Chapter 15

Critical Thinking: An Essential Life Skill

“Thinking is skilled work. It is not true that we are naturally endowed with the ability to think clearly and logically—without learning how, or without practicing.”

—Alfred Mander

The students discussed in this volume have great difficulty with critical thinking. The importance of higher-order thinking skills cannot be overstated as they constitute the essential life skills needed “to prepare [children] for further education, employment, and independent living” (Wright and Wright, 2006, p. 20) as specified in IDEA 2004.

Critical thinking skills include these

Rationale for Including Skill Category

Present Levels of Performance for Critical Thinking Skills

The PLP for critical thinking skills should include

Content Area: Basic Critical Thinking Skills

Sequencing

Sample PLP for a six-year-old student with NLD: According to her teacher, student is able to answer specific questions about daily activities or the events in a story, but has difficulty relating these things in an appropriate order. The speech-language pathologist states that the student also has significant difficulty putting picture sequences in order in language therapy. These difficulties lead to problems with following instructional sequences and retelling events and stories, and they affect her play interactions with her peers.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP

Short-Term Objective 1

Given direct instruction and the first card in a 3-step sequence, student will put the remaining 2 cards of the sequence in the correct order and answer questions about each step for 8 activity sequences, at an 80% accuracy level, given direct verbal and gestural cueing.

Short-Term Objective 2

Given the first card in a 4-step sequence, student will correctly put the remaining 3 cards of the sequence in the correct order and tell about each step for 10 activity sequences, at an 80% accuracy level, given indirect verbal cueing.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given the first card in a 5-step sequence, student will correctly put the remaining 5 cards of the sequence in the correct order and tell about each step of the sequence, for 10 activity sequences, at an 80% accuracy level, given gestural cues.

Annual Goal

Given a 5-step, out-of-order series of sequence cards, student will arrange the cards in the correct order as she tells about each step for 10 new sequences at the 80% accuracy level, independently.

Predicting

Sample PLP for a seven-year-old student with ASD: Student is able to answer questions about factual material and the here and now. She is also hyperlexic (that is, evidences advanced reading decoding skills in the presence of reading comprehension difficulty). According to informal assessment and teacher observation, student has difficulty predicting what might come next in stories. This sequencing difficulty affects student's ability to extend stories, handle multistep activities, and play guessing games with peers.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP

Short-Term Objective 1

Given direct instruction in sequencing activities, and 3 picture cards in a 4-card sequence, student will choose the appropriate fourth card from a group of 3 choices, for 8 sequences, at an 80% accuracy rate, given direct verbal cues.

Short-Term Objective 2

Given 3 picture cards in a 4-card sequence, student will choose the appropriate fourth card from a group of 5 choices, for 12 sequences, at an 80% accuracy rate, given indirect verbal cues.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given 3 picture cards in a 4-card sequence, student will verbally predict what will happen next without seeing the card for 10 new sequences at an 80% accuracy rate, given expectant waiting.

Annual Goal

Student will accurately predict what will happen next, when asked, across 10 short stories, at an 80% accuracy level, independently.

Sample PLP for a twelve-year-old student with ED: According to performance on the Test of Problem Solving (TOPS), student has difficulty in the area of predicting. This difficulty not only impedes his academic performance, particularly in English class, but also his relationship with peers. As for the latter, student often says or does inappropriate things that upset his peers and then is surprised by their negative reactions. His inability to predict the consequences of his actions causes him to blame his peers and to complain that they don't like him. As a result, student has missed classes and has had episodes in which he refuses to go to school.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP

Short-Term Objective 1

Given prior direct instruction and examples, and a setting event in a story scenario depicting a familiar social-conflict situation, student will predict how a particular character in the story will react, and state the reason for his answer, for 6/10 scenarios, given direct verbal cues and expanded input as needed.

Short-Term Objective 2

Given a setting event in a story scenario depicting a familiar social-conflict situation, student will predict how a particular character in the story will react, and state the reason for his answer for 8/10 scenarios, given indirect verbal cues.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given 10 role-play incomplete scripts, each involving a social conflict between 2 characters, student will select 1 card from a 3-card set that predicts the ending prior to viewing the videotaped role-play, 8/10 opportunities, given indirect verbal cues as needed.

Annual Goal

Given an incomplete script involving a social conflict between 2 characters, student will independently predict the possible ending prior to viewing the videotaped role-play, 8/10 opportunities, independently.

Determining Feelings

Sample PLP for an eight-year-old student with NLD: Student demonstrates significant difficulty determining how characters in stories feel both in standardized testing and in classroom reading activities. This affects her ability to comprehend narratives and to write book reports. In addition, student also demonstrates an inability to recognize the displeasure of her classmates when she says or does something that offends them, even though their body language “says it all,” according to her teacher.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP

Short-Term Objective 1

Given direct instruction/demonstration regarding facial expressions and 10 short stories in which the main characters depict emotions that flow from the story line (for example, angry, sad, happy, worried, bored), student will choose the emotional response that accurately reflects the character's facial expression from a group of three cards, 8/10 opportunities, given direct verbal cues.

Short-Term Objective 2

Given 10 different short stories in which the main characters depict emotions that flow from the storyline, student will name the emotion that accurately reflects the character's facial expression, 8/10 opportunities, given indirect verbal cues.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given 10 videotaped role-plays in which the main characters act out emotions that fit the context, student will name the emotion that accurately reflects the character's facial expression and body language, 8/10 opportunities, given expectant waiting.

Annual Goal

Student will demonstrate understanding of specific emotions by responding accurately to questions, in class, regarding the feelings of characters in stories, 8/10 opportunities, independently.

Content Area: Inferences

Making Concrete Inferences

Sample PLP for a fourteen-year-old student with ASD: According to formal assessment and teacher report, student is able to deal effectively with factual material, often scoring well above many of his peers on both standardized and teacher-made tests. His ability to make even simple inferences, however, lags far behind. This makes it difficult for student to deal with essay tests that require him to move beyond a factual level. Moreover, because of his problems with inferential material, he tends to take everything literally. These difficulties have caused some of his classmates to make fun of him, and have created significant problems for him in academic subjects that require inferential understanding.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP

Short-Term Objective 1

Given direct teaching in inference-making/examples, and a series of 10 picture cards depicting a variety of common situations (for example, a boy with a bat staring at a broken window), student will infer what happened, 8/10 opportunities, given direct and indirect verbal cues.

Short-Term Objective 2

Given a series of 10 new and 10 previous picture cards depicting a variety of common situations, student will infer what happened, 8/10 opportunities, given indirect verbal cues as needed.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given 20 short story passages describing a series of events, student will infer how each story will end, 9/10 opportunities, given expectant waiting.

Annual Goal

Student will infer what happened in situations depicted in reading assignments by answering questions appropriately 9/10 opportunities, independently.

Making Abstract Inferences—Verbal

Sample PLP for a nine-year-old student with ED: Student performs in the impaired range on the Making Inferences section of the Test of Problem Solving (TOPS) and the Inference section of the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (CASL), with scores in other measured areas being age-appropriate. In class, she understands information that is directly stated, but has difficulty “reading between the lines” to fill in missing information. This difficulty negatively affects her performance on comprehension tests, as well as her ability to follow classroom routines and directions, solve problems, and respond appropriately in social situations.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP

Short-Term Objective 1

Given prior direct instruction, when presented with a scenario in which information is missing (for example, short written narrative with implied information; sequence card story with beginning or middle step missing), student will identify the missing step/information from a multiple-choice format, 6/10 scenarios, given direct verbal cues and explanation as needed.

Short-Term Objective 2

When presented with a scenario in which information is missing, student will infer the missing information based on story/picture content, 7/10 scenarios, given indirect verbal cues.

Short-Term Objective 3

When presented with a scenario in which information is missing, student will infer the missing information based on story/picture content and give the reason for her inference, 8/10 scenarios, given expectant waiting.

Annual Goal

Student will make abstract inferences across all school subjects 8/10 opportunities, independently.

Sample PLP for a seven-year-old student with ADHD and NLD: Student does well in reading decoding and in tasks involving procedural knowledge. He has significant difficulty with many critical thinking skill areas, particularly where inferential understanding is required, often complaining that “it doesn't say that” when the teacher tells the students something about a character. This difficulty is negatively affecting student's grades in language arts and social studies, and interfering with some of his activities with peers on the playground.

Short-Term Objective 1

Given direct verbal instruction in inference-making, and a series of 10 picture cards depicting a variety of common situations (for example, a girl looking at an empty glass on the floor), student will infer what happened, 8/10 opportunities, given direct and indirect verbal cues.

Short-Term Objective 2

Given a series of 10 picture cards depicting a variety of common situations/events, student will infer a character's reaction to the outcome, 8/10 opportunities, given direct questions. (For example, “How will Dad react to the spilled milk?”)

Short-Term Objective 3

Given a series of 10 short stories, student will infer the reactions of characters to the events in the stories and state the reason for their reactions, 8/10 opportunities, given indirect questions as needed.

Annual Goal

Student will infer the reactions of characters to the events depicted in stories and textbook passages across language arts and social studies classes, 8/10 opportunities, given expectant time delay or indirect verbal cues as needed.

Making Abstract Inferences—Nonverbal

Sample PLP for an eleven-year-old student with NLD: According to performance on the Social Language Development Test (SLDT), student presents with moderate to severe impairments in the ability to interpret nonverbal signals such as facial expressions and gestures. Core language, as assessed by the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF), is age-appropriate. Student's difficulty with reading nonverbal cues impairs her social relationships with both children and adults, as she fails to read their behavioral cues. As a result, student is subjected to frequent reprimands by her teacher and is a target for bullying. These difficulties cause her to miss lessons in class and negatively affect her ability to focus, leading to poor academic performance.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP

Short-Term Objective 1

Given prior instruction in the meaning of various facial expressions and nonverbal signals in the context of 5 familiar stories and 5 videotaped role-play sequences, student will identify the character's/person's emotion and the reason for it, 80% of the time for each context, given direct verbal and manual sign cues.

Short-Term Objective 2

Given 5 unfamiliar (new) stories and 5 new videotaped role-play sequences, student will identify the character's/person's emotion and the reason for it, 80% of the time for each context, given indirect verbal or gestural cues.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given 5 unfamiliar (new) stories and 5 scripts from previous role-play sequences, student will identify the character's/person's emotion and the reason for it in the story, and act out appropriate emotional reactions in the role-plays, 90% of the time for each context, given gestural cues.

Annual Goal

Student will both identify emotions and state the reasons for them in story characters, and will respond appropriately to nonverbal emotional signals in real-life situations with minimal indirect verbal and gestural cueing.

Content Area: Problem Solving

Sample PLP for a sixteen-year-old student with moderate autism: When given visual supports, and when activities proceed as expected, student is able to complete assignments in his classroom and work settings in a timely manner. His teacher and vocational supervisor report, however, that he becomes confused and unable to complete his work when even minor problems interrupt his activities. Formal testing via the Test of Problem Solving—Adolescent also indicates difficulty in this area. These problems negatively affect his ability to function independently in both classroom and work-related settings.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP

Short-Term Objective 1

Given direct instruction/demonstration in the use of a problem-solving template, and a series of 5 problem scenarios, student will choose an appropriate solution from 2 options presented, 4/5 opportunities, given direct coaching.

Short-Term Objective 2

Given a problem-solving template, and a series of 10 new problem scenarios, student will choose an appropriate solution from 3 options presented, 4/5 opportunities, with indirect coaching.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given a problem-solving template, and a series of 10 new problem scenarios, student will apply a problem-solving strategy appropriate to the situation in structured role-plays with 2 to 3 peers, 4/5 opportunities, given indirect coaching.

Annual Goal

Student will use a problem-solving template to apply an appropriate problem-solving strategy in contrived classroom situations, 4/5 opportunities, given expectant waiting or manual sign cues as needed.

Sample PLP for a fourteen-year-old student with ED: Although he is capable of completing class work at grade level, student becomes very agitated when unexpected problems occur in class. His behavior not only prevents him from completing his school work but is also disruptive to his classmates, and poses a safety concern during unstructured times (such as lunch and study hall). Testing with the Test of Problem Solving—Adolescent indicates significant impairments in the ability to identify problems and suggest solutions.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP

Short-Term Objective 1

Given direct instruction, a problem-solving 4-item solution card, and 10 problem scenarios presented in a calm, quiet setting, student will identify the problem from 4 possible choices and select an appropriate solution for it, at an 80% accuracy level for each, given direct verbal cueing.

Short-Term Objective 2

Given a problem-solving 4-item solution card and 10 problem scenarios presented in a calm, quiet setting, student will independently identify the problem and select an appropriate solution for it, at an 80% accuracy level for each, given expectant waiting or indirect verbal cueing as needed.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given a problem-solving 4-item solution card, student will select and apply problem-solving strategies to actual situations in 2 teacher-contrived problem scenarios in the classroom and 1 unstructured activity (for example, the lunchroom), 80% of the time, given indirect verbal or manual sign cues to use his solution card.

Annual Goal

Given a portable problem-solving solution card, student will independently select and apply solutions to actual problem situations when they occur, across environments and activities for 80% of problems encountered with minimal indirect verbal or manual sign cues to use his solution card.

Explanatory Note

The portable, pocket-sized card with a list of 4 optional solutions that the student will carry with him is considered an accommodation.

Content Area: Analyzing and Synthesizing Information

Sample PLP for an eight-year-old student with ASD: During her speech therapy sessions, student is able to name attributes of an object when asked, but she is not able to determine commonalities or differences between object pairs. These difficulties negatively affect her ability to perform comparative tasks as required by her second-grade science curriculum.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP

Short-Term Objective 1

Given demonstration and direct instruction, student will sort objects into same/different categories, 9/10 opportunities.

Short-Term Objective 2

Given a pair of objects that are similar to and different from each other based on known concepts, and an attribute template (for example, color, size, shape), student will state 1–2 similarities and 1–2 differences between object pairs for 9/10 pairs, given direct verbal cues as needed.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given a pair of objects that are similar to and different from each other based on known concepts, student will compare objects by stating 2 ways in which they are similar to and 2 ways in which they are different from one another for 9/10 object pairs, given indirect verbal cues.

Annual Goal

Student will compare and contrast objects by stating 2–3 ways in which they are similar to and different from one another, 8/10 opportunities, independently.

Content Area: Drawing Conclusions

Sample PLP for a fifteen-year-old student with ADD: As part of his history curriculum, student is asked to write essays that require him to compare and contrast historical events, and then draw conclusions about them. Although he is able to answer specific questions about events if his teacher lists the advantages and disadvantages in chart form, he is unable to analyze and synthesize this information in order to draw conclusions. This difficulty is apparent in both class discussions and in his essays. As a result of these problems, he is failing his American history class.

Short-Term Objective 1

Given a 5-item teacher-generated list of happenings for each of 4 historical events, student will select 2 each that are advantageous/disadvantageous and state the reason for each choice, at an 80% level of accuracy for each circumstance, given direct verbal cueing.

Short-Term Objective 2

Given a 5-item teacher-generated list of happenings for each of 4 historical events, student will select 3 advantages/disadvantages and state the reason for each choice, at an 80% level of accuracy for each circumstance, given indirect verbal cueing.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given 4 sets of historical events, student will fill in information on a template designed for comparing, contrasting, and drawing conclusions between each set of events at an 80% level of accuracy for each element, given indirect verbal cueing.

Annual Goal

Student will independently employ a template to compare, contrast, and draw conclusions about events covered in his history curriculum at an 80% level of accuracy, with minimal indirect verbal cueing.

Content Area: Determining Relevance

Sample PLP for a thirteen-year-old student with NLD: When reading stories or textbooks student is able to recall some details, but these are not always the details that are most relevant to the plot of the story or lesson in the text. Student's reading comprehension for details is age-appropriate, but she currently makes little distinction between information that is relevant and information that is irrelevant. As a result, she has difficulty comprehending the overall plot of a story or getting the correct information from lessons in a text. This negatively affects both her performance on tests and her grades.

Goal/Objective Templates Based on PLP

Short-Term Objective 1

Given direct instruction and a 6-item multiple-choice format containing both relevant and irrelevant details for 10 stories or textbook passages, student will select 2 relevant details corresponding to the story or textbook passage, across 10 stories or passages, 9/10 opportunities, given direct verbal cueing.

Short-Term Objective 2

Given a 6-item multiple-choice format containing both relevant and irrelevant details for 10 stories or textbook passages, student will select 3 relevant details corresponding to the story or textbook passage, across 5 new stories or passages, given indirect verbal cueing.

Short-Term Objective 3

Given cloze sentences, student will generate a minimum of 3 relevant details of a story/textbook passage across 10 previous and 5 new stories/passages, 9/10 opportunities, given expectant waiting and indirect verbal cues as needed.

Annual Goal

Student will give a minimum of 3 relevant details of a story or textbook passage across all appropriate academic subjects with only occasional indirect verbal or gestural cues.

General Teaching Tips and Strategies for Critical Thinking Skills

1. Stage problems in the classroom, verbally go through the steps to take to solve the problem, and then solve it. For example: “Hmmm, I can't find my pencil. Let's see, could it be on the desk? No, I had it when I was helping Jamie in the back of the classroom. I think I'll look there. Great! Here it is.”

2. For preschool children, use cause-effect toys to illustrate causal relationships that the child can directly control through his or her own actions.

3. Use sequence cards and children's literature to promote the development of critical thinking skills. For example, to work on prediction using a book with a naturally occurring prediction format, such as If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, ask the question posed in the title, “If you give a mouse a cookie, what will he ask for next?” Continue to ask the question for each item requested, for a veritable powerhouse of prediction opportunities! This activity can even be used with nonverbal children by having them select—from a group of objects representing the events in the story—the item that “predicts” what will happen next.

4. Make the connections for the student in situations requiring inferential reasoning that he or she might not be able to make independently. For example, in the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, neurotypical preschool children readily infer that if Goldilocks is eating from the little bowl, then the bowl must belong to Baby Bear. To ensure that children with ASD make the appropriate connection, we recommend supplying it for them. (For example, “That must be Baby Bear's bowl, because it's so little.”)

5. Allow students to appropriately negotiate for such things as more computer time or a special privilege. Remember, even very young children learn how negotiate for a cookie when Mom says no. To wit: “Please may I have a cookie?” “Pretty please?!”