lack of reinforcement

[Guest guest]

Hi Terry,

This child sounds a lot like my daughter prior to implementing our Verbal

Behavior program. My first question though is... does she act the same way at

home? Or does she find some things reinforcing there?

My gut reaction is that if this is her first school experience, she is probably

scared to death!!! No reinforcer is probably strong enough to overcome that

fear at this point.

My kids always needed to learn something one on one prior to in a group, and

sometimes it took quite a while before they could do any activity in a group

setting.

My advice would be (and I do not know if it would be plausible or not) if she is

a little more responsive in her safe home environment, then go to her home and

pair with her there. This could take awhile but it would be worth it. If fear

is the problem, she will need someone whom she feels safe with at school to help

her get through it.

Then I would try to start teaching her one on one from the ABLLS in the safe

environment. Then I would slowly work on her comfort level in the school.

Things we did to help my kids follow:

1) visit the school/classroom when no one else is there (we had to start with

short visits and then increase the time) explore the classroom and it's contents

with the child so she knows where everything is -usually during school they

aren't allowed to touch the toys unless it is the proper time.

2) once she is comfortable with that step, visit the school with only the

teacher there and let them build a relationship

3) go to the school and take pictures of the kids in her class going through the

daily routine and make her a book about school. No need to add words to the

story if you don't want to. Just talk about the pictures as you or Mom go

through the book with her. Go through the book a couple times a day or more for

a couple weeks before trying to attend school.

4) At school, she can use the book the first few weeks to look at during the

school day as a sort of schedule so she learns to anticipate the routine. But

be sure to fade the book out as soon as possible. The first year we did this

with my daughter she used the book at school for about a month and then didn't

need it anymore. The second year, she only needed it for two weeks. The third

year she didn't need a book at all.

Now we had an extremely cooperative school district and we did this whole school

desensitization process over the summer before school actually started.

Our school has also had some kids only attend for an hour or two a day and then

slowly increase the time as the child becomes comfortable. If you did that

though, I would really want the child to have a home program in place so that

teaching could begin.

My 7 year old has no problem attending school at this point, but she is still a

very early learner so only minimal skills are expected of her in the group

setting of class. The bulk of her day is spent one on one in her own little

classroom with a therapist working on ABLLS skills. (Both NET and IT) It sounds

like this set up would be best for the child you are working with too.

As for reinforcer effectiveness, if you find out why she is so unresponsive

(most likely this unresponsiveness is being reinforced somehow) and take care of

it she should be ready to learn to like things.

I hope this helps!!

-Kim

Mom to Cady 9 asd, Hayley 7 asd, Corey 5 as