Creating an Effective Special Education Plan for Autism Support

This report presents a special education plan centered on a 5-year-old student named Joel who has autism. The plan addresses the challenges faced by educators in managing students with autism, particularly Joel's meltdowns during group work sessions. Key interventions include educating teachers and support staff to understand Joel's condition, creating strategies to prevent stressful situations, and fostering better communication and emotional expression. The report emphasizes the importance of involving Joel in group activities to improve social interaction and adjusting classmates' perceptions to encourage peer support. The plan also highlights ethical considerations regarding student privacy and the necessity of training co-support staff to handle meltdowns effectively. By implementing these interventions and fostering collaboration, the report aims to improve Joel's behavior and facilitate his integration with his peers.

Running head: SPECIAL EDUCATION PLAN
SPECIAL EDUCATION PLAN
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:
Table of Content

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s
Introduction:............................................................................................................................3
Discussion:...............................................................................................................................3
Intervention:.............................................................................................................................3
Collaboration:..........................................................................................................................4
Ethical and legal concern:........................................................................................................5
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................5
References:..................................................................................................................................6

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
A disorder that affects the development of a person that leads to problem in communicating and
behaving normally is called Autism. In this disorder, the person suffering lacks the ability to
speak, understand, social interaction like others. The report below will focus on one of the case
study of a 5 years old student, Joel, who is suffering from autism. The aim of the report is to
come up with strategies that may help in managing students like Joel and the class. The report
will also focus on the important role of teachers and the co-support faculties in the management
program.

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Introduction:
Autism is a disorder with a number of conditions such as repetitive behaviours, challenges in
nonverbal communication and speech and social skills. The issues now days are that the students
who are suffering from autism are lacking attention and proper care they require for matching
with the other students in the class (Ho, Stephenson & Carter, 2019). Hence proper management
and education are required to understand them.
Discussion:
This report highlights a student name Joel, who is in 5th standard and is suffering from autism.
It is to discuss the strategies as the faculties often fail to manage and take proper care of student
with such disorder. The intervention in such a situation involves education of teachers and the
others. It will help in developing strategies that are required for managing special students
(Anderson, Smith & Wilczynski, 2018). By focusing on Joel’s case, a plan is prepared to handle
and secure him from meltdowns and problems he is facing.
Intervention:
Understanding the conditions and behaviours of Joel will help the teachers in incorporating
proper interventions. It has been observed that Joel has meltdowns during every group work
session. The meltdowns od Joel arise when he is stressed, troubled, or overstimulated. It
sometimes develops dangerous for Joel. To control Joel in such conditions, the teachers need to
act with him in a composed and heartening manner. To avoid Joel from meltdowns, it is
important to keep him out of stressful conditions. It has been observed that meltdown occurs
when he is not able to interact with others or he faces difficulty in expressing his feeling. It is
important to help Joel in communicating and expressing his feelings.

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It should always be kept in mind to involve Joel with others in every task, so he learns to
interact and adjust. After witnessing one of the meltdowns of Joel, the fellow classmates were
frightened and refused to work in a team. It became necessary to make them understand Joel’s
condition so that they help him in improving rather than getting frightened and avoiding him.
The Individual Education Plan can help you to understand the student’s strengths and
difficulties in their academics (Carter et al., 2017). Understanding the way of Joel’s learning will
help in creating new lessons that will help in increasing his learning. Joel should be given
activities that he enjoys, such as art and craft, music classes. It has been observed that these
strategies help them in restoring their sensory system, stress and overstimulation which benefits
in keeping meltdowns in control (Hourigan & Hammel, 2017).
Collaboration:
The co-supportive and teachers should be trained to handle Joel during his meltdowns. It is
also required to handle other students during Joel’s meltdowns. In order to maintain peer
collaborations for Joel, it is important for the teachers to direct the classmates to adjust and help
him. The students who are interested in helping Joel should be involved. The co-support and the
teachers should support and train the peers to appreciate and assistant Joel in every aspect
(Letterman, 2018).
Ethical and legal concern:
In cases like Joel’s, the personal information of the student should not be shared with everyone,
it should only be discussed with those who are of benefit to him. The information should not be
discussed with other students in any condition (Volkmar, 2016).

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Conclusion:
The above mentioned interventions and collaborations bring the report in a conclusion where
it can be stated that these steps if followed accordingly can help the student to succeed and
improve the behaviour and to cope up with the others.

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References:
Anderson, C. M., Smith, T., & Wilczynski, S. M. (2018). Advances in School-Based
Interventions for Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Introduction to the Special
Issue. Behavior Modification, 42(1), 3–8.
Carter, E. W., Gustafson, J. R., Sreckovic, M. A., Dykstra Steinbrenner, J. R., Pierce, N. P.,
Bord, A., … Mullins, T. (2017). Efficacy of Peer Support Interventions in General
Education Classrooms for High School Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Remedial and Special Education, 38(4), 207–221.
Ho, B. P., Stephenson, J., & Carter, M. (2019). Teacher Understanding and Application of
Cognitive–Behavioural Approaches for Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder and
Intellectual Disability. Australasian Journal of Special and Inclusive Education, 1-15.
Hourigan, R. M., & Hammel, A. M. (2017). Understanding the Mind of a Student with Autism in
Music Class. Music Educators Journal, 104(2), 21–26.
Letterman, M. L. (2018). A Peer-Mediated Social Network to Increase Social Interactions for a
Student with Autism Using Augmentative Communication.
Volkmar, F. R. (2016). 45.4 MANAGING AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER ON CAMPUS.
Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 55(10), S69-S70.