Autism & behaviour: would you choose a different type of reception year..........?

[HQT2014]

I'm a school leader with an interest in evidence-informed education and I'd love to hear the opinion of mums and dads of children with autism, or suspected ASD, or even those children who just struggle a bit with behaviour and self-regulation to give me their opinion on typical reception year (and pre-school to some extent) education and how it affects or has affected their child. My thoughts are that the typical experience isn't really appropriate for the needs of children with ASD in particular. You may have sensed this too.

I'm not sure to what extent parents generally know about evidence-informed education (please feel free to ask), but here are a few examples:

1. Children struggle to think about too much at once - so teach in little steps, lots of practice to commit to long term memory and said practice in a quiet, low-disturbance atmos
2. Children need clear boundaries and for adults to be in charge
3. Some children cannot 'discover' social rules, new vocabulary, new knowledge by themselves
4. Children cannot be 'creative' unless they first have lots of ideas, ie options to think about (therefore we need to teach knowledge)

A bit about me: I'm the author of a controversial blog advocating for what could be viewed as a somewhat old-fashioned approach to primary education and have had many successes turning around cohorts of children who struggled with behaviour. I have a good reputation for teaching children with SEN, particularly ASD, and young males who struggle with reading and writing for example. In one year group I oversaw, the number of children previously identified with SEN was halved within a few months - all this just with good, evidence-based teaching, some rules and routines and lots of quiet, purposeful practice! Ime, children love a warm-strict approach, for an adult to really be in charge so that they can learn and play without being teased, or disturbed, or having their personal space (including their thoughts when they're trying to write) encroached upon constantly. I should stress that even with lots of rules and routines, quality teaching, lots of practice to automaticity, education can still be joyful!

So, back to my question to you. The curriculum and reception year experience is mandated by something called the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework. The key principles for the reception year experience are very different to the kind of education I describe above. For example:

1. Children develop at their own pace, therefore their education must be child-led, with the teacher being more of a guide on the side, providing enabling environments to allow the children to develop at their own pace and to let their innate talents and abilities unfurl
2. The best way for children to learn is more or less through play, through being able to choose and follow intrinsic desire to learn, through enjoyment, through being opportunities to create

The above are principles which govern how reception year is laid out, where children are given opportunities to discover and rehearse in continuous provision according to their choice, with the adults following.

As a leader who has taught all the age groups (even teenagers), I have always wondered whether the typical reception year experience (EYFS is statutory even in private schools) is a reason why certain groups of children fail to make progress: roughly a third of all UK children fail to make 'GLD' by the end of reception year and these are not necessarily children who are born later in the academic year.

For children with (suspected) ASD, I think they can end up developing behaviour problems that become entrenched, habitual, a default mode that possibly becomes dangerous as they grow older. For example, the nature of constantly making choices during continuous provision increases anxiety and can actually worsen a lack of ability to focus. The fact that there is always noise and visual disturbance causes both anxiety and cognitive overload which stops a child from focusing on, for example, doing a spot of writing, so they might just throw the pencil down and stomp off. The fact that reception year is mostly play-based means that you need to have social skills and knowledge already in place in order to be able to access continuous provision and for many children with ASD, their inability (imo they are painfully aware) to know how to join in can make them feel lonely and anxious. Where a child with ASD might also have problems with communication, is perhaps delayed in speech, mostly interacting with peers instead of hearing the crystal clear voice of an adult this can also cause confusion, thus increasing anxiety.

Typically, if children struggle in the above environment, the parent will be told that their child is simply 'not ready', for example, and that their child is making progress at their own pace. According to the 'innate talents' belief, parents might be told their child is more of an 'active learner' and is being encouraged to be outside and receive praise for developing gross motor skills (while other skills might not develop as much due to lack of practice). Unfortunately, and this is quite painful for many people to hear, research tells us innate talent doesn't really exist - it's more the result of initial teaching/learning and then lots of practice, receiving praise for said practice, which leads to more practice.......

If I could, I would open my own free school and have an ASD-friendly reception year and pre-school! I can elaborate on what that might look like if you are interested, but my main question to you is: based on what I have described in this (rather long) post, does some of this resonate with you? I'm happy to be told I'm wrong and please don't worry about causing offence !

H

[user1492716806]

I am in complete agreement with you. My son is 4 with moderate ASD and is about to start Reception in a mainstream school. The school are absolutely lovely and to be honest I think I was more happy at the fact that they were so accommodating and willing to accept him and meet his needs, rather than actually take a step back and think about how they are actually going to teach him. I met his TA for the first time this week and immediately I felt deflated. My gut instinct was that she was too nice in a way - and not from an ABA background where she can modify and adapt to his behaviour through a strict programme of reward and insistence. Like you say, some nurseries and Reception classes are very child-led. This will categorically not work with my child with ASD as his social deficits are severe enough that anyone trying to share his personal space is ignored. He simply runs off and wants to do his thing. Child-led programmes will not work with my child - he need firmness, insistence and very high motivation to even be enticed to sit near an adult - let alone getting the adult to try and work with him in any purposeful way. I assumed given his needs on his EHCP the school were planning to look for someone with a therapist background but I guess I assumed too much. Which makes me now think he would be best placed in a specialist provision.

I totally agree that the only thing that will work for my child with ASD is clear structure and boundaries - similar to ABA therapy. If he runs off, you bring him back. If he cries to avoid a task, you ignore him until he stops and get on with it again. You simply cannot leave him to discover and explore on his own - he doesn't play like a typical child would. He stims and goes off into his own world. I don't think his Primary School will tackle these issues in the right way. His TA will run after him, call his name, and shadow him while he aimlessly meandres around the room, refusing to listen or sit down. Bit of a nightmare really.

I have expressed concerns and hopefully they can find the right balance of firmness and Independence but ideally I want another TA. I have asked if that's possible but no response. I actually feel really guilty to assume their TA isn't of the right technical background to help or that she's not up to the task but to me the right TA is crucial, otherwise School will not be School. It will just be a place for him to stay until I collect him.

But in principle I agree with all you have suggested - can you set up your own school in the next few weeks please :) Would love to enroll! lol

[HQT2014]

Hi there,

Many thanks for your reply (and I hope more will reply soon). I'm so glad what I'm saying resonates with at least one parent!

Most staff working in reception year and pre-school are lovely, hard-working people, genuinely wanting what is best for all children. They will follow the instruction of the EYFS framework to the letter, and listen to local authority moderators who also ensure that the framework is followed. However, as I identify above, for the child with ASD - a disaster. This is also the case I believe for children who experience the more unstructured and stressful home lives who desperately want a sense of belonging and want, for once, for an adult to make a decision as to what will happen and what they will do. I was reading recently about some research on the need for each child to have their own 'space' for learning. This is easily achieved with a formal year 1, where each child has a seat and a desk space in class. Reception year? It's the equivalent of hot desking (a cause of high stress in adults, let alone children).

My ideal reception year would look a little more like (get ready!): now we are all going to sit for the register, now we are all going to learn a song, now we are all going to learn to play 'what's the time mr wolf', now we are all going to do some counting, now we are all going to do ten minutes in our personal area just looking at a book without being disturbed by our friends, now we are all going to do phonics, now we are all going to listen to a story, now we are all going out to play, now we are all going to sit down and listen to the teacher talk interesting facts about trains around the world and look at some pictures of trains etc

I'd have a timetable that was the same, day in, day out. Children can help tick the jobs off as we proceed through the day. I'd have explicit instruction as to how to ask a friend how to join in and then whole-class practice of what I call 'the secret social script for success that everyone expects children to miraculously learn'. When it comes to writing, we all learn together and we get that job done (dictated sentence or even just a word - no need get anxious about having to create a story, choose a character and just not know what to write). Reading, writing and maths practice are all whole-class, modeled activities that no one gets confused about or mistakes for playing and then gets carried away by accident.

This is how I'd run it!

In the meantime, I recommend a personalised clipboard for your son (actually, for all children) with 'jobs' on, that must be ticked off before we get to do the exciting thing that we always want to do!

H

[Helix1244]

Im unsure if dc1 has sen adhd/asd. However as you describe reception was horrific from the start.
Imo it is a combination of
too many very young kids very close together and with 2+ classes all milling across rooms!
-none of the dc is well behaved to start as they are all learning. I dont think enough was done to come down on those verbally saying things to incite others who then reacted (violently!)
-i agree many dc will stick to what they enjoy in free play (and what that is for a 4.0yo would be very different to even the same child at 5.0yo to 6.0yo so the eldest are getting more out of it.

• i agree the message is confusing as in behave and listen in the morning then do what you want in the afternoon. Ones with behaviour issues who are also tired at that point is going to be an issue.
  
• i disagree with the premise of eyfs as i believe - you do need to teach, and test to see what they know. I absolutely do not think that kids will just show what they are fully capable of. It could take years to fully see capability without asking directly. Similar to if you dont ask if someone knows alevel maths or another language.

[restingpigeon]

I've got a DC with ASD traits who is really struggling in mid primary, terribly unhappy and hates school despite being clever (issues like noise and behaviour of other children) and another one who is undergoing assessment - struggles to follow instructions, listening etc.

The younger one went to a nursery that promoted unstructured child led creativity, all the EYFS buzzwords, highly regarded nursery - in retrospect we believe it was a terrible decision. It's exacerbated problems as she spent all the time left on her own looking at bugs and flowers and no time having social rules taught and enforced, or even simple rules like we've got to hurry to get to this appointment, we can't be late.

I'm fighting to teach her these skills now and both DC respond well to warm-strict, clear rules, firm boundaries, stable routines but I wish I'd picked better and all this child led stuff only works well for kids who've been in better childcare settings than most nurseries where social rules are not taught and enforced. So the only thing I'd add is that nurseries are not teaching social skills, behavioural skills, concentrating skills either and this is feeding into the issues in primary. A lot of kids go through unstructured nurseries now and spend the bulk of their time there.

I don't understand the drift to child led unstructured play, the results in Scotland seem poor. We've been told the first year of primary is more of the same child led play based stuff and I do absolutely 100% agree with the op, I feel we are simply not teaching needed skills early enough and that we're storing up issues.

I'm not even convinced that we're teaching creativity through the play approach - it's something we get as a rubber stamp rote word on every report but is poorly understood and never explained properly or outlined with evidence.

It is taking FAR too long for kids to get support when they're struggling and accurate assessments, this doesn't help anybody.