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Technology in the Classroom
By Jeremy Hall
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PALS Autism School Program is very fortunate to have two Smart Boards to use with our students, one in each of the big classrooms. These interactive screens mounted on the walls basically function as giant iPads which the teachers and students can control with their fingertips via the touch screen, resulting in very interactive group sessions. They are used for a wide variety of lessons and activities for all classes, and we even use them to make staff training more valuable. In my classroom, the Level 1 and 2 students use the Smart Board during Morning Meeting, Math, Reading, Social Thinking, and Music classes. For students with little-to-no experience in group instruction, having the Smart Board at the front of the classroom makes it easier to stay engaged and focused on the teacher because of its ability to effectively reaches auditory, visual, and tactile learners. What a powerful teaching tool!
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PALS - Not Just a Place Where Kids Come to Learn!
By Jessie Weyman
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Last year I moved from downtown Toronto to Vancouver to attend the Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) program at North Vancouver’s Capilano University. The program has exceeded my expectations and afforded me the opportunity to work directly with experienced professionals in the field of ABA. This fall I commenced my 500-hour intensive practicum placement at PALS Autism School, under the supervision of Andrea Kasunic. When I am finished my courses and the practicum, I will be eligible to write the exam for becoming a Board Certified Assistant Behaviour Analyst.
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Immediately upon entering the facilities I gathered a strong sense of community. The staff, students, and families that comprise the PALS family are truly exceptional. Over the past 6 months I have witnessed students surpass learning goals and celebrate each other’s successes. I have had the good fortune to assist in program development, observe students in the learning environment, and participate in assessment procedures. Throughout these learning opportunities, the PALS values of providing an individualized, interactive, and inspired educational setting have remained omnipresent. I am truly grateful for this learning opportunity and feel privileged to have such a fantastic group of individuals guiding me in my practicum role.
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How to Be the 100lb M&M (...or How To Build a Positive Working Relationship!)
By Ray Asuncion
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February 20th, 2015 marked another Professional Development Day at PALS Autism School, a time when the students stay home and the staff come to school to learn new concepts or review existing ones to be used in our everyday work. This month we learned how to become the 100lb M&M, a technique otherwise known as pairing. Pairing refers to the process of coupling yourself with reinforcement and it is integral to achieving instructional control (i.e., a positive working relationship). Subsequently, instructional control is vital to student learning and behaviour change. Pairing is always the first step an instructor goes through before working with any student, and in order to ensure pairing takes place, monthly preference assessments are conducted to identify the most current items and activities ranking high in preference for each student.
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Though the concept of pairing is essentially dogma at PALS, we were introduced to Responsivity Training (McLaughlin & Carr, 2005) during the workshop, a concept in which being more responsive to communication attempts by the student are encouraged in order to decrease problem behaviours and increase social interaction. Responsivity training hinges on three core concepts, “Acknowledge, Assess and Address,” hence the “3 – A Rule”. Acknowledge refers to recognizing all communication attempts by the student, such as recognizing that he/she is laughing after the instructor makes a joke. Assess is analyzing the function of the communication. From the previous example, when the student laughs after hearing a joke, the instructor can ask “Do you like my joke?” in order to assess the function of the behaviour (i.e., laughing). Finally, Address refers to identifying the needs or requests of the child whenever it’s feasible to do so. So in our example, if the student says “yes” after the instructor asks if he/she likes the joke, then the instructor can tell another joke to bring out more laughter from the child. Though the “3 – A rule” seems common sense in nature, it serves as a reminder for us to always be on the look-out for new ways to bring fun and happiness into our teaching sessions. That way, when it comes down to getting the hard stuff done, like learning a new math equation, or brushing teeth, we as the instructors will already have instructional control with the student, thus making it more likely that the student will engage in the correct responses and positive behaviour.
McLaughlin D. M., & Carr, E. G. (2005). Quality of rapport as a setting event for problem behavior: assessment and intervention. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 7, 68-91.
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