Meet Phillp & Maggie

Hi, my name is Phillip and I will be your narrator throughout the rest of the Choice-Making topic. I am a high school student with a sister in the third grade. Her name is Maggie. I will be telling her story in the following paragraphs.

Maggie has been diagnosed with autism and moderate to severe cognitive disabilities. She communicates using mostly one- to three-word sentences. Her expressive vocabulary is very limited, so it is often difficult for Maggie to communicate with us in a way so that we can easily understand what she wants to say. She attends our neighborhood elementary school and spends part of her day in a general education classroom. She also eats lunch and goes to P.E., music, art, and recess with her third grade class.

Maggie demonstrates challenging behaviors at school, at home, and when she is out in the community. For example, like all other students, when she is at school she is required to follow a schedule that dictates what activities she will do and in what order she will do them. When it is time to transition from one activity to the next, Maggie is often noncompliant, throwing herself on the floor, yelling and screaming in protest.

At home, Maggie gets very angry right before her bedtime. When my parents try to put her to bed and read her a book, she often grabs the book and throws it at them. It is very sad to see Maggie get so mad at my parents when they are only trying to help her.

In many situations in the community, Maggie’s behavior can also be challenging. For example, as a member of the neighborhood soccer team, she must follow a set of rules that all players have to abide by. For example, when the players aren’t on the field, they are required to sit on the bench with the other team members. When it was Maggie’s turn to sit on the bench recently, she got very upset. She picked up dirt and started throwing it at the other team members until she was allowed to stand at the end of the bench instead of sitting on it.

As you can see, Maggie had little control over her environment. Her teachers and family wondered if she might benefit from choice-making interventions, but they weren’t sure how to teach her the necessary skills or when and where to provide choice-making opportunities. Maggie’s caregivers went through the choice-making module to learn the answers to their questions, plus a whole lot more!

At the end of the module we will check on Maggie’s situation to see if choice-making interventions worked for her.