To my husband Naved Khan and my kids, Madiha, Raameen & Suhaib, who understood and supported me throughout my course.

Let's Shine,

Johnny

Written by:



Syeda Sadaf Naved

Once upon a time, there was a six- year-old boy, named Johnny. Johnny was a grade one student who was diagnosed with autism and a cognitive disability. He faced multiple challenges including low social skills, difficulties in completing tasks, and uncontrollable negative behaviour.

Johnny had four siblings including a twin brother; accordingly, he could not get full attention from his parents. Most of the time, he seemed not to understand and perform simple tasks or instructions. He tried to express himself, usually with body language and short phrases. Sometimes, he tried to solve simple math problems and always took a part in activities when using technology . Johnny would get frustrated when there were troubles with communication. Then, he would throw a tantrum, and it was hard to understand what he wanted in order to succeed in his learning.

Johnny participated in extracurricular activities such as basketball and music lessons. He liked to play with the computer or Ipad; also, he loved to build structures with Legos. Consequently, Johnny had strong fine motor skills.

Hi,

Johnny's needs were to develop functional expressive language, social interaction with peers, and self-management skills.

How can I help him? What are his needs?

One day, God sent a fairy to help Johnny in his difficulties. The fairy wanted to know some information about Johnny such as,

a- When was his medical condition diagnosed?

b- What environmental changes might be needed for him?

c- Does he get any support from home?

d- What is his family background?

e- What are his capabilities and potentials?

The fairy knew that social skill stories and visual prompts were good for reinforcing Johnny's social skills. Social stories could explain to Johnny why it was essential to build a relationship and play with others. Also, visual prompts like pictures, charts, visual cards etc. could help Johnny learn new skills.

According to Hutchinson (2017, p. 111), "in social stories, to support for understanding the meaning of these stories to the students; we can use two to five detailed and one instructive sentence in a story. Additionally, we can put only one or two sentences on a page with visual cues". 

Friends are helpful and playing with them makes me calm........

So, the fairy used social stories with Johnny about friendship and encouraged him to make friends and share his thoughts with them. By using this strategy, Johnny started to talk and interact with other students.

Additionally, the fairy realized that students with ASD like Johnny need an extra break. Also, for his hindrance in understanding and expressing his emotions in speech, it was essential to give him extra time to understand things. Furthermore, a break card system is suitable for students like Johnny who get upset, frustrated, or aggressive quickly. Moreover, teaching him to connect with his favourite activity like basketball, legos and matched words or objects with this activity would also help in learning and controlling his frustration. 

According to Hutchinson (2017, p.114), "some strategies to be successful include having an efficient learning situation with proper resources and materials that appeal to the student's interest, such as modifying the text and enhancing to meet the student's needs and interests as well as adding visuals or pictures where needed".