William O Connor School

ABA SESSIONS

It is a place for children with different kinds of disabilities, ages 2 to 5. There are two groups of autistic children. One group is for low functioning children and another one for more advanced.. The second one has 8 children and 4 staff who take care of them. The staff of that school is very friendly and helpful. A class setting doesn't look like an ordinary one. It looks more like a learning center. The room is separated into a few parts by dividers of a height of children. One part with mats and pillows is adjusted for rest and sleeping.
 At that time when I visited, teachers studied the ABA program with children. Three different teachers with 3 different children sat at the different tables and taught children face to face. For every right answer a child got a prize; some kind of food or toy. Unlike the same program I watched in another school, those children seemed to enjoy doing that. (When I watched that program in another school it was frightening. Children were forced to do that, so they cried and screamed. The teacher held them and attracted their attention by seducing them with food, so the center of everything was food,  not the right answer. Children struggled to get the food by any means. The teacher struggled to get the right answer at all costs. The whole picture looked very depressing).
At this place children seemed to enjoy giving the right answers and getting teacher's praise and delights, and besides, something material in the shape of food or toy. They worked like a team.
On one table a boy's task was matching the shapes. The teacher put 3 different shapes  in front of him: square, circle, and triangle. She gave him a circle and asked him to match it. She mixed them up on the table and every time the boy put his circle in the right place. The same he did with triangles and squares. He enjoyed doing that and getting delight from his teacher. I didn't even notice anything about material praise. Another boy at another table wasn't so successful. He had to match a red circle with two choices: red and yellow. This boy wasn't involved very much in doing that. The teacher tried to get his attention by waking him up, to get him out by showing him tempting food, insisting on matching, shaking him out and talking to him. The boy did the job.
Sometimes he got to the right place, sometimes not. The teacher praised him a lot and gave him chips. She just waited trying to help him to put the circle in the right place. The boy was happy and smiled, when he got to the point, when he didn't he wasn't very upset, just indifferent. All sessions with one child took about 10-15 minutes.
Meanwhile children who were free from lessons, played in the third part of the room. There weren't many toys around, just some small cars. Children playing with them but mostly by themselves. Nobody looked for a company.
When the two boys finished their sessions teachers called them for circle time. They made them sit in a row, 3 of them, and 2 teachers began to work with them showing them different pictures and trying to get the answers to what those pictures represented.
Unfortunately, I couldn't observe that interesting activity, because at that time a girl named Samantha had her ABA session. Samantha is 5 years old. She attended school for 2 years and had already made big progress. She speaks, answers some questions.
The teacher asked her age, address, which school she is going to, who her teachers are. Every time she gave the right answer she was very happy. Teachers praised her with her favorite pretzels. I asked the teacher what happened, if she changed the question leaving the same meaning. So we tried to change. "Who are your teachers?" on "What is the name of your teachers?" She gave the right answer. I asked the teacher if she could answer questions if there are no pretzels around. She said, yes, she answers those questions at any time to different people.
The main philosophy of that teaching is to follow the child's direction and try to improve or change it very carefully and slowly. For example, if a child lines up something the teacher can pro maybe just supply him with the stuff and prolong the line, but not ruin and change the child's intention. The first goal for the teacher is to create a bond with the child, to get his response, to make him react. If a child refuses to work or to do his task, the teacher tries to make him involved by any means but if he really opposes, they don't insist, and don't force the child.

ANOTHER CLASS

Another class I observed had a bigger room and was separated by curtains in two parts. So, I observed the session of 2 little boys with one teacher. One of the boys, named Antony, around 3 years old, a boy with huge eyes, played with play dough and was deeply involved in his job. The teacher worked with another boy. He definitely worked for the praise. He wanted to play with a horse and a horseman. But he could not get it  until he had his assignment done. The teacher asked him to touch different things like a ball, a piece of a block, a cup, etc. When he did that she gave him a horse. He did  it very well and always right, but he obviously didn't like to work too much and tried to get what he wanted, avoiding the task but displaying his indignation.
He tried to take the horse away by force from the teacher, he showed his irritation by getting under the teacher's seat or stamping his feet but everything was to no avail. The teacher remained calm and insisting
"Please, sit down  and do the work, touch the ball, etc.!"
So, the only way for the  boy to get his horse was to do his work. He did it perfectly, got the teacher's approval, praised and his toys. After that he hugged and kissed his teacher.

HARD STUDENTS

Meanwhile, another boy worked with another teacher at another table and their session wasn't successful. He showed very bad behavior, screamed, didn't want to do anything, probably he wanted everybody to leave him alone.
As that teacher explained to me later, the boy really was in a bad mood and so not to prolong his bad behavior, she changed his activity and gave him sensory stuff (the box with the rice-grain). It calmed him down and the boy seemed to enjoy playing with rice.
Sometimes in a process of working teachers use sign language with children
Back to the first teacher she finished with the first boy. He played with his earned horse and seemed very happy. It was the turn of a big-eyed Antony. The teacher sat him on a chair in front of her and began to give his different orders. The boy obviously was upset. He followed the orders but very unwillingly and didn't want any praise. The teacher offered him a full box of different cookies or candy for choice, but he didn't want anything,  but drink. From time to time Antony looked at me (straight to my eyes, very good eye contact) and his eyes were on the edge of tears. I asked the teacher maybe he was upset because of my present, maybe he doesn't like or afraid of strangers. She said  “no”. Really, when later they went outside he held my arm willingly. Later the teacher told me that Antony is a very sensitive boy (he looks so fragile) and cannot stand much noise. When there is too loud noises in the room somebody has to take him out of the room.
So the teacher didn't succeed too much with Antony that day. Although he didn't resist her orders, he was obviously in the wrong mood doing that. So the teacher ceased the work , entertaining boys with bubbles making them smile. Then everybody went to the park.