Bella B

Working with students who have experienced difficulties with formal education requires patience, flexibility and respect. A starting point is to strive to understand the students’ enthusiasms and triggers, the way they experience the world and what they need in order to feel safe. From there, opening channels of communication becomes easier. Learning is then student led.

Working positively with students, families and other stakeholders is crucial to delivering effectively personalised, highly differentiated learning. Working as part of a MDT allows expertise and ideas as well as experience to be shared.

Progress is rarely linear. Recognising triggers, accepting good and bad days and having a bank of resources which students have identified as helpful for self-regulation can all be important.

Having worked both as a private tutor and previously in a college setting with students experiencing EBSA, high levels of anxiety are often present, sometimes accompanied by physical symptoms.

Students with Autism may cope with the day and then go into meltdown, experiencing a deep exhaustion which may feel emotional as well as physical. This ‘Autistic Burnout’ reinforces the importance of working at a pace the student can manage and thinking carefully about the demands that are being placed upon them. It requires flexibility and an understanding that a student’s presentation and capacity may vary considerably.

Autism and a PDA Profile

For some students with ASD/Autism, a predictable order reinforced by visuals, including a lesson plan and chunked activities, can be helpful. Checking feelings using tools such as Zones of Regulation and opportunities for breaks can also be useful.

However, for those with a PDA profile, aspects of this order can be felt to be laden with demands. A trauma-informed approach respects the physical, communication and learning boundaries set by the student as well as safe places that remain the student’s private space. This can extend to limited eye gaze and communication through gesture and visuals as well as spoken language.

For these students it can be useful to offer “I wonder if…” suppositions rather than instructions or direct questions in order to engage without pressure. Allowing students a sense of ownership over their learning and following their lead in its focus can also be important. So if the enthusiasm is leaves one week and toy trains the next, these will be the focus of chat, conjecture and exploration.

Selective Mutism and Communication

Working with students with selective mutism over the years (most recently with a student whose profile included Autism with a PDA profile and school-based trauma),  and having benefitted from a recent CPD on Selective Mutism, it is important not to remark on  verbal responses, as this can itself create an expectation. Conversation and inclusion without expectation of a response works best.  It is best not to ask a student to repeat something they have whispered, which may have ben a considerable effort for them.

My background in speech radio and in a Speech and Language department have informed my interest in how students communicate in different ways and under different circumstances.

Gestalt Language Processing and Echolalia

Having worked with several students whose language acquisition was Gestalt-based, echolalia often seemed most in evidence when a student felt an obligation to make a verbal response without having had sufficient time to process the information and formulate a reply. Often slowly repeating the statement or question sometimes breaking it down using a tool such as Colourful Semantics allowed the student to find an appropriete response.

Attention Deficit Disorders

For students with Attention Deficit Disorders, chunking or breaking tasks down into single steps with visual reminders can be very useful.

Short instructions, acknowledging a source of distraction before refocussing positively, physical learning and opportunities to lead can also be helpful.

Communication

Communication is not all verbal and students may need time, space and alternative means of expressing themselves. Some basic Makaton, Pecs or GRID cards, Symbols and emotions cards can give students ways to express themselves when words are not working. Communication games can be enormously helpful for students who struggle with vocabulary, memory, self-esteem and friendship, for example.

Supporting Learning Engagement

If sessions relate to the interests and experiences of the student and are set at a level at which they can succeed, they are more likely to engage. If the session is structured sensitively, allowing for the specific needs of the student, with visual reinforcements, careful formatting and stepped activities, for example, then they are set up for success.

Focus, Attention and Emotional Regulation

Activities that have generally proved beneficial have included: discussing mood through Zones of Regulation; mindful meditations, and comic-strip cartoons; visual,physical and music warm-ups;  physical breaks and walking; and practical physical tasks. Many of these activities are dependent on the interests and needs of the student. Some practical activities are niche and all need to be safe and age-appropriate.

Above all, I aim to work flexibly and respectfully with the individual student. Building confidence, understanding what helps them feel safe and finding ways into learning through their interests and strengths can be as important as the content of a lesson itself.