led, although the exact components of her difficulties have not yet been determined. Conferences have been held with the parents and evaluations conducted by a psychologist, social worker, speech pathologist, physician, and audiologist. The child's behavior is unusual in that she treats other children as objects and tends to repeat behaviors in a rigid manner. Her speech is described as echolaic, that is she repeats the last few words of sentences several times out of context. Chris is gifted musically and can do unusual improvisations on the piano and repeat rather lengthy passages in an imitative way when the teacher works with her one-on-one.
The time period chosen is the morning gathering together time right after the children arrive at the school. The usual routine is that the parents drop off the children who come in and pick a quiet toy to play with in the living room until everyone is there. Then the director brings the children together in a group for conversation and a story. The director has mentioned to me that she is focusing on Chris at this time in an effort to get her to behave less destructively with the other children and toys upon first arriving. Her pattern in the past has been to go straight to the record player, which is her favorite object in the school, and forcefully move aside whoever might be using it before she has a turn. The director tells me that on this particular day it is her goal to assist Chris in asking a child for the next turn with the record player and to listen during the story, without interrupting with repeated verbal phrases.
On the morning of my observation, a mother is working at the school, and the director has told me ahead of time that she has given this parent supervisory responsibilities for the first few minutes of that day so that she can focus on Chris. I have met this parent who is well-situated and ready to greet the students as they arrive. For purposes of conveni...