However, some parents and teachers refuse to have shadow teachers at school as they worry that the presence of a shadow teacher might hinders the independence of students. This actually may happen, but not because of the nature of a shadow teacher, but the limited skills and knowledge of the individual teacher. So, I would like to let parents know more about the steps and criteria in implementing effective shadowing.
1.Shadow Teachers
Firstly, a suitable shadow teacher has to be chosen. He/she must be familiar with your child’s needs. If not, he/she needs to spend some time to work with your child first before starting services. The shadow teacher should know your child’s skills level, including skills of social, learning how to learn, communication, etc., so they can make quick adjustments to manage situations when your child has challenging behaviours or learning difficulties at school.2.School Meetings
Communication and collaboration between the shadow teacher, classroom teacher, social worker and the parents are the keys to meet the needs of the child.Also, all parties must know more about the child’s interests, strengths, weaknesses and behavioural challenges and well understand each party’s concerns. Sufficient communications assist in setting goals for the child at school.
3.Clear Goals
Clear short term and long term goals are needed. These should be set according to your child’s needs, abilities, and the expectation of the parents.Short term goals should be achieved from 1 weeks to 1 month, while long term goals should be completed in few months or in a year.
Having clear goals are essential for shadow teachers to help your child in integrating at school. Short term goals help in checking and tracing the learning process of students in different areas, and guiding the students to achieve the long term goals.
A clear plan also ensures the consistency of teachers’ and parents’ expectation of the child’s performance. Both parties can support each other, helping students to adapt better at school.
4. Observation
- Observe and identify the learning areas that the child needs to catch up with (e.g. social skills, learning how to learn skills, following classroom rules, transition, etc.)
- Find out the causes and provide solutions when behaviour problems occur.
- Develop student’s reinforcements at school.
5.Design Programs
After observation and analysis of your child’s behaviour, shadow teacher needs to design a program plan (reactive plan) when your child’s behaviour problems occur. It is important to stop the undesirable behaviour and let your child knows the consequence. If no proper action is taken, the occurrence of those undesirable behaviours will continue or even increase.In addition, shadow teacher needs to have another plan (proactive plan) to encourage your child’s appropriate behaviour for the situation. Self-evaluation, tokens, and self-monitoring are tools and strategies to teach a child to engage in appropriate behaviour.
6. Outside Service Support
1 on 1 ABA therapy provides specific learning goals to train your child in learning appropriate behaviour effectively. Then, the shadow teacher can help him/her to generalize those skills to school.7.Fade Out the Service of Shadow Teachers
Fading out the service is needed for your child so he/she can independently demonstrate the skills learnt and generalize those skills with different teachers.- First, the shadow teacher needs to demonstrate how to execute the plan in the class.
- Shadow teacher needs to assist classroom teachers in understanding and executing the system smoothly.
- When classroom teachers can use the system independently, shadow teachers can gradually distance themselves from the student. Shadow teacher can gradually fade out the help by moving further away from the student until completely out of classroom.
8.Evaluating the Performance
- When performing the fading stage, shadow teacher needs to consistently evaluate student’s performance with teachers.
- Adjust the plan according to the student’s performance.
- Understand the difficulties teachers faced when implementing the plan and amend the plan accordingly.
- While performing observation, shadow teacher should pay attention to student’s performance, and provide findings during the regular meetings.
- After shadowing service has been ended, shadow teacher should conduct regular meeting with school teacher. During the meeting, teachers discuss student’s current performance and progress with parents and the shadow teacher. The shadow teacher can give comment to keep up with the ongoing performance.
Info provided by Samantha Mak, Senior Behavioral Therapist
Ms Samantha Mak obtained her Degree and Honor Degree in University of Southern Queensland, major in psychology. She has joined AP since 2010 as a behavioral therapist(one-on-one and Jumpstarts program) and a shadow teacher in the mainstream school. Moreover, she has over 5 years of experiences in working in social group and providing parent training. Aside designing and planning learning phases and activities for students, she is also experience in providing training to junior staffs in AP and interns from university under supervision. She receives direct training with Dr. Angel Au, Clinical Psychologist.
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Learn more about our ABA Services[:zh]在融合教育的理念下，不少有特殊學習需要的學童在主流學校學習時會面對不少挑戰，例如完成學校日常程序、課堂學習技巧、遵守學校及課室規則、與老師和同學的溝通技巧等。這些技巧，都不是有特殊學習需要的學童能靠自己在短期内學會的，他們大都需要額外的援助來適應。而影子老師的角色就能幫助他們融合學習環境，因應他們的個別需要扶助學生趕上他們未能跟上的步伐。
可是，有些家長和老師對影子老師都不太了解，擔心有影子老師的幫助，學生就較難在課堂自立學習，而拒絕聘用他們。這樣的情況確有機會發生，但原因不是在於影子老師的職責，而是他們的服務質素未達成效。因此，希望透過這篇文章使家長了解有效的影子服務，幫助學童盡快在校園獨立生活。
影子老師
首先，要選擇一位合適的影子老師，他/她對你的孩子需有一定的認識。若他/她未接觸過孩子，家長最好先安排他們在開始服務前見面。影子老師需要熟悉孩子各方面的發展(例如：社交、學習技巧、溝通技巧等)。這樣影子老師才能在學校有效地處理學生的行為或學習問題。學校會議
影子老師、學校老師、社工和家長須共同合作與溝通，對配合及針對學生所需是關鍵。再者，各方在會議上能了解到學生的興趣、長處、弱項或行為問題，也能明白彼此的顧慮。充足的溝通及了解有助訂立學童在學校的學習目標。
清晰的目標
會議清晰的短期和長期目標是必須的。訂立目標要視乎學生個別的需要和能力，以及家長的期望。短期目標可以是一星期至一個多月就能達到的目標，而長期目標則可以是數多月至半年或一年才可達到的目標。
訂立清晰的學習目標對影子老師設計有效的計劃是非常重要的。短期目標可幫助影子老師能有效地檢視學生在學校的進度，以及協助學生達成長期學習目標。
清晰的目標也讓老師和家長對學童在學習的進度上有一致的期望，一致的步伐令雙方互相配合，有效地幫助學童適應校園。
課堂觀察
- 觀察學生有哪些學習範疇需要改善。(例如：社交、學習技巧、遵守規矩或過渡等)
- 找出學生行為問題背後的起因及動機。
- 了解學生在校內的強化物。
設計治療計劃
在觀察及分析學童的行為後，影子老師需要設計一些計劃去即時處理學童的行為問題。其意思是老師或影子老師在問題行為發生後，須即場作出的回應或應對。即場的處理對停止學童在校的行為問題是非常重要。若處理不恰當，行為問題會持續，甚至增加。除了停止學生的壞行為，影子老師需要設立另一個計劃幫助學生作出適當的行為。自我評估、代幣制度、自我監察等工具或策略都能幫助學生作出適當的行為。
校外服務支援
一對一的應用行為分析訓練能提供針對性的教學，讓孩子有效地學會作出適當的行為。技巧熟習後，影子老師可協助學生將這些技巧泛化到學校裏。減少影子老師的服務
逐步減少影子老師的服務是必要的，這樣孩子才會學習獨立地應用所學的技巧，面對其他老師時也能融匯運用這些技巧。- 首先影子老師須示範如何在課堂中執行行為計劃。
- 影子老師需要協助老師明白和執行計劃。
- 當老師能有信心地獨立處理學生的問題時，影子老師可漸漸遠離，再進一步增加距離直至退出班房，讓老師有更多機會與孩子溝通和接觸。
評估學生的學習表現
- 在影子老師逐步退出班房及校園時，必須與老師評估學生的學習表現。
- 影子老師應根據學生的表現來設定及調整計劃。
- 了解老師在執行計劃上的困難，並作出相應的調整。
- 影子老師可在觀課時了解學生現時的表現，亦為定期的會議提供更多的資料。
- 在服務暫停後，影子老師須定期與老師會面。在會議上，老師可讓家長和影子老師了解學生現時學習狀況。而影子老師也可在會議上提出意見，讓老師了解如何保持學生的表現。
資訊提供: 麥心明 (Autism Partnership資深行為治療師)
麥心明小姐擁有澳洲南昆士蘭大學學士及榮譽學士學位(University of Southern Queensland)，主修心理學。她於2010加入AP，負責一對一治療、躍進課程及提供影子老師服務及參與家長培訓工作坊。除了在社交小組提供治療及參與家長培訓，她亦會為學生計劃及編寫訓練學習階段，提供有效學習。 她亦會設計課堂活動和協助培訓治療師及實習生。她現時為高級行為治療師，並接受臨床心理學家Dr. Angel Au的培訓。
請分享，讓更多人了解自閉症及學習更多應用行為分析（ ABA）的治療技巧。
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