Fading out supports, when possible, gives the student a say in their learning experience that can help prepare them for a more independent future. It’s an often overlooked, but necessary approach to creating an inclusive classroom.
Educators put great effort into ensuring that autistic and other neurodivergent students have access to the supports they need for a successful learning experience. Significant energy and resources – sometimes out of the educator’s own pocket – are expended to ensure the best possible outcomes. Whatever’s required, they will add it to the mix. But deciding what to take away, and when, can be just as important.
Inclusive classrooms work because they provide students with disabilities an opportunity to interact with peers. “Inclusion is a way of thinking – a deeply held belief that all children, regardless of ability or disability, are valued members of the school and classroom community,” writes Julie Causton-Theoharis in an influential article published by Teaching Exceptional Children in 2009. “How can educators help a student feel like an integral member of the classroom? How can students develop authentic connections with their peers? What does access to meaningful general education curricula mean? And most important, what are the most effective ways to support students to help them reach these goals?”1
In other words, effective inclusion sometimes demands that educator's step back and allow students to fully integrate. As Causton-Theoharis puts it, support students the way you’d like to be supported yourself. “Inclusive schooling should promote intellectual growth, independence and interaction with peers.”
Causton-Theoharis encourages a simple four-step approach:
1) plan to include
2) ask and listen
3) step back
4) plan to fade your support
Step 1: Plan to include
As you’re developing accommodations for your classroom, consider the unintended consequences they might trigger. Seating neurodivergent students in an area apart from the rest of the class for example – will that inhibit their ability to develop friendships with other classmates? Will they feel self-conscious or embarrassed?
If there is more than one adult in the classroom, develop a plan to share responsibilities. Teamwork is effective. “Classrooms based on shared responsibility supports can benefit a wider range of students,” writes Causton-Theoharis. “The teachers can plan differentiated instruction together, modify the materials and expectations and invariably negate the need for side-by-side support.”
Plan to assign work to neurodivergent students that doesn’t always require adult support. There are multiple best practices on this, including worksheets with large type, fewer tasks and more.2 This makes it easier for the student to work independently and/or turn to a fellow student for help. “Asking a peer should be the norm for all students,” writes Causton-Theoharis. “Having students seek peer support is a valid and important lifelong skill.”
Step 2: Ask and listen
Educators who’ve taught the student in previous years are a valuable resource, but don’t rely on them exclusively for your plan. Talk with the student. Give them a sense of agency over their experience in the classroom.
Approach this as an ongoing dialogue. As you’re delivering an assignment for example, talk with your student about what they need to do the work. If they’re sensitive to a sound or smell, ask them what’s wrong and how you can help. Students will sometimes have a difficult time expressing themselves – keep the conversation going until they feel heard and you have the information you need.
The opportunity to advocate for themselves will be new to some students. Teach them how. If the student is non-verbal, provide cards with words or pictures they can point at to communicate a preference.
Pay attention to student behaviours too, including acts like biting and hitting. “When students engage in behaviour that is challenging, they are often trying to communicate something,” writes Causton-Theoharis. “The best response is to recognize the behaviour as communication and try to determine the unmet need.”
Step 3: Step back
Support should be faded out gradually and systematically. If a student can complete a task without help, allow them to try another version of it without supervision.
Talk with the student about independence. And engage them on how you can make them less dependent on help from adults. Full independence may not be a realistic goal, but it is possible to create a greater degree of interdependence among students in an inclusive classroom.
Step 4: Plan to fade your support
Causton-Theoharis recommends six questions to guide your plan development:
- When do I need to be physically next to this student?
- For any given skill or time period, do I want the student to achieve independence or interdependence with peer help?
- What cues will I use with the student?
- What next steps can I prepare to reduce the type and level of support I (or we) deliver the student?
- Can anyone else provide more natural supports?
- What materials or content should I modify to support the student’s independence?
A 1997 paper by Michael Glangreco, Susan Edelman and Stephanie Zora Macfarland3 lists multiple examples of how accommodations can sometimes do harm, including dependence on adults, interference with peer and teacher interactions, and a feeling of stigmatization.
Be mindful about how much support you give your student and when to provide more opportunities for independence by reflecting on the prompts you currently provide.
Fading out supports, when possible, gives the student a say in their learning experience that can help prepare them for a more independent future. It’s an often overlooked, but necessary approach to creating an inclusive classroom.
Seven types of support4
- Full physical: Direct, physical assistance.
- Partial physical: Some physical help with one or more parts of an activity, when required.
- Modelling: Demonstrating what you want the student to do.
- Direct oral: Verbal information given directly to the student.
- Indirect verbal: A prompt designed to get the student to think about or do what’s expected.
- Gestural: A movement – like a head nod or thumbs up – that helps communicate a cue.
- Natural: Allowing ordinary, environmental cues – a bell ring for example – to guide the student.
References:
[1] “The Golden Rule of Providing Support in Inclusive Classrooms: Support Others as You Would Wish to Be Supported,” Teaching Exceptional Children, Vol. 42, No. 2, Julie Causton-Theoharis.
[2] See “Best teaching practices for autistic students age 3 to 12” and “Best teaching practices for autistic students age 13 to 21,” Sonderly.
[3] “Helping or Hovering? Effects of Instructional Assistant Proximity on Students with Disabilities,” Teaching Exceptional Children, Vol. 64, No. 1, Michael Glangreco, Susan Edelman and Stephanie Zora Macfarland.
[4] Adapted from The Paraprofessional’s Guide to the Inclusive Classroom: Working as a Team (3rd ed.), M.B. Doyle, 2008, Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.