Resources, tips, and materials to help you, help children with autism
The concept of the "Work Station" comes from Division TEACCH and is designed for individuals with autism or related conditions. I am in no way an expert, but have basic training and have had the privilege working in a class that follows TEACCH principles. Here is a pack I produced to assist people when creating workstations- I hope you find it useful. I would HIGHLY recommend training with TEACCH if you are given the opportunity
These past months, I have been using Topical Communication Boards to support more independent language use with my students (be sure to check out earlier blog posts for some examples. Here are some: 1, 2, 3) . These boards contain the specific language needed to communicate while playing with an app, book or game. They are extremely helpful when working with AAC device users or with clients that have limited verbal output (like my students with autism who have difficulty initiating without echoing what I say). But, what happens when my kiddos pick a game that I don't yet have a board for? Does that mean, we just try the activity without the support?? NOT ME! I prefer to use visual supports as much as possible. Visual supports help boost confidence, set clear expectations and decrease verbal prompting. That's why I created a Core Words communication board. Find it on boardmakerachieve here. If you are not sure what core words are, please be sure to check out Carole Zangari's and Robin Parker's PraacticalAAC blog or Bruce Baker's explanation for more information. Core words are not just "the new best thing," they are necessary components of every day communication. Core words make up about 75-80% of what we say each day. They are the powerful words that can be used across situations and ages. Kids, adults, teenagers.... we all use core words. They can be used again and again and again across situations and places. Core words are highly functional: they stand in the place of more specific nouns (e.g. "it," "that," "there,") where there is no access to specific vocabulary and they represent functional actions (e.g. "do," "make," "go," "get,"). I decided to start focusing more and more on core words when making my topical communication boards. But as I did this, I found with the combination of core and "fringe" words (fringe words being the words that can be replaced with less specific words such as "that"), my core words that were repeating across boards, started to shift locations. This made my users slightly confused and increased scanning time to find icons. Check out these two examples: By keeping the pronouns on the left, I shifted some available spaces and question words no longer made sense on the left hand side of the board. While I tried to keep things the same as much as possible, each board will have a different number of verbs and nouns, making it difficult to keep things consistent. I decided to start keeping my most frequently used core words in the same place on each board. On top, I decided to put my less frequently used core fringe words that were specific to the activity. (please note: my core word selection is not all inclusive, and it might still change. I was simply limited by the 8x11 space). Keeping icons in consistent locations, decrease visual scanning, and increase automatic motor responses (think about how you use automatic motor responses to type on a keyboard). Many AAC devices already use motor planning as part of its language system (e.g. LAMP, PRC, WordPower). This past weekend, it was great hearing Patti Solomon-Rice talk about the importance of keeping icons in the same location on AAC devices. Hearing her speak about that, validated my desire to try this new format for my topical boards. So, when a kid asked to play angry birds the other day and I didn't have a board made, I didn't sweat it! I used my core words sheet. Then, I quickly made the angry birds topical board after the session. It took way less time to make a board using this new format. Here is what I came up with (find it on boardmakerachieve here): If you haven't read yet how I use these topical communication boards, it's pretty simple. I point to each word as I say them (making sure my client is looking at the board while I do this). If I ask a question, I may prompt the student by immediately pointing to an icon on the board so they do not respond with echolalia. If the person independently says something (with or without using the board), I repeat and expand by saying and pointing to each icon. Or if they are struggling to verbally find a word, I may point to the board to help them get started. Here are some sample phrases we might work on with this angry birds board: "you do it," " my turn," "get bird," "put it there," "get triangle" "it go over" "it go down." If the student needs help learning how to use the board to vocalize, I start teaching the student by hand under hand guidance to help the student to point to each icon (only if needed). As quickly as possible, I fade my physical prompts to gestural prompts. I always try my best to allow the student time to respond on his own as well. I usually find that with practice, my students start vocalizing without prompts and even without pointing to the board. In addition, they start using vocabulary that has never been used before in unique combinations. Prior to using the boards, my students may have simply used behaviors ( crying, grabbing etc.) to access a turn with a game or with the iPad. Using the boards, most of my clients (e.g. with autism) start learning to initiate communication attempts, either by pointing or by vocalizing, while engaging in fun activities. For my AAC users that already initiate language but are working on using novel utterances, the boards serve as a visual guide or reference to what they are searching for as they navigate the device. Using these boards often reduce frustration, prime the student to expected language to be used, expand utterances, and help students use language in unique word combinations not otherwise used before. They serve as visual support to the oral language we provide and they validate icons as a communication form for my AAC users. Hopefully this core words sheet helps in a pinch. It can also be modified to make new topically related boards really quickly! Hope you find it useful! The Picture Communication Symbols ©1981–2011 by Mayer-Johnson LLC. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Used with permission. Boardmaker® is a trademark of Mayer-Johnson LLC.
You may have heard people talk about ‘the spectrum’ or ‘the Autismspectrum’. You may have heard people say that “oh, everyone’s on thespectrum somewhere” o…
Over the past years, so much has been written about autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that at times one is unable to distinguish between truth and fiction. Because autism is characterised in different ways, many believe in a lot of myths and misconceptions. Let's debunk some common myths related to autism.
Resources, tips, and materials to help you, help children with autism
One activity my students loved, was learning about different staff members in the school. We polled all of the staff about their favorite things (like food, color, etc.) and some personal info (their birthdays, names, etc.). Then we learned about a new person in our school each month. I created a blank template where we could put a picture of the person as well as answer same basic questions about them. This activity is great for working on answering questions, learning about others, and increasing social skills. It also works on perspective taking...a lot of my kids want to answer the questions with THEIR favorites...not the staff members...so this teaches them to understand that other people have different preferences than themselves. And don't forget, today is the last day of the TPT Teacher Appreciation Sale! My entire store is 28% off with the code TPTXO! Click the picture below to go directly to my store! This is the perfect time to bulk up for the end of the year, summer school, and back to school (at least that is what I am doing!).
After seeing a Calm Down Kit on pinterest, I decided to make my own, inspired from "The Autism Adventures of Room 83." This blog c...
Teaching kids with autism may mean working with nonverbal students. Here are 9 strategies for effectively working with students with severe nonverbal autism.
After one of my previous posts about a file folder sorting activity, I received a few requests to sell these materials on TPT...so that is what I have been up to this week. This product includes two sorting activities. The first activity is sorting items based on rooms in the house This covers Bedroom, Laundry Room, Kitchen, and Bathroom. I made mine in a file folder as pictured below...but with the materials in this packet, you could also just laminate the 2 pages or put them in top-loading sheets. A new sorting activity I created is for sorting items based on community places. The places included in this activity are School, Hospital, Barbershop, and Grocery Store. Here is what the activity looks like all put together. You can purchase these two sorting activities at my TPT Store (click here to go directly to this product!). These activities are great for students who are beyond sorting by colors/shapes and are ready for a new challenge!
1) Do you suspect that your child has autism? A child with autism spectrum disorder has poor social skills, limited communication skills, and repetitive interests, activities, or behaviors. Possibl…
Resources, tips, and materials to help you, help children with autism
Hitting and Pinching in Autism Units and Self Contained- Tips and tricks to teach students to stop hitting and pinching. The Nook podcast from Noodlenook.net
Lots of children with autism struggle with picky eating, and yet, these challenges are highly individual. The reason why your child with autism and picky eating might refuse to eat new foods could be very different than another child on the spectrum.
Tantrums Don’t Help Me Fix a Problem is a social story created by TAP. This particular social story is written to help children understand why tantrums will not fix their problem. It also hel…
Hello! I'm Chris Reeve. Welcome to our special educator community. My passion is bringing special educators together to help them serve their students. Join our FREE Resource Library ! ! ! Subscribe I Agree to
Autism communication strategies to show how to communicate to a child with autism.
When I posted a couple of my products on Teachers Pay Teachers this summer, I had not yet used them myself. I had brainstormed the ideas over the summer for my new kiddos! I knew that I would be receiving more kids than any other year (and no additional adults) and I needed more ways to incorporate independent work for my students to keep them busy and learning all day (which prevents boredom and temper tantrums!). For my students with higher academic and social skills, I was not too worried...I have plenty of stuff to keep them busy and they are great at adapting to new activities (check out this post for what my higher academic students do at Reading/Math Centers). However, for some of my lower functioning students independent work is harder to come up with and new activities do not go over very well (this group of students in my class struggles a lot with any sort of change). As you probably know if you have read my blog, I love using work in binders for my students. It keeps the work predictable and lets students know exactly how much work they have to complete. It also allows for switching different work in and out without the student feeling like too much has changed. I store these binders in a little plastic bin. I put a piece of velcro on the side of the binders....that way when a student is bringing their schedule picture to the station, they attach it right to the binder they are responsible for completing. This is what is in my reading binders for students who can match letters. This is from my Functional Spelling Product on TPT. The product also comes with pages that have blank boxes, for kids who are beginning to spell words on their own. I store the pieces in a labeled baggie on the back of the previous page. I use these in my reading binders as well. This is from my product Sorting Pictures by Letter from A-Z on TPT. Each kid only has 3 or 4 letters worth of pages in their binder and we switch them around every couple weeks. Again, pieces are stored in a baggie (I ask for these as school supplies in the beginning of the year since we use so many). For the example below, students sort pictures of alligators to the left side page and apples to the right side page. I also have some students who are not yet able to match something as complicated as a letter and cannot yet sort. For these students, in their reading binders, I use matching pages from my Easy Matching product on TPT. When I made this, I tried to make each item on the pages (there are only 4-6 pictures per page) a different color to help aid in visual discrimination for some of those beginning matchers. Not all of my students make it to my "Math Centers" station which takes place in the afternoon because we get so busy with inclusion and functional skills stations (life skills classroom, science lessons, social time, drama time, etc.) Don't worry, we still work on math...just not independently as often as reading. So, these binders are a bit less developed. Right now, I am just using pages from my product Patterns and Beginning Math Skills on TPT. Students match patterns in blank boxes below a given pattern. I tried to use picture of common items/things my students like to make this activity more engaging. That was kind of a long post...happy Tuesday!
Resources, tips, and materials to help you, help children with autism
What vocational targets for students with Autism do you need to hit in your class to make them job ready? Read on… and FREE Materials to help!| NoodleNook
Is it the autism or just bad behavior? It’s hard to know for sure, but if you struggle with autism and discipline, we’re sharing 13 practical tips to teach you how to discipline an autistic child at home and in the classroom.
Using a simple prompt hierarchy, new skills are taught to kids in steps. Gradually prompts are faded, and children learn to do the skills independently.
Well, today is our first day of home visits! We are going to over 10 houses today and splitting the rest over the next two afternoons (after school). One thing I really wanted to get done in time for the home visits were homework binders. For most of my kids' homework, I send home a packet of worksheets at their appropriate level in a home work folder each day. But, for my kids who can't write, this system doesn't work. So, what I have done in the past, is make a binder of work (similar to their morning group binder) for these kids to keep at home. This is a great way for students to get extra practice and for parents to see what their child is capable of doing independently. Here are some pictures of the binder I put together last night and I will be delivering to my student's house today! This is from our morning binder. All student's have to do is move the correct month/season down into the bold box. This is the same thing, but for the weather. Just move down the correct picture for weather/temperature into the bold box. These pages make for easy clean-up...just move the picture back to it's original location! These pages are great for extra practice matching the months/days or putting them in order (I have two versions- one with pictures to match and one with blank boxes for practicing the order). These two pages are to practice identifying appropriate clothes for different seasons (and practice dressing a person). This page is also from our morning binder. It is practice in identifying colors to describe clothes the child is wearing. This is a matching page for money...coin names and value. For some pages, I use zip-loc bags as storage for the pieces. I put velcro on the bag (and on the back of the previous page) so the bag can be attached as shown in the picture below. This helps with quick clean-up/storage and prevents losing pieces! ***Update: After many requests to sell my hw binders on TPT, I have finally added this product to my store. You can check it out by clicking here. Thanks for your interest in my products and if you ever see something featured on my blog, that you would like for me to sell, please let me know!
Resources, tips, and materials to help you, help children with autism
Resources, tips, and materials to help you, help children with autism
Social skills list for kids with autism. Use this free printable list of social skills with your child or students to teach social skills.
So many kiddos have WH question goals… in some form or another. The ability to answer WH questions is important, in all settings: school, home, in conversation, etc… I knew this, but I always wondered how to teach WH questions without feeling like I was testing the kiddo. I didn’t want to repeat the question […]
Last week, one of my older students told me "In April, we have 5 Senses in Science." I love that my kids remember the order of our Science Units and look forward to them from month to month and year to year! The favorite thing for my students this coming month is our Jelly Bean Taste Testing Experiment! Check out the unit on TPT here. This month's unit focuses on the following 9 vocabulary words centering around 5 Senses (smell, hearing, sight, touch, taste, senses, spicy, sour, sweet). This packet includes: -Materials to create a vocabulary velcro-matching activity -Flashcards -3 Levels of Assessments -18 different worksheets -2 Games (5-Senses bingo and Memory). Multiple versions based on level of difficulty. -1 Jelly Bean Taste Test Experiment Worksheet -1 Adapted book (with matching pieces and comprehension worksheet) -10 Journal pages (includes 2 levels of difficulty) -Parent note home about the unit -1 Cover sheet for kids to color and use as a cover for all their completed work. This unit has materials for learners at different levels. Also, it includes a variety of worksheets which allow my students to work on their science IEP goals as well as a variety of other goals (language arts, math, speech, and OT). I use this unit over the course of an entire month. The kids repeat some of the work, but the repetition seems to help them learn the concepts as well as work on becoming more independent. OK…now onto the good stuff…some photos of this month's unit! Here is the vocab sheet that we use as a velcro matching activity. Here is the highest level of assessment. There are also assessments for receptive and expressive vocabulary words (pictures and words). The Bingo game, Memory game, and adapted book, are perfect for the days you feel like taking a break from worksheets or when your kids finish their work early! These journal pages come in 2 different levels. One for tracing and one to work on writing about topics independently. Of course, the highlight of the month for my students is the Jelly Bean Taste Testing Experiment. I use Starburst Jelly beans (my personal favorite) to do the first portion of this experiment. The kids close their eyes, eat a jelly bean, and have to try and guess the flavor. For the second part of this experiment, we use regular Jelly Beans, Hot Tamales, and some sort of Sour Jelly Beans. The kids sample one and then have to decide if that candy is sweet, sour, or spicy. For more info on my other science units and more details on what is included, check out these posts! - A post describing my topics for the year as well as how I organize my materials. - A preview of my Dinosaur Unit - A preview of my Weather Unit - A preview of my Landforms Unit. - A preview of my Insect Unit. - A preview of my Plants Unit. - A preview of my Body Parts Unit. - A preview of my Solar System Unit. - A preview of my Food Groups Unit
These ABA therapy activities for kids with autism spectrum disorder will give you heaps of ideas you can use at school, in therapy, and at home!
Resources, tips, and materials to help you, help children with autism
We’ve got a Runner! A closer look at elopement and wandering for students with Autism with strategies, tips and tricks to help you in the classroom.
Below is a DRAFT version of the Communicative Functions Quick Checklist, developed by Keisha Tipton. Please give us feedback on its usefulness and any changes that you suggest. This could be helpful in tracking changes across time. Look for: • New functions that the student is now showing • Old functions being shown in ways that are easier to understand (ex: moving from body language only to sign, or adding vocalization, or using AAC device) For use across time, use a different color each time you assess. Thanks so much to Keisha Tipton, special educator and mother extraordinaire, for sharing this! Download the form using the link below. Communicative Functions Quick Checklist
Published accounts of autism and research studies show a number of references to sensory and movement differences in the areas of perception, emotion, action, cognition and communication
These ABA therapy activities for kids with autism spectrum disorder will give you heaps of ideas you can use at school, in therapy, and at home!
