Yati 1-2-3

Yati was an 11-year-old girl who attended the House day-school. She has autism. She was non-verbal and does not utilize any form of communication (sign language or picture cards). I was new to special education. As an assistant teacher in the intermediate classroom, one of my job was to teach Yati mathematics. So everyday I would sit with Yati for about 15 minutes with two sandpaper cards. Sandpaper cards are cards with embossed numbers on them. It’s supposed to help learners as it incorporates a tactile component to the learning of numbers. Anyway, there I was with Yati sitting beside me, the cards are on the table and I’ll go:

“Yati, one, touch one” (And I’ll have her trace her finger along the sandy 1)
“Yati, two, touch two” (And I’ll have her trace her finger along the sandy 2)
“Yati, take 1″
“Yati, give me 2″ (And at this time, she would randomly hand me a card)

But that’s not the focus of this post. As I sat with her through the 15 minutes, she would play with the curtain or push away the cards. Occasionally she would hit my arm and I would used the ruler on her palm. Corporal punishment was used to control the students at the House and I was a new “teacher” who didn’t know better. So during the 4 months I was at the House, that’s what Yati and I did during her 15 minutes of mathematics. And at the end of my time there, she did not learn which card was 1 and which was 2.

What would I do differently now?

Her disruptive behavior (well to me it was a problem, probably not for her) was a form of communication. If I were to conduct a functional behavioral assessment (FBA) to determine the function of the behavior, I would most probably come to the conclusion that the function was escape. She was trying to escape the boring 15 minutes of me shoving cards at her that made no sense to her whatsoever. Whenever she pulled at the curtain, I would stop the “give me 1, give me 2″ and it’s probably more fun for her to make me flustered and angry anyway.

But I won’t really need to go towards function of the problem behavior. The problem was simple. Her “academic” curriculum was not functional at all. Here was a girl who did not know how to communicate. She hit, she cried, and she kept quiet. I believe time is better spent teaching her to communicate: yes, no, I want this, help me, etc.

Buzzwords for this intervention:
Functional behavioral assessment (FBA)
Functional communication training (FCT)