Peer Awareness Activity
Activity: Perceptual & Sensory (Tactile)
Age Range: All Ages
Time Needed: 20-30 minutes
Rationale:
Students need assistance to understand some of the sensory difficulties students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may experience. The more a peer understands about the perceptions and experiences of a classmate with ASD, the more sensitive that peer is likely to become. The activities can help to create a compassionate and safe learning environment in which relationships can develop. (McGinnity & Negri, 2005)NOTE: Some children may not enjoy this experience - choose your participant carefully.
How To:
Materials
-roll of masking tape and binoculars
-several strips of yarn, 4 feet in length
-garden glove with Velcro stuck on to fingers and palm
-large handful of lambs wool or a feather duster
Steps:
- Place a length of tape on the floor. Have each child hold the binoculars on their eyes, backwards. This causes perception to be distorted. Have students walk on the line of tape.
- Have each student jump rope using the yarn, instead of a rope. This causes the feeling of distorted perception of the weight of the “rope.”
- The teacher wears the scratchy glove and holds the soft feathers and wool. While the students are participating in the above activities, walk by and touch a bare arm or hand. This simulates the unpredictable sensation of the skin (either too scratchy or uncomfortably soft).
Discussion:
Following the exercise the teacher asks the volunteers how they felt throughout the exercise.
The teacher then leads a discussion about how it would feel to experience similar challenges throughout the entire school day.
Students brainstorm ways that they could help a student with similar difficulties in their class.
Write ideas down on a sheet of paper so they can be reviewed periodically.
References:
Fahery, C. (2005). Understanding Friends: A Program to Educate Children About Differences, and to Foster Empathy. Retrieved July 16th, 2005 from
McGinnity, K., & Negri, N. (2005). Walk Awhile in My Autism. Cambridge, Wisconsin: Cambridge Book Review Press.
This material adapted from Erinoak.
Peer Awareness Activity
Activity: Perceptual & Sensory (Fine Motor)
Age Range: All Ages
Time Needed: 20-30 minutes
Rationale:
Students need assistance to understand some of the sensory difficulties students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may experience. The more a peer understands about the perceptions and experiences of a classmate with ASD, the more sensitive that peer is likely to become. The activities can help to create a compassionate and safe learning environment in which relationships can develop. (McGinnity & Negri, 2005)
How To:
Materials
-8 pairs of large cloth garden gloves
-8 sets of shoestrings and beads, each in a small tub
-8 sets of hardware (nut, bolt, washer), each in a small tub
Steps:
- Find 8 student volunteers.
- Each volunteer wears the gloves and tries to string beads and/or assemble hardware.
- Following the exercise the teacher asks the volunteers how they felt throughout the exercise.
- The teacher then leads a discussion about how it would feel to experience similar challenges throughout the entire school day.
- Students brainstorm ways that they could help a student with similar difficulties in their class.
Things to Consider:
1)For K-1 students, have them just wear one glove and/or use larger beads.
2)Record how much time it takes students without fine motor difficulties (without gloves) to complete the activity and compare it to the recorded times for the students with fine motor difficulties (gloves). Have these two groups complete the activity at the same time and ask the group wearing the gloves how they felt watching the students without the gloves complete the activity so quickly.
References:
Fahery, C. (2005). Understanding Friends: A Program to Educate Children About Differences, and to Foster Empathy. Retrieved July 16th, 2005 from
McGinnity, K., & Negri, N. (2005). Walk Awhile in My Autism. Cambridge, Wisconsin: Cambridge Book Review Press.
This material adapted from Erinoak.
Peer Awareness Activity
Activity: Quotes
Age Range: Secondary School
Time Needed: 20-30 minutes
Rationale:
Something is often remembered best when it is personalized. By getting the students to read these statements out loud and in the first person will hopefully help them to remember the words long after the class itself and to appreciate the struggles their peers with ASD experience.
How To:
Materials
Sheets with quotes (attached)
Steps:
1. Give a quote to as many students as you have quotes for.
2. Ask students to stand up one at a time and read each quote then sit down.
3. After all quotes are read, discuss each quote and how the students interpret and relate to the ideas therein.
References:
McGinnity, K., & Negri, N. (2005). Walk Awhile in My Autism. Cambridge, Wisconsin: Cambridge Book Review Press.
This material adapted from Erinoak.
Quotes
1. “My hearing is like having a sound amplifier set on maximum loudness. My ears are like a microphone that picks up and amplifies sound. I have two choices: 1) turn my ears on and get deluged with sound or 2) shut my ears off.”
(Temple Grandin)
2. “When my mom moved the furniture in the house I got very very upset. I hated the change. I felt like I was not at home any more.”
(Paul McDonnell)
3. “I loved repetition. Every time I turned on a light I knew what would happen. When I flipped the switch, the light went on. It gave me a wonderful feeling of security because it was exactly the same each time.”
(Sean Barron)
4. “I felt secure in ‘my world’ and hated anything that tried to call me out of there…….People, no matter how good, had no chance to compete.”
(Donna Williams)
5. “I learned to talk at 4. I didn’t learn to communicate until 11 or 12”
(Bill Donovan)
6. “I was rarely able to hear sentences because my hearing distorted them. I was sometimes able to hear a word or two at the start and understand it and then the next lot of words sort of merged into one another and I could not make head or tail of it.”
(Darren White)
7. “I have just come from another classroom where I had been tortured by sharp white fluorescent light, which made reflections bounce off everything. It made the room race busily in a constant state of change. Light and shadow dancing on people’s faces as they spoke turned the scene into an animated cartoon.”
(Donna Williams)
8. “I just CAN’T understand human emotions, no matter how hard I try.”
(Paul McDonnell)
Quotes, Cont’d
9. “In the past I used to ask the same questions over and over and I used to drive my parents crazy by doing that! I wanted to hear the same answer over and over because I was never sure of anything…….I wanted an exact answer to everything: uncertainty used to drive me crazy.”
(Paul McDonnell)
10. “I wanted to understand emotions. I had dictionary definitions for most of them and cartoon caricatures of others…….I also had trouble reading what other people felt.”
(Donna Williams)
11. “I would often talk on and on about something that interested me……I really was not interested in discussing anything: nor did I expect answers or opinions from the other person, and I would often ignore them or talk over them if they interrupted.”
(Donna Williams)
12. “When I encounter a new social situation, I have to scan my memory and look for previous experiences that were similar. As I accumulate more memories, I become more and more skilled at predicting how other people will act in a particular situation.”
(Temple Grandin)
13. “I was never quite sure how to handle certain situations. It is very difficult…..to know exactly when to say something, when to ask for help, or when to remain quiet…..Life is a game in which the rules are constantly changing without rhyme or reason.”
(Anne Carpenter)
14. “It’s not so much about winning or losing, but the process, and being able to participate.”
(Jerry Newport)
Peer Awareness Activity
Activity: Idioms
Age Range: Grade 2 to Secondary School
Time Needed: approx. 30 minutes
Rationale:
Much of our daily living is governed by unwritten rules. Many of these rules are not expressly taught to us, but we learn them based on an instinctual ability to decipher “codes of behaviour”. Many students with ASD find this very challenging.
How To:
Materials:
Overhead projector with a list of these idioms (and/or perhaps some of your own):
Bent out of shape
Ants in my pants
Catch 22
Grab the bull by the horns
Butterflies in my stomach
Feeling under the weather
Put two and two together
Keep your head above water
Loose lips sink ships
Pie in the sky
It’s raining cats and dogs
Fork in the road
Steps:
- Have the students take out a sheet of paper and a pencil and write down individually what they think each idiom means.
- Give them a few minutes to complete this exercise then have them mark their own papers as you reveal the answers.
- Discuss the possible ways these idioms came into being making the point all the while that they were not taught all of them (maybe a couple) but they deciphered their meaning based on
- other’s responses
- the situation it was presented in
- repeated exposure to similar situations
- Discuss how the students might help someone with ASD who may not be able to decipher the meaning of unwritten rules.
References:
Jackson, L. (2002). Freaks, Geeks & Asperger Syndrome: A User Guide to Adolescence. London, England: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Snodgrass, Catherine S. (2004). Super Silly Sayings That Are Over Your Head. Higganum, CT: Starfish Specialty Press.
This material adapted from Erinoak.
Peer Awareness Activity
Activity: Pattern Recognition
Age Range: Grade 2 to Secondary School
Time Needed: 10-20 minutes
Rationale:
Students with ASD consistently have difficulty “decoding” a situation (understanding the unwritten rules and the non-verbal behaviour). Often they need to be taught and memorize the rules for specific situations.
How To:
Materials
Overhead projector
Preprinted code below:
OTTFFSS…what letter comes next in the sequence?
- OTTFFSS…(O)TTFFSS
- OTTFFSS…(S)SFFTTO
- OTTFFSS…(P)TTFFSS
- OTTFFSS…other possibilities???
Steps:
1. Project the first line on the screen and ask the students what the next letters in the sequence should be.
2. After a couple of seconds reveal line i. as a possible answer, then line ii. and then iii.
3. Say: I will now give you the key to the Secret Code: the letters are the first letter of each number going in sequence starting with 1. Hence the correct next letter should be E (Eight).
4. Discuss how easy something is when you know the secret code, and consider how silly someone else may appear to them just because they do not know this code of behaviour.
5. Bring home the point that while it is easy to laugh at first we can all appear silly when we don’t know the rules.
Things to Consider:
This activity can be varied by asking a student to leave the room before you start, and then letting the rest of the class in on the code. Ask the student to then re-enter and figure out the answer. Ask them afterward how it felt to know that all the other students knew the answer when they didn’t.
This material adapted from Erinoak.
Peer Awareness Activity
Activity: Degrees of Formality
Age Range: Grade 2 to Grade 8
Time Needed: 10-15 minutes
Rationale:
We all speak to different people in different ways yet we probably are not taught this. There may be “unwritten rules” about appropriate ways to speak to different people that students with ASD may not be aware of. They may be unaware of the subtle social cues and “unwritten rules” that exist within the school environment. Peers may be very important in the process of teaching students with ASD about the “unwritten rules” within the school culture.
How To:
Steps:
1. Call up students at random and pretend to be one of the 3 levels of acquaintanceship. Start a conversation with the student.
- Most formal--Principal, Parent’s friends, strangers
- More comfortable acquaintanceship--Teacher, relatives, cashier at a frequented store
- Least formal--Peers/friends
2. Discuss the fact that the students do not speak to each category of person the same way, ie. with the same degree of familiarity. Ask them: How do they know that? Who told them? Did they ever get in trouble when they spoke inappropriately to someone? Have they ever sat down with anyone and gone over this or any other “unwritten” rule?
3. Discuss some of the reasons why someone with ASD who doesn’t understand these unspoken social rules may have difficulty “fitting in”.
4. Brainstorm how you can help students with ASD learn social rules and “fit in”.
This material adapted from Erinoak.
Peer Awareness Activity
Activity: 3 bowls
Age Range: Grade 2 to Secondary
Time Needed: 20-30 minutes
Rationale:
Our senses can be easily fooled. Many of our students with ASD encounter situations where their senses send erroneous information to the brain, causing sensory over-stimulation, making judgment calls difficult and hampering their ability to concentrate.
How To:
Materials
- 3 bowls large enough to put a hand in.
- 1 bowl to be filled with cold water, 1 with room temperature water, and 1 with water hot enough to still safely put your hands in.
- paper towels to dry off with afterwards.
Steps:
- Arrange the 3 bowls with the WARM in the middle of hot and cold water. Students try this experiment one at a time.
- Put one hand into the Cold for 2 seconds, then dunk in the Warm. The warm water will feel hot.
- Have them put the other hand in the Hot for 2 seconds then dunk in the Warm. It will feel cold.
- Repeat for all the students.
Discussion:
Sometimes their peers with ASD may have instances where their senses get a little mixed up and they may become overwhelmed as a result. Their brains are ‘reading’ what they feel, hear, see, smell, and taste in a way that is different from ours. For instance their sense of smell may be so attuned that they react very harshly to ‘normal’ smells in a cafeteria. The recess or fire alarm may be painful to their ears. The may not like the feel of some things like Playdoh, or sunscreen on their skin. They may not like certain foods because they taste and feel weird on their tongues. Some lighting may bother their eyes. Sometimes the sensory stimulation they are experiencing can become so overpowering that they cannot concentrate on anything else.
Things to Consider:
The area of sensory issues with students with ASD is still hotly debated and the best ways to help these students is still a ‘work in progress’. The aim here is to create awareness and understanding, rather than to come up with ways in which to help them with these issues.
This material adapted from Erinoak.
Peer Awareness Activity
Activity: Hidden Curriculum/Personal Space
Age Range: Secondary School
Time Needed: 30-45 minutes
Rationale:
The ‘Hidden Curriculum’ is the set of unspoken or unwritten rules that are not necessarily taught, but are assumed to be known. It is the set of ‘rules’ that helps us to know what to do in most everyday situations. For example, when someone is speaking, we know to listen quietly. When we are in a theatre, we whisper so as not to disturb others around us. We ‘know’ what to wear to ‘be cool’ and fit in.
There are different rules for different situations. Being aware of your and other’s ‘personal space’ is something that most people practice without even being aware that they are doing so.
This exercise illustrates how personal space is different depending on the situation as well as the people involved, and how difficult it can be for someone who doesn’t automatically understand the boundaries of personal space. People with ASD may not understand the social rules of how close to stand, what to say, or what to do in a situation without being taught or shown.
How To:
Materials
2 students
A list of scenarios for students to act out where one person approaches another and has a face-to-face conversation with them. (have students come up with different situations).
Examples
You go up to a stranger to ask for directions to the bathroom.
You approach your close friend and ask what tomorrow’s homework is.
You want to share a secret with a close friend.
A policeman approaches you and starts asking you questions.
You are talking with your mom or dad about the weekend.
You are walking with your girlfriend or boyfriend.
You are talking with your teacher about an assignment.
Steps:
- Have the students act out each scenario with appropriate personal space.
- Act out the scenario again, this time with the Teacher being one of the people in the scenario. Be sure to invade the personal space of the other person.
- Discuss why each situation is awkward and/or uncomfortable. Discuss also how close you should stand and note if it is different for each person. Do factors like familiarity come into play? How do you know how far or close to stand to someone? What do you do when this rule is violated?
- Would you act differently in the future if a student with ASD isn’t following the social rules? How could you help them to understand?
This material adapted from Erinoak.