Parent Perspective
Although Todd’s parents are concerned with Todd’s attention-seeking behavior at school, they are more concerned that Todd does not understand others’ emotions and responds inappropriately when others are upset. Todd has two older siblings, and he often dismisses them when they are upset and doesn’t seem to know how to respond. For example, Todd’s older sister was crying because her number one college pick rejected her. When she told Todd what happened, he responded by asking her if she knew what was for dinner. Todd’s parents understand that recognizing others’ feelings and sympathizing is difficult for individuals with autism, but they feel it’s important that Todd learns these skills.
Mr. Zamarrón’s Perspective
Todd’s teacher, Mr. Zamarrón, has similar concerns. He notices that Todd engages in inappropriate behavior to get attention in class. He will shout out jokes or make rude comments about the teacher. Todd’s teachers have tried sending him to the office and giving him detention, but Todd continues to engage in attention-seeking behavior despite punitive consequences. Generally, Todd does well in school but Mr. Zamarrón worries that his behavior might restrict his access to certain educational settings and limit his progress.
Mr. Zamarrón has also observed that sometimes Todd responds inappropriately in new situations and does not understand the consequences of his actions. For example, there was a small kitchen fire at his school and the students had to evacuate the building. Todd saw a friend of his in another line and ran across the hallway to talk to him. He didn’t understand that leaving his teacher during an emergency could be unsafe, and he was confused when he received an office referral for his behavior.
Hear Mr. Zamarrón share more about Todd:
Supporting Skills
Showing empathy
Todd wants to socialize and relate to peers, but he doesn’t seem to know how. He also becomes easily frustrated with others. Todd is generally a happy kid, and he relates well to others when they match his mood. However, he will walk away from or ignore peers when they are upset, even if they tell him exactly how they feel. Todd has told Mr. Zamarrón that he doesn’t understand why he needs to talk to others when they are sad if he didn’t do anything to make the peer upset.
Similarly, Todd has limited tolerance for others when he feels they are being annoying. Todd is generally very direct in his communication, and he will simply yell at peers to “stop it” or “go away.” For example, a peer was tapping her pencil on her desk as she worked and Todd yelled, “Stop making sounds with your pencil!” This startled the peer and caused her to cry.
Changing strategies in the face of unexpected circumstances
Although attending to social rules are an area of weakness, Todd has learned a number of general rules that he follows consistently. Todd used to be very messy, but his teachers worked with him on developing organizational systems. Todd now knows to put papers from different classes in their respective folders, and he takes about a minute at the end of each class period to organize his papers. However, Todd refused to leave his papers on his desk during the recent emergency fire evacuation. He became very upset and screamed, “I have to put these away first!” to his teacher.
Todd is also very rigid about due dates for assignments and always turns homework in on time. He doesn’t understand that sometimes a person may need to turn in an assignment late because of life circumstances. For example, Todd’s grandfather was recently hospitalized for a heart attack, and Todd’s family spent one school evening at the hospital. Todd forgot to bring his backpack and couldn’t work on homework at the hospital. His parents told him that they would help him email his teachers, and that his teachers would understand if he needed an extra day because of the family emergency. However, Todd insisted he finish the homework and stayed up until 1:00 a.m. working.
Todd participated in virtual reality social skills instruction to practice his critical thinking and problem solving skills. Mr. Zamarrón worked to help him generalize the skills he learned in real-life settings. Click on the links below to see how Mr. Zamarrón developed a lesson for each skill.
Todd’s Lesson Plans
Recognizes Another’s Feelings and Shows Empathy (Affection) Appropriately
During VOISS lessons, Todd learned to recognize when someone is sad, and how to affirm the person’s feelings (e.g., “That hasn’t happened to me, but I can see why you are sad”), and offer to help (e.g., “Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?”). ...
Handles Annoyance
During VOISS lessons, Todd learned that he can leave the area when he is annoyed with a peer or he can nicely ask the peer, “Can you please stop [specific behavior]?” Further, Todd learned that if a peer doesn’t stop when he asks, he can walk away and find another...
Seeks Attention Appropriately
During VOISS lessons, Todd learned to raise his hand and say, “Excuse me, [Mr./Ms. Teacher’s Name], can I talk to you for a minute?” Before these lessons, Todd had often made rude comments during class that disrupted the learning environment. During VOISS training,...
Knows When a Rule Doesn’t Work and Knows When to Change Strategies
During VOISS lessons, Todd learned to identify situations where rules don’t work and to change strategies appropriately. He learned that rules are meant to help us and those around us, but some rules are okay to break in certain circumstances. Specifically, he...
Identifies Consequences and Evaluates Responses to Situations
During VOISS lessons, Todd learned to pause for five seconds when presented with a new situation. This allowed him to consider the impact of his behavior on others and to choose an appropriate action. Todd consistently applied this skill in VOISS lessons, but Mr....