Summary:
Positive behavioural supports are specifically intended to increase the occurrence of desirable behaviours with students who struggle to consistently behave in an appropriate manner and to eliminate (or gradually decrease) negative and undesirable behaviours, both in school and outside of school. The primary focus of such interventions is often on students with autism who struggle with social interaction and behaviour, social communication and, resort to repetitive, potentially disruptive and occasionally, self-injurious behaviours. Therefore, positive behavioural supports that are visual and easily accessible by the student have been proven to reduce undesirable behaviours and to increase more positive, desirable behaviours. The most common form of visual behaviour support in the classroom is picture schedules. These schedules are used to inform and remind students of events, lessons and, changes that are to occur during the regular school day. They help reduce anxiety and internal feelings of unease within students who may or may not have autism. The visual schedule displays pictorially the main events of
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I have previously taught students with autism and have used visual schedules and social stories before, with a degree of success. I have also adapted visual supports to include the targeted student directly in the images. I can honestly state with confidence, that by doing so, engagement in the visual schedule increased. I think the main reason for this on reflection was the schedule became more relevant and pertinent to the student at the time. I am an advocate of such supports and will continue to utilize them in my future classroom, regardless of whether I have a student who has autism or not. All students can benefit from them. In my opinion they increase self-confidence and reduce anxiety for all