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Nathan, Benjamin, Seth and Colton: ASD Identification and Instruction

David A. Kalmar

Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania

EDTF/EDTC 702-401 2021C: Special Education Law and Processes

Dr. Heather Hopkins

September 20, 2021

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Nathan, Benjamin, Seth and Colton: ASD Identification and Instruction

Identifying ASD in Nathan and Benjamin

The video of the twins Nathan and Benjamin, ages 1 year 7 months, follow the same

format: Separately, each boy is seen sitting at a table with his mother, the mother rolls a small,

red train engine across the table to her son, and then her son does (or does not) roll the train back.

During these very brief (less than 30 seconds) interactions, Ben appears to be evincing a typical

developmental trajectory, while Nathan appears to show possible warning signs of early Autism

Spectrum Disorder (ASD). During Ben’s play period (for a transcript, see Appendix A), Ben

exhibits typical behaviors for his age (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021):

• Keeps eye contact throughout the time spent with his mom

• Shows facial expressions, like “happy” (smiling throughout) and “concern” (when the

train falls off the table)

• Plays a simple interactive game of passing the train back and forth, with Ben returning

the train a total of six times during their short game

• Looks at the train when the mother presents it

• Speaks single words, and in particular uses the words “whee” and “off” at appropriate

moments throughout the interaction (Heuser Hearing Institute, 2016)

In short, Ben demonstrates age-appropriate communication, behavior, and social skills. Nathan,

in contrast, fails to demonstrate these same characteristics:

• At no point makes eye contact with his mother

• Does not respond to his name when his mother tries to attract his attention

• Shows no facial emotion of any sort throughout the time spent with his mom – no “big

smiles or other warm, joyful expressions”

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• Is primarily disengaged from the mother’s attempts to play the game, only passing the

train back once

• Does not demonstrate any language use – Nathan does not use single words, nor does he

even babble

Appropriate next steps for Nathan would be formal screening through a combination of

developmental surveillance and standardized autism-specific testing.

Instruction for a Student with ASD Level 1

Seth is a vividly drawn student, so much so that it has the ring of familiarity. In fact, if

we were to substitute Seth’s obsession with superheroes (most likely from the Marvel Universe)

to an obsession with characters from the Star Wars Universe, I would believe we were talking

about one of my own students, Colton, whom I have been teaching for a year. As with Colton,

the students in Seth’s classroom are disinclined to befriend him, due to his apparent socially

inappropriate behavior. I occasionally see Colton pulled into the hallway, in tears, because of

conflict with the other children, driven by his own actions; I imagine something similar could

exist with Seth. While he has high-functioning autism, Seth nonetheless is saddled with the

social communication challenges of a level 1 ASD: difficulty in social communication that leads

to noticeable impairments.

Social-emotional learning is a current focus in education, and could well be leveraged to

help children like Seth. Improved social skills could be expected to increase not just the quality

of life socially, but could have a trickle-down effect on other areas of learning, because of

decreased conflict in the classroom. One technique for instruction that appears to be particularly

fruitful for autism is Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). The non-profit autism advocacy

organization Autism Speaks emphasizes how ABA has a track record of success with autism
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going back to the 1960s (Autism Speaks, 2021). Schreiber (2011) underscored the point,

writing, “At this time, applied behavior analysis (ABA) is the only social skill intervention

method that has solid empirical research demonstrating an increase in positive behaviors…as

well as a reduction in negative behaviors” (p. 55). Flynn & Healy (2012), in a broad literature

review, reached a similar point. In a recent meta-analysis of 14 empirical studies, Yu et al.

(2020) found that ABA interventions were of particular effectiveness for socialization and

communication. Hence, ABA in some form could prove particularly helpful for addressing the

social skills deficits seen in children such as Seth.

The question for the classroom, then, is to decide in what form ABA can be engaged.

There are two underlying issues. First, ABA is not a unitary method, but rather, a general

framework, derived from operant conditioning, utilizing a focus upon antecedents, behaviors,

and consequences, that underlies a wide variety of methods and procedures (Matson et al., 2012).

Second, students with high-functioning autism like Seth (and Colton) are found in inclusive

settings, where it is unlikely that a classic intensive ABA program could be implemented.

Nonetheless, some research has found that even low-intensity ABA programs (only a few hours

a week) can yield significant benefits (Lotfizadeh et al., 2020). In this case, ABA training on

social skills could profitably be woven into the fabric of the classroom itself. The content of that

curriculum would be those fundamentals that are seen as deficits in ASD. Many schools that

specifically train teachers in the curriculum of social skills focus on appropriate eye contact,

understanding emotions and facial expressions, and empathy (Sippl, 2020). Commercial

organizations that use ABA to teach social skills to children with ASD carve the skills space

even more finely, building from fundamentals such as giving and receiving items from peers and

taking turns with toys and simple games (How to ABA, 2017). It seems, then, that Seth and his
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friends could benefit from ABA-based instruction on social skills, even when potentially

integrated into the classroom rather than taught in an intensive setting.

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References

Autism Speaks. (2021). What is Applied Behavior Analysis?

https://www.autismspeaks.org/applied-behavior-analysis

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2015, October 9). Observation: Nathan & Ben: 1

year 7 months [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q2CzTJh7nI

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). Signs and symptoms of Autism Spectrum

Disorders. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/signs.html

Flynn, L., & Healy, O. (2012). A review of treatments for deficits in social skills and self-help

skills in autism spectrum disorder. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 6, 431-441.

Heuser Hearing Institute (2016, October 19). What does typical early language development

look like? https://thehearinginstitute.org/typical-early-language-development-look-

like/

How to ABA (2017, November 27). How to use ABA to teach social skills.

https://howtoaba.com/teach-social-skills/

Lotfizadeh, A. D., Kazemi, E., Pompa-Craven, P., & Eldevik, S. (2020). Moderate effects of

low-intensity behavioral intervention. Behavior Modification, 44(1), 92-113.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0145445518796204

Matson, J. L., Turygin, N. C., Beighley, J., Rieske, R., Tureck, K., & Matson, M. L. (2012).

Applied behavior analysis in autism spectrum disorders: Recent developments, strengths,

and pitfalls. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 6, 144-150.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2011.03.014
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Schreiber, C. (2011). Social skills interventions for children with high-functioning autism

spectrum disorders. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 13(1), 49-62.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1098300709359027

Sippl, A. (2020, June). What is Social Skills Training and when is it used? Applied Behavior

Analysis Programs Guide.

https://www.appliedbehavioranalysisprograms.com/faq/social-skills-training/

Yu, Q., Li, E., Li, L., & Liang, W. (2020). Efficacy of interventions based on Applied Behavior

Analysis for Autism Spectrum Disorder: A meta-analysis. Psychiatry Investigation,

17(5), 432-443. https://doi.org/10.30773/pi.2019.0229

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Appendix A

Time-Stamped Transcript of Video of Nathan and Benjamin

Time stamps are based upon the class lecture in which the video is embedded. The video

is available in standalone format from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2015).

[12:13] Benjamin, wearing a purple, short-sleeved shirt, is seen sitting at a play table with his

mother. He is smiling, oriented to his mother, and making eye contact.

[12:16] Mother pushes a red train engine, approximately 4” in length, to Ben. He pushes it

back while saying, “Whee.” They repeat three times. On the last repetition, he reaches

and grabs the train, and then pushes it back.

[12:24] The train rolls off the table. As the train rolls off the table, the mother says, “Uh, oh,”

and Ben stops smiling and looks at his mother. Then he turns his head to his left and

looks down onto the floor.

[12:28] The child says something, which the mother appears to interpret to be the word, “Off.”

The mother replies, “Yeah, it fell off, that’s right.” Ben starts smiling again and replies,

“Off.” A look of concern crosses his face. The mother reaches down to pick up the

train.

[12:32] The mother places it on the table and says, “Here it is.” While she does so, Ben begins

to smile again and orients to the train as she places it down. She rolls it to him, he says

something that sounds a little like, “Oh,” he rolls it back to her, and they continue

playing, with them passing the train back and forth twice more.

[12:38] The video cuts to the Benjamin’s brother, Nathan. He is wearing a long-sleeved blue

shirt, and is seen sitting at the same play table, with his mother. He is not smiling. He
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is watching the train engine on the table in front of him. His mother rolls the train to

him. He catches the train and examines it.

[12:42] The mother holds out her hand and says, “Push.” Nathan pushes it to her open hand.

The mother says, “Good boy.”

[12:44] The mother says, “Ready, set, go,” and pushes the train to Nathan.

[12:46] Nathan catches the train, looks at it, then diverts his attention. He rotates his body

away from his mother toward the adjacent baby gate. With his left hand, he moves the

train aside, and with his right hand, reaches for the rails of the baby gate.

[12:50] Nathan grabs the gate and leans toward it. His mother meanwhile grabs him and pulls

him back to the table.

[12:52] The mother reorients Nathan to the table and says, “Stay up here, stay up here.”

[12:55] Nathan watches the train. The mother pushes the train to him, and he catches it.

[12:57] With train in hand, Nathan again turns toward the gate. The mother says, “Stop.”

[12:58] Again, with the train in his left hand, Nathan reaches with his right hand to grab the

gate. The mother grabs the train.

[13:01] The mother says, “Nathan,” but Nathan does not respond to his name. Then says,

“Go,” while pushing the train toward him. He meanwhile is looking down toward the

floor.

[13:03] The mother holds the train up in front of Nathan’s face and says, “Look, here it is.

Here’s the train.” Nathan meanwhile is turning further away, now looking over his left

shoulder toward the floor.

[13:06] The mother sets the train down on the table, reaches for Nathan, and rotates him back

toward the table, saying, “Stay here, please.”

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END