"If the child is talking to himself like this, what should I do with him?" 🎶

Phase 3:

"Children sit by themselves on Zoom! Try your best to respond to the teacher. Even if you get the answer wrong, it doesn't matter. Just attend class and listen to the book. Parents can sit next to WFH. They only do the logistics, IT and material management, and help when necessary."🤩

Ultimate goal: to step back into the background🛋

If the children's interaction performance in the previous stage was satisfactory and the class content can be roughly mastered, parents will gradually reduce their participation and extend the children's independent concentration. The best thing is to be able to participate in a Zoom meeting with a large class of students and complete the class by yourself. 🎓

～～～～

⏰ Compared with one-on-one Zoom, the teacher has fewer opportunities to ask our children questions and listens to books for a longer time. When the teacher's focus is no longer on him alone, and the "density" of children's participation in the class is low, the fewer responses are needed, the longer the free time, the harder it is to maintain concentration, the children will be easily distracted, and the children with autism will have more opportunities to engage in self-stimulation behaviors to entertain themselves.

✈️ For children who have basic self-control ability, parents can keep using the second-stage "stay focused" method to remind them to be quiet. After all, in reality, you should be quiet and listen to books in class. But keep in mind the additional, unnatural tips like picture cards and ways to save stickers. When children are able to control themselves, they need to gradually reduce the warning, because the same reminder hardware may not be available in real life.

Here are some examples of ways to reduce the token system (sticker storage): increasing the conditions and difficulty of obtaining stickers, and requiring longer self-control time. The mode that changes the prize to stickers: The cartoon character Velcro evolves into a circular tick-tick. Pictures can fade away, becoming more low-key and inconspicuous.

⚠️ All assistance prompts need to be pre-set with a reduction plan. Try not to start using them if they are not necessary to avoid relying too much on additional assistance and preventing children from learning to be independent.

💭 However, if the child starts to engage in self-stimulation behavior, you can use a timed method and use simple questions every few seconds to guide the child to focus on the teacher. For example: What does the teacher bring out? What did the teacher say first? Are you following along? At the beginning, the frequency is relatively high and the interaction is maintained strong. When it starts to calm down and the children begin to focus their attention back on the teacher, they can start to slowly decrease and return to the identity of the shadow.

～～～～～

🛠 I.T. Technical issues, network delays and issuance issues:

wait. . . Similarly, it is in standby mode, and it is easy to enter self-stimulating behaviors for self-entertainment again. In this case, parents can take a more active intervention, take the initiative to talk verses, and play for a while. The main content revolves around the questions that the teacher is doing, so that the children can maintain the status of the Zoom class.

⏳ After you regain your senses, you can guide the child and practice waiting with him. This is a good opportunity to practice waiting. After being prompted to "wait a moment," praise the child for waiting patiently every short period of time (ranging from tens of seconds to a minute or so). In the middle, you can also gently pat the child's shoulders and hands, sweep his back, and praise him for still sitting still and waiting together. The class will continue until the teacher signals.

～～～～～

🏫 Ability issues:

Transitioning from one-on-one to group learning requires additional strengthening of group skills and social cognition even in the real world. Some of the things that may appear in Zoom classes include:

👩🏫 Group Skills: The teacher didn’t name names, when should we answer questions first? For example, does the child clearly understand that the teacher said, "All the children are together... everyone is together..." and he himself is one of them?

Observation ability: Sometimes the teacher does not clarify the question, but other students respond together? Do children know how to follow the trend?

👉 During Zoom: This type of problem requires active assistance at the right time. You can also use gestures (pat the child, point to the screen) to prompt "the time to answer", and point to other children to prompt them to do it together. But more of it requires practice after class. Parents will be more familiar with the teacher's questioning mode after joining Zoom. After class, they will use more keywords, play together as a family, and practice more responses. Or bring it back for one-on-one training to break it down and practice understanding.

🎁 In the end, the children and adults worked hard to finish the class, and everyone deserves a reward! Please reward each other, have a happy parent-child time and play for a while, or eat together and take a break!

～～～～～

🔎 After all, the above refers to individual examples. Every child is different, and the reality is more complicated. You may ask, "The child can't even sit still, so what does it mean?"

The characteristic of ABA behavior analysis treatment is that it is individualized and respects the characteristics of each autistic child. I hope this series of articles will help you analyze it from multiple angles. It is not just a method that can be followed. You can develop prompting strategies according to your child's current situation. 😄

Fight the epidemic with you, cheer for you! ✊