4. Develop a hypothesis

Once the data is collected and it is felt by the team to be complete enough to move the planning forward, the information should be consolidated and examined by the entire team. Patterns of behavior across the day, week or environment, and the possible relational impact of personality, task demands, peer interactions, etc. may appear when seen on a chart (such as a scatter plot), that were not apparent in the day-to-day routine. Sometimes, the reasons for the patterns are quite obvious, but sometimes they may actually be very subtle, especially if the trigger is not one that would be problematic for most students. Remember, kids with ASD’s have many sensitivities that are not common in the general population.

Example:
Jonathan, who is minimally verbal, exhibits behavior that would indicate that he is anxious and out of control when he goes to Ms. Abraham’s math class. He often acts out resulting in his frequent removal from the class, but he becomes more compliant once he reaches the table in the office where he must finish his work. There are several possible hypotheses that could arise from this scenario: He may not like Ms. Abraham, he may not be able to understand the demands, he may not like the other kids in the room (as in Joey’s case), and many others as well. One thing is clear: once he escapes the room, he feels more comfortable and is able to complete his work. Jonathan is unable to verbally explain the reasons for the breakdowns. Careful planning, data collection, and observation might narrow the field of possibilities, and developing more than one hypothesis may be in order to achieve a definite answer.

During the discussion around the data collected for Jonathan, an interesting fact came out. While he smiles at Ms. Abraham, and makes attempts to follow her directions, he was seen to turn away from her often, and his loss of control usually followed a period of time in which she was assisting him one-to-one. He also seems to get worse the longer he remains in the room. He sometimes has difficulty with a loss of control in the cafeteria on some days, and his homeroom teacher noted that he had exhibited those same difficult behaviors in her room on Teacher Appreciation Day, and this was unusual for him in her room. Could they be connected? The team brainstormed about what could cause such a reaction. They hypothesized that since Ms. Abraham is known to wear a strong perfume, the homeroom teacher had received a bouquet of flowers for Teacher Appreciation Day, and the cafeteria sometimes smells of food or cleaning agents, the strong odors may be a cause of his avoidant behavior.