National Conference on ASD 2020 – Scientific Session 3 – Updates in the Educational & Vocational Opportunities and ICT

Hi All,

this post is in continuation of “National Conference on ASD 2020” series, in this post you would find the details of third Scientific Session happened on day two. The chairperson was Prof. P. Jeyachandran, below were the speakers who are part of this Scientific Session:
1) Dr. Janaki Balakrishnan – Trends in Inclusive Education
2) Dr. Kavitha Sharma – ICT for Persons with Autism
One of the speakers (AK Kundra) did not make it for the conference, as a result representative from NIEPMD spoke about her experience in NIPEMD with kids and their success stories.

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Trends in Inclusive Education by Dr. Janaki Balakrishnan

She is a Psychologist, and a trustee of Vijay Human Services Trust and NavaJyothi Trust. She was praised by Chairperson for her doctoral work on developing a scale to assess challenging behaviors and acclaimed that she is his best student. She has been working in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities for 19+ years. She also has a child with Special needs who is now at the age of 25.

Below are the few points shared by her:

1) Criteria for Autism as per DSM:

• Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction
• Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities
• Manifests in early developmental period.
• Clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of current functioning.
• Not explained by intellectual disability or global developmental delay

2) Autism Severity Levels as per DSM:

• Level 1 – Requiring support
• Level 2 – Requiring substantial support
• Level 3 – Requiring very substantial support

3) Legislative requirement as per India is:

• Rights to Education Act (2009) – It provides for the right of children to free and compulsory education till completion of elementary education in a neighborhood school.
• Rights of the Persons with Disabilities Act 2016 – The 21 disabilities that it covers now includes Autism Spectrum Disorder as well.
• The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) – States all disabled persons have the right to participate in civil, political, economic, social and cultural life of the community just as anyone else.

4) Inclusive education means attending the age appropriate class of the child’s local school, with individually tailored support (IEP). In short, people with disabilities and people without disabilities learn together.

5) Challenges in Inclusion of Autism

From child perspective,

• Severity levels
• Intellectual capacity
• Communication
• Challenging behaviors
• Social development

From non-child/environment perspective,

• Lack of Teacher Training
• Attitudes
• School Management
• Support Services
• Family Collaboration

6) Characteristics of the child

• Deficits in adaptive functioning or self-regulation
• Struggle with communication and understanding social cues
• Withdrawal
• Odd play
• Parrot speech
• Perseveration

7) Continuum in Educational Placement – Placing your child in a school based on his needs is important:

a) Residential School – These are exclusive school for special needs kids like an institution. It is more preferred with children having severe issues, lack of social support or needing special care.
b) Home Bound – School instructors and therapists visit the child’s home to keep his/her education plan on track
c) Self Contained – They are part of an inclusive school but the kids would be segregated from normal classroom as they need more assistance.
d) Reverse Mainstream – Kids from self contained at times may not be able to go to regular classrooms (may be overwhelming), in which case students from regular classrooms would visit the self contained classrooms where kids with special needs are educated to provide that inclusive environment.
e) Main Streaming – You definitely put them in inclusive schools and decide whether you want full or partial inclusive or no inclusive as required for your child.

8) Curricular Provisions

In an ideal school environment all these professionals/therapies should be part of it, but in our country it is not the case.

• Speech Therapy
• Occupational Therapy (To match the sensory needs)
• Physical Therapy (Gross Motor and Fine Motor skills)
• Play
• Behavioral Therapy
• Special Education (IEP)
• Accommodations and Modifications (Cannot compete with typical peers and requires extra support / relaxations)
• Assistive Technology
• Educational priorities
• Adapting the curriculum
• Calm and structured (Friendly and Positive teaching environment)
• Trained staff (General education staff needs to be skilled)

9) Trends in Inclusive Education

• Intensive Behavioral Treatments
• LOVAAS
• Treatment and Education of Autistic and Communication Handicapped Children (TEACCH)
• Functional Communication training (FCT)
• Verbal Behavior Approach (VBA)
• Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)
• Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS)
• Video self-modeling (VSM)
• Computer Aided Instructions (CAI)

9) Treatments

With Poor Evidences:

• Sensory Integration (SI)
• Auditory integration training (AIT)
• Nutritional Supplements
• Gluten- and Casein-Free Diet
• Facilitated Communication (FC)

With No Evidences:

• Holding Therapy
• Secretin Hormone Therapy
• Chelation for Neurotoxicity

10) Aim of Intervention is

• To facilitate development
• To increase independence
• To enhance the quality of life of the student

Her talk was very short and focused on the topic clearly.

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ICT (Information, communication and Technology) for Persons with Autism by Dr. Kavitha Sharma

She is the Founder Director of Project – ‘PRAYAS’, a computer and iPad Training Center for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders which conducts innovative training programmes leading to an effective early intervention and caters to the skills related to employability. She had two children with Autism, one of them has passed away, another one is diagnosed with Asperger’s. She is a special educator and working in the field for 26 years and more now.

Her presentation explained about why information technology field will work well for people in Autism Spectrum. Few points shared by her is given below:

1) Preparation of Adulthood involves independent living, participating in society, keeping good health, Education and employment.

2) Person on the Autism spectrum needs the following:

• Need to communicate, comprehend and read
• Need to get formal/informal education
• Need to learn the activities which will help him/her in joining community.
• Need to understand if he/she receives support for gaining higher education.
• Need to identify a correct livelihood option.

3) To achieve the above objectives and prepare the child for Adulthood, we need to focus on the following aspects:

• Begin with conventional methods of learning and supplement with modern methods.
• Find Technology based open resources of learning which promote and enable Inclusive Education (Many schools have began using smart devices in classrooms)
• Provide technology based support in classrooms to enhance SOLE i.e. Self Organized Learning Environment
• Use of Artificial Intelligence to enhance social skills (Many games are available to teach children in certain aspects)
• Focus on Skill Based Learning with respect to Open, Supported, Sheltered and Self Employment

4) Foremost step will be to:

• Assess and evaluate the strengths
• Find the right resources and tools
• Make necessary Adaptions/ Accommodations and work accordingly

5) ICT refers to Information, communication and Technology, it covers all forms of computers, networks, information etc, which is the need of the hour as we move towards Digital India. It has the following features that plays to the strengths of people on the ASD:

• Go with the flow- digital India/world/ Required for day to day operations
• Non-threatening & non–judgmental tool
• Provides predictability
• Audio-visual medium
• No or minimized human interaction

6) Hidden abilities inside Disabilities:

Rigid = > Orderly / Disciplined
Rude = > Honest / Tell the Truth / Reliable Outcomes
Errors = > Scanners / Testers / Attention to Detail
Not Materialistic = > Stick to Work
Repetition = > Perfection

7) The opportunities available in the field of ICT for people with Autism based on the strengths are:

Key Strengths of people on the Spectrum:

• Attention to detail
• Photographic memory
• Association to events, facts etc.
• Repetition-use in bringing perfection
• Unerring focus
• Pattern recognition’s
• Love to follow order or structure

Opportunities that can utilize the above strengths:

• Software Testing
• Coding
• Hardware and Software Assembly
• Data Entry
• Data Analysis / Compilation
• Documentation
• Digital Designing

8) Resources available in creating workforce of persons with Autism are:

• Coding- Microsoft hour of code
• Computer science unplugged
• Reinforcing potentials through computer aided teaching- Prayas-Daksh-
• http://www.teched4autism.com
• Skill Development- Prayas- Daksh Vishesh
• Enabling employability- LEGO MINDSTORMS ev3

9) Additional Actions / Trainings required to develop the employable youth:

• Start Early, Evaluate Periodically, Adapt Accordingly ( Exploration in real life situations)
• Focus and Harness on Strengths (Provision of ample opportunities, game like lumosity)
• Social and Soft Skill Training ( Lego Mindstorms Ev3 and Robotics)
• Safety, Security and Survival Skills ( Mobile Games / Treasure Hunt etc, Cyber Education games)

10) Prayas Lab has done the following in India:

• http://www.teched4autism.com – Prayas-Daksh (Its open source)
• Open educational resource
• Created through evidence based practice
• Inclusive curriculum
• 525 lessons / editable templates
• 3350 registered users
• Cognition and Skill Development
• Begin early

11) Resources for reference are http://www.teched4autism.com and http://www.serrendipforautism.com

She explained about how her child has used ICT in designing logos, cover pages of books, etc. which provides an earning for him. She also showed few of the works of her child and other professionals she has trained which made them independent to an extent which is commendable. She requests humbly all parents to be involved with the child along with the professionals.

Regards,

Saranya and Karthikeyan

karthiksaranyaparents@gmail.com