Brianna's Buddies by Jennifer Rosenbaum

This year I have been fortunate to develop a collaborative teaching partnership with my school's preschool autism teacher, Erin. Two of her students come to my classroom for a portion of the school day and have been doing so since the beginning of the school year. Through our work together, Erin and I have learned a great deal about working with a diverse group of children. Our students are also learning valuable social and academic lessons from one another.  

  

A few weeks ago, we decided that Brianna was ready to start spending more time in my classroom. Her social skills had been improving steadily, and Erin thought that with a little more time to practice, Brianna would be able to make tremendous progress. In addition to spending more time with us, we decided to implement a "buddy skills" program for Brianna and several of my students. This program, which would essentially teach my students how to be a good friend to Brianna and respect her individual needs, would ensure that she always had a friend in our classroom to help her practice basic social skills.  

  

We selected five students from my classroom -- Makiera, Mayala, Suniah, Julia, and Aaliyah -- to be Brianna's buddies. We went through a series of short lessons to teach them how to read social cues from Brianna, respond appropriately and engage her in conversations and play. In child-friendly language, Brianna’s buddies quickly learned how best to “stay, play, and talk” with her.  

 

Last week, Makiera, Mayala, Suniah, Julia, and Aaliyah officially began as Brianna's buddies. The results thus far have been amazing: Brianna's buddies are talking more to Brianna than they ever did before, and Brianna has begun to engage them in conversations. On Thursday, Makiera worked with Brianna to select and purchase food from our dramatic play "grocery store" to bring home to their “babies”.  Together they are practicing the social, cognitive, and language skills that are so fundamental to pre-k!