Luke (not his real name) is a Neighborhood Charter Schools kindergarten student diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). He typically thrives within the school environment, which is designed to be fully inclusive of students with ASD. Visual schedules are in every classroom, previewing routines and expectations, along with readily available visual resources such as checklists to support executive functioning. However, with COVID-19, the predictable and inclusive environment of school was removed, and Luke had to begin remote learning at home with his single mom. A lot of behavioral and academic progress that had been made in the school year began to slip, and his mother’s mental health was affected. Luke was showing a lot of aggressive, defiant behaviors that were noticed by his classroom teachers. This became incredibly difficult for his mom, who continues to try to balance working from home and managing her son’s behavior and academic growth.

To respond to these issues, I created a resource to partner with families and transfer key components of their child’s school-based ASD program into their homes. While this resource is based on our own ASD program, we believe these strategies can support all kids! Within the first day of our school being closed (and we closed early), Lindsey Hughes, our director of special education, suggested that I make a “one-pager of tips and tricks for remote learning.” I absolutely love making visual supports, and was happy to do so.

This resource, with the key components to our ASD program that enhance learning, gave families the foundation to set up their educational space. This allowed us to dive deeper into individual supports that go beyond the basic features shared through the resource. The goal of creating this resource was to give families the highest-leverage tweaks they could make to their home life—strategies that would make the biggest impact as their kids transitioned to remote learning, while also supporting behavior and relationships at home. The example presented below describes the process we used with Luke’s family to dive deeper into individual support, building on the tips and tricks resource we had previously sent home.

Learning goals
Form a strong partnership with the parent to build capacity in education and managing children with ASD.
Present a united front to the student to highlight the seriousness of the current situation.
Present and gain understanding from the student through a visual representation of current behaviors, rationale for change, and plan moving forward.
Involve the student, paint a clear picture about what is currently happening, why it cannot happen, and the plan for growth.
Practice using resources to deliver the plan for behavioral change and academic growth.