Promoting Homework Independence for Students With Autism Spectrum Disorders

The Homework Planning Form

Family involvement in education is an important part of student success and can include participation in school-based activities and home-based educational activities and collaboration between family members and school professionals (Cooper, Robinson, & Patall, 2006). Research has demonstrated that parent involvement with homework activities may help students achieve higher rates of completion (Patall, Cooper, & Robinson, 2008). Cancio, West, and Young (2004) found that the combination of self-management strategies and parent participation during homework activities was effective for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). With a focus on establishing collaborative relationships between home and school surrounding homework activities, a structured planning process was outlined. The Homework Planning Form (Hampshire & Butera, 2013) can be utilized to guide the process of early team planning, setting goals, designing intervention tools, and monitoring student progress (see Figure 1).

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Figure 1.

The Homework Planning Form used to guide the process of planning, implementation, and progress monitoring.

Step 1: Homework Plan Team Members

A team approach is essential to planning a homework intervention. The first step in developing a homework intervention plan is to determine key stakeholders on the team. To ensure consistency across home and school, parents must be included. In addition, both special and general education teachers should be team members. Depending on the needs of the student, some teams may also include related service personnel, such as a speech or occupational therapist or the school psychologist. Students must also be key team members, providing them with the opportunity to express their needs and contribute input about the plan. This is especially important for adolescents as it empowers them to move toward self-determination (Lane, Carter, & Sisco, 2012).

Next, the role of each person on the team should be clarified. A “point person” in the home (e.g., parent) and the school (e.g., teacher or instructional assistant) must be identified to ensure the plan is implemented and communication is consistent. Additional roles that may be assigned to team members include making homework adaptations and checking in with the student at the beginning and end of the school day to ensure homework has been turned in and assignments have been written down. Finally, determining the student’s responsibility in the homework plan is paramount. Ultimately, the student should be in charge of managing the homework system and working toward independence as the team members’ roles continue to fade over time.

Step 2: Identification of Homework Goals

The goals for students’ homework plan depends on their individual needs. For some students with ASD, completing homework is the main issue, and goals for the intervention may relate to follow-through and organization. For other students, completing homework accurately may be the focus of the intervention. Rushing through assignments or failing to check completed work were problems commonly reported by parents in the Hampshire (2011) study. Finally, some students may lack independence during homework routines, relying on parents and teachers for prompting and motivation to complete work. In these cases, helping students work with less support is an important goal to be addressed.

Step 3: What Will Homework Include?

Once the goals for the homework intervention plan have been established, the content most appropriate for homework assignments should be determined with three critical areas in mind: (a) independence, (b) practice, and (c) maintenance. The team will then determine what percentage of the homework assignments will address independent work skills, practicing concepts learned in class that day, and maintaining skills previously learned. All work sent home must relate directly to the individual goals for that student. For example, if a student is working on increasing his or her level of independence, the work sent home should primarily consist of content the student has been able to complete fairly independently in the school setting.

It is also important to determine the type of adaptations the student may need. Teams must then agree on who will be responsible for making the adaptations and define this within their role. This may increase the workload for teachers and should be kept fairly straightforward. Bryant, Dean, Elrod, and Blackbourn (1999) found that teachers were willing to consider methods that were believed to be valuable and feasible and took little time as long as they were in line with the overall classroom structure and curriculum. Common homework adaptations include decreasing the number of problems or length of an assignment, using a computer for writing, and breaking larger assignments into smaller parts that are completed over time.

Step 4: Homework Checklist

Utilizing a homework checklist is one way to help students understand what is expected of them when completing homework (Hampshire et al., 2011). For students with ASD, predictability is essential for understanding the expectations of the environment and decreasing anxiety brought on by uncertainty and surprise (Mesibov et al., 2004). Thus, a checklist provides students with an example of how a complex task can be simplified and is an example of a self-management tool that helps students with ASD monitor their own behaviors to achieve a desired goal. Teaching students to self-manage during homework activities increases both completion and accuracy rates (Axelrod, Zhe, Haugen, & Klein, 2009; Cancio et al., 2004; Hampshire et al., 2011; Myles et al., 2007). Hampshire (2011) found that utilizing a homework checklist on average increased rates of homework independence by 20%. Parent reports further emphasized that the intervention helped their child to become more organized and focused during homework activities.

Homework checklists can be individualized by determining the steps of the routine that need to be highlighted for the student. It is important to remember that the homework routine occurs in both the home and school settings. Thus, the routine should include activities during the school day like writing down assignments, gathering materials to take home, and submitting work the next day. It also important to consider that the homework routine includes what happens before the students start their work and when they are finished, for example, getting all of the materials they need prior to sitting down to work, cleaning up their work when they are finished, and putting completed assignments in the appropriate folders and into their backpack.

Homework checklists provide the opportunity to communicate expectations to students in a clear visual format. For students with ASD, visual processing has been shown to be an area of strength, especially when completing unfamiliar or complex tasks (Williams, Goldstein, & Minshew, 2006), so homework checklists may be especially effective. Task analyzing the steps of the homework routine that you would like the student to complete in collaboration with the parent is highly recommended. Realize that the list should be a flexible document that changes over time as students progress. Typically, the checklist gets shorter over time as students learn the individual steps for completing their work. See Figure 2 for an example of a homework checklist.

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Figure 2.

Example homework checklist.

Step 5: Homework Rules

Outlining the rules the student is expected to follow during homework activities is important. These rules should include expectations for completing homework tasks and provide the opportunity to reinforce desired behaviors. For example, parents may set the expectation that all work must be complete before the student can leave the homework area. Having students read these rules aloud before each homework session is one way to establish a routine and set the stage for expected behaviors (Leedy, Bates, & Safran, 2004). Over time, reading the rules may no longer be necessary as the student’s behavior becomes more routine. In a study with five middle school students with ASD, parents reported that reading the homework rules was essential initially in establishing a routine with clear expectations (Hampshire, 2011). By setting clear boundaries in the beginning, parents were able to revisit the rules during homework activities only when students needed a reminder of expected behaviors. Given that the rules were planned in collaboration with the student’s teachers, similar expectations were reinforced in the classroom setting as well. See Figure 3 for an example of homework rules.

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Figure 3.

Example homework rules.

Step 6: Reinforcement Plan

When first implementing a homework intervention plan, student motivation may be an issue. There is some research to suggest that when students’ learning style is matched with a routine for doing their homework, motivation is increased and attitudes are more positive (Hong, Milgram, & Rowell, 2004; Iflazoglu & Hong, 2012). For example, some students with ASD may show a preference for technology. In this case, the teacher may incorporate an online research component to the assignment or may require the students to submit their work through an online system. Some students may continue to struggle to find motivation in the routine of homework. Under such circumstances an external reinforcer may be needed. To do so, the team must determine what is motivating to the students, what behaviors are most important to reinforce, and how often reinforcement will occur. It is recommended that the students receive reinforcement after each homework session at first. Once the student demonstrates consistent success, reinforcement can be faded. When fading the schedule of reinforcement, points can be awarded to the students that can later be traded in for access to reinforcing items and activities. In addition, having the students provide input on items they want to work for by utilizing a reinforcer menu may also increase buy-in and motivation.

Hampshire (2011) found that the frequency of required reinforcement decreased as the students showed higher rates of self-management skills during homework routines. One strategy utilized in this study for fading reinforcement was to attach a point system to items on a reinforcer menu. The students were able to earn points for specific behaviors during the homework routine (e.g., checking off all items on the list, making corrections, asking questions) that coincided with their goals. Then, at a predetermined time, the students could trade in those points for specific items on their reinforcer menu.

Additional suggestions for promoting a positive homework environment include allowing students to choose the order of assignments to complete, manipulating the work environment (e.g., having bright lighting, having comfortable seating, and minimizing distractions), and providing consistent positive attention when students are engaging in desired behaviors (Iflazoglu & Hong, 2012). The key to any good homework system is clearly defined expectations, a good understanding of how to access support, consistent structure, and access to reinforcement.

Step 7: Additional Training Needed

Prior to implementation, the team should determine if any additional supports are needed to ensure the success of the system. For example, the parent might need some coaching on the individual components of the system. In this case, the special education teacher may meet with the parents to role-play how to support their child in the teaching phase. Another idea might include providing team members with a “cheat sheet” highlighting key components of the system in an effort to keep everyone consistent. Finally, resource materials may be a nice addition for team members who are new to concepts such as self-management and reinforcement. Reading materials that offer further information about these strategies could be provided to the team.

Step 8: Data Collection Plan

As with most aspects of program planning, time is needed initially to assess, plan, and design tools that are individualized for the student and environment. Although homework intervention does require extra time to get things in place, when systematically implemented over the long term, student independence increases. In the Hampshire (2011) study parents considered meetings essential for getting everything into place. In addition, parents reported that the time required initially slowly decreased and collaboration could be accomplished through email over time. Teachers also reported that it was time intensive at first but worth it in the end. In addition, teachers reported spending less time monitoring student behaviors as work was being submitted on time and with more accuracy.

To determine if the intervention is successful, educational professionals must collect meaningful data. Collecting data prior to the start of the intervention helps to determine a starting point (Parker, Vannest, Davis, & Clemens, 2012). Based on the goals the team identifies for the student, a plan for data collection over time should be in place to compare the students’ performance before the homework intervention plan to data collected after the plan is implemented. In this way, the team can determine if the plan is working to help the students meet their goals. Once students have met their goals, it is recommended that data be collected at predetermined intervals to determine if the students continue to progress. This process of using data to inform decision making prevents team members from making assumptions about the effectiveness of the homework plan.