It is autistic children's inability to sit and participate appropriately in circle time at the tender age of two or three which usually sets them apart as developmentally delayed.
In fact, in my opinion, circle time is really a test.
It's a test of sensory function: can you sit that close to a whole group of other children while they are singing loudly without needing to get away?
It's a test of physical strength and flexibility: can you sit cross-legged on the floor without needing to stretch or stand, for at least ten minutes on end?
It's a test of imitative ability: can you learn a song and series of gestures well enough to imitate it after just one or two repetitions?
It's a test of social adaptation: can you sit literally knee to knee with two peers without poking them or asking for their attention in any way?
It's a test of learned manners: can you raise your hand when you want to say or do anything whatsoever?
And it's a test of self control: can you manage to squelch your desire to touch, mouth, inquire, or in any other way engage with anything outside the circle for at least ten minutes?
Maybe circle time is a good idea. Maybe it's a solid, reliable technique for separating out the socially and developmentally delayed from the rest of humanity. Maybe it's a critical first step in teaching the skills kids will need in grade school.
Maybe it's absolutely critical that three year olds with autism learn to manage circle time.
Or maybe - just maybe - it isn't.
Your opinions welcome!
My son couldn’t do it. I wish that I, and his pre school teacher, had known what it may have been a sign of. So many sources tell us that early intervention is key. But many of our kids with asperger’s and HFA are denied that possiblity. I say, the more ways you have to evaluate, the better.
Critically important? No. Interesting? Yes. Informative? Maybe in context with other informaton.
My son was diagnosed at age 2 after several months of evaluation and assessment. We knew nothing about autism at the time. As parents interacting with our son we were concerned about the lack of any speech, lack of eye contact, lack of responsiveness to simple infant games like peek-a-boo, unusual behaviors like pressing his face firmly against the side of a swing set seat for lengthy periods or lying face pressed against the floor, sitting sifting sand for unusual long periods of time etc.
Quoting Lisa: “Maybe circle time is a good idea. Maybe it’s a solid, reliable technique for separating out the socially and developmentally delayed from the rest of humanity. Maybe it’s a critical first step in teaching the skills kids will need in grade school.”
I do agree that circle time can help kids learn the skills they will need in older grades…it would never occur to me to be something that we use to separate some kids from others.
I also agree that it can be difficult for some kids with Autism, but there are ways to help facilitate their participation.
- Allow diversity in seating: kids can sit on beanbags, chairs, on the floor, or on wiggle pads (I’m not really sure what these are called, but they are squishy pads you can put on chairs that allow you to “wiggle”).
- Put a screen behind the cirlce time area to help visually define the area and reduce distractions.
- Practice reading the books and practicing the songs and motions ahead of time (at home maybe), so that the student will be familiar with them when circle time comes. Parents, you can ask your teacher what songs and books they’ll be doing, and ask if you can borrow a copy.
- Practice those skills that Lisa mentioned: raising your hand, waiting a turn, participating in a group, etc. You may need to use prompting, visual aides, practicing ahead of time one-on-one, etc. but circle time can provide a great opportunity to use these skills.
Nicole Caldwell, M.Ed.
http://www.PositivelyAutism.com/
Autism Newsletter and Resources for Parents and Teachers
My son has been in daycare/preschool since he was 2 years old. He always enjoyed circle time (no problem sitting next to other kids), however in the beginning he would only follow the songs, but not the stories. He would lay down a lot and be unable to sit criss-cross (he would kneel down or sit with stretched legs instead). He wouldn’t answer questions and he would speak at the wrong times. After he got diagnosed and started receiving ABA at 3 years old, his therapists have worked inside and outside the classroom setting to improve his participation on circle time. Now at 5 years old he’s able to raise hands when he wants to say something, he’ll answer questions from the teacher, and have appropriate verbal and non-verbal group responses. He’s paying more attention to book readings as well but he can still get very distracted if the story is not interesting to him. He’s more successful when the teacher is talking about shapes, colors, letters, numbers, calendar, etc.
Leila
It is nice to read of your son’s progress.
It is also nice to see a parent describing the benefits their autistic child received from ABA intervention.
Circle time is a pet peeve of mine. As a teacher and Mom with twins with autism, I just really don’t get it.
When my twins who have autism were in a DEVELOPMENTAL PRESCHOOL 12 years ago, I asked the very questions being asked in this article. Why was it so necessary? How was it relevant to what they really needed to be learning? They were nonverbal and did not interact or make eye contact at that time. And they certainly couldn’t sit still.
What did help, though, was giving them a banana box to sit in. As they grew older, we taped the area. But this was after much, much, much wrestling with the staff and directors of the preschools and kindergartens.
After first grade, I pulled my children out of the public schools and I now teach them in my own cottage school. (http://cottageschool.tumblr.com) (http://mylifewithautism.tumblr.com)
Sometimes educators are so stuck in their methods and traditions that they can’t empathize.
Who are the truly socially challenged ones? Our kids or the teacher who thinks that the world will come to an end if they don’t have circle time?
It depends on the child. My son was ok with it. He started school at the age of 3. The teacher assistant always sat next to him to help him participate. They didn’t sit on the floor. They sat in chairs. My son has a really short attention span, but the routine in the classroom was followed everyday and my son followed the routine with no problem
Circle time was torture for my son. Sit still, don’t touch, don’t fidget, don’t
speak, don’t hum, don’t, don’t, don’t.
When I had to act as an EA for the first
3 months or so of my son’s SK year, and
was told by the classroom teacher that she
knew nothing of his disability, and to just
do what I felt would work best for him. We always began seated with the other kids, but when I knew he was becoming overwhelmed, I allowed him to move around during circle time, he participated from wherever he was in the room at any given time during this
15 minute time frame, and the other kids
were just fine with it. I was able to support my son in a way that worked for him and his classroom…there’s a rarity, and I was very grateful.
In much the same vein does anyone feel an autistic child should be Forced into participating in a school Christmas program. The devlopemental preschool my four year old grandson attends just had such a program. My grandson did fine, but one little boy in his class of 4 children screamed and sobbed from beginning to end. They were on stage in front of parents and grandparents with bright lights and an unfortunate choice of heavy pounding music. It seems to me that encouraging or assisting a child to participate is certainly different than forcing a child to.
Circle time as a shared learning/social experience is a good thing. Circle time forced upon a child incapable of responding or learning from it is a bad thing. The parent of a disabled child should use every opportunity to integrate and expose their child to their peers. Even when there is no apparent benefit, often the child is absorbing things. Its always difficult to know when you are pushing a little to hard, even with a typical child.
I think the circle time is very important to improve the child’s attention span and social skills. Just think what it will be like after 1st grade when they’ll have to sit at a desk most of the day… But of course some autistic kids may not be able to be mainstreamed after kindergarten, and this should be considered in a “case by case” basis.
Someone mentioned structure and routine – Our kids like that, plus they familiarize themselves with the circle time demands over time and their behavior and participation may improve as they start to understand what they’re supposed to do.
My youngest son has PDD-NOS, and is high-functioning enough that problems with circle time were his only obvious problem at preschool.
His particular preschool had lots of kids and very little structure, and we thought he’d do better when he started school and joined a small, structured class.
But we were wrong. The classroom is essentially an all-day circle time, without the singing and sitting on the floor.
Circle time skills are classroom skills. They’re important to teach, but it’s also important to accommodate when those skills are still in progress.
For me, circle time was one of the first learning lesson and not so much for my autistic child, but for me as a parent.
I needed to learn to understand why my child did not want to sit, want to pay attention and want to participate.
I learned that he just could not and I also learned that with a lot of help and repetition, he could learn to do circle time, or anything else, for that matter.
That was an important lesson to me – that it is not about “why doesn’t he WANT to do it” but so much more about “how can we help him to learn the skills to be ABLE to do it”.
“Maybe it’s a solid, reliable technique for separating out the socially and developmentally delayed from the rest of humanity.”
The rest of humanity???
That’s a bit extreme, don’t you think?
As a Mom of a special needs child, I take offense at your wording.
If the parent doesn’t know something is awry before they reach preschool, then I feel badly for the child.
Cirle time is a defining test of attention, anxiety levels and sensory issues. With the proper tools and intervention, however, the child may be able to integrate well into his or her classroom. Seek professional help while they are young, the sooner the better.
in my experience it is diffiucult for autistic 3 year old to sit crisscross feet, hands in lap for 30 minutes thru music, storys, ect. what ever the theme is.
morning and afternoon sessions. they struggle to do eye contact, to listen, to learn. it is stressfull
to maintain flow and keep balance. they as they age learn to handle it later on more than early on. they are so used to the descret trial setings of one on one that when you transist to the larger group it is overwhelming to them. some just do not transist well. alot is expected from them.
I am a preschool teacher for toddlers to threes. I try to keep circle times flexible experiences for children of all needs and stages of development. I have found that those children who seem to have the signs of asperger’s or more severe autism enjoy the repetition and predictability of the circle time experience. I don’t believe that forcing any child into a circle time is beneficial anyways, so any child who is “done” doing circle time with me is allowed to leave and pursue a more appropriate experience. The main purpose of circle times is not to see who is different or who cannot perform for the teacher, but really to help the children develop a sense of community within the class by participating in a group experience. Fun activities need to attract the older toddler to preschool ager, not to enforce rules, but to support their need for learning social skills, language development, and creative problem solving. a child with high functioning autism shows a great interest in being in circle time as long as it is active and interesting to their particular developmental need. more severe autistic children should not be required to be in circle time, but with the help of a co-teacher, be encouraged to participate at his/her level of interest…yes, level of interest and not level of intelligence or capability. autism doesn’t mean a child in inable, but that the brain is developing differently and uniquely in ways that are more obvious than in other children, right? all children are developing at different, individual rates in different parts of their brains, and are drawn to individualized types of learning. a well-educated teacher can see these developments and create a circle time that can meet these needs and bring everyone together, as a community of persons able to appreciate at some level the individual differences of all involved.
at least, that is my mode of thinking. my own children are not autistic, therefore i do not know personally the frustrations parents feel. it is best to find a preschool or daycare that will take the time to know your child’s needs and modes of learning and work from there, with flexibility and acceptance.
My child is 3.5 yrs and finds it very difficult to sit criss cross. She will sit on her knees at all time. is this normal or do i need to see a doctor? pls suggest. thanks