Autism and Everyday Executive Function by Paula Moraine

Author:Paula Moraine [Moraine, Paula]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784500894
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Published: 2015-10-18T04:00:00+00:00

A powerful example of the value of preview came one day from a wonderful little boy named Duncan. I was teaching second grade, it was early in the school year, and it was early in the morning. We had been working for under an hour, and I was in the middle of teaching the day’s lesson. Suddenly, there was an ear-splitting, heart-stopping scream in the room. I stopped in mid-sentence and slowly scanned the room to see where this unearthly sound came from and who had made it. Eventually, my eyes settled on Duncan, who was sitting there looking incredibly distressed. I went to him, invited him to join me just outside the classroom door on the deck, and sat down quietly next to him. We sat there for a moment, and then I said, “Can you tell me about it?”

“I just had to do that,” he said.

“Ah,” I said, “can you tell me more?”

Then Duncan said that I hadn’t told him what was coming that day, and that I had to tell what was coming that day. So I agreed to do this better in the future and when we came back in the room, he settled quietly down at his desk. From then on, I always told the students the very first thing in the morning what we were going to be doing that day, and I told them that if any changes came up in the course of the day, I would let them know right away. I also started previewing the next day just before the students went home. Duncan was happy with this arrangement, the other students did not seem to mind hearing about the day’s schedule in advance, and life continued quite happily in the classroom. The daily schedule was always on the board, but for Duncan, the visual schedule did not satisfy him as much as the verbal accounting. I credit Duncan with teaching me a valuable lesson about the value of preview, and have been more mindful and respectful of it ever since.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.