Vignette 1: Jake
Background Information:
Jake is a 4 year old student with high functioning Autism. His cognitive abilities and language skills are consistent with his same age peers but he struggles socially to relate to others, especially his peers. He has difficulty initiating or sustaining interactions with his peers and his play tends to become fixated on toys of interest (e.g., toy trucks) and has difficulty sharing with others. He has been attending a neighborhood preschool for the past year and has become increasingly aggressive with his peers. His teacher reports that he seems to become most aggressive during less structured times of the day when adult supervision is minimal and children are expected to play together independently. It was also reported that due to his history of aggression, his peers tend to stay away from Jake and leave him alone for long periods of time. Subsequently, Jake is finding himself with no one to play with despite his strong desire to do so.
He is particularly motivated by one to one time with adults building things with Lego. Jake’s parents report that they are concerned about whether he will be allowed to stay at the current preschool. They have been in close communication with the teaching staff at preschool in hopes of trying to remedy the situation. The parents have enlisted you to learn more about Jake’s challenges in the school environment and offer recommendations of what can be done to address his problem behavior. With this information you make two observations of Jake across the preschool day to learn more about his challenging behavior.
Behavioral Observation 1: Classroom Routine
Your first observation is done during morning free play in the classroom between 9:00-9:10am. The teacher’s use this time for their breaks and prep time as it usually represents a time when children are able to keep themselves engaged with one another without incident. As you begin to observe you see that Jake is playing by himself with a toy truck in one area within his preschool classroom. Jake looks over at Susan and Ryan, who are playing with toy dinosaurs. He then proceeds to crawl and push his toy truck toward Susan and Ryan. As Jake gets within approximately 4 feet of these two students he looks directly at them, makes a scowl on his face, and roars loudly like an animal. Susan and Ryan look at him briefly but then direct their attention away from him and resume playing with their dinosaurs. Jake crawls closer to Ryan who is sitting with his back turned to Jake and swings his arm with his palm open at Ryan, grazing his back. Ryan still does not turn toward Jake. Jake then moves slightly closer and reaches out and scratches the back of the Ryan’s neck. Ryan quickly turns around, looks at Jake yelling, “Ouch”, and takes a swing at Jake without making contact. Ryan then leans into Jake and yells, “Stop doing that”. Jake repeats back to Ryan, “Stop doing that”. As this interaction is taking place several of the other students walk over to where Jake and Ryan are and begin to observe intently.
Behavioral Observation 2: Playground Routine
Your second observation is done during recess time on the playground between 11:00-11:10am. The children are typically allowed to access the playground and engage in free play using the playground equipment or toys that are brought outside for them to play with. Usually one adult teaching staff is responsible for supervising the all the children (e.g., 10-15 at a time) on the playground during this time. As you begin to observe you see that Jake and his classmates are already outside for recess on the playground. Jake, Nancy, and Joe are in close proximity to one another standing over a basket of toy cars and trucks. Nancy selects a green truck from the basket and begins to examine it. Jake watches Nancy select the green truck. Then Jake steps toward Nancy and reaches for the green truck. Once he places his hands on the green truck Nancy pulls it closer to her. Jake then grabs the green truck and tries to wrestle it away from Nancy. Nancy does not let go and Jake proceeds to push Nancy’s face away with his left hand. Nancy continues to hold onto the green truck. Jake then grabs the green truck with both hands and finally pulls it away from Nancy. Afterwards Jake drops to the ground with the green truck. Nancy walks around Jake and makes an effort to obtain access to the green truck by grabbing for it. Jake swipes her hands away. Nancy continues to grab for the green truck. Once she gets a hold of it Jake again pushes her face away and she releases her grasp on the green truck. At this a teacher walks over and asks Jake and Nancy, “What is going on?” Jake says, “I want to play with the green truck”.