Behavior Intervention Plan for Kindergarten student with ASD

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We just had my son's IEP meeting for Kindergarten. He started back in August and is doing academically very well, however there are behavior concerns. He just had a state and district assessment done and they were all 3s which means he is meeting the standards. He only had a 2 for identifying positional relationships which means he is progressing.

We initially wanted the district to evaluate him because he does have the medical ASD diagnosis but the IEP team decided that since he is doing so well academically to just support him in the classroom and pull him out for speech therapy.
A behavioral intervention plan was also created in order to help him better in the classroom. Does this sound satisfactory for a high functioning kindergartener? We are new to this as we never got this much support from the school when we lived in Texas. So what do we really know? This is in his behavioral intervention plan and there are two goals.

Goal 1: Student will look and listen for oral directions
Functional Behavioral Assesement/Identified Function of Target Behavior:
He is often distracted and his attention is focused elsewhere. He struggles to sit still and often needs manipulatives to keep him busy.

Intervention Strategies:
Teach and reinforce school rules consistently
Visual reminders
Increase opportunities to participate in the activity/lessons
Increase the number of positive statements/interactions with student

Alternative Behaviors:
Teach the student to solicit reinforcement for appropriate behavior
Student will provide visual eye contact to show his teacher he is listening

Individualized reinforcers for student to learn alternative behavior:
He will earn stars on his daily behavior checklist
Positive reinforcement from teacher

Consequences for Target behavior:
Ignore inappropriate behavior/nonverbal redirection back to task/wait/reinforce
Loss of privilege
Give first/Then statement
Redirect to finish 1 or 2 more items then prompt student to request break/after break student must do a portion of previous assignment

Goal 2: Student will follow directions, both oral and written.
Functional Behavioral Assessment/Identified Function of Target Behavior:
Distractability
Fidgeting

Intervention Strategies:
Teach and reinforce school rules consistently
Increase opportunities to participate in the activity/lessons
Use peer modeling
Increase proximity control
Teacher/Student Conference

Alternative Behaviors:
Teach him how to self-monitor on his daily behavior chart
Teach student to solicit reinforcement for appropriate behavior

Individualized reinforcers for student to learn alternative behavior:
Positive reinforcements
starts on a daily positive chart

Consequences for target behavior:
Ignore inappropriate behavior/nonverbal redirection back to task/wait/reinforce
Loss of privileges
Give first/then statement
Redirect to finish 1 or 2 more items then prompt student to request break/after break student must do a portion of previous assignment
Use visual supports

We will start this after today and I must say I do feel good about this plan. I was so nervous for this meeting but he continues to be mainstreamed.
He will also be observed in the classroom during transitions and specials to see if they can come up with additional strategies and/or interventions.

An OT referral will also be made because he really struggles with writing. Although in Texas he received PT/OT at one clinic and we were told that his fine motor skills were excellent.

As a NT parent and being (fairly) new to this can be overwhelming and I just hope that we are doing a good job with him.

I know this is not related to this but my son who has texture problems with eating actually ate mac and cheese for the first time in 2 years again and he liked it. He also ate a hamburger (without the bun) yesterday and he said it tasted good!

I wonder if he is starting to open up about food because he sees his classmates eat their lunch every day even though he brings his own lunch. But this is a great milestone for him
Thought I'd share it with you since he's a kid that only eats pizza, chicken nuggets, pbj sandwiches, applesauce, yogurt, oatmeal, waffles, pancakes and that's pretty much it.

Did you shorten the goal statements or translate them from IEP-speak in to plain english? My son (also in kindergarten) has a similar goal that is written this way:

The difference is that this goal is measurable, where "Student will look and listen for oral directions" is a lot looser. If he does it one time a day has the goal been met?

Another goal:


The strategies you listed look promising. Is there any aide support? Our DS is going to have some number of hours of a floating aide (ie shared with other kids, not sitting next to him) in the classroom. His issues are mainly behavioral, not academic. We've got an IEP meeting coming up on Monday, so it would be interesting to compare notes with you.

Momofboys, I read this for my own sake as I have no experience here. I think all is good except that I see a red flag: Student will provide visual eye contact to show his teacher he is listening. I am understanding that AS kids cannot provide visual eye contact and listen at the same time. Encouraging eye contact is counterproductive, right?

Congratulations on the food front! And congratulations on the IEP, too.

Redacted.

Last edited by Willard on 01 Oct 2011, 8:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The strategies you listed look promising. Is there any aide support? Our DS is going to have some number of hours of a floating aide (ie shared with other kids, not sitting next to him) in the classroom. His issues are mainly behavioral, not academic. We've got an IEP meeting coming up on Monday, so it would be interesting to compare notes with you.[/quote]

There is no aide support but, there is a teachers assistant in the classroom. Academically he exceeds the standards on the state assessment. Our DS also has speech language impairment and will be pulled out of class twice a week for that.

True, but he generally does make good eye contact. We actually make him look at us while we are talking to him. I was taught that way too as I personally avoid eye contact in most situations as well. Most of the time he listens and makes eye contact when asked and does fine with that. He does appear to still learn even when it seems that he's not paying attention which is one of the reasons why he is doing excellent academically.

Thanks, the food struggle is a work in progress!

I too find the eye contact thing disturbing. My DS is OK at making eye contact when he is calm and comfortable. I don't push for it though. Teachers and others have noted that he sometimes sits with his back to them but then will turn around and respond when a question is asked. I agree with Willard. Forcing eye contact could just be increasing his stress level. Just because he does it doesn't mean he likes to do it. It may just mean he has learned that other people want him to.

My caveat, to start, is that we have never had a behavior plan. They simply never felt it was needed. But if the plan you've described were ours, i would have some questions.

It sounds like they want to squash all of your son's moving, quirks, etc., and reserve the right to issue negative consequences for it. If that is the case, I wouldn't sign it. AS kids need to move. 6 year olds need to move. It helps them think, it helps them stay focused, and it helps them self-calm. If a school forces all of that out of an Aspie child I think it will backfire. Your son will mature beyond most of it when he's ready, so beyond making sure he doesn't severely disrupt the class, why make an issue out of it?

I personally don't see what the big deal is with eye contact, so that is another one I would question. Are they really reserving the right to issue negative consequences for failing to make eye contact? Can't that come later after he's, um, learned to read, write, and say good morning?

Basically, do they understand what AS kids need, the point of stims, etc? I'm not getting the sense they do, and that is what bothers me. Is it all about making him act NT? And ... I could be wrong. Just saying it's worth asking.

I'm also disturbed by the whole eye contact thing as well. It was very hard for me to give eye contact at that age. It's still hard for me to give eye contact many years later. Even the two words together under the same breath is enough to make me want to hurl.