wide behavioral management system that clearly states expectations for behavior in each setting and employs proactive approaches to avoid behavior problems whenever possible. It also means that crisis intervention strategies should be in place and that all staff should have training in positive behavior management strategies.

The functional behavioral analysis should be employed to direct the design of a program of intervention to diminish the occurrence of unacceptable behaviors. Moreover, the functional behavioral analysis needs to include multiple methods of assessment including frequency observations, interviews with parents, teachers and therapists, as well as functional behavioral scales both in school and at home.

The report of the functional behavioral analysis should identify immediate issues to be addressed such as inability to fall asleep at night, tardiness, and more long term behavioral issues such as negative reactions to sights, sounds or touches. It should identify one or two functions to target and delineate environmental adaptations and accommodations to be employed to minimize the occurrence of these target behaviors.

The functional behavioral analysis report should specify instruction in appropriate skills such as self-regulation; social interaction and communication that will be incorporated into the behavior intervention plan employing positive supports and strategies. The behavioral interventions should focus on the long-range outcomes such as establishing friendships or developing the habit of participating in after school social activities and not be limited to just isolated skills such as not hitting.

COMMUNITY COLLABORATION:

Community collaboration is a essential area of evaluating a program for children with Autism that a parent needs to consider. It is crucial that the program coordinates with community agencies to help parents access the services and supports that their child needs. The goal of the community collaboration is to insure that linking the school and the parents with community resources that will supplement and complement what the school provides the comprehensive services needed by autistic children. The school district needs to help parents define their child’s home and community based needs, such as respite, home health care, transportation, home behavioral support, community social interaction. Once the parents identify the needs, the school program needs to assist the parent in obtaining these services from local, state and federal agencies.

PERSONNEL:

Teachers, teacher aides and assistants, related service providers, school psychologists, administrators, and support staff who interact with an autistic child and serve on the IEP team need to be knowledgeable and skilled related to specific aspects of Autism including the characteristics of Autism, assessment methods for Autism, how to develop an IEP to meet the unique needs and capitalize upon the unique strengths of the individual student, curriculum, instructional methods, adaptations and accommodations methods for Autism, as well as strategies to improve social skills and communication. In addition, all staff needs to be knowledgeable in the area of classroom and school wide behavior management for children with Autism.

To accomplish this staff needs to participate in relevant continuing education including seminars, workshops and consultation with experts each school year in order to foster the further development of the skills and knowledge. Moreover, there needs to be a sufficient ratio of staff to students to insure the child’s safety and adequate progress towards mastery of the IEP goals and objectives.

While not every teacher may participate in the IEP meeting, it is necessary for every teacher and all support personnel who interacts with your child to read your child’s IEP and to have a professional who is familiar with the IEP answer any of their questions regarding implementation. In particular, paraprofessionals should work under the supervision of qualified staff that provides them with direct instruction regarding the instructional methodologies and techniques they are responsible to employ with the autistic child. These support staff also need to have access to ongoing support and technical assistance to address any concerns related to both learning and behavior.

PROGRAM EVALUATION:

Systematic examination of program implementation and impact is needs to be conducted at least annually. This should include the aggregation of the individual child’s outcome in achieving IEP goals and objectives. , As well as the parents’ satisfaction with the program and their child’s progress.

Program evaluation should incorporate assessment of program-wide effectiveness in the area of student’s progress towards mastery of IEP goals as assessed by norm referenced methods, the student’s performance on State assessments. The student’s progress on NCLB assessments, the student’s progress in terms of generalization of skills presented in school, and the student’s progress towards the long term goals of functionally independent living skills.

The program evaluation needs to assess short-term goals either weekly or bi-weekly, intermediate goals at least quarterly and long term goals yearly, as well as longitudinal over at least three-year periods. Throughout the academic year, parents needs to receive regular feedback on their child’s progress towards master of IEP goals based on objective data not just staff’s personal or “professional” opinions as even the most dedicated of professional’s opinions are always subjective and tainted by their personal experiences. Finally, program evaluation needs to include an assessment of the parent’s satisfaction, as they are the consumers who are funding the school district that provides their child’s education.

If you have read this in detail, it must be apparent by now that providing addressing the needs of a child with Autism such as your own child, is a tall order. The law requires that your child be required FAPE and it stipulates that you are the ultimate party responsible for advocating to insure that your child does receive FAPE. Therefore, when you feel that the goals for your child are inadequate or that your child is not making sufficient progress, it is your responsibility to clearly state your objections in writing along with the resolution that your desire. However, in so doing remember the huge task that IDIEA has placed upon the educators who are working with your child and attempt to treat them with respect and understanding of the challenges they face. In other words, advocate for your child, as the law requires you to do, but do so with an attitude of respect and cooperation.

If you need assistance in obtaining an appropriate program for your child, visit my website to schedule a consultation.

Presented as a community service by,

Susan L. Crum, B.S., M.S., Ph.D.
Special Needs Coach
Able2Learn
Email: Able2learn@live.com
Voice and Fax: 863-471-0281
Website: specialeducationsupport.org