FRISCO, Texas — School transportation professionals at every level can ease the extreme fear and stress that students with autism experience each day and help them reach their full potential by shifting conventional thinking about service delivery.
That was the message from keynote speaker Patrick Mulick to start Saturday’s session at TSD Conference. Accomplishing those goals are part of the transportation department’s duty but will create a tremendous sense of joy and accomplishment said Mulick, who is also the director of student engagement for the Auburn School District in Washington and a board certified behavior analyst.
“We get to be part of their stories. We get to help shape their worlds and help unlock the autism they carry around with them. I feel such joy when I reflect on the faces that I’ve had a change to impact and I look at the work ahead and I look at the faces we have now,” said Mulick who relayed the stories of students that he played has helped over the years. “For you, you have faces, you have names in front of you every single day. What you do for them matters. So, feel that sense of purpose but that sense of responsibility that we need to step up and do what’s right for these kids that not given everything they need for life. These kids need us to be at our best in supporting them. So, continue to go the extra mile for them. They’re certainly worth it.”
Mulick, a popular speaker delivering his fourth keynote address at a TSD Conference, said one reason his remarks focused on autism was due to its rising prevalence. In 1975, one in 5,000 children. “Today, it’s one in 36. This data is four years old and there’s great variance from state to state. California is one in 26,” he stated.
He encouraged his audience to remember that every person with autism is an individual and they should never have a preconceived based on well-known people on the autism spectrum, such as Elon Musk, or someone they personally know. “If you know one person with autism, you know one person with autism. That’s it,” he added. “We need to be careful not to categorize persons with autism.”
Mulick said that he spent the summer of 2000 working with a non-verbal, 4-year-old girl with autism who had behavioral issues related to her disability. Within weeks, she began to speak three-word sentences. Children with autism “know what they want to say but can’t get the words out,” Mulick said.
“There’s a person in there dying to get out but they do not understand the world and the world does not understand them. When she could speak, it gave her autonomy,” he said. “What I was able to do was unlock autism,” he continued.
The experience convinced him that he wanted to devote his life to helping autistic children succeed.
Mulick explained that the education system has broken down numerous barriers to equality over the decades. However, he added, considerable work remains in the realm of services for children with disabilities and special needs.
“For (them), the conversation goes to the kid as the problem,” he said.
Noting that school buses have been redesigned to accommodate students with accessibility challenges, he insists school transportation needs to be rethought and redesigned to better serve children with special needs, including autism.
Mulick cited a quote from psychologist and author Ross W. Greene, “Behaviorally challenging kids are challenging because they’re lacking the skills to not be challenging.”
He added, “When we think of students with autism on our bus, instead of asking, ‘What’s wrong with them?’ We really need to be asking, ‘What are they experiencing and how can we help them?’”
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He shared a 12-point strategy to improve the transportation process and everyday life for students with autism:
1. Get out of our silos. School personnel and transportation departments can and should use all appropriate technology tools to communicate proactively and more effectively when problems arise. It is not helpful for drivers to receive a 26-page individualized education program. Instead, drivers need to receive a student transportation plan with the necessary information to help them safely transport students and support positive behavior.
2. Visualize expectations with pictures. Students with autism may miss words but a laminated sheet with pictures of instructions will provide a child with guidance and reassurance day in and day out. Mulick shared the story of a boy with autism who had been hitting himself because of the stress of his daily school bus rides. Individualized instructions for “show safe hands” included a picture of a hand firmly planted on the bus seat. The boy drew an outline of his hand on his usual seat, too. “Yes, that’s graffiti but it’s much better than him hitting himself,” Mulick said.
3. Give voice. “Behavior is communication. If you don’t give your student a voice, then you leave them with no other choice.”
4. Engage. Give children with autism time to process information. Always state their name first and be careful with phrasing.
5. Value the routine. Surprises are scary. “If it is routine, then it is predictable. If it’s predictable, it’s reliable. If it’s reliable then it can be trusted. And if it can be trusted then it’s safe,” he said. For that reason, don’t tell a child on a random day that they have to sit in a different seat.
6. Warn about changes. Let the child with autism know well in advance if the school bus driver is going on vacation or there’s a change of bus number, assigned seat, route or other riders.
7. Get them engaged. The biggest transition and potential anxiety in an autistic child’s day is the ride to and from school. Ensuring they have something to engage with is a source of comfort. “The engaged mind forgets to misbehave.”
8. Be careful with the collaboration at the handoff. Avoid chit chat. If the conversation is about the child, bring them into the conversation. Even if they’re nonverbal, don’t pretend they aren’t there.
9. Be Mindful of unique fears and fixations.
10. Reframe deficits into strengths. Convert lessons into child’s favorite fixation. Mulick shared several effective examples, including creating a “Jedi Tool Kit” that provided a range of de-escalation actions for a child fascinated with “Star Wars.”
11. Use today’s knowledge for today’s challenges. “When we know better, we can do better. There are old ways we need to move away from,” he said. Mulick shared that when he took a job in 2011 there was a 1980s-era cassette tape in his desk. Several in the room gasped when he showed a slide with its title: “Working with Angry, Rage-filled Children.” He noted that the increase in board certified behavior analyst (BCBA) positions – from 780 in 2010 to 65,366 in 2023 – is an example of a new resource that can be accessed.
12. Don’t force it. Forcing a child with autism to do something they don’t want to do will often lead to behavioral outbursts. “If it’s not going to work for the student, it’s not going to work for the student.”)
Mulick offered one final piece of advice: “When you work with kids with autism, you should be learning with them every day.”
