SAN01 – Supporting Additional Needs

Student name

Email address

Purpose of this Assessment

This assessment task is designed to assess your knowledge on:

Organisational policies and procedures for working with students with ASD

Different roles of people supporting students with additional needs and ASD and the required collaboration between them

Ways to support teaching strategies

Student Instructions

This assessment task contains Short Answer Questions where you need to provide a response in your own words to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the unit. Carefully read through each question and reflect on your learning in this unit, including any additional research you have conducted.

This assessment also contains a research project that you are required to complete.

Please note: Where your response does not sufficiently address all the question components, your submission will be returned to you for resubmission.

Assessment Conditions

This assessment is untimed

You may refer to your learning materials during this assessment

You must read and respond to all questions

Answers must be typed and submitted through My eCampus for assessing

You must complete the task independently

No marks or grades are allocated for this assessment task. The outcome of the task will be Satisfactory or Not Satisfactory

As you complete this assessment task, you are predominately demonstrating your written skills and knowledge to your trainer/assessor

Question 1

a. What are three (3) examples of policies and procedures implemented by the department of education in your state or territory?

b. Give a brief overview of what the organisational policies and procedures for working with students with additional needs (including ASD) will cover. Provide two (2) examples of specific policies or procedures.

Question 2

a. Provide ten (10) roles and responsibilities of an education support worker.

b. In the table below, provide a brief description of how staff in each role must support students with additional needs.

Education support worker

Teachers

Other professionals (school counsellors, doctor etc.)

c. How are staff in these roles required to communicate and collaborate when supporting students with additional needs? Explain why this communication and collaboration is important.

d. Reflect on your role as an education support worker given the above responsibilities. Provide a summary of your understanding of your role.

Question 3

Explain how an education support worker can support the teaching strategies implemented for students with ASD, including:

Contributing observations

Ensuring their own understanding of the teaching strategies

Following the teacher’s example

Question 4

Give a brief explanation for each of the reasons students may need additional support.

Cognitive ability

Physical capacity

Medical conditions

Psychological conditions

Emotional issues

Social issues

Trauma

Giftedness

Question 5

a. Explain the key features of an inclusive approach to students’ learning.

b. What is an individual learning plan and how is it developed?

c. Discuss how an individual learning plan is implemented and monitored.

Question 6

a. Provide seven (7) strategies for students who require additional support for language, literacy, and numeracy learning.

b. Discuss how to ensure support strategies are appropriate to the student’s phase of learning.

Question 7

Describe the support strategies listed below and provide two (2) examples of ways each strategy may be applied to assist students with additional needs.

Adjustments to program or activities

Adaptations to resources

Use of assistive technologies

Behavioural support techniques

Individual or peer support

Structuring of tasks

Arrangement of learning space

Question 8

a. What are nine (9) classroom safety considerations that you must consider?

b. How must you support classroom safety within the scope of your role as an education support worker?

Question 9

Conduct additional research on the following student behaviours. You must explain why each behaviour can be an indicator of risk to a student’s emotional wellbeing and state what you should do if you observe or are informed of these behaviours in a student.

Changes in attention and concentration

Changes in interaction with peers

Agitation

Sadness or lethargy

Losing interest in activities usually enjoyed

Changes in perception of self-image

Physical symptoms or visits to the sick-bay

Lack of interest in eating

Talking about death or suicide

b. What are three (3) ways you could respond appropriately to the above indicators that a student’s wellbeing is at risk?

c. What must you do if you have any concerns about the student’s safety in these situations?

a. Armani is seven years old and has recently started isolating herself from her peers by stacking books so that the student sitting at the next desk can’t see her. When asked about it, Armani says she just wants to be alone.

Yes No

b. Jack is 14 years old and always spends his lunchtime playing football with his friends. On this particular day, he decided to spend his lunchtime reading a book in the library instead. When asked about it, he said he was just at a really good point in the book and wanted to know how it ended.

Yes No

c. Kaylee is nine years old and has been caught multiple times stealing from other students’ lunch boxes when they all go to the playground. The teachers have noticed that Kaylee’s lunch box is sometimes full of food, but other times there are only one or two small items. Kaylee has frequently asked to sit out of physical games halfway through because she is too tired.

Yes No

Instructions

You must conduct research on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) using current and authoritative sources and develop a written report based on your findings. In the course of your research, you can use websites of industry bodies and organisations, contact professionals and specialists to ask questions and discuss findings, or utilise sources such as research papers or relevant articles and/or seminars/webinars to inform your report.

1. Introduction:

Provide an overview of ASD, including its definitions and key characteristics. You may also choose to include current statistics.

Provide an overview of the legal and ethical requirements for working with students with ASD, including:

Anti-discrimination and inclusion

Disability Discrimination Act

Child safety

Confidentiality

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Provide an overview of education facilities’ policies and procedures for working with students with ASD – explain the purpose of each policy

2. Context:

Discuss the historical and current perspectives on ASD, including causes, diagnosis, treatments and therapies

Describe how ASD is currently diagnosed, and provide any key details relating to its diagnosis, such as differences in symptoms between genders, how age might affect a diagnosis, and so on

Outline the main challenges experienced by people living with ASD, with a focus on how it affects development and learning

Explain how the labels ‘low functioning’ and ‘high functioning’ can be problematic and outline the current terminology used to describe the level of support required by students with ASD

3. Support strategies:

Identify and discuss the support strategies available for those living with ASD for each area listed below that the disorder could impact:

Social and emotional

Cognitive

Medical

Psychological

Outline potential adjustments that teachers and support staff can make to their teaching strategies to support students with ASD in the classroom

Outline potential adjustments that teachers and support staff can make to daily class activities to ensure the classroom environment is more inclusive of students with ASD

Discuss how an Individual Education Plan (IEP) is used to create learning and behavioural targets for students and what needs to be considered when creating the plan – locate online examples or discuss them with your teacher to inform your response

Describe how you could set up an appropriate learning space for a student with ASD. Include examples of assistive resources and technologies that might be useful to the student

Identify how educators can use positive behaviour support and appropriate communication techniques to engage students with ASD and facilitate their learning

4. Professional collaboration:

Identify the roles of the following people in supporting students with ASD in the classroom:

Teacher

Education Support Worker

Other professionals

Explain why it is important for educators and other professionals to work as a team to support students with ASD, and outline how you as an Education Support Worker can contribute most effectively

5. Provide your references for every source you used to complete this research project.

5. References

Submission Instructions

Please proofread your work and save a copy of your assessment to keep in your own records.

Save the document to include your name in the file for example:

SAN01 – Knowledge Questions – Your Name

Submit your completed assessment for marking by your assessor.