Learning from Books When Your Kid Could Care Less:
Classical Education and Autism
Ingrid is a homeschooling mom of three sons ages 10, 7, and 5. She blogs at http://www.renegade-scholar.com about homeschooling children with autism and homeschooling in general.
When my children (T and SC) first refused to listen to a story, let alone even look at a book, my first reaction was to give it time. “When they’re ready, they’ll allow it,” I thought.
However, time passed and they never came around. They never asked to be read to and when we would try they would squirm and struggle to get away. If we let them walk around the room while we read, they would get rowdy and it would escalate to the point where no one could hear what was being said. T was diagnosed with autism at age 4 and then two years later SC was diagnosed at age 3.
I’d always heard that autistics liked books, many of them teaching themselves how to read before the adults in their lives got around to teaching them how. However, once T turned 5, I wasn’t comfortable waiting any longer. After all I’d decided to shift from an unschooling style to a Well-Trained Mind inspired curriculum for my eldest son, K (now age 10). I had to think about how to give my barely verbal children a classical education. The key to that of course was getting them to tolerate, if not embrace, being read to, as well as to spark an interest in books themselves. Whether they would teach themselves to read or I did it, an interest in books seemed to be a prerequisite.
I basically did three things in order to encourage my children to want to look through books and like being read to. The first step was to address any sensory issues, the second was to create interest, and the third and ongoing step is to build tolerance.
Addressing the Sensory Issues
When dealing with a child who doesn’t like books and/or being read to, first look at the possible sensory reasons for the dislike. For instance, a child with sensory issues that manifest visually may be over stimulated with bright colorful visuals; in this case, you would need to focus on books with less colorful or more pastel illustrations. A child who tends to be under stimulated visually, on the other hand, will need books with brightly colored illustrations. With both my children it appeared that they were over-sensitive to sound- especially the sound of the human voice. T (now age 7) was so sensitive to it that he shied away whenever spoken to- especially when the voice was high-pitched.
Once I realized that my children were over-sensitive to sound, I read with a deeper, less animated voice and found that they ran off less. However, their attention span with books was still very low, and they would still get rowdy and fidgety while I read.
The next step was to implement calming techniques so that the children could be more regulated and more willing to sit still to look at the book. Some ideas I found useful were brushing the skin with the Wilbarger Brushing Technique, and using a weighted blanket/lap pad or weighted vest. There is also a “nubby” seat for kids who have trouble sitting in a chair, as well as a hug vest. Some kids are more calm if they can feel the deep pressure of something tight against their bodies. Some children get very organized (able to attend and with a more even arousal level) with the help of swinging as well. I use the brushing technique and the hug vest with SC (now age 5) at the start of any seatwork and find that his attention and patience for listening are much higher.
Sensory issues are basically determined through observation. The Out of Sync Child: Recognizing and Coping with Sensory Integration Dysfunction by Carol Stock Kranowitz is a good resource for determining what a child’s sensory issues may be; it also provides guidance on how to adapt the learning environment to suit the child’s needs.
Creating Interest
Once you’ve addressed the sensory issues, you are able to move on to the “creating interest” stage.
A useful tool for me was More Than Words: Helping Parents Promote Communication and Social Skills in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder by Fern Sussman. With it, you determine your child’s communication stage from among 4 categories- the Own Agenda stage, the Requester stage, the Early Communicator stage, and the Partner stage. Determining this stage will help you decide what kinds of communication goals you are aiming for when reading with your child. For instance, if your child is in the Early Communicator stage, you can expect your child to learn to point to or label pictures, answer yes/no questions about the pictures in the book, and follow a story with a simple plot.
I noticed that my children really didn’t care for drawings or cartoons on paper, even if the cartoons featured were from some of their favorite movies. What my kids did show a lot of interest in were actual photographs. I also determined that they were at the Own Agenda stage when it came to books. The main goals at this stage are to hold the book correctly (upside up etc…), open and close the book, look at one or two pictures, and finally to grasp that pictures represent real things (Sussman p. 344). Based on the suggestions in More than Words for this stage, I made a simple 8 page book featuring photos of some of my kids’ favorite things. I put one large picture on each page with the label for the picture right underneath. We would then read this book. We would look at the picture, label it and I would run my finger under the word while reading it. The homemade book worked wonderfully. After that my children started pulling picture books off the shelf and flipping through the pages. Their attention was still rather fleeting at first but we made progress as time went on.
Borrowing an idea from Before 5 In a Row by Jane C. Lambert, I made animal classification cards for the books I had planned on reading with them. To make animal classification cards you find pictures of the animals named in the book then cut them out and glue them onto index cards. You write the name of the animal on the back of it. I laminated our cards because T could get really rough with paper, and I wanted the cards to outlast him so that I could use them with SC. I would also write what kingdom, genus and species the animal belonged to as well as its scientific name. I did this for my eldest’s benefit. If I was going though the trouble of laminating these, I might as well make it useful for an older child as well. K is a visual person so the cards were useful when we were studying the animal kingdom.
The animal classification cards seemed to add interest to the books we were reading. When we came across the animal in the book, I would show them the corresponding card. Later I would ask the child to give me the card for the animal that the book was talking about. Depending on how extensive your collection is, these cards can help the student sort animals into different categories.
I continue to carry this idea of a “realistic” visual to other aspects of school too, such as when sharing poems and songs.
Building Tolerance
The last phase to implement when you are getting into books is building tolerance.
If your kids are like mine, you need to build tolerance for sitting still and listening. I couldn’t expect to read every single word on the page or I would lose them. I’ve had to shorten stories, skip words and sometimes I’ve had to be satisfied with just labeling one item on the page.
Another tolerance building tool had to do with reinforcers. When I first began structured schooling with T and SC, I had to make it worth their while to sit next to me at the table and allow me to direct an activity. First I had to create a signal for the space that meant it was time to sit down and work with me. I did this because we homeschool in the same room we eat, play with toys and watch TV in. I put hooks in the ceiling and hung a sheet that I’d stuck grommets to around the table where we would be working. The sheet served as a partition around the school area keeping us in an enclosed space and minimizing possible distractions. I made sure to use a light colored sheet so that natural light could pass through it.
Using a picture schedule works too.
The first activity we began with I called “The Token Game.” I put poker chips in a basket and handed it to my child. I would then ask for a token. When he would hand me a token, I would give him back an M&M until all the tokens were exchanged. Once they got the hang of that I started some simple ABA style exercises from Behavioral Intervention for Young Children With Autism: A Manual for Parents and Professionals by Catherine Maurice, in which I reward them with a token for doing what I asked. For instance, one program we do asks them to imitate my gross motor movements; another has them touch a body part on command. At the end of the exercise, we would exchange tokens for M&Ms. These exercises got them used to listening to my voice in order to get information about what is expected from them.
After the children seemed to understand the concept of listening for information, I started adding activities to do before the token game. My kids loved The Token Game, so when they saw me hanging up the school curtain they very quickly went to their seats and waited to do work. Since the school curtain and the token game were associated, they tolerated doing a sit down activity before playing the token game. A simple, “We do the tokens after we read this book,” sufficed.
The next activity we began was a counting puzzle. After some time I added reading a book to them (following Sussman’s tips for each child’s developmental level). Over time I kept adding an activity, always leaving The Token Game for the end. Because they really wanted those M&Ms they would tolerate the activities that preceded the token game. If they gave up on seat work before the token game was played, the school time was over and there would be no M&Ms. This payoff was extremely motivating for them and so their tolerance kept growing. Now, reading a book is an anticipated part of seat work and they enthusiastically pay attention to the books, labeling things they see and pointing to things in answer to something asked.
Going through all of these steps is a significant time investment (think of it as a “Pre pre-school”) but quite worth it when you realize that your child is gaining the skills needed to extract knowledge and entertainment from books.
