Understanding Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism

• Autism is a developmental disability affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction.
• Generally evident before age three, and adversely affects a child's educational performance.
• Characteristics include repetitive activities, stereotyped movements, resistance to change, and unusual sensory responses.
• Verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction are significantly affected.
• Lack of language development and difficulties with pragmatics and nonverbal behaviors are indicators.
• Social difficulties include immature play, difficulty reading social situations, and lack of interest in friendships.
• Resistance to environmental change or changes in daily routines can occur.
• Engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements is another characteristic.
• Abnormalities in posture and stereotyped body movements are examples.
• Unusual responses to sensory experiences can manifest as hyperactivity/impulsivity or sensitivity to sensory stimuli.
• Assessments for autism include the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS-2) and Gilliam Autism Rating Scale (GARS-3).

Emotional Disability (ED)

• Emotional Disturbance is defined as a pupil exhibiting one or more characteristics over time, across settings, and to a marked degree, adversely affecting educational performance.
• Behaviors must be present for at least 6 months and not easily explained by environmental factors.
• An inability to learn not explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors points to emotional disability
• Difficulties may include lack of motivation, inability to learn, and difficulty completing tasks.
• An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers is a sign.
• Isolation or aversive social behavior causing a lack of social acceptance can be indicators.
• Inappropriate behavior under normal circumstances should be considered, taking into account cultural norms.
• A pattern of outbursts, unresponsiveness to intervention, difficulty with emotional regulation, lack of remorse, and self-injurious behavior are types.
• A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression is a characteristic.
• Depressive symptoms, negative thoughts, negative behaviors, and physical manifestations are possible.
• A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems may occur.
• Assess for distressful feelings, maladaptive motor behaviors, verbal behavior, unpleasant physical reactions, psychosomatic complaints, and school phobia.
• Assessments include the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC), Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (RADS), Piers-Harris 3, Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), and The Social Anxiety Scale for Children (SAS-C).
• Intellectual disability (ID) and Specific Learning Disability (SLD) should be ruled out.

Intellectual Disability (ID)

• Intellectual Disability is defined as a student who has significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning with deficits in adaptive behavior, adversely affecting educational performance.
• The student demonstrates significantly below-average intellectual ability via significantly below-average scores.
• Deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors:
  • Communication: Ability to comprehend and express information
  • Home Living: Functioning within a home
  • Community Use: Using community resources appropriately
  • Health and Safety: Maintaining one's health
  • Leisure: Developing leisure and recreational interests
  • Self-Care: Taking care of one's own needs
  • Social Skills: Skills related to social exchanges
  • Self-Direction: Skills related to making choices
  • Functional Academics: Cognitive abilities applied in one's life
  • Work: Skills for holding a job
• Deficits must be manifested during the developmental period (birth through age 18) and adversely affect educational performance.
• Assessments for intellectual abilities include WISC, WASSI, Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities, and CAS-2.
• Measure adaptive behaviors using the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC), Adaptive Behavior Assessment System (ABAS-3), and DP-4.

Other Health Impairment (OHI)

• Other Health Impairment (OHI) is defined as limited strength, vitality, or alertness due to chronic/acute health problems, adversely affecting educational performance.
• A pupil whose educational performance is affected by attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and demonstrates a need for special education.
• A persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity affects student's educational performance.
• Careless mistakes, difficulty sustaining attention, not listening, not following instructions, fidgeting, and being unable to play quietly.
• Several inattentive or hyperactive-impulsive symptoms were present early in life (before 12 years old) and are present in two or more settings (school, home, work/community).
• The student needs to be at a level significantly deviant from same-aged peers
• Assessments include Conners 4th edition.

Specific Learning Disability (SLD)

• Specific Learning Disability is a disorder in one or more basic psychological processes involved in understanding/using language, spoken/written.
• The disability manifests as an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do math.
• Conditions include perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia, and results in a severe discrepancy in one or more academic areas.
• The 8 basic psychological processing areas are:
  • Attention Processing: Ability to focus on tasks or stimuli
    • Assessments: CAS-2, WRAML-2, Children's Memory Scales, TIPS, BRIEF-2, CTOPP-2, Conners-3
  • Visual Processing: Ability to interpret visual stimuli
    • Assessments: TVPS-4, MVPT-4, WRAML 2, TIPS, CAS-2, VMI-6, Bender-2
  • Auditory Processing: Ability to interpret auditory information
    • Assessments: CTOPP-2, TAPS-4, CAS-2
  • Sensory-Motor Processing: Coordination of sensory input with motor responses
    • Assessments: VMI, Bender
  • Phonological Processing: Ability to process sounds in words
    • Assessments: CTOPP
  • Association Processing: Ability to link and integrate information
    • Assessments: CAS-2, WRAML 2, CTOPP-2
  • Conceptual Processing: Ability to understand and apply abstract concepts
    • Assessments: TAPS-3, CAS-2
  • Expressive Processing: Ability to communicate thoughts effectively
    • Assessments: BASC-3
• Exclusionary factors include environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantages, limited English proficiency, limited school experience/poor attendance, emotional disturbance, intellectual disability, and visual, hearing, or motor impairment.
• A severe discrepancy between intellectual ability and achievement is considered.
• Eligibility under SLD includes areas of reading decoding, reading fluency, reading comprehension, listening comprehension, oral expression, written expression, mathematics calculation, and mathematics reasoning.
• A processing deficit is identified by a pattern of below-average scores within a processing area.

Eligibility Categories

• Autism (AUT)
• Deaf-blindness: A combination of auditory and visual impairments
• Deafness: A severe hearing impairment that prevents a student from processing auditory information
• Developmental Delay
• Intellectual disability (ID)
• Specific Learning Disability (SLD)
• Multiple disabilities: A combination of impairments that causes severe educational needs
• Other Health Impairment (OHI)
• Orthopedic impairment: A physical impairment that may impact a student's education
• Speech or Language Impairment (SLI): A communication impairment that may impact a student's education
• Traumatic brain injury: An acquired injury to the brain that may impact a student's education
• Visual impairment: An impairment that may impact a student's education
• Emotional Disturbance (ED)

Behavior

• Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA): Used to understand the function of a behavior and develop interventions.
• Behavior Rating Scales gather input from teachers, parents, and sometimes students (e.g., BASC, Conners Rating Scales).
• Direct Observation: Collecting data on student behavior in different settings.
• Positive Behavior Support (PBS): Teaching and reinforcing desirable behaviors.
• Behavior Intervention Plans (BIP): Developed after an FBA to address problematic behaviors.
• Cognitive Behavioral Interventions (CBI): Helping students change negative thinking patterns.
• Consider biological, environmental, psychological, and educational factors influencing behavior.

FBA Process

1. Define the Behavior: Describe the behavior in specific, observable, and measurable terms
2. Collect Baseline Data: Gather data on frequency, intensity, and duration.
3. Direct Observations: Observe in various settings and record Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence (ABC).
4. Gather Information from Multiple Sources: Collect input from teachers, parents, peers, and the student.
5. Develop Hypotheses: Hypothesize the function of the behavior.
6. Analyze Findings: Summarize the data.
7. Create an Intervention Plan: Develop a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP).
8. Monitor and Evaluate: Track the effectiveness of the intervention.

Crisis Management

1. Contact Admin
2. Safety First: Prioritize the safety of the student and others
3. Use of Crisis Teams: Trained crisis teams can help manage
4. Contact parents
5. If the child needs to be hospitalized call the non emergency line or intervention services
6. Re-entry meeting. Discuss the students stressors, safe spaces/people, create a plan, and adjust interventions if necessary.
7. Fill out an incident report

The Law/Timeline

• IDEA ensures students with disabilities receive a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE).
• Section 504 provides protection against discrimination for students with disabilities.
• Key Timeline Points:
  • Referral to Evaluation: 60 calendar days
  • Evaluation to IEP Development: 30 days after eligibility determination
  • Annual IEP Review: At least once per year
  • Reevaluation: Every three years
  • Transition Plan: By age 16 (or younger as required)