Child Profile

In order to teach children with ASDs effectively one must be cognisant of their profile: learning stage, learning style, language ability, comprehension ability, and special interests (Smith, 2003; Gray, 2010). One aim of this learning system is to help caregivers to create profiles for the children that they are teaching and thereby tailor educational resources to suit their individual profiles. The process used involves the answering of a series of questions on the child’s capabilities similar to assessment methods currently applied by teachers in primary schools (ABLLSTM-R, VP-MAPP) or by practitioners in their clinics (ADI, ADOS). Some of these protocols are quite complex (eg the ABLLSTM-R model has 93 pages of skills which the caregiver must score) and involve days of intensive and often expensive training. Conscious also of the huge time commitment involved for teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) in using these instruments to assess children’s abilities, the researcher designed a much

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simpler tool, based on best practice, which extracts relevant information sufficient for the purpose of selecting appropriate educational resources for the children concerned. Although the number of questions has been reduced considerably there is no shortcut to profile creation (Table 5.4). In order for the profile to reflect the child’s abilities caregivers will still need to spend some time reflecting on their knowledge of the children before supplying the answers.

However it is possible for caregivers to create a child’s profile based on their prior knowledge of one skill and return to complete the questions on the other skills at a later stage. With regards to language style caregivers are only required to select an option from a dropdown menu. Similarly if children have some special interests these may be added to the profile but this choice is optional.

Table 5.4 Child Profiling Tool

Child Profile

Total Questions

Learning Stage Initiating Interaction 12

Conversation 12

Play 12

Reciprocation 12

Problem Solving 12

Reading non-verbal cues 12

Mind Reading 12

Self-Control 12

Self-Awareness 12

Behaviour Management 12

Learning Style 4 options dropdown menu

Language Ability 10 questions 10

Comprehension Ability 10 questions 10

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5.6.1 Assessment of Learning Stage

The system confirms the child’s learning stage from the responses the caregiver gives to twelve questions (Appendix IX) which were based on Bellini’s criteria for skill acquisition (2008). The more affirmative responses recorded the more competent the child is deemed to be using that particular social skill. Thus children are categorized by the system as at either the novice, intermediate, advanced or acquired learning stage as appropriate (Table 5.5).

Table 5.5 Modified Stages of Skill Acquisition (Bellini, 2008) Learning Stage Value Characteristics of Learner

Novice 1 and 2 1. Needs a great deal of thinking and working out to complete task

2. Easily distracted

3. Requires assistance to complete task 4. Makes frequent errors

5. Completes tasks slowly

6. Requires instant feedback on task performance

Intermediate 3 and 4 1. Becomes more independent but still requires a great deal of thought when completing tasks

2. Less easily distracted

3. May hesitate between steps of the task, as child attempts to recall the procedure

4. Makes fewer errors than novice learners; fluency is increased

5. Performs tasks inconsistently

6. Requires instant feedback on task performance

Advanced 5 and 6 1. Completes tasks independently with little thought 2. Stays focussed on task

3. Does not hesitate between steps of a task

4. Typically performs without errors; Fluency is significantly increased

5. Is able to complete multiple tasks at the same time

6. Able to complete tasks across various settings and persons

Acquired 7 Skill has been acquired but practice is required to

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5.6.2 Assessment of Learning Style

The VARK system developed by Fleming and Mills (1992) has been adopted to gauge whether the child is a visual, aural, read/write or kinaesthetic learner. Caregivers select the child’s learning preference from a dropdown menu. Literature indicates that caregivers can make a key contribution to understanding children’s preferences through observation (Kirk et al, 2012). However it is recommended that caregivers when in doubt select the visual learning style which is the one most commonly associated with this condition, as it is well documented that children with autism have strong visual skills (Weiss & Harris, 2001).

5.6.3 Assessment of Language Ability

In order to ascertain the child’s language ability ten questions were formulated from four existing inventories used to assess expressive language development in typical children4. A rubric was devised based on the milestones that a child with language deficits should be able to achieve by age 7 (Appendix X). Each question is of equal importance and has been assigned equal weighting. Therefore the greater the number of positive responses recorded the higher the child’s language ability (Table 5.6).

Table 5.6 STAK Language Ability Assessment

Language

Ability Value Characteristics of Learner Very good 9 and 10

1. Can Child say quite complex sentences of 5-6 words?

2. Can Child give directions, instructions or explanations?

3. Can Child ask questions using who? what? where? and

when?

4. Can Child tell simple stories, sing songs and recite

nursery rhymes?

5. Does Child use modulation ie stress and pitch correctly?

eg I want the blue pencil now!

6. Does Child produce most vowel sounds and some

consonant sounds correctly?

7. Can Child apply rules of grammar? eg plural of boy is

boys

8. Can Child combine words to form acceptable phrases?

eg transform the sentence Mammy is working to Is Mammy working?

9. Does Child have a good vocabulary? ie 1500-2000 words

10.Can Child use four prepositions (eg in, out on and under),

pronouns (eg I, you, me, mine), adjectives (eg big, little, long, short) and adverbs (eg fast, slow, quietly, gently)?

Good 7 and 8

Average 5 and 6

Poor 3 and 4

Very poor 1 and 2

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5.6.4 Assessment of Comprehension Ability

Similarly the system determines the child’s comprehension ability from responses that caregivers give to ten questions (Table 5.7) formulated from tests conducted by the same four professional bodies5 to measure receptive language ability in children (Appendix XI).

Table 5.7 STAK Comprehension Ability Assessment

Comprehension Ability

Value Characteristics of Learner

Very good 9 and 10 1. Does Child listen to what is being said and understand everything without difficulty?

2. Can Child understand and interpret complex instructions? 3. Can Child listen to the content of questions and respond

appropriately?

4. Can Child listen to a story and then relate the contents of the story in his/her own words?

5. Does Child understand abstract concepts eg love, freedom, happiness, sadness and hope?

6. Does Child understand figures of speech eg it is raining cats and dogs?

7. Does Child use the context to derive the meaning of words eg plane/plain, pair/pear?

8. Does Child understand that objects can be categorised eg things we eat, things that fly, etc?

9. Does Child understand functions and features of items? eg when child is asked to put all his toy animals away that the child understands that a pig, dog, cat and tiger are all in the animal class

10.Does Child understand a good number of words? ie 15,000-20,000?

Good 7 and 8

Average 5 and 6

Poor 3 and 4

Very poor 1 and 2

5.6.5 Assessment of Special Interests

Since research has shown that including children’s special interests in learning content can help to keep children on task, a facility has been included in the system to allow caregivers to select topics that children are fascinated with. When retrieving resources from the Activity Centre caregivers may opt to have material relating to the child’s interests included with the recommended educational resources or not.

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