what exactly is Shadowing when it relates to Autistic Children?

Question

it is a position i am interested in but I am not sure what it entails.. does anybody know? it would be a great help! thx

Answer 1

In my experience, "shadowing" refers to a position similar to a teacher's aide. As a shadow, you act as an aide in the child's classroom, guiding him to follow teacher's directions and complete classwork, and possibly facilitating games/social skills during recess time.

Some things to keep in mind are:

Try not to repeat the teacher's directions, but to ask the teacher to repeat the directions if the student doesn't respond, or prompt him to look and see what others are doing instead of telling him to go get his coat because it is lunch time (you'll probably have to tell him at first, but you eventually want him to be watching others to see what he is supposed to do).

Also, avoid using the student's name when possible (you don't want to draw unnecessary attention from the other students).

You can interact with other students as well, don't be "glued" to your assigned student.

Your goal is to gradually make yourself less necessary as the student become more independent in the classroom.

Here are some additional resources that may help you. Best of luck to you!

Websites:

"Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew" by Ellen Notbohm - http://www.southflorida.com/sfparenting/sfe-sfp-autism,0,6196233.story

Website of Paula Kluth, Ph.D. - http://www.paulakluth.com/autism.html

Positively Autism (free online magazine, includes free lessons/activities) - http://www.positivelyautism.com

Teaching Tips for Children and Adults with Autism by Temple Grandin, Ph.D. - http://www.autism.org/temple/tips.html


Books:

"Your Life is Not a Label: A Guide to Living Fully with Autism and Asperger's Syndrome" by Jerry Newport

"You're Going to Love This Kid!: Teaching Students With Autism in the Inclusive Classroom" By Paula Kluth

"Not Even Wrong: Adventures in Autism" By Paul Collins

Any book by Temple Grandin

Answer 2

sounds like Private investigation:data collecting, autistic children or adults, need help but have violent assumptions as a logic, or they have no learned correctness~logic and only react~this in turn would lead me to believe that the openness of your stalking them would be unknown to them and they would reinforce there behavior in front of you and not know the consequence of your action~in the movie ground hog day~everyday was the same day over and over, ~I'm also very naive about autism and just let this person use me as a sounding board so i can learn, but they are elusive in doing thing that they can alter to throw some one off that is a pest, what I've seen is so deeply rooted that they have already scaled most of their mountains in life with wrong thinking intact, and the more that they are confronted the more less information makes small changes but that will not alter their beliefs, so shadowing one who has it is probably easier than confronting misconception~it would be doing thing in relation actual facts as portrayed in sequences as you take notes and observations independently

Answer 3

I'd do some research about autism before making any final decisions, working with autistic children can be very rewarding but also very draining. check out the websites below
http://home.san.rr.com/autismnet/preshadow.html
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/autism/detail_autism.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism

Answer 4

I believe its when you are their assistant, and you help them get around, get from place to place, class to class and you help them with homework/social situations...etc.