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I would like to share a story from my personal experience. One of my 9-year-old students, let's call him Dan, is autistic, suffering from sudden laughter outbursts and repetitive speech. He's often restless and fidgety. When we first met I couldn't believe I would ever manage to teach him reading. However, against all expectations, last week we finished reading our first story in English. He now knows the alphabet, has a reasonable vocabulary and, most importantly, enjoys learning English very much. How did we reach such an impressive result?
Trying to find the right approach I tried different methods of behavioral management, including multiple variations of token economy, which is probably the most popular method existing. Everything would work, but only for a short time. I needed something more effective that would have a long-term influence. That made me think of the idea of putting a "mirror" in front of him to encourage self-control and self-consciousness.
The "mirror" technique is a very strong tool, which allows students to see themselves from the side. The technique involves teaching and writing a detailed report of each action that takes place in the class simultaneously. The actions are divided into two categories (columns): lesson-related activities and distractions (I marked them with a happy and sad smiley):
J
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L
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9:30
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Reads a text very smoothly and translates it.
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9:35
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Laughter.
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940
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Succeeds to read new words.
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Each record should be made in a corresponding column and marked with a time stamp. By the end of the lesson the student gets the report and a short teacher's feedback, such as: "Today you spent most of your time on-task" or "Look how last time you were distracted 4 times and today only once", etc. The teacher and the student may also discuss the time wasted as opposed to the time spent learning.
In my case the method worked as a miracle: within a period of 4 months Dan has shifted from spending 20 minutes off-task to 3 minutes. He enjoys the concentration and is proud of making visible progress.
I hope the success raises his self-esteem and brings even more motivation to study.
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