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At Tot Terapia we understand that for a child to develop to their full potential, we need to work with the school and that is why we want to help you!
Thanks to our experience in identifying and treating behavioural problems and developmental disorders, we can now offer you very useful tools to detect these problems in the classroom, as well as specific techniques to deal with them. This will not only accelerate the improvement of the student, but also the learning environment in the classroom.
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In the educational environment, every class, every pupil, every teacher and every classroom are different universes for a child with ASD. The student may be lost, confused and need more time to process and adapt to situations. What he/she will learn in one context will sometimes be difficult to apply in another, no matter how similar the circumstances may seem to us.
Difficulties in their social behaviour are most often due to their misunderstanding of the expectations they have of both the context and the behaviour of other people.
They will need, for example, to learn to maintain interpersonal distance appropriate to the context and intimacy with the person. Peers may complain that they feel persecuted, or that they are being "hit on".
For this reason group work, e.g. often presents an added challenge due to their difficulties in understanding and sharing social relationships, communicating their interests and their inflexibility in planning tasks.
When they learn a rule they are overly strict in their compliance with it, which in real life can lead to many complications, although at a formal level it would be a competence to be valued in many contexts.
They follow their own interests and when they play with others they tend to want to impose their games and ideas.
Difficulties in abstract reasoning or creativity are especially present in their problems in planning, anticipating or programming their own behaviour. It also limits their ability to solve problems or cope with unexpected events.
On the other hand, the difficulty in filtering or selectively attending to stimuli causes them to be perceived simultaneously, producing sensory oversaturation, tension, anxiety and difficulties in maintaining adequate attention and understanding of the situation.
This same lack of sensory regulation affects emotional regulation and makes them feel overwhelmed very quickly, presenting emotionally unregulated and even aggressive behaviour, although it is usually self-aggressive and not so much directed towards others.
They find it difficult to wait, even if they know that delay means gratification. They tend to be children who interrupt others, find it difficult to take turns and are very impatient. They tend not to think about the consequences.
They tend to act without thinking, or answer without having listened to the question to the end.
They find it difficult to follow instructions.
They find it difficult to control the expression of their feelings. They are easily overwhelmed and can easily explode by displaying aggressive behaviour: shouting, swearing, throwing objects, hitting, pushing, etc. When they calm down after these episodes, they tend to be very remorseful children and are able to compromise and improve when they understand what is "expected of them".
They do not pay attention to details, and sometimes overlook important information, leading them to make mistakes in tasks.
Sometimes they appear to be deep in thought, but at other times they appear to be attentive or listening, when in fact they are not. Difficulties in focusing and finishing tasks.
They need more time to encode or decode and process information. Therefore, they take longer to complete a task, and their reaction time is also slower.
They often start several things at once, but sometimes don't finish any of them. They are easily distracted and lose things.
It is about explaining to the child or group of pupils that they can use a system of emotional communication by colours, when they are starting to become active. Green means that all is well, we are calm and collected and can communicate and explain how we feel. Caution yellow refers to a state of excitement, discomfort, or the beginning of a loss of control. Red is used to express that we feel overwhelmed, out of control. This is the moment when inappropriate behaviour occurs. The adult's response will change with each colour. In green, we will reinforce the behaviour, in yellow we will accompany the child to prevent him/her from going to red. In red, the child must be restrained, sometimes accompanying him/her to a safe, secluded space where he/she can stay for a while and calm down again. (You can draw and paint a traffic light together or take a model already illustrated on the Internet) .
It is a technique that uses the analogy of the tortoise, which withdraws into its shell when it feels threatened. It is explained to the child that whenever he/she feels threatened or cannot control his/her impulses or emotions, he/she can shrink and close into his/her body and put his/her head in his/her arms. A story can be used first, to exemplify the story and then the relaxation technique to help the child come out of his/her shell.
Practice long, deep breathing using metaphors such as trying to blow out a candle that is further and further away. Or muscle relaxation by tensing and relaxing various muscle groups while helping them to focus on the different sensations they have if a muscle is tense and if it is relaxed.
