Angela Austin describes how the human givens approach has informed her work to create an emotionally safe environment where children with autism can learn.

In my career teaching children with special needs, I have learned many ways to work with children with autism and have devised many methods of my own. I was thrilled, however, to come across the human givens concept of needs and tools. Its emphasis on identifying and helping to meet needs, and building on innate resources in the process, has given me and my staff a new framework through which to view what we are trying to do. It also reinforces what we are doing by showing why it works. In short, it has created a cohesion to our work and helped us develop a structure to our thinking, rather than merely applying helpful theories and techniques.

Hillingdon Manor School, where I am headteacher, is an independent special school for children aged between three and a half and 19 years
of age. Our pupils are variously diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, high functioning autism or semantic pragmatic disorder. Some children may have a diagnosis of pathological demand avoidance, which means that the focus of their way of being is to resist the demands of everyday life. This can present as panic attacks, which occur as tantrums whenever they are asked to do something.

The school was established in 1999 by parents concerned by the lack of resources for school-age children at the more able end of the autistic spectrum. Local authorities fund the places for the 51 children who attend. From September, we will split into two, with a 'senior school' for children aged 13 plus, and will be able to take 70 children.

While very many of our children are capable of making considerable progress in school, they demonstrate a wide range of challenging behaviours, arising from the "triad of impairments" identified by autism expert Lorna Wing. As a result, many have been excluded from mainstream schools. Children with autism don't understand 'the rules' of engagement unless these are made absolutely explicit, so they almost always find themselves ending up in the wrong.

No one likes to be on the receiving end of criticism or blame but children with autism are especially sensitive to it, and so become highly frustrated and emotional about little upsets. Once they are overwhelmed by their emotions, of course, their rational minds can't function and they cannot learn.

People with autism lack a developed sense of self. They also lack the ability to use language to relate to other people or to solve problems, by themselves or with other people.

For all human beings, language and communication is key for our connecting with the world and, for most of us, the wheels of our daily lives are oiled by shared perceptions and agreements about the meaning of words at a sophisticated level. Children with autism, however, struggle with language at quite a fundamental level. Without a shared understanding of the meaning of words and how they map to names, actions, concepts and emotions, there is no real way to get needs met, understand the world and relate to others.

The concept of choice

I saw this very starkly in the early days of our school. Tina, an 11-year-old girl, was brought into my office, kicking, spitting, biting, swearing and lashing out at anyone who came too close. We calmed her down by using the holding and calming relaxation techniques we teach everyday. When she was calm and able to listen and process information, I wrote on a flipchart what we describe as the three causes of upset:

A: you expect something to happen and it does not
B: you want to do something and someone or something stops you
C: you want to say something and you do not know how to say it.

Then I asked Tina which of these three upset her most. This supposedly under-achieving girl instantly got up and pointed to B. "And what do you choose to do when you want to do something and someone or something stops you?" I asked her. "Bite and spit," she replied. I showed her a smiley face and a sad face and asked, "And how does that make you feel?" She pointed to the sad face. "And how does it make other people feel?" She pointed to the sad face again. "So did that work for you?" "No." "That's really good thinking, Tina. So what could you choose to do that would work?" And Tina looked completely perplexed. She didn't know what she could choose to do. She didn't understand the concept of choice. And, because she lacked the necessary language to map this concept to her neocortex, she couldn't make that essential switch from her emotional brain to her rational brain.

If you can't make a choice, you have no sense of autonomy or control. Biting and spitting and swearing only give apparent, in the moment, control. It does not last. The price is loss of self esteem or, as Tina saw it, sadness. With no autonomy and no sense of personal control, a vital human need, essential for emotional health, remains unmet. For children with autism have just the same needs as any other human.

What works

I have learned that to forgive and let go is one of the most powerful tools that human beings possess; and that holding on to things really stops us from doing what we want to do in life. But letting go is a choice, and has to be seen as such. So, at Hillingdon Manor School, rather than blaming children or telling them off, we have created an environment where choices, and their consequences, are presented clearly at all times, in a meaningful way, so that children can experience for themselves what works and what doesn't work for them and others. In an environment where upsets between children or between children and staff can be cleared up quickly, enabling them to move on, children have the emotional space to develop cognitively and to enable their needs to be met.

Our good behaviour policy sets out how we maintain clear rules and boundaries through which pupils can, over time, learn to develop thought processes about what works in the world, and the behaviours that promote that end. Teaching and learning support staff receive training in the method. Training is ongoing and everyone supports everyone else in role modelling what works.

Desirable behaviours are modelled so that they can be clearly identified: good sitting, good listening, good speaking, good working, good walking, good waiting, good sharing, and so forth. In the interests of multi-sensory learning, which children with autism respond to best, choices are made tangible to pupils through the use of symbols on choice boards, and are also presented on the palms of the hands.

"Karen," says the staff member in an assertive, neutral tone, "You choose to do good sitting and do your work [staff member points at left palm], and you can go out to play with the other children at lunchtime. Or you can choose to not do your work [staff member points at right palm], and spend your lunch break in Angela's office doing the work." Clearly the first choice is educationally, socially and/or physically advantageous to the pupil, and has an individually positive outcome. The other choice is unacceptable educationally, socially and/or physically, and has an outcome less desirable to the pupil. It is also explained to children that not choosing means that they are choosing the less desirable option.

When children make a choice that is not in their best interest, involving loss of playtime or special rewards, they are asked afterwards, "Did that work for you?" This reinforces our basic premise that there is no right or wrong, only what works and doesn't work. It encourages good behaviour from an objective, non-judgemental standpoint, giving children the space to develop their own understanding of right and wrong. When children who have made an undesirable choice have reflected on their behaviour and the fact that it didn't work, staff ask, "What would have worked?"

Even lunchtime assistants and supply staff are given training in the language to be used when offering choices, because the language should never vary. Research shows that pupils with language disorder have to have things repeated to them a thousand times before they fully understand them and can use them. Given the social complexity of autism, consistency and repetition of language and approach are even more crucial — however long
it takes.

One boy, at the end of a day, swore, spat and pulled his trousers down. I told him that he could not get on the school bus to go home because he was not calm and that it was dangerous to behave that way on the bus. He carried on, not believing for a moment that I would keep my word, and yelled in disbelief and frustration when he saw the bus leave without him. I let his mother know that I would bring him home later and proceeded to sit it out. For two and a half hours he screamed and screamed. When he finally chose to stop, I took him home and it was a quiet, well-behaved little boy whom his mother greeted. He has never performed in that way again: he knows now that consequences are carried out.

Colin's video

We also train parents in the use of choice and consequences, so that they can support our work at home. One 10-year-old boy, Colin, loves more than anything to watch a particular video at home. He can watch it for hours on end without becoming in the least bit bored with it.

Because his behaviour both at school and at home has been very challenging, we incorporated his love of the video into a behaviour plan for him. For Colin the choice is, "Do 'good choosing' [ie choose appropriate behaviours] at school and you'll take home the folder with a picture on it of a smiling mum and dad. Then they'll know that you can watch the video." But if he does 'not-good choosing' (we never use the word 'bad'), he takes home the folder with the picture on it of his mum and dad looking sad, and he doesn't get to watch the video. His behaviour transformed instantly. Now there is a structure and a consequence (visually reinforced), and that has provided him with security.

One day he forgot himself and hit his support worker, Debbie, in the face because he was frustrated with himself for knocking his game over. Debbie didn't say, "How dare you, bad boy!" and put him in the wrong. She said, "Oh, Colin! Sad face!" And Colin instantly put his arms down by his side and wailed, "Oh, no sad face!" He knew at once that he had done something that did not work for him and that he would lose video privileges. He apologised to Debbie, who praised him at once for good calming down after his upset, but the video remained off limits for that day.

Consistency, we believe, is everything. Every child has a pastoral support plan that identifies specific behaviour that doesn't work for that child, and the strategies devised to deal with it. A strategy is spelt out in exact words, which all staff are asked to adhere to. Currently, we are trying to deter 10-year-old Neil from going up to people and giving them a kiss or cuddle without asking, as this will clearly be unacceptable behaviour when he is older. All staff have been requested to be consistent in their language when Neil approaches for a kiss or cuddle, saying, "Neil, stop. You have to ask me for a kiss/hug". When Neil has asked appropriately, the female response is either, "I don't want a kiss/hug now, thank you" or "No kiss/hug, thank you. I will hold your hand." Male staff respond with, "I don't want a kiss/hug, thank you, but you can shake my hand".

Working in this way is not necessarily comfortable for staff. After all, it is quite confronting to have to make an agreement about how you communicate, which cannot be deviated from — especially when sometimes empathy

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© Human Givens Publishing Limited and Angela Austin 2006

This article first appeared in Volume 10, No, 2 (2003) of the Human Givens journal.

ANGELA AUSTIN is the first headteacher of HIllingdon Manor School, a school for children with autism and Asperger's syndrome. Angela has worked in special education needs for over 20 years. She has been deputy head of a school for children with dyslexia, head of a language unit, and curriculum manager in a residential school for children with autism and Asperger's syndrome.

> More information can be found in the following book, by Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell

Human Givens: A new approach to emotional health and clear thinking

> You can find out more about autism and the new thinking on its causes at the following MindFields College workshop:

Demystifying autism and Asperger's syndrome - Practical solutions for parents, carers, teachers and other professionals

Return to top

> More information can be found in the following book, by Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell

Human Givens: A new approach to emotional health and clear thinking

> You can find out more about autism and the new thinking on its causes at the following MindFields College workshop:

Demystifying autism and Asperger's syndrome - Practical solutions for parents, carers, teachers and other professionals

Return to top