Case Presentation
Gary also called G, is an ADHD and ASD learner in grade two. The boy is the only child in a single-parent family. G lives with his mother after the parents’ separation due to misunderstandings and domestic violence for a long time. The student is naturally sociable, especially in settings where he can take control of what he does, handle several things simultaneously, and stay away from noise. Moreover, Gary dislikes abrupt changes, which he reacts to by quitting or pretending to be sick. Undertaking a class on a subject that he perceives as bothersome or difficult makes him uncomfortable and fierce toward the students. He never adheres to any instruction and can be disrespectful when hurt or after sensing danger. The loud noise or screams by the other students or persons close to him make him harsh. He often reacts to such by kicking other students to defend himself. Previous classes’ teachers term him highly dysregulated, while the grade one coach notes delays in Gary’s receptive language.
Gary’s preschool trainers describe him as someone who reacts negatively to changes around him. He dislikes unreported variations in what he views as usual or standard. The learner frequently attends classes with a preset mind on what should be covered during a specific lesson. Gary knows all the non-lenient teachers in the school and tries as much as he can to avoid their classes. According to the mother, his fear of loud voices makes him avoid music class because the teacher uses a whistle, while his love for hands-on practices makes art and computer classes some of his favorite. The Royal Children’s Hospital diagnosed Gary with ADHD and ASD, making him an exceptional learner requiring unique consideration to acquire the same concepts as the other learners. Gary has passions, likes, and dislikes like everybody else in the classroom. Sometimes he is jovial and warm, while he exhibits unfriendly behaviors at other moments. The matter makes managing him and the learning process through the token system possible.
Gary cherishes playing with other children, especially when he can exercise control. However, following the play’s set rules is his primary problem. He, Gary, does not share or understand the art of sharing things. His grade one tutor considers him a hands-on student, although his handwriting is challenging due to the poor pencil grip issue. Gary currently shows developing abilities in the construction of letter sounds and visuals. Nonetheless, Gary has challenges reading words, especially new vocabulary or those with more than three characters. On the other hand, he is good with figures and relishes undertaking numeracy assignments, especially those involving hands-on responsibilities. He finds sitting for long very hard and turns dysregulated whenever a task takes too long to end. Equally, Gary loses his calm when facing unfamiliar material and responsibilities and working with large groups of people.
Support Received
Gary studies in a regular learning center with other students exhibiting normal brains and those with special needs. The school operates according to American education policies requiring the inclusion of all learners in the same environment for mutual development and easy fitting into society (Hernández-Torrano et al., 2022). Nonetheless, Gary and the other learners with special needs benefit significantly from the adopted support structure, including the inclusion of an Education Support Officer, school psychologist, and teachers trained to handle students of all kinds. Gary’s present school features a scheme where parents actively participate in their children’s learning. That is why his mother is always involved in intervening whenever things go wrong at school. Being a day school, Gary attends school accompanied by his mother, who comes for him at the end of the class. The plan helps him (Gary) realize a balanced home-school life for easy management of learning pressures.
All the educators and the Education Support Officer in the school know Gary and the other learners featuring distinctive needs. The situation promotes exceptional learners’ learning by focusing special attention on them for effective learning and inclusion. Moreover, the school’s organization is fit for learning in all forms. There are classes set for different subjects and tasks to fit all learners. For example, students undertake music classes in well-structured music classes that give the likes of Gary adequate time and room to engage their hands-on abilities and talents. The art class equally takes place in a unique art class allowing learners to exploit and develop their skills without challenges. The school has adequate playing grounds and games instructors to help pupils with physical activities during recess and Physical Exercise classes. The sick bay accommodates learners unable to attend classes due to illness before getting medical attention. Having teachers trained in various subjects and other special needs makes the school appropriate to host and support all types of learners. Accordingly, the institution has all it takes to implement America’s no child left behind policy.
Strengths, Gifts, and Talents
All the initiatives adopted to help Gary and students with special needs in the school have their strengths, abilities, and benefits. The ultimate goal is to see all learners succeed academically and in life despite their differences. The following aspects contribute to the program’s strengths, abilities, and benefits.
Day Schooling
America operates at least two schooling systems on matters of learners’ residence. Boarding schools involve a more extended stay of learners in schools as they do not go home daily after learning during the day. Students mainly undertake classes during the day but reside inside hostels for rest at night. Teachers, matrons and patrons, mentors, school Education Support Officers, and other professionals are the primary persons interacting with learners during their study period. Parents thus play a significantly minimal role in their children’s knowledge acquisition process. The system is mainly meant for learners from troubled backgrounds (Duane, 2021). However, some parents prefer it to save students from daily inconveniences such as waking up early to catch a school bus or walking along dangerous routes early in the morning (Erichsen & Waldow, 2020). Gary’s case is substantially hard to manage under such a setting, mainly due to the already witnessed crucial role of the mother.
Accordingly, operating as a day school makes it an advantage for Gary and many other learners in the school. The boy can meet, stay, and interact with his mother during the evenings, nights, and weekends. Gary has critical trust issues with alien adults, and fear often makes him sickly. The school then calls his mother to come for him whenever the situation becomes worse, only for the boy to come back the following day recuperated. Arguably, the condition would be different in other learning settings where the schoolboy does not interact with his mother. Thus, the present school’s setup benefits Gary’s case and promotes his learning by creating room for his mother’s constant involvement.
Parent’s Involvement
Gary’s mother is a principal player in her son’s education because she supports him emotionally and materially. Diagnosis by the Royal Children’s Hospital notes the child’s trauma and attachment problems. The problem is believed to result mainly from the many domestic acts of violence that Gary witnessed from his father to the mother before the parents’ separation. Gary’s inability to trust adults and the tendency to perceive threats whenever he hears loud voices may result from the father’s loud voice when mistreating the boy’s mother. Accordingly, growing up around the mother for this long makes her the only person Gary can trust easily. That is why he (Gary) readily accepts to leave the school with his mother after developing issues with teachers or fellow students (Armstrong, 2020). The mother calms the schoolboy’s distress, thus very crucial in his education life. The school’s ability to operate in a way that allows Gary’s mother to get involved in his son’s endeavors actively is a strength and a benefit to the boy and the institution.
Specially Trained Educators
Gary’s present school is well endowed in matters of human resources. Unlike several junior learning institutions in the state, the facility has a combination of highly trained personnel, ranging from teachers, coaches, Education Support Officers, school psychologists, matrons, and patrons. The team works together to care for all students’ needs and ensure effective learning. The professionals know how to engage parents, guardians, and other district and state education officers in charge of policy and special education aspects. The condition creates an all-inclusive environment for all kinds of learners (Cahapay, 2022). Arguably, this organization helps Gary and the other exceptional learners register significant improvements in the classroom and socially. The school is determined to extend its collaboration with researchers in the education and instructional domains to improve the setting for every stakeholder.
Effective School Organization and Planning
The learning process takes place in different forms and diverse environments. The school scenery should support formal, informal, and moral scholarships. Formal education takes place mainly in the classroom as teachers and coaches take students through the set curriculum. On the other hand, informal scholarship occurs as apprentices acquire skills such as socialization abilities, communication prowess, and leadership proficiency (Aparicio, 2020). Honesty, love for one another, forgiveness, appreciation, punishment for antisocial behaviors, and tolerance are critical moral lessons that learners develop in effective educational systems and settings (Jerome & Kisby, 2022). Auker and Barthelmess (2020) state that a school must have particular elements to support all the forms of learning necessary for holistic human development. Such features include friendly and safe classrooms, effective teachers and coaches, considerate school programs, and physical structures supporting all sorts of humans, including those with unique abilities.
Gary’s current school has most of the indispensable traits for effective learning. The classrooms and furniture are accommodating, with the teachers highly skilled, while the institution implements the research and evidence-based national curriculum. There is a timetable for all the classes, making it easy for students like Gary, who have issues with abrupt transitioning to a new activity, to develop a lenient mental program for the day or week’s learning (Assunção Flores & Gago, 2020). The school’s special classrooms for subjects such as art, music, and computer, and a sick bay for learners unable to attend classes due to health reasons and those coming from the dispensary promotes learning considerably. Therefore, all these characteristics complement Gary’s limitations, thus making his education substantially laid-back.
Learning and Social Skills Priorities for the Current Year
The American education system sets specific competencies for every grade in its scholarship scheme. For example, a grade two student needs to know how to read simple and semi-complex English sentences and explain their meaning. Other necessary skills include writing, undertaking grade-specific arithmetic problems, and social studies (Lawson et al., 2019). Sharing, listening, cooperating, respecting personal space, and following directions are essential social skills for children in grade two. The curriculum requires Gary to collaborate with other students in group work to undertake class assignments. The pupils share, cooperate, listen, make eye contact, follow directions, use manners, and respect others’ opinions and space (Petursdottir & Ragnarsdottir, 2019). The grade two program further requires learners to engage in logical thinking, constructive criticism, give positive feedback to peers, develop a 3D understanding of people and concepts, demonstrate diverse emotions, and accept and apply feedback. Gary can participate in plays according to the program’s expectations, but for his inability to observe rules due to his unique needs.
Motivators and Interests
Grade one teacher’s assessment of Gary describes him as highly optimistic and pretty affectionate once the situation is correct for him. The motivators for the schoolboy include smart devices, cars, airplanes, and trains. A primary aim of the current school and home-based interventions aim to utilize these motivators to help Gary grow into a responsible learner and human being. The school’s efforts further come from the desire to comply with the nation’s ‘no child left behind’ educational policy, with Gary and many other pupils exhibiting special gifts being of great essence.
Gary’s Challenging Behaviors
Gary is generally a nice boy requiring some unique considerations to realize the best in him. The child is a fun maker when okay, and in a company he can trust. He loves taking charge and walking around often due to his periodical intervals of excess energy. Knowing how to manage him in a friendly way makes the matter controllable. Acting wild after sensing danger even when there is none, disrespecting adults, including his mother and teachers, and beating, kicking, and plucking other students’ hair when sad are some of Gary’s challenging behaviors. Others include demanding control of issues, avoiding classes and assignments, and reacting out of fear. Developing ways to manage these behaviors is crucial for Gary to become a schooled, responsible person.
Gary’s Behavior Analysis and the Behavior Plan
Gary’s portrayed behaviors have particular causes based on the observations made in the classroom and other settings. Appendix 2 describes some of such conducts, their related triggers, possible reason, interventions taken, and the outcome. On the other hand, Appendix 1 contains the set of preferred behaviors, behaviors to help the boy manage, the ways to teach such positive behaviors, and the strategies and resources to apply.
Rationale for Selected Strategies and Resources in Appendix 1
Token Reinforcement System
This behavior amendment approach applies the reward system to motivate people with challenges to work harder to nurture positive behavior. The scheme uses tokens or points and clearly-labeled charts or reports, where the mentor enters a point whenever the learner shows the expected behavior (Patel et al., 2019). The rewards are attached to something the apprentice likes or loves (May & Catrone, 2021). In Gary’s case, the boy will be required to overcome distress and fear whenever he senses them, even by leaving the scene for a while, instead of acting brutally. The child’s love for YouTube makes the PC and his YouTube channel appropriate rewards to offer after every 50 points earned. The mother needs to control the boy’s access to the two until he realizes the redeemable tokens.
Response Cost System
The response cost method works similarly to the token reinforcement paradigm. However, the mentor deducts an earned point or token whenever the mentee engages in undesired behavior (May & Treadwell, 2020). Disrespecting adults and other people by Gary can occur anywhere. The boy requires a painful strategy to improve in this matter (Yoo, 2020). Having tokens deducted from the earned ones and risking not getting what he likes will push Gary to behave. A car or a train ride are practical tools to apply in this approach since Gary adores the two.
Home-School Daily Report Cards
Gary’s tendency to beat, kick, and hurt fellow students and adults, including his mother, needs control. The home-school daily report cards strategy offers a suitable plan to fight this behavior. The mother will fill out the daily card when the boy is home, while teachers and class representatives will collaborate in filling the same at school (Falligant et al., 2021). Combining the method with the response cost scheme will teach Gary to restrain himself during diverse emotions. Tools to use under this method can include car rides and access to his YouTube channel.
Peer Tutoring
Peer tutoring offers a great way of helping Gary overcome bitterness resulting from his inability to read some letters and long words. The teachers will establish a list of new words weekly and have Gary learn them from a team of responsible peers who understand his case (Sytsma et al., 2019). Combining this plan with the daily report card and the train ride or access to YouTube channel (tools) promises to help the boy reform.
Involvement in Goals Setting and Time Management Processes
Some of Gary’s actions depict protest to orders from adults other than the mother. The boy confesses having trust issues with aliens who seem to act unfairly. Accordingly, involving Gary in setting goals, managing time, and drafting expectations will help him gain trust and boost his confidence (Tang et al., 2022). The move will improve the schoolboy’s relationship with teachers and peers, making him a better student.
Reflection
Essential Aspects to Highlight to Each Individual and Why
Parents expect his child to excel academically and in life. On the other hand, a teacher wants to have cooperating learners who fit various learning environments and grasps information and ideas quickly. However, the present case, where a student or child responds by beating others, closing ears, and refusing to attend classes due to trauma and fear, means a lot. The matter requires concerted efforts from all stakeholders for Gary and the other exceptional learners to benefit. Gary’s mother, teachers and coaches, the Education Support Officer, and pupils have a role to play in helping Gary improve.
Being a single parent, the mother has to balance spending time at work and being there for the student. The parent can significantly help boost the schoolboy’s respect towards adults and other people and improve his reading ability. The mother needs to work with a professional, such as Gary’s teachers, to create home-based rules that the boy must comply. The parent will utilize the school-home daily scorecard to record Gary’s behavior after school while collaborating with the teachers concerning what rewards or resources to apply. Therefore, it is paramount that Gary’s mother observes due honesty without sympathizing with him and letting him walk over her for the program’s success.
Potential Enablers and Blockers to the Plan
Gary’s mother’s significant concerns over her son’s education, the availability of determined teachers, certified psychologists, and correctional officers at the school, and caring grade two pupils are adequate enablers to Gary’s case. Similarly, the point that Gary adores specific aspects, such as cars, trains, airplanes, PCs, YouTube, and his YouTube channel provides sufficient rewards to use in the token and response-based schemes. The school’s year-wide program and rules and regulations are vital for managing Gary’s problem with transitioning to change. However, Gary’s mistrust of aliens may burden the mother to the point that the whole system’s success depends on her as an individual. Correspondingly, while she divides the available hours between searching for money to cater to the son’s education and implementing the family-based corrective strategies, the parent’s time economy may block the good initiatives. Therefore, the matter requires top-notch collaboration among all the players to succeed.
Gary’s Inclusion in the Plan
It is appropriate that Gary gets engaged in this plan at different levels with time. After winning the boy’s trust, the responsible adult undertaking the task should start by establishing an intrinsic motivation within the boy toward education and life. Collaborating with the mother first to take Gary to a posh location with the things he likes and assessing the connection with them is critical for the plan to work. The mother, in conjunction with the plan implementer, can then discuss with him (Gary) the token or response system to be applied in school when he works on his behavior and relates well with peers and adults. Doing such at the preliminary stage is adequate to set the schoolboy on the right path to struggling intrinsically to mend his personality to enjoy the promised goodies.
References
Aparicio, G. O. Y. (2020). The education of desire and the use of ICT. In M. Bosch (Ed.), Desire and human flourishing (pp. 325-337). Springer, Cham. Web.
Armstrong, D. (2020). Power and partnership in education: Parents, children and special educational needs. Routledge.
Assunção Flores, M., & Gago, M. (2020). Teacher education in times of COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal: National, institutional and pedagogical responses. Journal of Education for Teaching, 46(4), 507-516. Web.
Auker, L. A., & Barthelmess, E. L. (2020). Teaching R in the undergraduate ecology classroom: Approaches, lessons learned, and recommendations. Ecosphere, 11(4), e03060. Web.
Cahapay, M. B. (2022). How Filipino parents’ home educate their children with autism during COVID-19 period. International Journal of Developmental Disabilities, 68(3), 395-398. Web.
Duane, A. M. (2021). The long history of child saving as nation building in the USA: An argument for privileging children’s perspectives on recovery. In M. Chisolm-Straker & K. Chon (Eds.), The historical roots of human trafficking (pp. 217-230). Springer, Cham.
Erichsen, J., & Waldow, F. (2020). Fragile legitimacy: Exclusive boarding schools between the meritocratic norm and their clientele’s desire for a competitive advantage. European Education, 52(2), 102-116. Web.
Falligant, J. M., Pence, S. T., & Long, C. (2021). Risky choice and token reinforcement: Preferences for amount variability. Behavior Analysis: Research and Practice, 21(2), 164-169.
Hernández-Torrano, D., Somerton, M., & Helmer, J. (2022). Mapping research on inclusive education since Salamanca Statement: A bibliometric review of the literature over 25 years. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 26(9), 893-912. Web.
Jerome, L., & Kisby, B. (2022). Lessons in character education: Incorporating neoliberal learning in classroom resources. Critical Studies in Education, 63(2), 245-260. Web.
Lawson, G. M., McKenzie, M. E., Becker, K. D., Selby, L., & Hoover, S. A. (2019). The core components of evidence-based social emotional learning programs. Prevention Science, 20(4), 457-467. Web.
May, B. K., & Catrone, R. (2021). Reducing rapid eating in adults with Down syndrome: Using token reinforcement to increase interresponse time between bites. Behavior Analysis: Research and Practice, 21(3), 273. Web.
May, B. K., & Treadwell, R. E. (2020). Increasing exercise intensity: Teaching high-intensity interval training to individuals with developmental disabilities using a lottery reinforcement system. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 13(4), 826-837. Web.
Patel, R. R., Normand, M. P., & Kohn, C. S. (2019). Incentivizing physical activity using token reinforcement with preschool children. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 52(2), 499-515. Web.
Petursdottir, A. L., & Ragnarsdottir, G. B. (2019). Decreasing student behavior problems and fostering academic engagement through function‐based support and fading of token reinforcement. Behavioral Interventions, 34(3), 323-337. Web.
Sytsma, M., Panahon, C., & Houlihan, D. D. (2019). Peer tutoring as a model for language and reading skills development for students who are English language learners. Journal of Applied School Psychology, 35(4), 357-379. Web.
Tang, S., Tong, F., Lara-Alecio, R., & Irby, B. J. (2022). Bilingual teachers’ application of cooperative, collaborative, and peer-tutoring strategies in teaching cognitive content in a randomized control study. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 25(8), 2788-2804. Web,
Yoo, S. (2020). How to design the token reinforcement based on token economy for blockchain model. International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology, 8(1), 157-164. Web.