INTERVENTION CASE SUMMARY - EPSE 531

Name: Martina Cawker

1. What skill(s) did you target in your intervention? Why? Please provide an overview of the
student(s)/context, your baseline assessment data, and how the data link with your targeted
skills.

The skills I targeted with the student in my intervention were catching and throwing,
with the goal of trying to help eliminate or reduce the student’s fear of the ball. For the sake of
anonymity, we’ll call my student Hannah. Hannah has been afraid of the ball since she was very
young. Hannah is currently a grade 9 student who has autism and is very high functioning. I
targeted her fear of the ball as she is in my physical education class and as with most PE classes,
there are a lot of activities that involve one or several balls. She is on track to receive her
Dogwood diploma at the end of secondary school and with that, she needs to take one more PE
class next year. I want to help make her as comfortable as possible in PE so that she doesn’t
have to “suffer through it” next year.

To work on Hannah’s throwing and catching skills, I had her work on bouncing a ball
against the wall in a semi-enclosed area, focusing on self-tossing the ball, chest passing against
the wall, and bounce passing against the wall. When she is comfortable, she moved onto
passing with a partner or two people. Hannah is not comfortable being in the gym when any
balls are present, she immediately clams up and freezes on the spot. Having her work in area
that is semi-enclosed is the best option available for her given the circumstances of also having
to look after 29 other students (and sometimes more). My initial assessment found that Hannah
worked with the ball for about 15 minutes alone, with intermittent pauses when she was
worried other balls were coming in her direction. She requires several prompts from me to keep
her going and to stay on task. By observing how long Hannah is engaged with the ball, I can get
an understanding of any improvements made and hope to eventually have her semi-integrated
in the class.

2. Please provide an overview of your intervention activities (e.g., specific intervention

components/routines, materials used, how they address targeted skills). If you
revised/modified intervention activities from your initial plan, please note the modification
and your reason.

Hannah’s intervention activities were bouncing the ball against a wall and passing the ball with a
partner or two. Most often I used a handball as it is quite soft and is easy to manipulate by
Hannah. I once had her use a volleyball and she expressed that she did not like it as it is too
hard so the remainder of the intervention she continued to use the handball. Physical education
classes are 80 minutes. Hannah’s routine is to come in, have attendance taken, complete the
dynamic warm-up with the rest of the class which usually consists of some running and aerobic
exercises, and then I give her the handball and she would work independently against the wall
while the rest of the class engages in standard PE activities. I check in on her throughout the
class and prompt her if I notice she has been watching gameplay for a period of time. She often
worries about getting hit with the ball even when she is in no danger and needs to be assured
that she is safe.

3. What was your plan for monitoring progress? Please describe the measures you used and
the schedule for administration. Again, if something changed from the time of your initial
plan, please note the modification and your reason.

My plan for monitoring progress was to watch and time Hannah as she works on her catching
and throwing activities. I had a data tracking sheet at the back of my clipboard which I have with
me every PE class so that others are not aware that I was taking data. The sheet looks like this:

Date: _____________________________
Duration of Engagement: ___________________________
Number of Peers: ____________________________
Type of Ball: ___________________________
Type of Passing: _______________________________
Percentage of time spent … Alone: __________ With 1 peer: __________ With 2 peers: ______
Comments:
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

What was difficult with this intervention was that Hannah works well alone and with a peer but
I did not feel comfortable asking students who were engaged in the PE class to help Hannah
with her intervention. On a couple occasions, students volunteered which was excellent but it is
difficult to navigate pulling students out of play to work with Hannah. She is very aware of social
cues and does not want students to work with her if they feel they are being forced.

The schedule for my intervention was not as originally planned due to an unexpected invite to a
conference and availability of facilities for my PE class. I took data on the following dates:
February 28, March 1, March 9, March 10, and March 27.

4. What were your goals in terms of student improvement? How did you decide on the goal?

My goals for student improvement were to have Hannah work with the ball for longer periods
of time than the initial baseline as the intervention went on. I would also love to have her work
with peers more often but this is a challenge as I mentioned in question 3. At the school I am
working at we are already strapped for PE facilities and often there are 60 students in a gym. It
would be excellent to have an area where Hannah could practice her passing in a space larger
than a small hallway, however, it is simply not realistic. I decided on the goal of an extended
duration of passing with hopes that the more she is exposed to catching and passing the ball,
the more desensitized she will get to the ball and will become more comfortable being in a PE
setting.

5. Is the intervention working? Please present assessment data (tables and/or graphs) to
support your observations.

Based on the goal of getting Hannah to work with the ball for longer periods of time, the
intervention is working as noted by the linear trendline present on my graph. Do I feel like she is
becoming less sensitive to the ball? I’m not quite sure. After discussing my intervention plan
with Allison from our class, my goal with Hannah has changed. Allison has worked with students
with autism for many years. She mentioned that students with autism always struggle in PE
settings as there is so much stimulation and sensory overload in the gym. She suggested that
perhaps it is not necessary to ever have Hannah fully included in the PE class as Hannah
probably does not want that. She also suggested to provide Hannah with a reward or choice to
help further engage her in physical education.

6. Recommendations: What do you think would benefit the student(s) moving forward?
Recommendations can be in relation to future intervention activities, classroom strategies,
home strategies, etc.

As suggested by you, Sterett, during my presentation, I asked Hannah if she would be

comfortable asking another student to join her with passing the ball. She said she was not
comfortable and would prefer to work alone. After my discussion with Allison, I decided to give
Hannah some options in my class. During parent-teacher interviews, Hannah’s mother told me
that she often exercises at home. I had a conversation with Hannah, asking her if she would like
some choice of physical activity during class. Together, we decided that every other day she will
work on her ball activities because she likes working with the ball and claims she is not getting
bored, which is great. On the days that she is not working with the ball, she will work on
exercises independently. The challenge is to find her a space which she will be comfortable as
she does not want others to see her working out, understandably.

7. Reflection: What have you learned? What has gone well? What would you do differently in
future cases?

Throughout this assignment, I have learned that interventions are challenging,

particularly taking data while teaching many other students. I have learned that to change a
lifelong habit will certainly take more than a few weeks but change has been noticed with
Hannah and she is now in a routine and knows what to expect when coming to PE class. I think
that having a routine for Hannah has made her feel more comfortable in the class and hopefully,
she does not dread PE as much as she used to.

The best thing for me from this intervention has been developing a stronger relationship
with Hannah and gaining a better understanding of how aware she is of social cues and her
place in the classroom. I think too often people assume that students who have autism are
unaware of what others think of them. This intervention has helped me understand Hannah as a
student and realize that she has needs and expectations and worries about how she looks just
as much as all the other students. This intervention has taught me that sometimes to better
include students, it just takes a conversation with how we can work together to meet their
needs. Perhaps Hannah will never be integrated into the PE class but at the end of the day, if
she is being active independently, it does not matter that she is integrated. She is still taking
part in the warm-up and is a part of the class in a way that works for her.

I would not change too much in the future as I am happy with the routine that I have set
up with Hannah. To see further improvements in the future, I would consider speaking with a
few students who I know would be comfortable working with a student like Hannah and set up
a schedule to build her comfort level with the ball. As Hannah expressed she enjoys working
alone, I do not plan on doing such but if I come across a student in the future who has issues in
the gym, I plan on working with them through dialogue and collaborating to develop a plan
which works best for them.