How to Prepare Preschoolers for Online Learning

Recently, the HK Education Bureau has announced the latest arrangement for Nursery and kindergartens, it seems like online learning will be going on for a while. A lot of parents are concerned when their children do not seem to be able to learn effectively through online learning.

Here are some of the training that you may work on to help your child prepare for online learning.

Sitting nicely

Normally, each lesson lasts for about 15-20 minute. During the lesson, children are required to sit in front of the computer without touching the computer or playing toys. Hence, it is very important for them to be able to sit nicely.

Sitting nicely means the child has to remain at his chair with a still body. As you could imagine, the longer the lesson/duration, the more challenging it is for the child. To prepare him/her to sit nicely throughout the lesson, we want to start off with having him/her to sit for a short period of time and gradually increase the duration:

a. Prior to teaching, prepare strong reinforcers (i.e., toys/ activities that the child highly prefers).
b. Decide the contingency that you are going to use (such as the token economy).
c. Vary the duration that the child has to practice based on the child’s performance. For example, at the beginning, if the child can only sit nicely for 3 seconds, we will then start off with having him to sit for 1-2 seconds in each trial. The duration can be extended or shortened based on the child’s performance.

Another factor to consider is the structure of the lesson. At the beginning of the teaching, we can simply teach the child to sit nicely. When the child understands the expectation, we can then gradually simulate the setting of an online lesson. However, the target behavior remains to be siting nicely as opposed to others (e.g. responding correctly, recalling learning contents, etc.).

Waiting

Waiting is a very important learning skill. When having online lessons, children need to wait till the class ends to leave the seat and do the things that they want, or wait for the teacher to call their name to answer questions, etc.

a. Similar to the sitting practice, we need to find strong reinforcers.
b. Start the training with a short duration and gradually extend the time.

At the beginning, you may practice with a waiting card. This is effective in helping the child visualize the concept of waiting. Also, you may start from pure waiting, and gradually add tasks/activities that the child needs to complete while waiting.

Responding

Besides sitting nicely, we also want to increase children’s engagement in the lesson. Some common instruction types in a kindergarten classroom may include

• – Non-Verbal Imitation (e.g. singing or dancing in music class; exercising in PE class, etc.);
• – Verbal Imitation (e.g. repeating words and sentences);
• – Receptive instructions (e.g. taking things out, pointing to an object, etc.);
• – Expressive instructions (e.g. “What is this?”, etc.)

Same as other skill training, make sure we prepare strong reinforcers prior to the training. When the child responses to you, you should immediately reward him with a token, and once the token board is filled, provide a reinforcer to your child.

Based on the child’s performance, you may increase the number of responses the child needs to give. If speech delay hinders your child’s understanding of the lessons, individualized language program s are recommended to help the child to understand and comprehend the content in class.

Sustaining Attention

In addition to paying attention and responding during lessons, teacher will sometimes assign assignment or worksheets after lessons. These assignment could be e.g. joining the dots, coloring or writing etc., and these could be boring and dull to young children. Therefore, they may not be as cooperative.

Establishing a completion contingency can be helpful in helping children understand the relationship between finishing the task and the access to reinforcement. Based on the child’s performance, we may gradually increase the number of questions or tasks that they need to complete.

The above are some of the training that we usually do to prepare our children for all kinds of learning. You may also refer to the related teaching videos in our resource website, APSPARKS.COM.

In early teaching phases, we recommend parents to practice with your child outside the actual online lessons. Practice makes perfect, most of the children with ASD usually require repetitive practice opportunity to establish good learning-how-to-learn skills and habits. Also, practicing outside the actual lesson allows us to adjust the length and difficulty level of the practice more flexibly, which will increase the effectiveness and efficiency in learning.

I hope the above information is helpful to parents and children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Program Tutorial Videos

Sitting nicely

Waiting with Token System

Responding/ Communication

Sustaining Attention

相信最近家長們也關注到教育局發佈關於幼稚園復課的新聞 ，面對面授課感覺遙遙無期，相信部分家長也會擔心孩子能否透過線上有效學習，特別是患有自閉症的幼兒。以下是一些能有效幫助兒童準備線上學習的訓練:

安坐

幼稚園的每節課堂大概是十五至二十分鐘，期間需要幼兒坐在電腦前，並不多手碰電腦或玩具，因此安坐是一個非常重要的學習技巧。

安坐代表幼兒需要坐在椅子上，雙手放好。大家可以想像時間越長，對幼兒的挑戰就越高。因此，我們會循序漸進地增加幼兒練習安坐的時間。在訓練開始前，我們需要準備有威力的強化物（即：幼兒非常喜歡的）。然後，我們需要決定我們將選用的學習制度，例如：代幣制度。根據每個幼兒的情況，我們要他在每個回合練習安坐的時間會有所不同。例如：幼兒只能安坐3秒，那麼我們在開始回合時只要求他安坐1-2秒，然後隨著幼兒的表現，延長或縮短時間。另一個考慮因素包括練習時的結構性。

訓練初期，我們可以無須加入課堂內容，純粹教導幼兒安坐的意思。待他理解安坐行為時，我們可以慢慢模擬線上學習的情境，緊記即使在此階段，我們的目標依然是安坐，而非其他目標，例如：回應正確度、回憶課堂內容等。
 

等待

等待是非常重要的學習技巧。上線上課堂時，我們需要等待下課才可以離開座位和繼續自己想做的活動、等待老師點名回答問題等。跟安坐類似，在訓練開始前，我們需要準備有威力的強化物。等待的練習也是從時間短至長來進行。開始階段，你可以選擇用等待卡來練習。這能幫助幼兒視覺化理解等待的抽象概念。我們可以從純粹等待作開始，慢慢有系統地過度到在等待期間先完成任務／要求，直到等待結束為止。

回應

除了要幼兒安坐外，我們也需要他們同時積極參與在課堂中。一些普遍出現在幼稚園課堂裡的指令包括：

• – 肢體模仿（例如：唱遊課唱歌或跳舞、體育課做體操等）
• – 語言模仿（例如：朗讀詞彙）
• – 理解指令（例如：拿出物件、指出物件等）
• – 表達/回應指令（例如：這是什麼？）

同樣，在訓練開始前，我們需要準備有威力的強化物。每次他有回應時，家長可以給他打勾或貼上代幣，直到完成代幣板來兌換強化物。隨著幼兒的進度，可以適當地增加需要他回應的次數。假如幼兒的語言發展有遲緩的情況，就可能需要進行個別課程來提高他們理解課堂的能力。

持續專注

除了在課堂上要專注和回應外，很多時候在每天線上課堂後，老師也要發工作紙或小功課來幫助幼兒溫故知新。對大部分幼兒來說，連線、塗顏色、寫字這些功課都不是太有趣的活動，因此他們的配合度有機會相對較差。我們可以透過使用「完成制度」，從要求做較少題目開始，來建立快快完成就能繼續遊戲的連繫。隨著幼兒的進度，可以適當地增加需要他完成的題目。

以上是為線上學習作準備的部分訓練例子。有關教學短片可以在我們的資源網站 (APSPARKS.CN) 找到！尤其在訓練初期，我們建議家長在課堂外的時間跟幼兒作相關準備訓練。由於熟能生巧，大部分自閉症幼兒都需要重複的練習來建立良好的學習技巧和習慣，因此於空餘時間作訓練容許我們靈活地調整練習的長度和難度，同時無須擔心錯過課堂內容，減少彼此的壓力。希望以上資訊能在疫情期間幫助到各位家長和幼兒。

APSPARKS教學短片

安坐

運用代幣制度訓練等待技巧

回應/溝通

持續專注