Autistic Spectrum Disorder Case Studies

Case Study

Spencer
Spencer’s pattern of behaviour at the beginning of the Yoga lesson was to wander off, run around or just be distracted. I constructed an IEP where the main goal was to encourage Spencer to sit in the first posture, which was a simple kneeling position, called Candle. In order to help him understand what we wanted he was shown a picture of another child performing the posture, the name of the posture read out aloud several times, staff modelled the posture, and other children in the group praised for being in the posture. Eventually Spencer kneeled and received praise too. The accomplishment was reinforced several times during the session. The following week, the next tiny goal was to encourage Spencer to put his palms together in Candle. Using the same methods he accomplished this. In the third week the final goal was to get him to close his eyes, hands together, kneeling in Candle. Not only was this achieved, but also now when he is shown the picture and I say Candle he will come into the posture hands together, eyes closed and hold it for a short time. He is also much improved in practicing all the postures in our session.

Case Study

Peter
Following weeks of non-attention and disruptive behaviour, a breakthrough came with Peter when I was teaching a sequence of postures called the Sun Salute (well known in yoga classes world wide.) As I demonstrated and called out each posture of the sequence Peter mimicked my words and each posture. We adults were amazed and burst into spontaneous applause much to the delight of Peter. I repeated the sequence twice more and so did Peter. Over the ensuing weeks and months Peter fully applied himself to the Sun Salute, often taking delight in correcting me when I made a mistake, as well as kindly helping his classmates who maybe did not have the same memory capacity as he.

Case Study

Simon
Simon and his classmates had great difficulties in being still and quiet even for the shortest time. Getting them to lie down was proving very challenging. This was a major problem since relaxation is an essential part of the yoga lesson. I introduced the ladybird (puppet) into the activity. Simply, courtesy of the care assistant, the ladybird landed gently on Simon’s big toe, then flew up and landed gently on his knee, and then in turn on thumb, shoulder, nose, other shoulder, other thumb, other knee, other toe and finally on Simon’s tummy. Simon was being kind to the ladybird by being still, and was obviously focused tracking the route of the ladybird. For whatever reason, Simon had been still and quiet for about three minutes and so had most of the other children. Simon grabbed the puppet from his tummy and saying “Its Andy’s turn” proceeded to take the ladybird on the same circuit tour that he had just experienced mimicking my words. Andy lay peacefully as this happened.