Special Education for Beginners | Managing Paraprofessionals, Special Education Strategies, First Year Sped Teachers, Special Ed Overwhelm, Paperwork for Special Education Teachers

12 Things to Know Before Setting Up an Autism Classroom with S.B. Linton

• Episode 177

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Today we're focusing on setting up the perfect autism classroom and we're joined by SB Linton, an experienced autism educational specialist, who will share invaluable insights and practical steps to help you create a supportive and efficient learning environment.

Listen in as we explore the 12 things you need to know before setting up an autism classroom.

  1. You need to know about autism
  2. Know what LRE you will be teaching in
  3. What you are legally required to do
  4. What is in the IEP
  5. Skills you will be teaching
  6. What teaching materials to order
  7. Decide how creative you want to be
  8. Understand parents’ perspective
  9. Know who is on your team
  10. How to handle behavior issues
  11. How to develop transition strategies
  12. Self care equals structure

Understanding Autism: Start by deepening your understanding of autism to tailor your approach effectively, recognizing the unique communication and emotional regulation needs of students.

Classroom Setup: Dive into practical steps for organizing your space, from creating sensory-friendly zones to integrating essential learning tools and visual aids.

Collaborative Approaches: Learn strategies for working with general education teachers and paraprofessionals to foster a cohesive team environment, ensuring all staff are well-informed and prepared.

Legal and Educational Frameworks: Discuss the importance of understanding and adhering to the legal aspects of IEPs (Individual Educational Plans), including setting appropriate goals and accommodations.

Engagement and Communication: Explore methods to enhance student engagement through structured routines and clear communication strategies, ensuring every student knows what to expect throughout their day.

Parental Involvement: Emphasize the role of parents in the educational process, offering tips for building strong partnerships and maintaining open lines of communication.

S.B. helps teachers create an effective learning environment so they'll feel more in control of their classroom and confident that they are meet the individual needs of their students.

Be sure to check out the AutismClassroom.com website which provides practical articles, courses, worksheets, workbooks and materials for teaching students with autism.

Mentioned in the episode:
12 Things to Know Before Establishing Your Autism Classroom ebook

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Speaker 1:

Welcome back to another episode of Special Education for Beginners. I'm your host, Jennifer, and today we are diving into an essential topic for every special education teacher, but especially for those of you who are setting up your classrooms for the very first time. Joining us is SB Linton, an autism educational specialist and autism classroom teacher, and with her wealth of knowledge and practical insights, today's episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to create a structured, efficient and supportive learning environment for students with autism. So let's get to it. Hey, special educator, are you overwhelmed by the absurd amount of paperwork on your to-do list? Do you wish you had the skills to build a rock-solid team with your staff? Do you find yourself scouring the internet for how to meet the needs of each student on your caseload? Well, hey there.

Speaker 1:

I'm Jennifer Hopperberg, an award-winning veteran special education teacher and current instructional coach, who has walked in your shoes through each of these challenges and, yes, I have the metaphorical blisters to prove it. I have cried your tears and felt your pain, and now I'm here to support you in the way I wish someone would have been there to support me. Listen in each week as my guests and I dish out practical wisdom to help you handle all the classroom curveballs that are thrown at you and learn how to laugh in spite of the chaos, to celebrate those small yet significant victories that only a special educator can understand. So are you ready? Wipe your tears and put on your superhero cape, because together we are going to learn how to survive and thrive in the ever crazy, completely overwhelming laugh so you don't cry. Profession of being a special education teacher. Well, hello Espie, Welcome to Special Education for Beginners and thank you for joining me.

Speaker 2:

Oh, thank you for having me. Good to be here.

Speaker 1:

Before we get started, I'd love for you to briefly introduce yourself and tell us about your journey within the field of special education briefly introduce yourself and tell us about your journey within the field of special education.

Speaker 2:

Okay, well, I started off, actually, as a substitute teacher when I first got out of school and I always wanted to kind of work in the classrooms that has students with autism or students that have behavioral challenges, and, of course, I always had a job. They always welcomed me back and so I got my start there Eventually. When I went into the classroom as a classroom teacher, I worked with students with autism and worked in classrooms that always had individuals that were on the spectrum. I eventually became a specialist, helping other teachers to work with their students and providing some behavioral supports and strategies for teachers. From then, I created a website helping teachers work with students with autism, helping families work with their children, and I don't know. I think that's kind of it right now.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's great. I've been so excited to chat with you ever since I came across your instagram post this um that said 12 things to know before setting up an autism classroom. So it sounds like you have a lot of experience in that, in that area, and so I think new special education teachers who are just starting out, and even those who are struggling they've been there a while, but they're still struggling will get so much value out of this episode, because we've all been there standing in the middle of a classroom and not having any idea where to start, what you need, where to go to ask what you need. So I'm so excited to hear your steps. So let's just jump right in what is step one to setting up an autism classroom.

Speaker 2:

Okay. Well, one of the things I really try to do is help teachers think about those things you have to do before you even get into the classroom, and so you're right like these 12 steps or 12 things to know before you're establishing your autism classroom. I kind of came up with some things that they want to know about. So step one would be if you're working in a classroom with students with autism, you need to know a little bit about autism. We know that a lot of our children will have delayed language and some challenges with communication. They'll also possibly express themselves differently than using words. You'll see some children using gestures or pointing and then difficulty with emotional regulation, really having trouble regulating their emotions and reining it in when things are hard, and also struggles with social interaction, and so we have to, as teachers, paraprofessionals, understand what autism could look like.

Speaker 1:

I've been in this field for so long and there's still so much to learn, and we have to have that open mind to be lifelong learners, because, just because something that worked for you 20 years ago might not be best practice today and I even heard something just yesterday about students being teachers calling them nonverbal and they're really not nonverbal. Like you said, they have some type of way to communicate. They just might be non-speaking and so, yeah, learning about autism. I think that's a very important first step. So next step, step two what?

Speaker 2:

is that Okay? Step two you need to know what LRE you're going to be in. So the LRE stands for least restrictive environment, and I even put that on there in case somebody was new and hadn't heard that term, or you may have read it in a book or something. And then you get out to the job and you really need to know what it means. But the idea of understanding are you going to be teaching in a general ed classroom with a student who's on the spectrum? Are you going to be teaching in a self-contained classroom? Are you going to be teaching doing some type of co-teaching, which some districts do, or are you going to be in even a separate day school which a lot of people are doing away with, but sometimes they still have them where the whole entire school is special needs? Are you going to be in a private school? And so you want to know what is the LRE that you're going to be teaching in, just so you'll have an idea of what you need to do to support your students in that place.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I think we can even go farther, because most of the teachers that I've worked with are in like an elementary school setting where the LRE might be different for one student versus another student. So you might have one student who his least restrictive environment is the general education classroom and he thrives in there and that's where you support him. But you could have another student who comes out to your resource classroom and you're providing the majority of his services in that classroom. So, yeah, I think that's important to know exactly what is the least restrictive environment for every child.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, because in every school or every district they may provide the services in a different way, and so you're right, you could have somebody who is a case manager for students that are in different LREs, but it's important to know which one that student is going to be in.

Speaker 1:

Right, okay, let's move to step three.

Speaker 2:

Okay, step three.

Speaker 2:

I think you need to know what you're legally required to do.

Speaker 2:

Again, you might read some of this when you're in school and they're teaching you about special education, but when you get out into that real world, that IEP is a legal document and if you're just starting out, you have to accept that and understand it, because you're directly responsible for educating that student and what's on that IEP.

Speaker 2:

You have to be ready to fulfill the requirements that are on there. Most of the time it's goals and objectives, but there are also things on there like different supports that the child needs or maybe accommodations that you have to provide for the student, and so, as a teacher, you have to read that document and understand it and try your best to figure out how you're going to address each of those things that are on there, especially the goals. You want to make sure that the goals you leave time to monitor the goals and track the goals so that when it comes time to report on them, you have sufficient data to explain how well the student is doing, and I imagine we'll touch on this later on, but definitely letting your paraprofessionals know what is legally required by them as well, and the general education teacher.

Speaker 1:

So everybody has to follow that legal document Absolutely because it's a team effort.

Speaker 2:

Once that student's in that classroom, whoever is working with that student, it is a team effort.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so that leads us to the next one. You need to know what is in the IEP. Correct, Correct.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, you want to know what's in there.

Speaker 2:

So I think it's important because you don't want to be in a situation where, as a new teacher or even second, third, fourth year, where you get to the IEP meeting or the annual review or any meeting with a parent and you haven't addressed the things that are on the IEP have to know what's in there, because that is going to drive your instruction A lot of times.

Speaker 2:

They're personalized goals and objectives for the students and they'll be short-term and long-term objectives to work on student-specific accommodations. For me, I really pay attention to the supplementary aids and services that you might provide to the student so that you're making sure that whatever it says on there, you have it in your room and you're working with that student and using those supplementary aids and services. I guess it's really important also to just think about some of the things that help to individualize this document for the students, like do they need wait time? Do they need help with transitions? Do they need visual supports or graphic organizers? So as a teacher, you do need to read that document and know what is in it and what supports that specific child needs, so that you can make sure you are giving this personalized experience to each of your students.

Speaker 1:

And as a new teacher, you're going to inherit IEPs and they are going to sometimes not have enough information in them. Sometimes they're going to be very information rich. So whenever you get that IEP, you're trying to dig through it. You need to keep in mind all of that information for when you write the next IEP for this child, because you want to include as much information as you can, because the IEP eventually will go on to another teacher and you want to be the person that has all of the information instead of just making you know having the bare minimum. That's right. That is right.

Speaker 2:

OK, step five For step five, I think it's important to know what skills you're going to be teaching.

Speaker 2:

So of course you read the IEP, but then what type of skills are you going to be teaching? For most folks, and if you have a self-contained class which is a lot of my experience, so some of my examples will be from that you might be teaching some basic math skills, functional skills. For a lot of the students I worked with, we worked on matching, cutting, identifying, following one-step and two-step directions. I think once you move to middle and high school, sometimes the students are working on more complex things like critical thinking, problem solving for a lot of our kids' life skills and job skills and trying to get them to understand the things that they need to do in order to make it in the job world. So you just kind of want to know what skills you're going to be working on. It just gives you an idea of what materials you might need to order, what materials you might need to buy, and also just gives you an idea of like a basic idea or framework for some of your lessons and some of your planning.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I've had a lot of teachers ask me do I, am I able to teach something that's not on the IEP? And absolutely yes. Your goals are to address those skills that you've written goals for, and you can also teach science, social studies. You can embed a lot of different things social, emotional skills, like you said, life skills, job skills. You can embed that into your daily instruction where you might just be progress monitoring those goals, but you can teach these kids whatever you know, whatever you have time for or however much you can fit into your day. So I think it's important for special education teachers to know that it doesn't just have to be instruction from the IEP, correct?

Speaker 2:

Correct. The IEP is the individualized part, but there would be. There might be some general things that you want to teach to the class. We could talk a little bit about that too. So if you have a general lesson, you do want to figure out how to make that general lesson about, let's say, shapes specific to each student. So you may be working on a lesson about shapes, but you know that student A needs to also answer yes and no questions. So somewhere in that lesson you're going to include yes and no questions. Student B might be working on using picture symbols while they're engaged in a lesson. So somewhere in that lesson about shapes you're going to have picture symbols too. And it takes time, but you'll kind of learn how to take the grand lesson and then incorporate each student's individual needs and it'll. After a while it'll start to come natural. I've seen it become natural to teachers and paraprofessionals. They know what each student needs and they fit that into the lesson.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's a good way to explain it. Well, you mentioned teaching materials, so step six is to figure out what you need to order, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

So you want to know what to order before you even kind of step foot in that classroom, and I know it can be challenging. But I know for some of our classrooms there are some staples, for example, a printer, a laminator, velcro of course, and then some organizational supplies. I know that they're needed so that you can make a lot of the visual supports that we use in our special education classrooms. And then they also you'd need some supplies, maybe from like a Staples or Office Depot or something, so that you can organize your IEPs and organize all the paperwork for your classroom, all the paperwork for your classroom. And I know sometimes for kids it can be too cluttered in the classroom, so you don't want to buy too many things that would overstimulate the students. If you can, you make a little calming area for them, but it is important to try to figure out what to buy and what to create in the classroom.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I think it's important to note that you don't want to go spend your whole paycheck. I know that feeling of wanting it to be beautiful and wanting it to be Pinterest perfect. I've been there. But talk to your admin and see what they'll purchase for you. Talk to other teachers who are getting rid of materials. Look on Facebook Marketplace, go to GarageSales you can find a lot of materials that can help you like build task boxes and different, have different things in your classroom libraries, for example, and then spend your money on those organizational pieces that you really want to have.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, I have. I use a lot of reinforcers in classrooms and I also do consulting I think I forgot to tell you that at the beginning and so I help teachers set up their classrooms, and so when I'm creating reinforcer or preferred item boxes, I will go to a yard sale, find somebody who has toys from their child and they are ready to get rid of those toys, and I could get a huge bag of toys for five, seven, ten dollars, and then I just divide it up amongst the classrooms that I'm working with. So I like your idea of the yard sales for sure.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, okay, what is step seven?

Speaker 2:

Step seven you need to decide how creative you want to be, and so, of course, most teachers are pretty creative. We like to make things, we like to organize things and we like to put our own touch on it. But in special education classrooms there are so many things to do. Sometimes it will be overwhelming if you choose to do every single thing yourself, and so you have to think about okay, am I going to be the one who makes everything or am I going to do like you just said?

Speaker 2:

Look on Facebook marketplace, borrow things from other teachers who don't need them anymore. You know you have to figure out how you're going to do it, and you figure it out now, because if you're going to make all the stuff yourself, you want to start now. If you're going to be able to share things or get things, that doesn't, that don't need to be new. You're going to be okay and you can. You can kind of wait a little bit, but I just think it's important to figure out how creative you want to be, because that is going to be time.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, exactly A lot of time. I am a creative person in that I can create things that I want to create, but I don't. I've never wanted to be the teacher who spent a lot of time decorating my classroom, and so I often utilize paraprofessionals to you know, if they have a strength in that area, I just let them go. You decorate the room, you make it look how you want it to look, and then we'll add in the necessary pieces throughout the year. But I want it decorated, I want it to look cute, but I don't want to spend, like you said, the time. I don't want to spend the time doing it. I feel like I have so many other things that I need to be doing at the first of the year Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. There are so many things that people can't even imagine. So if you're new to teaching, my advice always is plan as much as you can, because those first couple of days back your time will be taken up in meetings and other stuff and if you have the things planned that you already want to do, or you've created what you want, you'll have a little bit of time to do those other things. But when you have to do all of the meetings and you have to do the planning, then it becomes overwhelming.

Speaker 1:

Exactly Okay. So the next two I've looked ahead, but the next two are my favorite topics to discuss. So the first one is you need to understand parents' perspective. I think so many times we forget the parents, and I think it's important that we make sure that we have them on our team. So what do you have to say about that?

Speaker 2:

Well, I just want to say that we make sure that we have them on our team. So what do you have to say about that? Well, I just want to say that we have to remember that parents are human too, right, they're looking for answers sometimes and they're coming to us. We're the special educators, they're coming to us. I think it's important for us to just remember that, because sometimes people get caught up in why are they asking me these questions and I don't? It's okay, they're looking for answers. We have to understand that For their children.

Speaker 2:

If their children are not able to come home and say this is what happened in my day today, it's super important for us to create a way that the parents can understand what happened in that day.

Speaker 2:

It could be something really small where you just have the students mark what activities they did that day, or you write home to them each day, but I do think it's important.

Speaker 2:

I like to do a survey home to the parents at the beginning of each school year so that the classroom team gets to understand the child through the parent's perspective and they can tell you way better than anybody else what their child likes, what their child's favorite things are, and I also like to do that before any IEP meetings.

Speaker 2:

If you're getting ready to create a new IEP, of course you have the goals from before, but it is good to see what the parents are looking for. What are their hopes and dreams for their child, what concerns do they have? And, one of the most important questions, what are you most proud of for your child learning so far? And that way you can see if they are happy with what you're already doing. Right. If they're proud of something that their child learned from you, then you also know you have done something well, and so I think that that's kind of it. I'm just really big on parents and understanding that they're humans too, then, and they're looking for us to kind of support their journey as a village, right, and so you're part of that village.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think that parents, they give us their one child, you know, and they we have, you know a case where 10, 15, 20, sometimes 30 kids. They have that one and I feel like you're so right in saying that we need to remember their perspective, because they're giving us the best that they have and they want, they trust us to love them. And what you said about coming into those meetings and trusting us, they really do. They trust us to know that what we're doing is what's best for their kid, and so I think, whenever you can work your hardest to make that connection with parents, I think it's going to go a long ways for you in your career.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, and that kind of leads into step nine. So the parents are part of your team, but step nine is you need to know who's on your team, because in the classroom you're going to have paraprofessionals working with you, but beyond paraprofessionals, you're going to have speech pathologists, occupational therapists, sometimes physical therapists, depending on the needs of your students. You're also going to maybe have in some schools they have a crisis team. Some schools they have a central office staff that comes in and helps throughout the day. So you want to know who's on your team, because it truly does take a village in order to get this job done and nobody can do it alone.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, definitely the paraprofessionals as part of that team. Sometimes we don't consider them or they don't. It's not that teachers intentionally do this, but I think sometimes parents feel like they aren't included enough to feel as part of the team. So I think that's a very important issue that we need to make sure that they know what's on that IEP, that they know what to do in case of a crisis, because they are a vital part of the team and we can't do our jobs without them. So, yes, I agree with every person that's on that that has any interaction with that kid is part of your team, but definitely the paraprofessionals need to be included. All right, number 10.

Speaker 2:

Number 10, you need to know how to handle behavioral issues. Of course that's going to take time if you're new at this, and that's okay if it takes some time. But you want to be as proactive as you can and try to do what's called antecedent-based interventions and that means you're going to try to put in place a lot of things ahead of time to stop the behaviors from even occurring. A really quick example if you have a student who likes to drink, every time you put a drink down, a water bottle down, and they drink out of your water, an antecedent strategy would be don't bring the water into the class right, Don't put it on the table where they can get to it, Put it up high, put it inside of a cabinet or something like that. Just a very quick example.

Speaker 2:

But try to do a lot of things ahead of time that you know are going to result, or you hope are going to result, in decreased behavior. In a lot of our special ed classes that might mean having your schedule right, Having a schedule that the students can understand and it's predictable for them, like a routine for them. It might mean letting them know ahead of time when things are going to change. Just some of these basic communication things that you might do to other adults. You may not think, oh, my students need this too, but if you were going to have a schedule change, you would tell your paraprofessionals or you would tell the parents oh, we're not doing this on this day, so you have to remember to do that same thing for your students.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, being proactive in your instructions instead of reactive. Because even that basic example that you mentioned, if a child goes to drink your drink, what is your reaction? You're going to jump at them, you're going to grab something from them, you're going to maybe raise your voice a little bit. So that's your natural instinct. And if you take those steps, like you said, to prevent that, then you're solving a lot of problems for yourself and the kid ahead of time. All right, number 11.

Speaker 2:

the hallway, or sometimes people have community trips and so it might be hard for our students to make transitions. So, as a teacher, just start thinking about how will you support transitions with your students. Is it going to be I'm going to make it a habit to use a timer. I'm going to make it a habit to use visual supports with the student. Sometimes you can give the student a warning, even if it's a verbal warning, and you supplement it with a visual picture. So if you're saying, oh, we have five more minutes, but you're showing them a picture of five and you have the timer, all of this is helping the students kind of understand concretely that it's about it's getting ready to be time to change from one thing to the other.

Speaker 2:

Now, sometimes they know it, but they don't want to move to the new thing, and so you're going to have to think about ways to support them in that too, and that might mean finding something they really like and putting it in the place where they're going to go to, and hopefully that helps them to get over. But those are just things to think about. Transitions, aren't things you really I don't think you learn about that in school. I don't remember learning that in college, but it is every day. All day. You're making transitions and if you have that student who doesn't want to make them, you have to start thinking about some of your own strategies to have in your back pocket when it happens.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and you mentioned this earlier, but some of this just comes with experience. You know you're going to get better and better at doing these things and figuring out each individual child as you go, and every year is going to be different. So just try to have that knowledge that this could be a difficult time of day for kids when they're having to transition from activity to activity or place to place Right. And then the last one.

Speaker 2:

Well, I just said you need to know that self-care equals structure.

Speaker 2:

That's how I put it.

Speaker 2:

But what I meant by it is a lot of times we talk about self-care and work life balance, but for me, in a special education classroom, the self-care is you pre-planning and structuring your room so that it runs as smooth as possible.

Speaker 2:

So if you can make it a habit or start to develop habits, where you create systems and structures in your classroom and even if they don't work at first because sometimes you have to work them out right you figure it, you try it and it doesn't work so you retry in a different way. But if you can create those systems, those routines and those structures, you are providing self-care to yourself, because once it gets to be a routine and you have it down, then you're going to feel a lot better about tackling some of those unexpected things right. So we build that routine, we build that consistency for those times where unexpected things happen, and you have to use your brainpower for that, because that will happen every day. Something new will happen every day and you can use your brainpower for that. But you already have your routines set in place.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I think that's an amazing bit of wisdom for educators, because I've been in the field for going on my 30th year. You've been there 25. And so does it seem like your years become a little less stressful every year because of the things that you put into place.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, and that might work for any industry or any skill you think about, even think about parenting. If you've done it a couple times, then you kind of know what might work, what doesn't work. But for the classroom, I can kind of go in now and know, ok, you set this up this way. Oh, if you put that there, somebody's going to grab it, or if you put it over there, they're going to rip it down. So you can know that.

Speaker 2:

Now the challenge for me is, when I am training new teachers, you also want them to kind of live through it too, so you don't want to tell them every single thing, because sometimes seeing is believing and there'll be times when I already know something may not go like they planned, but once they live through it they'll say, okay, well, that didn't work. And I said I didn't think it would, but I wanted you to you know once you feel it and once you see it. But I wanted them to be able to use their critical thinking skills too. Now, if it's something really, really wild, I'll tell them. I don't think so. But if you want to give it a try, so you're right. From experience you can get some of that. But as for me doing this over and over and over, definitely the systems help. I kind of know where to put things and what to try.

Speaker 2:

Now, of course, each kid is different, so a lot of times I use this phrase. If I go into a new classroom even as a teacher I didn't really work with before I'll say, yes, I have the systems and I have the strategies, but you know the student and so we got to put that together. Because this student doesn't know me, they'll do all that same stuff to me. They don't care what my title is. So and I understand that fully. You know them. I have the strategies. We mix that together and hopefully we can get to where we're trying to go.

Speaker 1:

I think that's so amazing. I wish every teacher could have some type of coach or support. Like that's my job as well right now, and I wish I would have had that when I was starting out. I would have been able to save me so many heartbreaking years. But, esme, this has been so informative and I don't expect the listeners to have written each one of these down. So do you have? Do you have them written down for them where they can access all of these ideas?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. I have a free ebook and it is called 12 Things to Know Before Establishing your Autism Classroom, and they can get it at autismclassroomcom.

Speaker 1:

Great. I will add that link to the show notes. So if we wanted to learn more from you or reach out to you on social media, where could we find you?

Speaker 2:

You can find me at Autism Classroom on Instagram, and then Autism Classroom on Facebook, and then also AutismClassroomcom will have all the links, and we have a Facebook group as well.

Speaker 1:

Great. I will leave all of those links in the show notes. Thank you so much again for joining me. I've truly enjoyed it. I've been excited about having this conversation and I know it will be beneficial to the listeners.

Speaker 2:

All right, well, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate.