So caring!

[sarypotter]

I work with a student who is on the autism spectrum and who typically does not attend to other students in her environment.

One of my other students has mobility challenges that make it difficult for him to manipulate the toys that interest him.

These two students were seated next to each other on the floor during a group learning activity. The students were on a break, engaged with reinforcement, but my student with mobility challenges was having difficulty keeping his music toy standing. It kept tipping over when he would press the buttons.

My other student was engaged with her own reinforcer, but she occasionally glanced at the tumbling toy. Eventually, she reached over and picked it up for him. It fell again, and again she picked it up.

When it fell a third time, she reached over, righted the toy, and then held it in place with her right hand while she continued to play with her own music toy with her left hand. Because of her thoughtfulness, my other student was finally able to get his toy to work.

How sweet! That just made my day.

[SiobhanMarie]

Aw, thats very sweet. Children can be very caring :)

[Bananas]

Indeed, the small moments loom pretty big in size and make our days great!

[SiobhanMarie]

I'm sure it made the struggling child's day also :)

[jdavis5]

Perhaps we could say that's the ultimate example of "cooperative learning." Spencer and Laurie Kagan would be so proud.

[Boxcar]

I really think it is great to watch things like this. I love it when the little children comfort one another. One of my favorite times was watching a group of threes comfort a sad friend. Developmentlally, it is said by some that threes aren't capable of this. However, I believe that with good modeling, the children can begin to surprise you.

[MissTeach]

In one of my 8th grade classes last year, I had an autistic student seated next to a behavioral disabled (bd) student. Both students have trouble working with other students. My class had 33 students, so it was hard for me to get around to each one during each class period. One day, when I had the students working on a project on the computer, I noticed the bd student showing the autistic student what he was supposed to be doing (the autistic student needs to be showed step-by-step). From that day, for the rest of the year, the bd student was the autistic student's peer helper. According to other teachers, the bd student was always in trouble and disrupting the whole class in other classrooms. But in my class, the bd student did her work and helped the autistic student stay on task. It was a perfect combination!!!!