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    Sara Hackman
     
    What does the Autistic and Emotional Support Teacher do?
     
    Click here to download my Services Pamphlet
     
    Autistic and Emotional Support Services vary from school to school, from teacher to teacher, and from child to child based upon needs.  The students that I work with receive my services on an itinerant level and are fully included in the general education setting.  Though some of my students may receive learning support or other such services, I work specifically with behaviors. 

    So what does the support look like?  As I mentioned before, it can be different for every child, but generally speaking children meet with me for a couple of different groups:  weekly Lunch Bunches, weekly Super Heroes Small Groups, weekly whole-class Super Heroes, daily Mindfulness Mornings, and Monthly Social Clubs. 
     
    Weekly Lunch Bunches
    30 minutes are spent in a social setting, typically during lunch time where the child that I work with is permitted to invite about 3 friends to eat lunch and play a game together. 
     
    Super Heroes
    New to our program last year, the Super Heroes curriculum is very popular among students and staff and has shown great success in our students!  Children are taught important social skills and teacher pleasing behaviors using super hero characters.  These small group sessions meet for 30 minutes once a week.  New this year is the inclusion of whole classroom Super Heroes, where I go into the general education classroom and teach a class-wide lesson with the help of my students in the room.  This helps to generalize the skills being taught and provides opportunities for good role modeling.
     
     
    The Gray's Woods Social Club (monthly)
    The Gray’s Woods Social Skills Club is designed to help children identified with emotional difficulties or autism spectrum disorder (those working with Miss Hackman) gain meaningful social connections and provide real life educational experiences.  Students will participate in a variety of large  and small group  activities designed to foster appropriate social interactions and coping skills.  For more information, click here  
     
    What about one-on-one time?
    Children also receive one-on-one support on an as needed basis where I could possibly teach social skills, coping skills, anger management, conflict management and relaxation skills.  In addition to these times I spend a great deal of time in each classroom doing observations, supporting classroom teachers and making suggestions.

     

    Here are some of the functions and roles of the Autistic and Emotional Support Teacher:

    • Conduct lunch-bunch social groups to practice and develop social skills
    • Work on instruction one-on-one with students in need of autistic or emotional support
    • Observe in the regular education classroom to notice areas of strength and needs
    • Assist in the social and behavioral instruction in the regular classroom
    • Conduct instruction or awareness meetings to typical students on different disabilities
    • Assist regular education teachers with a variety of management techniques
    • Coordinate and Participate in the development in the IEP
    • Share IEP information with the child's educational team
    • Assist in developing behavior plans
    • Participate in the collection of behavioral data
    • Be a part of the team of responders in a crisis situation
    • Participate in referrals for at-risk students
    • Act as an advocate for the student with autism or emotional needs.
Last Modified on August 29, 2013