The Adaptative Behaviour and The Students with ASD: Analysis and Proposals of Educational and School Support Volume 7 - Issue 1

Manoel Baña Castro¹* and Luisa Losada Puente²

• ¹Faculty of Teachers Training, University of Santiago de Compostela Galicia, Spain
• ²Faculty of Educational Studies, University of A Coruña, A Coruña Galicia, Spain

Received:December 22,2022;   Published:January 12, 2023

Corresponding author: Manoel Baña Castro, Faculty of Professor training, University of Santiago de Compostela Galicia, Spain

DOI: 10.32474/SJPBS.2023.07.000252

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Summary

The problematic behavioural, increasingly present in the classrooms and in the society in general, sues the preparation and the knowledge on the needs and demands of the students with the purpose to achieve their inclusion in the ordinary classrooms of school education for their training as independen citizens and with quality of life. The changes experienced in the research, as well as the new social demands pose the need that the professor continue expanding and enriching his training continuous training, since the deficits in the domain and empathy by part of the educators can affect to the attention to the students with developmental disorders, as well as to their support. Thus, this work focus the school education teacher the problematic of the adaptative behaviour, in its education and development, so that it allows to the school education teacher tackle its learning of a suitable and successful way, attending to the diversity and complexity of the class Especially, it deals with how to attend the specific demands and needs of students with Autism Spectrum Disorders in an optimal and effective way.

Keywords: Adaptative Behaviour; School Education; Autism Spectrum Disorders; Attention and support in the needs and demands of the behaviour

Abbreviations: AAIDD: American Association on Intellectual; DD: Developmental Disorders

Introduction

The concept of adaptative behaviour was popularized in the field of the intellectual disability at the beginning of the decade of the sixty, when the today called American Association on Intellectual, Developmental Disorders (AAIDD) defines the intellectual disability according to two criteria that which must be present simultaneously before the entrance in the life adult: significant difficulties in the intelligence and in the behaviour or adaptative skills of a person [1-4]. The inclusion of adaptative behaviour in the definition of intellectual disability obviously generates the need to assess it, Thus Favouring the creation of big number of tools. The understanding and the treatment of behavioral disturbances has always been a very widespread subject due to the demand of people, among them - and perhaps the most concerned ones-, are parents and teachers. When we refer us to behavioral disorders we are referring to those altered, inappropriate, annoying or absorbing behaviors for the subject or for those around them, which prevent or hinder the development of their daily activities and coexistence within the community. The interest in determining how to deal with the behavioral disturbances has leasted in the time, probably, as a result of the great difficulties involved in dealing with them up to the present day. In n children with neurotypical development, a wide variety of maladaptive or dysfunctional behaviours can be observed, which may be aimed at attracting attention, avoiding situations that are not pleasurable to them, obtaining something they want, among others [5]. These behaviors also are shown by people with a developmental disorder, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or language delay.

However, the difference in the people with a “neurotypical” development is that, progressively, they substitute the maladapted or dysfunctional behaviour, through language, for effective and socially adapted communications, becoming functional for them and for their environment. Instead, children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) do not always improve over time. They may not acquire these functional communicative skills, maintaining a behavioural maladaptation that shows in a dysfunctional and altered way, giving rise to highly inoperative communications. Therefore, the functional analysis of behaviour aims to determine the communication required for an intervention oriented to establish more functional and effective forms, which would facilitate adaptive behaviours depending on the intention or purpose of the communication to be pursued.

Development

Research in the field of ASD has been mainly concerned with the areas of impairment, focusing on the contours of clinical and educational care, as well as on the possibility and relevance of psychoeducational care [5]. Similarly, research has flourished on the differential characteristics of the disorders and explanations of the aetiology of the difficulties that make up the diagnostic symptomatology currently present in the DSM5. Neurodevelopmental disorders, and more specifically ASD, present a great variety in terms of the alterations in the diagnosis of the different areas. In all of them, communication is the main line of attention as it enhances the development and the learning in daily contexts [6-9]. In this study a cross-sectional quasi-experimental design and descriptive-explanatory research were used, as the subjects were not randomly assigned and the dependent variable measures the storm at a specific time.

Participants

Following the research approach and the objectives set out, a sample of 26 subjects with ASD, aged between 2 and 18 years, was selected. The participants included 18 boys and 8 girls with different forms of communicative expression, attending mainstream schools, living with families in representative social and cultural environments from different backgrounds.

Instruments

Inventory for the Planning of Services and Individual Programming [10,11] has been used. That allows us to analyse information on the adaptative behaviour and behavioral problems the people with intellectual disabilities. This tool guarantees us a diagnostic record of the individual while, at the same time, it provides us delimit the levels of adaptative behaviour in relation to basic skills to develop of autonomous form in the most next outline.

Results

Once the data were collected, they were analysed with the IBM SPSS 18 Statistical Package, whose primary application focuses on multivariate analysis of the experimental data. A quantitative analysis of the information was carried out. The reliability and validity of ICAP was previously tested. Gender differences in people with ASD were analysed, since this independent variable is used in many studies where the difference in ASD between males and females is concluded to be 4:1 (male/female), although in girls the level of impairment has been described as more accentuated [12]. Motor development (differentiating gross and fine motor skills) was also studied. Gross motor skills had a mean of 1 point in males (1 SD) and 2 in females (2.00 SD) referring to changes in body position, global movements and the ability to maintain balance. In relation to fine motor skills, boys showed a lower ability in fine motor skills compared to girls, although without a noticeable difference.

In the simplest hand-related activities, e.g., picking up an object and passing it, turning a handle (3), girls show greater fluency; but when precision and coordination come into play (e.g., eating, removing a wrapper or folding a letter several times and putting it in an envelope), boys project with a greater degree of difference. Generally speaking, in relation to oculo-motor coordination, girls perform at higher rates for generic movements, without high difficulty (e.g. scribbling with pencil and paints or cutting out in a thick straight line) or requiring a certain precision (e.g. representing words found on the same scale). However, when the precision is higher (e.g. threading a needle) the boys are a little more blunted; the difference being almost imperceptible. As for oculo-manual co-ordination, which refers to elements such as raising and lowering. Both sexes present similar results. Finally, in gross motor skills, in gross strokes, it is observed that girls stand out in agility and strength, while there is a correlation in terms of balance. Thus, the mean for males is 52.16 (SD = 6.06) and the mean for females 52.62 (SD = 5.23). Lyou found that, between subjects of different sexes, very equal scales are maintained; but a great detachment is noted in female subjects in the sector of communicative ability; more specifically in discourse.

In terms of communicative skills, in items related to formulating simple questions or speaking in three- or four-word questions, a difference of about one point is found. Another distinction is found in skills such as narrating or remembering numbers. Thus, the mean score for males is 43.94 (SD = 12.58) and for females 40.50 (SD = 8.22). As far as personal life skills are concerned, boys dominate the physiological skills with a difference of two points and doing household chores (e.g. preparing food) with a difference of one point. It should also be noted that it is in this skill that girls do not outperform or match boys, the latter being on a flat line where they never or rarely perform household chores, even if asked to do so, and boys, depending on the task, have a lower resolution. Also, the mean for males is 46.50 (SD = 10.04) and the mean for females is 44.25 (SD = 10.15).

Finally, in terms of skills for community life, there is a great similarity between groups, except for the fact of meeting appointments that are set in advance, in handling electronic hand tools (2 points of difference), waiting without walking away or buying what is asked for, where the guys make them more prominently. According to this, the mean for men is 31.00 (SD = 7.41) and that for women is 31.12 (SD = 6.22).

Discussion and Conclusions

According to the results obtained, it can be verified that there are differences at the motor, personal, social, communicative and community life levels in relation to the gender of people with ASD. Thus, boys are the ones that obtain the best response in terms of adaptive abilities . What is remarkable about these results is that it allows us to identify the level at which a person with ASD is delimited based on their personal abilities in order to adapt a care plan in which we must take gender into account. y However, the results presented in this study should be taken with caution, since it is a small sample. In any case, the evaluation process must be extremely careful in its interpretation and recommendations, in order to guarantee an effective response adapted to the individual demands of each child; I was already a boy or a girl. Thus, it is essential to interact with them and carry out a thorough and systematic observation, which allows recognizing the basic skills that each boy and girl presents, the contexts to which they are exposed, as well as the games and interactions of which they are a part. part, both at home and in the educational environment. In general terms, relationships in people with ASD should always start from improving their social knowledge and increasing social communication skills.

as well as the fact of achieving self-regulatory behavior that adapts to the environment. The ultimate goal is to achieve a more egalitarian, participatory and social coexistence. Based on the fact that any boy and girl with ASD, regardless of their level, can advance in communication and language, and after the results obtained in this research, an attempt would be made to improve their vocabulary in the case of girls, improve the quality of the conversations and instruct them in the prosodic capacities of the language. For this, the educator, and the family itself should program structured and reinforcing situations to achieve a more adapted and functional behavior. On a personal level, shared attention must be worked on, since in them there is less reciprocity with other people. Mention that the word accessibility is synonymous with equal opportunities and refers to accessible educational and social contexts, plans and resources that allow all people, regardless of their abilities, to achieve their maximum potential. For this, the quality of life becomes especially important in terms of care aimed at people with ASD, so it is essential to care for a quality of school life that should be the cornerstone and end of educational care plans for students. subjects with ASD and an enhancer to project the components that enrich their future. In this sense, cooperation between different entities is required: family, school and society, as this will facilitate the detection and advance in the attention to the needs and demands of the student with ASD seeking their satisfaction and adequate attention.

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