Background

I am currently working as an instructional aid in a Multi-disability classroom at

Louisa May Alcott a K-5 Cleveland Public School. This is where I got the pleasure to
observe a 1st grader named Charles. Charles is a multi-disability student one of his
disabilities being autism spectrum disorder. Charles has severe autism as well as a
seizure disorder. Charles comes from a household of two autistic parents, and an
aunt and grandmother who helps take care of them. I have the pleasure to aide him
throughout his education for the next few years. By working in this classroom Ive
had the unique experience of getting to know 9 students all with different disabilities
from moderate to severe. Charles stood out to me when I first met him. He was
lovable but it did take a while for him to warm up to me. I noticed some behaviors of
his right away, good and bad. He is a very active and complex student and it caused
me to have to spend a lot of one on one time with him where I noticed that I was
working with a student that it takes Operate Conditioning, and Extrinsic
Reinforcement in order to teach this student appropriate behavior as well as
academics.
Learning Disabilities: Autism Spectrum Disorder
To know and understand Charles you must understand his disorder and why it
causes some of his behaviors. Ormrod describes Autism Spectrum Disorder as a
Disorder marked by, impaired social cognition, social skills, and social interaction,
as well as by repetitive behaviors, extreme forms often associated with significant
cognitive and linguistic delays and highly unusual behaviors. My first observation I
decided to use a normal morning in the classroom to describe some of the day to
day behavior I see from Charles. There are a few Characteristics to watch for in a

student with Autism Spectrum disorder that I believe every teacher should know. I
can tell you that all 5 of my Autistic students display these characteristics in some
fashion, but not all students with this disorder will display these characteristics.
Charles on the other hand does displays these following characteristics that can be
seen in my observation:
Stereotyped Body Movements (Rapid hand motions, including flapping)
Repetitive use of objects
Functions better when sticking to daily routines
Unusual sensory Interest
Delayed Language development
Charles displays all these characteristic listed above as seen in the observation,
here is the evidence to support it. Charles displays the stereotypical body
movements seen in Autistic children. Notice in my observation that on occasion,
especially in times of happiness Charles he would use a rapid arm movement. For
Instance, in the observation in the beginning when his milk was opened, it states C.
Hands are moving fast flailing around near his body with his elbows close and arms
bent toward face, with a smile on his face while A. continues on to opening his milk.
Charles does this same hand movement throughout my observation. At first glance
this is a marker for autism. Every day the class has the same exact routine. There
morning routine which helps Charles get his day started as stated in the observation,
Breakfast, Hand writing, read a book, do alternative assignment, at 10:15 every day
an alarm goes off for bathroom break. Charles has a repetitive need to hold and
switch movie cases throughout the day. Every so often Charles wants to switch and
hold a different movie case, instead of letting him have whatever he wants the

teacher and I use this as an Extrinsic Motivator or Positive reinforcement for his
work. Charles has an unusual sensory interest to always be holding something in his
hands. When there isnt something to old he either touches the other students like
pick lint off of them, Hits beads on other students hair in class, or even puts his
fingers up his nose. Charles also has a hard time speaking in complete sentences
sometimes he has a hard time speaking in general. He is being taught to ask for
what he wants as well as saying Hello, and goodbye. My observation of Charles
further helps me understand autistic students.
Operant Conditioning and Positive Reinforcement
Operant Conditioning is described my Ormrod as a form of learning in which a
response increases in frequency as a result of being follows by reinforcement. In
other words, Operant Condition is where you learn from according to what follows
you action, so if a consequence follows your action then you know this action was
wrong and you do it less often, If you are rewarded or the action that follows yours is
a positive one then you will know your behavior or action is desirable and will do it
more often. Stated in a journal Interventions for Challenging Behaviours of Students
with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Developmental Disabilities: A Synthesis Paper,
Operant Condition is the most effective way to teach students with severe Autism
because they typical have no Intrinsic Motivation. DeRivera states that Autistic
students arent highly motivated so we as educators must find what motivates them
and have this play a major role in there behavioural and educational development.
Operant Condition cannot be achieved without Reinforcement, both positive and
negative. DeRivera Also states Children with autism need tangible reinforcements.
According to Dr. McEachin, social reinforcements, such as words of approval, are
not usually sufficient to elicit the target behaviour. Instead, children with autism need

tangible reinforcements, such as edibles or time to play with their toys. This is why
Charles teacher uses the Movie cases as an Extrinsic Reinforcer. Reinforcer is a
consequence of a response that lead to increase in frequency of response. Because
of Charles disorder he has little intrinsic motivation so the use of things he finds
interesting are used to spark interest in school work. Although the interest is
fabricated the student will still learn and retain information which is the teachers
primary goal. Charles autism makes it harder for him to read the emotions of others,
Whether or not they approve of something by just looking at then or rather or not he
is being praised by only stating it using words, its best to have a token to ensure
reinforcements. You see this in the observation, Charles likes to hold and play with
DVD cases so instead of giving in to his demands the teacher and the
paraprofessional, in the classroom use the cases to get Charles to follow simple
directions and stay on task. It is very important for the therapist to draw the attention
of the child to relevant stimuli so that he or she is able to make the correction
stimulus-response relationships. In my observation the paraprofessional would say
things like First Work, Then Movie to keep him on task and focused on work. He
focuses knowing that if he does he will get the positive reinforcement at the end.
Negative Reinforcement are essential to his development as well. When an action he
does is unfavourable the movie case is taking away from him until the action.
Gongola and Daddario state in there articles titled A Practitioner's Guide to
Implementing a Differential Reinforcement of Other Behaviours Procedure, Although
punishment procedures have been found to be effective in reducing inappropriate
behaviours, the aversive qualities of punishment interventions have been challenged
(Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007; Reese, Sherman, & Sheldon, 1998). By contrast,
reinforcement-based procedures are considered to be best practice when working

among students with disabilities and are found to have more ethical appeal. In other
words professionals believe that we should use Negative reinforcements at minimal
because ideally we should have a classroom environment where there is very few
stimuli that students want to get rid of, so we should use more positive
reinforcements. Operant Conditioning is very important aspect of this students
development behavioural and academic.
Summary
Overall Charles is a wonderful student and a joy to teach. As mentioned above
Charles is a perfect example on how to effectively teach students with severe mental
disabilities. I have watched Charles grow and learn over the course of this school
year and his progress is amazing. His classroom has a strong teaching system that
is geared toward his needs and wants. Observing him made me realize how to
effectively teach students with autism. According to DeRivera, Autistic students
needs a routine in order to learn. This is essential to their development, students like
Charles thrive in predictable environments where they can work and master skills
one by one daily so that the skills are learned and able to repeated daily. It is
apparent that Charles needs Operant Conditioning in order to learn. In conclusion,
students with Autism Spectrum Disorder have very little Intrinsic Motivation so it is
imperative to their learning that you incorporate different forms of Extrinsic
motivators and reinforcement help the continuous development for this student.

Bibliography
DeRivera, C. (2008). The Use of Intensive Behavioural Intervention for Children With
Autism. Journal of Developemental Disabilites, 14(2), 1-15. Retrieved May 1, 2016,
from
http://www.oadd.org/publications/journal/issues/vol14no2/download/deRivera.pdf
Gongola, L. C., & Daddario, R. (2010). A Practitioner's Guide to Implementing a
Differential Reinforcement of other Behaviors Procedure. TEACHING Exceptional
Children, 42(6), 14-20. doi:10.1177/004005991004200602
Muhammad Mustafa Arif, Ayesha Niazy, Bilal Hassan, and Farah Ahmed,
Awareness of Autism in Primary School Teachers, Autism Research and Treatment,
vol. 2013, Article ID 961595, 5 pages, 2013. doi:10.1155/2013/961595
Shields, C., & Gredler, M. (2003). A Problem-Solving Approach to Teaching Operant
Conditioning. Teaching of Psychology, 30(2), 114-116.
doi:10.1207/s15328023top3002_06
Zein, F. E., Solis, M., Vaughn, S., & Mcculley, L. (2013). Reading Comprehension
Interventions for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Synthesis of Research.
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