Using techie gadgets and non-techie visual aids, along with their ‘favorite things’, Charles Slye teaches students with daily life skills.

In the movie classic “The Sound of Music”, Maria (played by Julie Andrews) teaches her seven wards “when you read, you begin with ABC” …by singing.

Here comes the Modern Maria. Actually, a Mario, complete with beard. He does not really sing his voice hoarse while teaching. Instead he downloads music from the internet and plays them to his wards with techie gadgets. And when he teaches them their other “favorite things” accompanied by songs, he also uses techie or non-techie visual aids.

By the way, his wards are not children of a Captain Von Trapp. They are students with autism. He teaches them not only how to read, do math, and explore sciences.

Most importantly, he teaches them life skills.

Charles Slye has been a special education teacher in San Francisco, U.S.A for the last t10 years. He teaches in a classroom specifically designed for students with autism. He earned his special education credential at San Francisco State University, and Industrial Psychology at the California State University, Hayward.

The good news: Charles is coming not just to Metro Manila. With the generosity of Autism Hearts Foundation, and the support of The Legend Hotels International and local partners like the De La Salle Health Sciences Institute, Charles will be doing a series of seminar-workshops on “Using Music and Visuals in Teaching

Academic Subjects and Life Skills to Children with Autism” in the following ASP chapters:

• June 20-21, Dasmarinas, Cavite at De La Salle Health Sciences Institute
• June 24, Los Banos, Laguna
• June 27-28, Metro Manila in Asian Social Institute
• July 4-5, Baguio City
• July 11-12, Cebu City
• July 18, Clark, Pampanga.

Angels Talk interviewed Charles Slye.

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Why use music and visuals in teaching children with autism? I have a group of nine students in my classroom, eight of which have autism. I noticed that when I played music out of the portable stereo, they were much calmer and attentive than usual. So I started getting educational music to play for my students, so they could learn through music. Music helped them sit and enjoy activities.

Later, I found out that they seemed to be focusing more on the melody rather than the lyrics. Many children with autism have difficulties processing auditorily as they have to transfer what they are hearing into information to store. Since most children with autism are visual learners, this made me realize that I needed to give them a visual “back-up” and help them process the lyrics “visually.” The visuals allowed them to process the information through their eyes. This way, they retained knowledge easier.

How you do you do “singing while teaching”?

What kind of songs do you use?

I am not much of a singer, so I purchase and download songs to use in the classroom.

The internet is great at allowing you to find samples of songs and shop around before having to buy anything. Most educational music sites allow you to purchase the music by downloading.

Choose songs that don’t have too many instruments and complicated melodies within the songs.

Too much “extras” distracts from the words. Choose songs that are clearly sung, so the students can understand the lyrics. If the music or singing style strains the children from making out the lyrics, then they will only pay attention to the music.

Hao, one of my students, is almost primarily non-verbal. But I often hear her singing to herself throughout the day. It is very likely that she plays the song over and over in her head. This shows she learns the songs quickly. And although she’s not singing the lyrics clearly enough for us to understand, she sings in tune. The door of opportunity is open for learning new songs, even when it’s not instructional time.

How do you use visual aids in teaching these children?

Visuals are basically an image (usually on paper) communicating a message. These are effective for students who are “visual learners”. Many children with autism have what people call “photographic memory”. They remember the images presented to them and all of the details accurately. Later, they recall those images when they are not within sight.

Visuals can be communication tools, such as a picture of a child sitting on a chair. When you need to tell a child with autism to sit on their chair, just show them the picture of a person sitting on a chair.

They are much more likely to respond to the visual command than the auditory command of “sit down”.

During academic times, visuals can be used to reinforce instruction. For instance, when you teach students to count to 100, it works much better to use a 1 to 100 number chart and point to each number as you say it than to have them just rote count.

Children with autism will memorize how to count to 100 faster by recalling the actual image of the visual rather than trying to form their own mental image when they listen to numbers. It basically gives them a consistent blueprint to remember information.

How effective are AAC (Alternative and Augmentative Communication) devices like Tech Talk and Go Talk in communicating with children with autism?

Children with autism respond easier and quicker to picture and sound than having them to form their own picture in their head of what they think they are being told.

For instance, when I have a loud student, I just show him the picture for “quiet” (a head with a hand and finger making a “shh” gesture over its mouth with the word “quiet” printed above it). The loud student immediately knows what it means and what he is supposed to do.

My students seem to respond more with a picture to go along with what I am telling them or asking them. Learning the meanings of the pictures is useful because it allows them to use the pictures to communicate back to adults or classmates.

For non-verbal students, or students with limited speech, technological devices such as the Tech Talk and Go Talk, the verbal response emitted by the machine allows the student to have a voice. This makes them feel more confident.

Are these devices also effective for children with severe autism?

Communication devices are very effective and often essential for children with severe autism. These students often have auditory processing delays or are non-verbal. These devices have proven to be very effective and will aid them to express themselves easily and more effectively.

Can these visuals/devices enable the non-verbal students with autism to participate academically?
During instructional times, I allow the students to answer questions using the Go Talk and Tech Talk.

These devices have boards that are custom made and slide in and out. The devices have a range of choices and work by allowing the person to point to a picture, which causes the device to verbalize the word for the person.

So I can slide in the number board and ask a student a question such as “How many coins do I have?” and they can answer by pressing the appropriate button of a board that has different numbers on it.

Multiple boards can be pre-programmed (usually 5-8 boards can be stored at a time) so that boards you use frequently (food choices, numbers, playtime choices) can be stored without having to be re-recorded each time you change paper boards.

For those who cannot afford these devices, what alternatives can they use?

If these devices cannot be afforded students can use the PECS (picture exchange communication system) method to communicate. This involves exchanging pictures to communicate.

The pictures are usually stored and velcroed in a small book that the student can access.

Boardmaker is a software program that is expensive but has a library of thousands of pictures you can look up and print. Alternatives to Boardmaker would be photos, which are sometimes easier for a student to process, or images obtained off the internet or from a camera. The images are then laminated to protect them from wear. The student is then taught to express wants and answer questions by showing the appropriate picture to the person they are communicating with.

Images can also be together on pages that a student can point to rather than exchange with a person. It is just important to make sure the student knows what the pictures represent when they use them. For instance, a student may hand you a picture of milk but may really want water. The voice output of the communication devices is sometimes helpful because it allows the student to hear what they are asking for or are saying, so that they are more likely to understand what the picture represents. I always make sure the word is printed above the picture also to help facilitate reading skills.

What do you expect to accomplish during your series of seminar workshops here in the country?

I hope to share my ideas and stories about what I’ve found to be effective classroom teaching techniques. I hope people find the information I share practical and useful and try it out in their homes or classrooms.

How do you feel about teaching Filipino special education teachers? I’m excited to share my ideas with Filipino special education teachers. I hope to not only give out ideas but learn new ideas. I’d like to hear if Filipino teachers use some of the techniques I do and how they are working. I’m also thrilled to come to the Philippines.

This is my first visit, and I’m very thankful that Lynda Borromeo (grandmother
of one of my students) and the Autism Hearts Foundation is sponsoring my trip to the country and that the Autism Society Philippines has been so helpful in the planning of the seminar workshops.

Both organizations have been so helpful with the details of my planning and my needs while I am visiting. I am excited to come not only to share ideas but also to spend time seeing the country and enjoying myself.

(Dang U. Koe is the national president of Autism Society Philippines (a not-for-profit family support organization with 37 chapters nationwide, and almost 6,000 family and professional members who are working together to create an environment that helps persons with autism spectrum disorder to become, to the best of their potentials, self-reliant, independent, productive and socially accepted members of society. She is a sought-after seminar and conference speaker on autism. Her 15-year old son Gio, diagnosed with autism, propels her to be a passionate autism advocate.)