How a picture book helped a troubled student find her way

At an interview for a Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education position as a behavioral intervention specialist teacher earlier this year, Jang Se-ra, a veteran elementary school teacher of 23 years, held a well-worn book in her hands. The book, titled "Try It Like Ji-woo!," had helped bring about a remarkable transformation in just two to three months in a 13-year-old student, identified by the pseudonym Ji-woo. Jang had created the picture book herself, making Ji-woo, whom she had taught the previous year in an inclusive classroom at Haneul Elementary School in Seoul's Mapo District, its main character. The experience gave her a firsthand appreciation of the power of behavioral intervention to change both students and schools. Whenever Ji-woo, then a sixth-grader, traveled between her inclusive classroom and the special education classroom, everyone at the school could tell she was on the move. Ji-woo, who has autism spectrum disorder, repeatedly shouted, sat down on the hallway floor and cried. When Jang became her homeroom teacher, Ji-woo displayed similar behavior. She threw objects,