The Autism Teacher

Pouring

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 22:05:00 +0000

This is a short and sweet post just to share a little glimpse of one moment in a day in Mrs. Mays's class. A moment that provides:

an opportunity to choose (have some control over their life - they choose what color cup they want and what they want to drink)
an opportunity to be independent
an opportunity to practice a skill

I've posted before about our lunchtime routine (here and here), and if you have read my blog then you probably know that I like to try to incorporate as many opportunities to work on daily living skills as I can throughout the day. One of the things we have been working on lately is pouring.

The pitchers that I use are from Lakeshore. I have one with white milk, one with chocolate milk, one with water and one with juice. After my students wash their hands, they come to the kitchen and pour themselves a drink. Some of my kiddos are quite adept at this skill already, others need assistance and lots of practice (hence the towel). Here's one of my expert pour-ers:

Our "pouring station"

Pretend Play

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 00:13:00 +0000

Children with autism often have difficulty pretending. They don't always use toys the way typical children do - give them a tea set and they may bang the cup on the table, spin the plate, etc. rather than pretend to pour or drink tea. They don't intuitively associate the toy pieces with real-life situations or they don't know what to do with the toys. One thing that we work on in my classroom is learning *how* to play appropriately. Here is one way I address that - by providing visual prompts of what to do with the toys!

Initially a paraprofessional, peer buddy, or myself will work with the student - pointing out different things that the child can do with the toy as well as modeling, prompting and reinforcing appropriate play. In addition to practicing "pretending", there are tons of opportunities for working on communication - expressive and receptive - while playing. We work on identifying items or following directions that involve discrimination using these toys and visuals (tell the student to "brush the dog" - they have to locate the brush, locate the dog, and perform the action). We point to a picture and ask "What can you do?" and they have to describe the picture (i.e. wash dishes). We use the knife to pretend to cut food and ask "What am I doing?" and the student tells us "cutting". Or we put the hat on the baby and ask the student to "show me what I'm doing" and they point to the correct picture on the visual. When the student becomes more proficient at playing, they play independently or with other students and the visuals serve as reminders for them.

How do I determine what to include on the visual prompt? The best way I've found is to watch typical kids playing with a similar toy and note what kinds of things they do!

Some of these particular visuals were made with photos found on the internet, others use boardmaker symbols - you could take photos of yourself or someone else playing with the actual toy pieces you have, use drawings, or whatever works for your students!

I store the visual in the tub with the toys so that it's always available at playtime!

Camp Mays

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 15:15:00 +0000

I know that times are tough for everyone right now financially but if you have a few dollars to spare, Camp Mays could use the help!!
I would love it if readers could share this on their own blogs, facebook, twitter, etc.

Raise Money Online

As most of my readers realize, parents of students with severe autism face several challenges once school is out for the summer. Our county's extended school year only lasts three weeks which leaves almost two months where my students are at home. While summer break is, for most kids and families, full of opportunities and fun, that's not the case a lot of the time with my students. It is often difficult if not impossible for parents to find a babysitter or child care provider who is qualified and willing to care for some of my students so they have almost two months with no break at all from caring for their child - a child who requires constant active supervision. Additionally, my students' parents spend so much time, money and energy just providing everyday care for their kids that they often have little time, money or energy left over to do "fun" things.
In an effort to provide some respite for my students’ parents and provide some opportunities for "typical" summer fun experiences for my students over the summer months, a few years ago I began taking my students on day trips to places like White Water, Children's Museums, parks, etc. What has evolved has been dubbed “Camp Mays”. Last summer, I rented a van each week and took my students (along with several of my friends, family and coworkers who volunteered to help) to a movie, Jungle Jumpers, Stone Mountain, the Georgia Aquarium, and swimming. Some of my students' families may not have otherwise been able to provide these opportunities for their child. In the past I have funded “Camp Mays” almost solely from my own pocket – purchasing the admission tickets, renting the van, buying the gas, and buying lunch for each child and volunteer. Families do not have to pay anything at all for their child to be able to participate in Camp Mays. In each of the past two years I have spent over $3000 of my own money on Camp Mays. This year my husband is out of work so I am scaling down the activities and doing more free things (like swimming at a friend’s pool, going to the playground and park). I feel that these opportunities provide such a great service to my students and their families – mainly giving the parents a small break from the extreme demands that a child with severe autism present almost constantly and providing opportunities for my students to participate in fun activities just like other children. So even though I really can't afford it, I still want to go forward with Camp Mays this summer and am trying to find ways to do so.

100% of all money donated will go to van rental, gas, admission tickets, lunch and snacks for Camp Mays adventures.

If you would like to see some pictures of my students and our adventures, I invite you to visit our class blog at http://mrsmays.edublogs.org

Specific entries about Camp Mays can be found at the following addresses:

http://mrsmays.edublogs.org/2010/07/15/camp-mays/

http://mrsmays.edublogs.org/2010/07/18/stone-mountain/

http://mrsmays.edublogs.org/2010/07/24/final-camp-mays-adventure/

CBI resources

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Sat, 28 May 2011 21:01:00 +0000

In my school district, elementary schools are typically allotted four CBI (Community based instruction) trips each school year. Many teachers take one each grading period but I usually choose to take all four toward the end of the year. I know that if I only do something once every few months, I forget a lot between times - but if I do it several times consecutively it gets ingrained in my brain a little better, so I think that taking all four trips close together increases the likelihood of generalization for my students.

This means that I spend a lot of time during the year teaching community skills without actually going into the community. I generally focus on these areas:

community signs - recognizing and identifying them and what they mean
community places - recognizing and identifying them and understanding what we do and see in different places
community helpers - recognizing and identifying them and understanding what they do
practicing skills like addressing/stamping mail, ordering from a menu, shopping from a list, paying for things

In this blog post I will share some of my favorite resources for the first three categories mentioned above. I'm working on a follow up post to address the last one :-)

Most of the resources mentioned here are store-bought but community instruction materials are pretty easy to DIY - take a walk through your community and take your own pictures of buildings, people, etc. A child with autism is much more likely to recognize an actual picture of the post office in their own town than they are a generic "post office" photo or drawing! Search online using flickr or google images (make sure you look for pictures licensed under a creative commons license so you aren't stealing copyrighted work!) to find pictures. Use those pictures to make flashcards, worksheets, etc.

You can also take your own pictures for social stories or your own video for video modeling - just make sure you get permission from the store/doctor/post office/whatever before you do so. Usually when you explain that you are making a video or picture-story for a child/children with a disability to learn about shopping/visiting the doctor/going to the post office/whatever, people are more than happy to cooperate and allow you to photograph/video. Some places, though, have to get permission from corporate offices before allowing any photography or video to be taken - so call ahead!

Signs
I have, use and love PCI's Survival Signs program (software, flashcards, large signs, bingo games, reproducible worksheets and board game - they are all awesome). The worksheets have students match the picture parts of the sign to the words on the sign, which works on word recognition and plays to the visual strengths of kids with autism. I love, though, that the curriculum focuses not just on recognizing the word/picture but also on things like where you see the signs, what to do when you see them, and comprehension of what the sign *means* and not just what is *says*

I also like the Conover Company's iPod/iPad app, Community Signs and Words for many of the same reasons - the videos explain what the signs say, mean and what to do when you see them. Conover Company has several apps as well as comuputer software programs that I covet ... for example: Clothing Store Signs and Words, Emergency Signs and Words, Grocery Signs and Words, Information Signs and Words, Pharmacy Signs and Words, Public Transportation Signs and Words, Restaurant Signs and Words, Safety Signs and Words, School Signs and Words, Shopping Signs and Words, Survival Signs and Words and Words that Direct ... and one day when I win the lottery I will surely purchase them all!

Attainment has a set of Survival Sign Software that includes Basic Signs, Safety Signs and Community Signs. It uses video to teach, has quizzes where the student had to choose the correct sign and (my students' favorite part) they get to put signs in photos of real-life scenes. The software also comes with printable activities.

Remedia Publications has flashcards, a workbook and a video - I have, use and love the flashcards and workbook, just discovered the video while writing this post - it is now on my wishlist!!

Here is a survival sign activity from Speaking of Speech

Trend has a great bulletin board set of Safety Signs and Symbols, a learning chart, and

Here is an activity I found on Boardmaker Share: Survival Signs in my Community (*requires Boardmaker Studio)

Community Places
I absolutely love the stories in the Life Skills Readers by Attainment - they have photographs and simple social-story type text describing common places and things we do there. There's also a section on signs. One of my favorite things about the Attainment stuff is that the book comes with a CD of the entire book in PDF format - which allows me to print each student or group a color copy of the pages. I do not have the software that goes with this series (again, just discovered it while getting the link for this blog entry) but it looks like it would be great for the interactive whiteboard - add another thing to my wishlist!

Also from Attainment is Community Success which has illustrated social skills, "OK" and "Not OK" examples, and step-by-step pictures that I use to make my own social stories, checklists, shopping lists, visual prompts, and more. For example, there is a little picture of each department in a grocery or department store, pictures for all of the steps involved in community outings (find items on your list, place items on counter, give cashier money, wait for change, say thank you, etc.). There are a few assessment pages in the back of the book as well.

Another one from Attainment is the Stepping Out curriculum. My favorite thing about this is that is came with prompting/cuing materials like a money-counting guide, ID cards, picture prompt cards, etc. It also has worksheets that would be super fantastic for older and/or higher functioning students than mine - but they do provide a great framework and starting point for making similar activities for my students.

Model Me Kids has a great video modeling iPod /iPad app (and DVD as well) - Going Places

One of our class favorites, Mr. John from Special Kids, has a great video called "Let's Go To" - I highly recommend ALL of the Special Kids videos. They are great for video modeling, vocabulary, and spelling.

PCI has- Community Places Bingo is another great way to practice idenitfying places in the community as well as the services provided by each place. (They also have Community Helpers Bingo)

Community Helpers
Stages (Language Builder) flashcards are one of my staples - and their Occupations flashcards are a MUST. There are two flashcards (a male and female) for each of over 50 careers - and they are actual photographs. Stages also has a theme kit which includes the occupation flashcards, posters, BINGO and memory matching game cards.

Trend's Community Helper bulletin board set also includes photograph-type pictures of real people - and they have flashcards and border to match.

Attainment's Members of the Community has some great pictures of different people who work in the community as well, with activities and worksheets to go along.

I love the DK book Jobs People Do because it has pictures of children dressed up for each career and my kids like looking at the pictures.

People and Places
Most of my favorite materials are the ones that tie together the people and places. I usually bring these out after the student is able to identify/label the people and the places separately - then we start tying it all together by talking about where people work, what tools they use, things we see at the different places, etc.

There is an awesome pocket chart set from Learning Resources that has transportation, tools, people, buildings and street signs that students can sort.

Lakeshore has a Community & Careers Theme Box with lots of cool stuff in it - bingo type boards of things we see at different places, little buildings and cards to sort what we see where (my favorite part), maps and more.
One of my favorite resources from Lakeshore is now discontinued - Let's Talk About Social Studies discussion cards include a set on community helpers/tools/places. If you ever see them at a yard sale or anything, I'd recommend grabbing them!

These flashcards have pictures of people, things, and places in the community on one side and "WH" questions on the other side - they are great once a student can label the people/places/things in the community!

And last but CERTAINLY not least, Karen Cox has a plethora of activities and resources on her website!

What are some of your favorite resources for teaching students about the community?

MIA

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 14:57:00 +0000

I want to apologize for neglecting my blog!

Here are the reasons/explanation :-) (not excuses): 10 annual reviews in January and February, 8 alternate assessment portfolios due in March, and I take my comprehensive exams for my PhD on Monday and Wednesday.

I will be back very soon with new posts!!

T-Stool

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 19:23:00 +0000

I have a student who is constantly "crouching" in his chair with both feet in the seat. He also frequently slams his body against the back of the chair with great force and likes to sit with his chair tipped back with the front legs off of the floor. This may not be a problem sometimes but this particular student is unable to focus on anything while he wiggles and rocks in his chair, he gets so caught up in his movement that he zones out of everything else. I wanted to try a T-stool with him because it would force him to keep his feet on the floor to balance, allow him to wiggle a little bit, and since it doesn't have a back it would stop his body-slamming.

My daddy, master classroom carpenter, came to the rescue once again :-) He built this T-stool for one of my students using the top/seat from a broken bar stool. He made the base (the "leg") wider than a typical T-stool but so far it works very well for my student.

Toothpaste

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 01:15:00 +0000

Sometimes I have a stroke of brilliance that may not seem as exciting and brilliant to your average person. And I often find myself doing things that most people never do. But sometimes there are at least a few other people who do those things and that stroke of brilliance may help them out. And at the risk of making the majority of the world wonder if I've completely lost my mind, I decide to share that idea in the hopes that it will help someone out. This is one of those things. You may think I'm totally nuts, or you may find this to be helpful (or you may think "I've been doing that for years, what's the big deal?")

Students with more severe forms of Autism Spectrum Disorders often need to work on functional, daily-living skills at school. One such skill - brushing teeth - is, I'm sure, practiced in many classrooms. The fact that my students work on brushing teeth isn't the weird part. :-)

I found that many of my students (and probably lots of typical kids, too!) squeeze WAY too much toothpaste on their toothbrush. And toothpaste (if you've ever had tablespoons of it smeared on the bathroom counter you already know this) is incredibly difficult to clean up! So I set out to find a way to keep my kids from making giant sticky blue messes while wasting several dollars worth of toothpaste each week - that would still allow them to develop independence in brushing their teeth. My first thought was - Mentadent! It comes in a pump that only dispenses a small amount per pump - pumping is more difficult than squeezing and makes it easier to control. However, I can't find it ANYWHERE except online and can't find a "kid's" version and I doubt my finicky kids would like it ... so back to the drawing board.

I decided to try travel-size containers of toothpaste - at least then they can only squeeze out so much, which limits the amount they can waste. As they used the travel-size containers, I noticed that as they got closer to emptying the tube, the amount of toothpaste they used was becoming more appropriately sized.

1. Travel-sized toothpaste tubes are expensive, when you consider how much you get in them
2. My students were more successful with almost-empty tubes

So ... I decided to buy large tubes of toothpaste and refill the small tubes - but not refill them completely! For months now I've been making my OWN giant blue sticky mess while I try to refill the small tubes ... and I was wasting quite a bit of toothpaste myself. (Here's where the weird part begins) I woke up in the middle of the night with a flash of genius. Use a syringe!! So this morning I refilled toothpaste containers without making a mess!! And it was SO easy!! So I thought - maybe someone else out there is trying to figure out how to refill travel-size containers of toothpaste in their classroom, too. And this blog post was born. :-)

So here's how brushing teeth goes in my classroom. Students are eating lunch at the kitchen table. One parapro is sitting with them at the table. One adult (myself or a parapro, depending on the day) calls students one at a time as they finish eating to wash their plate and cup. After they do their dishes, the student comes to another adult (me or a para, whoever isn't doing dishes) in the bathroom to brush their teeth. Then they go to the table in the classroom for free-play time. (The para at the kitchen table moves to the classroom table when there are more kids out there than in the kitchen - in the meantime whoever is doing dishes and whoever is in the bathroom can see the kids at the classroom table)

I have this toothbrush caddy that I got from Lakeshore, each child has a toothbrush with a cap labeled with their name. They also have their own tube of toothpaste (that way, when they lick the toothpaste straight out of the tube before I can stop them ... I don't have to throw the whole thing away!) with their initial on the cap of the toothpaste. I put little 3 oz cups along the bottom of the toothpaste caddy, put the toothpaste in the cup under each kid's toothpaste. There is also a little basket of bathcloths on the counter.

Some students come in and get their own toothbrush/toothpaste/cup/cloth, for others I lay out their things by the sink. Some fix their own toothbrushes, others get some help. Some brush independently, others get assistance, etc. After they finish, they throw their cup away and put their cloth in the laundry basket. Some get their own new cup and put their toothbrush/toothpaste/cup away - others give their toothbrush/paste to me (or a para) and we get a new cup and put it all in the caddy.

Another side-note: the toothbrushes I use (and LOVE) are FireFly toothbrushes - you squeeze the bottom and a light in the handle of the toothbrush begins to blink. It blinks for 60 seconds - visually letting my kids know how long they need to brush!

ABLLS-R Resources

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:37:00 +0000

The main assessment tool that I use in my classroom is the ABLLS-R, which is an "Assessment, Curriculum Guide and Skills-Tracking System for children with language delays ... based on the science of Applied Behavior Analysis with Skinner's theory of Verbal Behavior along with research by Dr. Partington and includes 25 repertoire areas covering 544 skills." (from Behavior Analysts Inc product description)

In this post, I'm not going to get into an explanation of the assessment or how to administer it (though here is an awesome presentation that does just that), I mainly want to share some of the resources I've found very helpful in using the ABLLS-R, both as a curriculum guide and as an assessment. Even if you do not use the ABLLS-R in your classroom, the resources here will undoubtedly help you in teaching students with ASD. I am, however going to share two points that I think are the biggest selling point for classroom teachers:

While at first glance, the ABLLS-R seems like quite a daunting task to undertake, in the long run it makes life SO much easier in SO many ways!! When working with students who have disabilities, especially autism, we often have difficulty understanding why they can't get to that "next step". We know that students with disabilities often need extra steps between the steps that make up typical developmental progress, but it isn't always obvious what those bridging steps may be. The ABLLS-R breaks down practically every skill that you can think of into smaller steps and makes it easier to see where that "disconnect" is between what the child can already do and what the next "typical step" is. Then we can teach those in-between steps and help the student get to the next big step. It practically writes your present levels or performance as well as IEP goals/objectives which are specific, measurable, attainable, and are directly related to the PLP!

One of my very favorite parts of the ABLLS-R is that it visually shows the progress that a student has made from year to year on the tracking form in the front of the book. This is very helpful in IEP meetings, to show parents "Everything you see in blue here is something Johnny was not able to do last year but can now do". This gives the parents (and other IEP team members) a very clear overview of the progress a student has made across all domains.

Like I said, the ABLLS-R can be quite intimidating when you first begin to look into using it - the mind reels when you begin thinking of the data sheets to build, materials to gather, etc. But there's no need to reinvent the wheel!! Here are some resources that will save you time and sanity (though some are free or inexpensive, others are a bit costly but, in my opinion, well worth the money!)

the actual Assessment Manual and Protocol itself can be purchased from several companies, including:
Behavior Analysts (which also offers the WebABLLS which is awesome)
Different Roads to Learning
Western Psychological Services

Data sheets/Tracking:
Autism Concepts has a set of 391 data sheets for the collection of data during lessons that include the objective, mastery definition, response, and the individual skills to meet the objective - available digitally (PDF) or in print
Tracking Sheets has data collection forms for ABLLS and ABLLS-R objectives as well as other resources
Jan Palmer has downloadable tracking graphs in MS excel format
While not specific to the ABLLS-R, many of the data sheets in Sandbox Learning's monitoring materials apply to skills assessed on the ABLLS-R

Flashcards/Materials:
Different Roads to Learning sells a kit with all of the materials needed to complete the ABLLS-R - the kit comes either with or without the assessment manual and protocol. They also have most of the materials in the kit available for purchase outside of the kit - because many classrooms will already have materials for several of the sections.
VB Teaching Tools also sells a kit as well as separate materials.
Autism Concepts has a series of 1003 flash cards with all the photographs and letter/word flash cards required to teach to the ABLLS-R criterion, each labeled with its respective ABLLS-R Objective and numbered for easy retrieval and filing. Comes with a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet indexed to objective, picture number, picture description, and category
Stimulus Publications sells the "Autism Skill Acquisition Program" which contains all of the materials needed to conduct the ABLLS-R
Palmetto PEARL offers on-demand printable flashcards that correlate with the ABLLS-R

Other resources:
Autism Concepts has a set of 392 color coordinated and indexed ABLLS-R Skill Cards to aid instructors in teaching the ABLLS-R skills.
Navigation Behavioral Consulting has several posts about "Understanding the ABLLS-R"
Verbal Behavior - a wiki with tons of helpful stuff, including ABLLS-R tracking grids
Mariposa School offers the Pocket ABLLS for sale

Watch Me Learn videos have kids modeling the skills addressed in the ABLLS-R

What are some of your favorite resources for using the ABLLS-R in your classroom?

Brain Pop

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 20:59:00 +0000

When teaching students with autism, we often struggle to find ways to make the things they "have to learn" (i.e. standards) fun and meaningful to them and how to teach them in a way that interests the students. Brain Pop and Brain Pop Jr. make that SO much easier!!

In my classroom, we watch more than one Brain Pop and/or Brain Pop Jr video most days. There is a video for practically every topic you can think of - and you can search State Standards to find a video that corresponds to whatever you are teaching. The videos on Brain Pop have links to related videos, games/activities, quizes (GREAT for interactive whiteboards) and "More information" (printable information covered in the video) and Brain Pop Jr has "Info for grownups" with ideas and printables for extending the lesson.

My students love Moby (a robot! how autism-friendly is that?) and of course they'd rather watch something on the computer than listen to me talk about it. Check out the free videos and the load of good info on their site -like the Brain Pop for Educators blog and the Grown Up Guide for Brain Pop Jr.

Video Modeling

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:51:00 +0000

Video modeling is an effective way to teach many students with autism. When a child will attend to a video (on the television or computer) better than to another person in real life (which is often the case with students who have autism) video modeling is more likely to be successful than in vivo modeling. Additionally, videos allow the student to re-watch certain steps repeatedly, and it frees up the teacher to interact with the child and prompt them (which is difficult to do while simultaneously modeling a behavior!).

Video modeling is especially helpful for those activities or behaviors that you can't model in class (bathing comes to mind) as well as those that are logistically difficult to model frequently (grocery shopping, eating at a restaurant).

One more benefit that I'd like to mention is that video modeling can allow parents, teachers and other therapists to collaborate and use the same method, terminology, etc. when working with a student - we know that students with autism tend to be very literal and have trouble generalizing - if everyone is on the same page, the student can learn the initial skill more quickly and THEN we can work on generalization systematically. Otherwise - if the parents are teaching a student how to do something (let's say put on a jacket), the teacher is teaching another way, and the OT is working on a different way, the child is less likely to learn the skill because they aren't getting consistent practice. And let's face it, trying to write out exactly what you're doing so that another person can try to replicate your instruction is tedious and maybe even impossible. If you use a video and everyone is working from the same video, all teachers/therapists/parents/etc. are doing the same thing with the child and the child will be more likely to experience success!

Video modeling can be used to teach (or review) many types of skills - academic, social, self-help, community, play and more.

I am a huge fan of the "Special Kids" videos - my students love "Mr. John" and they have learned a lot from his videos.
Other places you can find video modeling videos:

YouTube I searched autism + "video modeling"
Model Me Kids
Social Skill Builder
Watch Me Learn (*now has an iPhone app!)

It's also very easy to make your own videos modeling things using the exact wording and steps that you want to include. (Perhaps you are working with a lower functioning student and you need each step broken down and described more than in the video you found - or you have a student who can do most of the steps independently and you only need certain steps described and broken down).

Here are two videos I made modeling the steps to washing hands and brushing teeth.

(I want to point out that when you make your own videos, you should do what I didn't do and make sure you have everything set up beforehand - we did this after school and we had already cleaned up the bathroom for the custodians to mop - so the trash can and laundry basket weren't under the counter for the toothbrushing video)

Additional resources:
Here is a video from a conference about video modeling and
Here is a book about video modeling.

Christmas CBI

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 01:24:00 +0000

As I've mentioned before, along with addressing general education academic standards, we spend a lot of time working on functional life skills - these include community skills (CBI stands for Community Based Instruction - which is instruction that takes place *in* the community, but we also learn about the community from inside our classroom before venturing out - particularly learning to identify different places in the community and community helpers or occupations), survival skills (like being able to answer personal information questions to tell someone your name or your parents name in case you get lost), communication skills, social skills, etc. Here's an idea for a unit that encompasses a TON of skills and gets everyone in the Christmas spirit. We spent the last two weeks of school doing this this year. The unit revolves around Christmas cards (or holiday cards in general) - this is also a good unit to use around Valentines Day with Valentines cards.
We made photo cards this year - so it all began with the photo sessions - sitting, following directions, imitating facial expressions (we made some silly face photos, too), looking when name is called, imitating words (cheeeeeeeese), waiting your turn. I took each kid's picture in front of the tree in the front office lobby.
After the photo cards were developed, we worked on things like identifying photos of self and labeling classmates photos.

Whatever kind of card you use, signing the card allows for handwriting practice (tracing/writing own name and/or copying from a model). You can also have the students draw pictures or write/copy messages inside the card.

Next comes dictating or writing personal information (parents' names, address) to address the envelope. For higher functioning kids you can get into the difference between the mailing and return address. I use printed labels for the return address - the students have to find the ones with their name on it (identifying own name in print) then I point out the school address and have them tell me what school they go to and who their teacher is (more personal info questions). We also look at the addresses and identify letters and numbers.

Next we talk about where the stamps go on the envelope - we talk about top/bottom and right/left and learn to identify "corner". We use a highlighter to place a dot in the top right corner of the envelopes where the stamps will go. (This year we actually put most of the stamps on before we went to the post office because we were mailing tons of cards - we sent them to our principal, asst principal, former parapros, former student teacher, and many other friends of our class).

After we've finished all of the writing on the envelope, it's time to stuff the cards inside - 1:1 correspondence, fine motor, and pre-vocational skills as well.

There are tons of additional activities you can do with this - talk about shapes (envelopes are rectangle and the little flap is a triangle), use different colored envelopes and sort them by color, talk about mail and how it gets from one place to another, discuss postal workers and post offices, and lots more. We spent over a week on all of this and could easily have spent more.

Now we get to the actual CBI trip. Off to the post office we go! Using either visual cues, a communication board or book or an AAC device, students purchase stamps from the postal worker cashier (working on communication, counting money, waiting for change). Then they place the stamps on the envelopes (fine motor and visual motor to match the stamp to the dot they drew there before). Finally we get to put the cards in the mail slots or mailbox to send them out. Many post offices will give the students a tour and explain to them how the mail gets from the slot onto the truck and then to their house. And the best part is when the parents recieve the cards in the mail!

Visit my class blog to see more photos of our CBI trip when we mailed our Christmas cards.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas (or Happy Hanukkah or a wonderful winter break in general)!! Fellow teachers - how do you celebrate the holidays in your classroom?

A little bragging

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 01:51:00 +0000

This is a cross-post from my personal blog because I'm so very proud of my students :-)

performance2-148, originally uploaded by MNicoleM.

This year Kennedy Elementary School's Special Education department put on our second annual performance of "A Yes I Can Holiday Program". Our special education students sang, signed, danced and played instruments and put on a fantastic show with the help of our "Special Friends" (peer buddies). It's such a fantastic show and I'm so proud of my kiddos :-)
We performed twice at school on Thursday, once form kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade then for 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. Thursday night we performed for parents and on Friday we went to the PDC (our county's central office) and performed for the superintendent, special ed director, and other county employees. That's FOUR performances in 24 hours, which was exhausting - but so worth it :-)

Here's a slideshow of photos from rehearsals and one of the Thursday morning performances. To see video of the other Thursday morning performance and of the performance at the PDC, visit my class blog.

Adapting a worksheet - an example

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:57:00 +0000

Here is an example of how I adapted a worksheet about Squanto. The worksheet is from a 1st grade Social Studies workbook, the skill addressed is using a table to find information to answer questions.

This first adaptation is for a student who is working on matching colors. I have placed re-positionable labels that I have color coded with highlighters over the chart and used the highlighters to mark matching colors in the answer blanks. The student removes the label and matches the color to place the answer on the worksheet.

This one is similar but doesn't have the highlighted squares on the answer sheet. The color cue tells the student where in the chart to look, and they remove the label and place it in the answer blank.

This last example is the least modified - the color cues show the student where to look on the chart but the student still has to copy the answer into the blank. You'll notice I only highlighted the key words to help the student focus on that - teaching them to look for those words to find the answers.

Childcraft Lotto games

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:49:00 +0000

As I was looking through catalogs last year, I came across Childcraft's LOTTO games (click on the Childcraft catalog, then search for LOTTO) and I love them!!

Each grade level (PreK-K, 1st grade and 2nd grade) has lotto games for Science, Social Studies, Literacy and Math - and each set has 4 lotto boards. Each set is $39.99.

All told, there are 48 total boards if you purchase them all, and they all address grade level standards. And they can be used to play concentration-type memory games, BINGO or match the pictures to the board to play LOTTO. I typically use them as LOTTO games because several of my students are working on matching pictures.

Some of the topics covered include ...

Math - number recognition, multiplication, symmetry, geometric shapes

Literacy - plurals, letter sounds, consonant blends, adjectives

Social Studies - goods and services, map symbols, community signs, colonial days

Science - solids/liquids/gases, simple machines, seasons, habitats

Some of the pictures are identical to those on the boards, some are not (for example, in the colonial days game, the pictures on the board are of "present" and the pictures for matching are of "past", and you match a picture of how people did things in colonial days to how we do them today).

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I *love* these! They provide an activity that my students can successfully engage in while introducing them to the concepts covered by the standards. I find the social studies and science ones to be the most useful, as it's harder for me to adapt those standards than the language arts and math ones.

Here are pictures of the "inventions" board and how I use it with my class.

I put all of the loose pictures in a basket or box, shake it up, and have one student pick a card - then I look at it with them and say "This is what a bicycle looked like when it was invented in 1870 - can you show me what a bicycle looks like today?" then they find the bicycle on their board and match the picture.

What are some of your favorite materials for accessing or adapting the general education standards/curriculum?

Materials for accessing general education standards

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 01:11:00 +0000

I listed some of my favorite materials for accessing standards in a previous post, here are some others that I love from Mayer-Johnson (the company that makes Boardmaker). They have several books that are great at tying literacy, math and science/social studies together very neatly. I have (and frequently use) all of the following and highly recommend them:

All About Animals - WONDERFUL resource, including counting activities, spelling, sentence writing, and patterning activities (and more) all focusing on animals. There are activities to sort animals according to how they move or where they live. The best part is that there are four levels of EACH activity - Let's use, for example, the sorting activity I mentioned. The lowest level has pictures already on the chart (sorting by two) and the student simply matches the pictures. The next level has small pictures at the top of the chart as a cue to where each picture goes. The third level has words at the top of the chart and the hardest level doesn't have any cues.

Hands-on Reading - Another great resource. Each volume is associated with several popular and readily-available picture books organized into units based on common classroom themes. For each book there are multiple communication boards and several activities (cooking activities, songs, cut/paste, take-home books) and comprehension questions with picture choices.

Simple Symbol Stories has stories for long and short vowels. Each story is written with Boardmaker symbols along with the text. There are comprehension questions for each story.

Math Exercises for Nonreaders and Step Up to Math both have excellent math activities using boardmaker symbols. Math Exercises has lots of activities for identifying "more", counting pictures, connect-the-dots to practicing numerical order, and math problems based on grocery shopping. Step Up to Math includes sequencing and patterning activities, number recognition, counting and identifying same and different.

Curriculum Experiences - I use the primary and elementary levels, there is also a high school level available. These include original stories (using Boardmaker symbols) addressing different science or social studies topics (see an example of a Thanksgiving story at my class blog). Following each story are math and literacy activities. These are *great* ways to focus on (mostly social studies) topics that the general education classes are studying at a level that my students can understand and actively participate. (They do address a couple of science topics like grooming and forest animals - but for science I prefer ...

Step by Step Science, which has lots of very simple science experiments that my kids find fascinating (like "How do you make mud?"). Each experiment includes pictures of the materials you need, a page for making a hypothesis (they call it a guess), instructions for the experiment and charts for the results. There are also games, songs, and other activities as well.

Health Units for nonreaders is another science resource for health units. There are stories (written with Boardmaker symbols along with text) about different topics followed by questions (also with symbols) about the story (with picture choices for the answers).

Stories About Me is a good resource for addressing writing standards. The stories are written with picture symbols and the student fills in the blanks to write stories about activities and events relevant to their life (for example, participating in Special Olympics or going on a field trip).

And finally, Boardmaker's Curriculum Companions. These are software programs that provide activities related to general education standards. I have only recently purchased two of these and haven't used them yet in class, but from my initial experience previewing the activities it looks very promising! There are reading and writing activities that can be adapted for all levels. The software tracks student progress and the teacher can print progress reports, which is always great!

As a final word, just to reiterate - I love these resources (and many others from Mayer-Johnson) because they are created specifically for students with communication disorders and lower cognitive skills. They focus on the "big idea" of the general education standards using activities that my kids can do and actually *get* something out of. I don't have to do much adapting or modifying (like I do with most other activities) because it's already done!

Accessing and Adapting curriculum

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:54:00 +0000

In my last post, I addressed the fact that, in the U.S. at least, we are required to teach the general education curriculum to all students - even those with significant cognitive delays. I happen to teach in Georgia, so I will use Georgia standards but they are similar from state to state.

From www.georgiastandards.org regarding students with significant cognitive impairments:

The new Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) are Georgia’s curriculum standards for all students in Kindergarten through 12th grade in the areas of English/Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and No Child Left Behind (NCLB) require access to appropriate grade-level educational standards developed by the state be provided for students with significant cognitive impairments.
Access to the GPS can be in the form of objectives in the Individual Education Program (IEP) aligned (matched) with standards in the GPS or in the form of grade-level activities in which the student will practice and use skills and knowledge. Students will be assessed on using these skills as part of their educational program through the Georgia Alternative Assessment (GAA), when required.
Providing access to grade-level GPS will be different for each student, based upon individual strengths and needs. Teachers may utilize different types of instructional materials to teach academic content (including pictures, symbols, tactile objects, adapted books, and assistive technology), and students may show understanding using different methods (including using Augmentative/Alternative Communication (AAC) devices to answer questions, matching symbols or tactile objects, using switches to make choices). Other skills important to the student, such as adapted behavior, self-help, communication and motor, will continue to be a part of each student’s IEP and instructional day.

So, how do I go about planning essons that allow my students to access the general eucation curriculum?

The first thing I do is go through all of the standards for each grade level and choose the ones that I think are most relevant to my students. Then, because I have students in every grade, I look across grade levels and see how I can use one or two activities or lessons to address different standards. (For example, 4th graders learn about simple machines - including inclined planes, 2nd graders learn about motion - including rolling objects down inclines of different angles to see how the speed changes, kindergarteners learn about describing the motion of objects - I can address all of these with one "unit" of lessons/activities.)

Once I've decided which standards to focus on, I look at each grade level's curriculum maps so I can try to coordinate and work on topics at the same time as the general education classes as much as possible. This way if a grade level plans a special speaker, field trip, project, etc. my students can be included and it will me more meaninfgul to them (as they are learning about the topic at that time).

The Georgia Standards Resource Guide instructs teachers to identify the "Big idea" of the standard, determine what all students are expected to learn and then plan activities to help students understand that big idea. From here, I'll show you an example. Here's a kindergarten, 2nd and 4th grade standard - I've italicized the portion I will address with my students

Kindergarten: SKP2. Students will investigate different types of motion.
a. Sort objects into categories according to their motion. (straight, zigzag, round and round, back and forth, fast and slow, and motionless)
b. Push, pull, and roll common objects and describe their motions.

Second grade: S2P3. Students will demonstrate changes in speed and direction using pushes and pulls.
a. Demonstrate how pushing and pulling an object affects the motion of the object.
b. Demonstrate the effects of changes of speed on an object.

Fourth grade: S4P3. Students will demonstrate the relationship between the application of a force and the resulting change in position and motion on an object.
a. Identify simple machines and explain their uses (lever, pulley, wedge, inclined plane, screw, wheel and axle).
b. Using different size objects, observe how force affects speed and motion.
c. Explain what happens to the speed or direction of an object when a greater force than the initial one is applied.
d. Demonstrate the effect of gravitational force on the motion of an object.

I print out boardmaker pictures of important vocabulary (push, pull, fast, slow, lever, pulley, wedge, inclined plane, screw, wheel and axle). I also print pictures of examples of simple machines and of things that move back/forth, round and round, and straight.
I also use boardmaker pictures to write a very simple explanation of the ideas (i.e. if you push a toy car hard, it will go fast ... if you push a toy car soft, it will go slow) to make a book for the unit. On the first couple of days, we read the book together as a class and I show concrete examples of the concepts. (i.e. I push a toy car hard and soft - then I let the students do the same). I find different ways to illustrate the concepts and use the same terminology and simple explanations repetetively. We play matching games with the vocabulary pictures (most of my students have IEP goals of matching pictures), practice with flashcards (which one of these is a pulley?), sorting (fast and slow animals - using color cues for some students - fast animals are on red cards, slow ones on blue cards, then they sort by color and we then go through the animals and tell them the jaguar is fast, etc.). We count, add, make patterns and graphs with pulleys, levers, wedges, etc. in math. We color, cut out, etc pictures of things that move back and forth, things that go round and round, etc. to work on fine motor skills. We trace, copy or write sentences ("A turtle is slow.", "This is a wedge.") to describe pictures.
Here are some examples of activities we did in my class to wrap up our unit focusing on these standards:

We made our own simple machines.
We found examples of different simple machines around our school.

The fourth graders built complex machines and presented them to us, pointing out the simple machines that made them up.

This activity was fun to do on the interactive whiteboard.
We found examples of machines here and here.
We pulled each other on scooters to illustrate fast and slow.

Accessing General Education Standards

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:51:00 +0000

A big issue in special education currently is for students with significant cognitive impairments to have access to the same curriculum as general education students. There are many pros and cons to the issue I will list a few of my opinions, simply because I'm an opinionated person :-) In subsequent posts, I hope to give you some ideas on *how* I access general education standards and still try to make it meaningful for my students.
But I figured I'd get the opinionated part out of the way first ...

Pros

I spend a lot of time and energy trying to educate typical peers about my students and one of the things I try to make clear is that my students can do many of the same things that they can, just in a different way. Having my students learn about the same topics as their typical peers gives them an opportunity to illustrate that academically.
Many of the general education standards (especially the "Listening, speaking, viewing" ones) are extremely similar to the IEP goals that my students are already working on, so obviously I think those are applicable and relevant.
Many of the science standards are very reinforcing to students with autism, which makes them easy and fun to work on. This past week, for example, we were working on simple machines and my students had a great time making pulleys and wheels and axles.
You never know a student's potential! I'm always amazed at what my students pick up on and retain. I have met and talked with adults with autism who were in special education classes for kids with severe intellectual disabilities and treated like they were stupid - but they tell me they understood things, just couldn't express it (until one day something "clicked") and these people now have PhDs. I'm doing my students a huge disservice if I just assume they don't understand anything and don't at least expose them to a variety of ideas and information.

Cons

There are only so many hours in a school day. How do I find time to teach my students about the Civil War, geometry, poetry AND still have time to work on things like eating with a fork, using the toilet, holding a pencil, learning how to play appropriately, sit in a group, etc. I mean look at the ABLLS-R (which is what I use as an assessment and curriculum guide for my students) - there are 481 items (not counting the 56 in the reading/math/writing sections) that focus on communication and functional skills - the skills deemed necessary to be ABLE to learn in a general education class. Your typical child has these skills by the time they enter kindergarten (or preschool!), so general education students don't have to work on them. However, they are skills you NEED to function in the "real world". How do I work on all of those skills PLUS fit in a whole other day's worth of instruction in academics - all in ONE day?
Seriously - is it more important to be able to ask for something you need or tell someone you're in pain, or to tell me what contributions some famous person in history gave to society? If you can't feed yourself, speak, play with a toy, or sit in a chair for 30 seconds - when is being able to explain how many planes and angles an octagon has going to come in handy?
I have students in kindergarten, first, second, third, fourth, and fifth grade in my class. Each of those grades has different standards. We're back to the 'only so many hours in a day' argument, just from a different angle.

OK - now that's out of the way, the fact is we have to do it whether we want to or not - it's the law.

Here are some links to sites with more information on aligning IEPs with standards and/or providing access to general standards:
K8 Access Center
Curriculum Access for Students with Low-Incidence Disabilities
from the Council for Exceptional Children

Some books that I have found helpful:
Accessing the General Curriculum
Teaching Literacy to Students with Significant Disabilities
Teaching Language Arts, Math, & Science to Students With Significant Cognitive Disabilities
Aligning IEPs to Academic Standards

And materials that I LOVE:
Exploring Science
Curriculum Companions
Millie, Trudy, Bailey, Sammy
Childcraft Lotto games (their website is down for maintenance right now, I'll add the link later - but I will probably have to make an entire blog post about these - they might be my favorite materials that I have in my classroom!)

I will be posting, soon, examples of standards and how I modify or adapt them for my students. I often try to tie in functional skills or find other ways to make them meaningful for my students and I will elaborate on how I do that.
In the meantime, please visit my class blog to see examples of my students accessing general education standards.

File folder activities

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:41:00 +0000

As I mentioned in my post with examples of task boxes, people with autism tend to be very visual thinkers. File folder activities, like task boxes, provide visual structure and allow repeated practice on skills and concepts. File folder activities take up much less space, so I prefer them for "flat" activities. For students who are at an object-level of recognition/communication (i.e. don't associate a photo or drawing of an object with that actual object), task boxes are probably more appropriate but for a student who recognizes and understands pictures - file folder tasks are great.

Online sources for file folder activities (some are free printable, some are to purchase):

http://www.filefolderfun.com/
http://www.myffgames.com/
http://www.filefolderheaven.com/
http://www.preschoolprintables.com/filefolder/filefolder.shtml

Other ideas to make your own:

Use flashcards

Cut out shapes

Cut out pictures from workbooks/worksheets

Little stickers for counting (for this particular one I used number stickers meant for mailbox numbers)

For this one I just wrote letters on index cards for students to practice spelling their name

This one uses library pockets to sort boardmaker pictures according to their short vowel sound

I write the skill addressed on the tab of the folder, clip the baggie with the pieces inside the folder, and store them in a plastic container.

Schedule

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:54:00 +0000

This is what my class schedule looks like this year.

7:15 – arrival, breakfast ...We have a "peer buddy" program at our school and each special education student has a 4th or 5th grade friend that helps them from the bus to their classroom and stays with them until 7:55am.
One para is out at the buses with the peer buddies in case anyone needs extra assistance :-)
I meet the students at the door, provide help if the peer buddies need it, and toilet the trip-trained students
One para is in our classroom kitchen and supervises breakfast (the buddies eat with my kiddos at our dining table).
When the students finish eating, their buddy brings them over to our group tables goes over yesterday's journal page with them to review what happened the day before, helps them put their page in their binder, assists them in "signing in" (writing their name on the board) then makes sure that the student gets their hygiene bag out of their cubby and combs/brushes their hair, helps them put on chapstick if needed, check and file nails, make sure their hands/face are clean, etc. (by this time the para from the buses is inside and assists with clipping nails if needed)

7:45 – Students put hygiene bags and watch the morning announcements on TV - peer buddies assist them in standing for the pledge, make sure they're paying attention, etc. (did you hear what he said is for lunch? I love pizza!) When the announcements are over (around 7:55) peer buddies go back to class and we take my students to the gym to run for 3 minutes (just to get in a tiny bit of aerobic exercise and some sensory input)

8:00-8:45 - group rotations (3 rotations of 15 minutes each)
one para takes 3 kids at a time to the sensory room - while there, she works on communication activities
one para reads library books with 3 students for 15 minutes
I work with the remaining 3 on various IEP goals

8:45 – Circle Time/Math (during math one of the paras changes the child who isn't toilet trained)
We first count to 100, then go over the calendar, make a "graph of the day" as a group (graph boys/girls, hair color, eye color, shirt color, sometimes I just pass out random pictures of things like animals, school supplies, shapes etc. and we graph that), then we use the Intellitools Math (Oshie Otter) program on the interactive whiteboard - each student gets two turns.
Then, depending on what we're studying, we will do another activity - weighing things, measuring things, counting money, etc.

9:30-10:15 –More rotations - 3 rotations of 15 minutes each
One para takes three students to the kitchen for snack (where they work on preparing their own snack and communication)
One para takes three at a time to the sensory room (where they work on communication)
I work with the remaining 3 at a time on various IEP goals.

10:15 – The students go to their independent work desks and complete their independent work schedule (currently 3 shoebox tasks, 3 file folder tasks, etc. for most of my students - some do worksheets, some do puzzles, etc.) and one of us toilets the trip-trained students

10:30 – Language Arts - We use the Intellitools Balanced Literacy program on the interactive whiteboard, supported with other "stuff"

11:00-11:10 - Recess

11:10 - Centers/Independent Leisure activities (I pull students one a time for IEP work as needed) - one of my paras changes student

11:30 – Science/Social Studies - we do different activities at the group tables, depending on the unit

12:20 – One para leaves for lunch break, the other passes out sensory toys and supervises while the students play at the group tables, I call students one a time to wash their hands in the bathroom then get their lunch in the kitchen

12:40 - Second para leaves for lunch, 12:50 - first para returns

As students finish their lunch, they scrape/dump their plate into trash, wash their plate and cup then return to kitchen table. When everyone is finished, students pass a wet/soapy dishcloth around and clean up their area of the table. One student takes the dishcloth, tablecloth and dish towel to the washing machine and starts the laundry.

12:50 – Students return to tables and play with sensory toys (para supervises) while I call them one at a time to brush teeth in the bathroom (while they're in there I change/toilet the ones who need it)

1:10 Second para returns from lunch, paras start lining up students who have finished brushing teeth for specials

1:15 – Specials (my paras and I all go with the students)
Monday – Computer Lab
Tuesday – Music
Wednesday – Adapted PE
Thursday – Media Center
Friday – Art

1:45 – Journals at the group table, pack up backpacks, toileting

2:10 – load buses

Five reasons why I love my job

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:34:00 +0000

We had our county's Special Olympics Athletics event (track and field events) this past Friday. After putting together a slideshow of photos, I started looking through photos from past events, which led to just generally looking through past photos. I started reflecting on how much I adore my job and thought I'd share some of my favorite memories. These aren't really tips for teaching kids with autism, but they are reflections on teaching kids with autism, and what makes teaching kids with autism such a rewarding experience!!

Here are the five memories that stand out in my mind when I think of why I love my job.

There is nothing like hearing a child's first words - I don't have kids of my own, but I imagine hearing your own child speak for the first time is an amazing experience. I do, however, know that the entire world stops moving when a child you've been working with for years who has never verbalized a word before speaks. One day, we were leaving art class and telling the art teacher "Bye". I had one student who was completely nonverbal (in the 4 years I'd had her in my class, she had never vocalized a sound), so we were encouraging her to sign/wave goodbye when she said "buh-bye". My parapros, the art teacher and I nearly fell down - the art teacher said "Bye!" and she said it again. That day, I walked her around the school and she said "bye" to almost everybody in the building LOL.

Sometimes I feel like I'm not making a difference ... that nothing I do is reaching a child. One little boy had been in my class for almost 3 years and I could *not* for the life of me find a way to keep him from hitting himself (hard) in the forehead. One day, he was frustrated - he made his fist and was about to hit himself but he stopped before his fist made contact and made the sound of a race car braking ("aeerrrrrrrrk"), looked at me and said "it's OK" and put his hand down. He went from hitting himself over 60 times per day to zero by the end of that year. I don't know if it was even anything I did, but something clicked and the callus on his forehead went away. I hate that part of my job involves having to witness children harming themselves (and others) but when I am able to help them stop (or at least be there to them stop, whether or not I help) it makes me want to work that much harder to help the next child.

One day I was struggling with a new student who was a little resistant to doing her work. Another student (who had been in my room for a few years) looked over and said "Don't fight it, student's name, Mrs. Mays always wins." Just knowing that at least one student realizes that a tantrum isn't going to get them out of doing their work makes it worth getting beat up a little while they're still learning that I'm stubborn. :-)

Kids with autism often have sensory "issues", and some of them really prefer not to wear clothes - especially if the clothes are scratchy or tight. One year we had a group that seemed like they were always trying to take off their clothes. My parapros and I were constantly saying "We can't be naked at school", "We have to wear our shirt at school", etc. Before the holiday program, we were in the media center getting ready. I took one student behind a bookshelf to put on his shirt for the program and he grabbed the shirt he was wearing and wouldn't let me take it off to change his shirt. He looked me right in the eyes and said "Mrs. Mays - we can't wear naked at school!". See? They do listen to me sometimes!

This last one is just a funny memory that has nothing to do with me teaching, but is a perfect example of the fact that my job is never boring. These kids make me laugh and provide experiences that I would never get in any other workplace. One day a student stood up out of the blue in the middle of class and announced to us "I'm a giant marshmallow!". I later had him repeat it so I could watch it whenever I needed to remember how adorable my kiddos are.

Dividers

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 00:50:00 +0000

If you've watched my classroom tour video, you know that my classroom is sort of a maze. Each area is clearly defined with physical boundaries. Some of the dividers are play panels, that divide larger areas, which I love - they hook together and can also be bracketed to things to create "walls", they even have "gate attachments".

I discovered that using those large dividers between desks (for individual work stations) took up a *lot* of room and also made it harder for us to see everyone at once. I tried using the cardboard type study carrels on the desk, but the students knocked them off, bent them, or ripped them. Purchasing individual study carrels would be expensive. Daddy to the rescue again :-) I asked him to create some mini-dividers with a solid base that would be difficult to tip over. I wanted something just big enough to block visual distractions from the student on either side. These work perfectly!!

He used PVC pipe, plastic cable ties, fiberboard for the divider and plywood for the base - so it was very inexpensive. Again, like the footstools, they could be more aesthetically pleasing if you wanted to put more money into it, but I'm more function-oriented :-)

Adapting furniture

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:46:00 +0000

I saw a footstool in a catalog that gave me one of those "What an amazing yet simple idea! Why didn't I think of it?" moments. One footstool was a couple of hundred dollars - so I took the picture from the catalog and asked my daddy if he could make me some. Mine may not be quite as aesthetically pleasing, but they do the job!! Here are the benefits that I love.

Daddy put a bracket thing around the chair legs to attach the chair to the box (if you click on the picture you can see the bracket in the larger version) - this keeps the kids from being able to tip backwards in their chairs (and then fall). We have rocking chairs for that!

Some of the boxes have little bathroom mats nailed to the top to muffle foot-stomping sounds.
Chairs that are across from each other at the table are attached to each other so no one can push their chair backwards (I have a few students who try to get away from me and work that way).
I also have a student who likes to tip the table over. Daddy attached the box to the table so that the table stays put.

You can see in this photo that we use a few other seating adaptations as well. Here are some of the things we use for sensory input.

Core disks - these allow for some "wiggly" movement but aren't as distracting as sitting on a therapy ball (my students tend to bounce with great intensity on therapy balls and thus can't get any work done because they're so engaged with bouncing)
Chair huggers and Cudlle loops (I just want to point out that the kids put these on and take them off themselves - they should NEVER be used for restraint purposes, only to provide proprioceptive/deep pressure input!)
Not shown in this picture - some kids keep weighted lap pads on their lap for additional proprioceptive input.

This isn't really "adapting furniture", but I'm going to include it here anyway. In the video tour of my classroom, you saw cubbies where the students' pencil boxes, hygiene bags, etc. were kept. Well about 2 weeks into the school year it became clear that the cubbies weren't going to work this year. There was no good location to put them that would allow the students to get to and from the cubbies and tables without causing major traffic issues (the layout of my room last year was completely different and the cubbies worked then, it just doesn't work with the way the room is set up this year). So I bought chairpockets (I got mine here, but you can get them from lots of teacher stores or even make your own - but I'm no seamstress!). The students keep the following in their pocket.

pencils, crayons, scissors, glue sticks (there's a little zipper bag for this)
hygiene bag (comb/brush, nail clippers, emory board, chap stick, Q-tips, tissues, hand sanitizer)
folder with blank journal pages
journal (binder with completed journal pages)
handwriting book (we use and love the Handwriting Without Tears program)
math workbook (we use the kindergarten level of our school's math program)
phonics dictionary (beginning sounds - for each sound we study we add pictures to that letter's page)
some kiddos have fidgets and/or chewies attached to their pockets (there's a little loop on the pockets)

This works out much better than the cubbies because no one has to get up to get their materials. It cuts down on transition time, dropped items (nothing like dropping a pencil box or folder and everything spilling out of it!

Lunch, part 2

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:51:00 +0000

In a continuation from the last post, as promised, here is our lunchtime routine.

One of my parapros sits with the students at the group table while they play with sensory toys. My other parapro goes to the cafeteria with empty plates. The cafeteria workers serve my students' lunches onto these plates instead of trays. Mrs. Pfefferle uses one of the cafeteria carts to bring the lunch plates back to the class kitchen and puts them on the counter. I pour drinks and put the cups at each students' place at the table.
I call students, one at a time, into the bathroom to wash their hands.
After washing hands, the student goes into the kitchen. They get their plate from the counter and carry it to their seat. Then I call the next student.

We sit with the students at the table and encourage social communication. Attainment makes some great placemats with communciation symbols on them that facilitate mealtime communication. (Even for verbal students, the picture symbols provide reminders and cues.)
We also encourage students to use their fork/spoon to eat
We work on cutting,and pouring (refilling drinks, cutting food into bite sizes) as well
When a student is finished eating, they carry their plate to the trash can, scrape their food into the trash, then bring their cup to the sink and pour out what's left of their drink. We then help them wash their plate, silverware and cup, rinse them, and put them in the dish drain.
After finishing their dishes, the student goes back to their seat at the table so that they can continue to have conversations with their friends.
When everyone is finished eating and washing dishes, we pass around a soapy cloth and each student washes their part of the table.
The students go back to the table to play with sensory toys, one student puts the tablecloth and dishtowels in the washing machine and starts the laundry, then I call students one at a time to come back into the bathroom to brush their teeth.

Lunch

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:50:00 +0000

I mentioned that we work on communication intensively during snack time. During lunch, we work on other things, mainly ADL (activities of daily living) and social skills.
I am very lucky in that my classroom has a fully equipped kitchen and a 12-seat dining room table. We eat lunch in the class kitchen Monday through Thursday. On Friday, we eat in the cafeteria.
To avoid another super-long post, I'm going to explain why in this post and then go into more detail about what we do during lunch in the next post.

Why do we eat in the classroom?

My students are learning how to participate in every-day activities both at home and in the community. While functioning in the school environment is important, my main focus is on home and community - because that's where "real life" happens after they finish school. Now, at home and in the community, outside of cafeteria-style restaurants (which aren't the norm), mealtime is not similar to the school cafeteria experience. In the classroom kitchen, we eat off of real plates, with real silverware. We drink from cups instead of milk cartons. We sit in chairs - with backs!
My students have sensory processing difficulties - the cafeteria is LOUD!
We work on table manners, using utensils, using a napkin, and communicating socially during lunch. In the cafeteria (not even considering the noise that would be distracting to this instruction) this would draw attention to my students -- no one else in there has an adult sitting right next to them reminding them to use their fork (though many of them need someone there lol).

So why, you may ask, do we eat in the cafeteria? And why on Friday?

School is part of their "real life" for the next several years. It is important for them to have that cafeteria experience if possible (though, in my opinion, less important than learning table manners, social skills, etc)
Friday at our school is always pizza day. All nine of my students love pizza and are therefore focused on eating and less likely to engage in inappropriate behaviors.
Pizza is supposed to be eaten with your hands! So we don't have to worry about the students sticking out by not using their fork.
On Friday, several teachers have their whole class or a group of students eat in the classrooms as a reward - this makes the lunchroom a bit quieter.
Friday is also ice cream day - which gives me a built in reinforcer to encourage appropriate lunchroom behavior - our lunch table is right next to the ice cream cooler, so it's likely they will remember to "be good" to get ice cream (makes the delayed reinforcer less abstract).

Snack Time

noreply@blogger.com (MNicoleM) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:43:00 +0000

Yes, I realize this post is frighteningly long. I apologize, yet I fear it's not the last time I do that. I tend to be wordy - plus I want to make sure I cover everything and am specific! It's all my grad school professors' fault - "Make it detailed enough to be replicable!"

In my class, snack time is not a "break" time.

Why not?? One of the hallmark characteristics of autism is difficulty communicating. On the one end of the spectrum are your kids with Asperger's Syndrome who have trouble with pragmatics and with the social aspect of communication but can talk just fine (just ask them about something they're interested in and you'll see!). On the other end are the kids like my students who either don't speak or only say a few words. Many of the kids on this end of the spectrum not only don't speak, but they also don't sign or use any form of communication consistently. You're most likely to elicit communication when you find something they really like and only let them have it if they ask for it (whether they ask by saying "I want it", signing it, handing you a picture of it, pointing to it, or whatever). Problem is, often the child has very limited interests and there may only be a few things that are worth all the effort they would have to put forth to ask for it (and if it's not worth it to them, they aren't going to ask!) and sometimes some of the things that *are* that motivating to them you can't take away (eg. the student my really enjoy flapping their hands, verbally stimming or rocking back and forth - kind of hard to keep their hands/voice/body from them until they ask for it! I suppose you could hold their hands/body still but I have yet to find a way to keep their voices turned off - if you find a way PLEASE let me know!!) :-) And once you take away those, you may be left with a favorite toy or two and favorite foods. This makes playtime and snack/mealtime excellent times for working on communication!! But for this post I will focus on snack time.

Scheduling snacktime: In my classroom, from 9:30-10:15, we have small group rotations. At 9:30, Mr. Anglin (one of my amazing paraprofessionals) and 3 students go to the sensory room to work. I work with 3 students in the classroom. Mrs. Pfefferle (my other amazing paraprofessional) and 3 students have snack at the kitchen table. At 9:45 the kids rotate so my 3 go with Mr. Anglin to sensory, his 3 go to snack with Mrs. Pfefferle and her 3 come to me. At 10:00 they rotate again. I do this because I have 9 kids in my class and, as you'll see, our snacktime "routine" isn't exactly simple. We're instructing - which means the students are working on something they're not familiar with or proficient at. That neccessarily means that it's going to take time and effort on the students' and our parts. A group of 3 kids to one adult is, in my opinion, a large enough - if not too large - group for this level. Ideally each student would have an adult to work 1:1 with them, but we get free and appropriate, not ideal.
All nine at one time, even with all three adults, is just too much. Too many people talking at once, too distracting for the kids (one para is trying to get one child to say one thing, another trying to get another to say something else, how can I expect the child I'm working with to be able to focus on what I want her to say?), and logistically difficult because all three adults are trying to move around the table back and forth to the pantry/fridge/choice board/etc. and it's not that big of a kitchen!

Setting the stage: For some reason, there is a magnetic chalkboard hanging in the kitchen in my classroom. I don't understand why, but I take advantage. At the beginning of the year, I send home a note asking parents what snacks their child really likes. I print boardmaker pictures of these food items (and the drinks we have - juices, milk, water, koolaid) and make sure I keep them stocked in our pantry/fridge. I then use my xyron laminator with magnetic laminating film to laminate and magnetize the pictures and hang them on the chalkboard. I printed a large "snack" and "drink" sign to hide the choices. This way the pictures are conveniently stored in the kitchen where we need them. They don't get gross yucky (have you ever seen velcro dots on the back of a picture that's been held by someone who just ate cheezits or peanutbutter? Food just becomes embedded in the fuzz) and if they do we can wipe them off (have you ever tried to clean cheezit out of velcro? Even with a stick pin it's impossible).

We use a small magnetic board as a choice board, putting just the snack items that are choices that day (anywhere from 2 to 8 choices, depending on the child's skill level at choosing from an array). For students who don't comprehend line drawings yet, we use photos of the actual food/drink, and for students at an object-level, we attach a piece of the food (cereal, small cookies, crackers, pretzels) or part of the packaging (poptart wrapper, the foil top of a pudding cup, juice box, koolaid packet) or a plastic version (apple, glass of milk) to the picture.

How do I know how many choices to give? or whether to use drawings, photos, or objects? Glad you asked!! I determine this during discrete trial training. Hold up a juice box and a container of milk and ask the child "Which one is juice?" or "Which one is milk?" - if they can do that consistently, then you know they can identify juice and milk. Now do the same with photos. Then with photos of a different juice box/milk container. Then with line drawings (boardmaker pictures or other pictures). Do this with other drinks and food items. Only expect a child to communicate when you are sure that they know what they are communicating!! If they don't know that the sweet stuff they like to drink is represented by the boardmaker picture of the pitcher of red stuff with a smiley face, they won't be likely to ask you for koolaid using that picture!

To determine how many choices, take something that you know the child can identify - either objects, photos or pictures. Put out two different things and ask for one (which one is the pretzel?). If they can do that, then put out three choices. If they can do three, try four. Keep going until you get to eight choices (sometimes I go as high as ten). It's not often that you have to choose between more than 10 things - even kids' menus at restaurants don't have that many choices. Whatever amount the child is consistently able to discrimate from is the number of choices I give them. This way they have more variety but I know they are still able to actually tell me what they want instead of just randomly choosing something because they're overwhelmed by all the choices.

Keep in mind – if a student cannot discriminate between two objects yet (the juice box and the glass of milk, or the pretzel and the cereal) then we need to target that for instruction! I won't get into that now, but if you need help with that and can't wait until I blog about it J, maybe looking at this example of a discrete trial training session.

Now - for the actual snack time

A student who is just beginning may only get one choice – if they are not yet able to discriminate between two things, I may just pick something I know they like (I don't like to do this because I really like to give them choices – they have such little control over their life just by nature of being a child, then less control due to their inability to communicate, I like to give choices whenever I can to give them some control!) and work on saying/signing "more" (give them just a little bit and they have to ask for more several times to get a little more each time).
Even if a child can't discriminate between common objects in DTT sessions, they may still gravitate toward something they like and consistently choose that when given any choice (i.e. the child loves pretzels – anytime I hold up pretzels and anything else – say pretzels and juice – and ask for the other thing (give me the juice), he *always* goes for the pretzels). In this case, I use that consistency to let them make a choice. (Again, I'm not going to get into it here, but it is the difference between tacting/labeling and manding/requesting – for more, read Skinner's Verbal Behavior – the child is possibly manding/requsting the pretzel rather than tacting/labeling the juice as he was instructed). So at snack, I give him a choice of pretzels (which I know he loves) and something else. If, by chance, he picks the something else – I give him a little of that. When he doesn't eat it, I give him the choice again. The hope is that eventually he realizes that the one he is choosing is the one he gets. And by choosing, in this situation, I am simply holding up the two objects and asking "What do you want?" or "Which one?" and the one he reaches for/touches/grabs/takes/points to is the one he "chose". I may even label them and ask "Do you want the juice (I point to juice) or the pretzel (point to pretzel)?" to model the names of the items. *Be careful to mix up the positions! Don't always put the pretzel on the left or he may start to associate the position of the item instead of the actual item itself!*
- For the students who can discriminate between objects/photos/drawings I show them the choice board and say "It's snack time! What do you want?" (with, of course, the choice board having an appropriate representation-type and appropriate number of choices for the child!)
- Some students will simply verbally label the snack that they want – by saying or signing, depending on their IEP goal, either "cookie", "cookie, please", or "I want a cookie, please", etc.. Which of these is their goal, of course, depends on their present level! If they consistently label the item (cookie), then their goal is to add the please… their next goal is to add want, then I want, then putting in the a/the/some – you get the idea J Always pushing them to that next level.
- Some students will point to/touch/remove the picture of what they want. Depending on their goal, we will do one of the following. (the idea being that we are trying to get them to label the item verbally or with sign language in addition to showing us the picture)
  - Just look at them with our eyebrows raised, waiting for them to tell us what the picture is.
  - Ask "What do you want?" again.
  - Ask "What do you want?" again then provide a carrier phrase "I want …" and wait for them to fill in the blank.
  - Ask "What do you want?" again, then say/sign the name of the item (What do you want? Cookie?)
  - For some students the picture exchange is their goal – if they remove the picture and give it to us, then we will respond with "You want a cookie!" to let them know that we understand their choice.
For still other students, we are trying to get them to spontaneously request items, either with the objects present or not, without being asked "What do you want?" (sound like an ABLLS-R goal?) In that case, we either have the choice board visible and simply say "Oh, hi Ashley!" and wait for them to ask for something. If they ask for something we don't have available that day, we will then say "Oh! I'm sorry, we're all out of goldfish crackers – here's what we have today" and show them the choice board, then wait for them to ask for something else.

After everyone has a snack (again, Mrs. Pfefferle is only working with 3 kids at a time, so it only takes a few minutes to get through everyone), then we get to drinks. For some kids, the procedure is the same as to get food. For others, we work on different goals.

For the students working on asking for help, we may give them a milk carton that they can't open, or put a really big, full pitcher of juice in front of them that they can't pour.
For students working on asking for specific actions, we may just give them a cup and stand there holding the pitcher until they ask us to "pour, please".
Some students are working on requesting missing items. So we give them a cup with nothing in it, or a juice box without a straw. Or we may just "forget" to give them a drink at all so that they have to speak up and ask for it.

So while in many general education classrooms, snack time is a quick break, or even a part of recess, in Mrs. Mays's class snack time is just another academic segment! Nothing's free from this evil teacher, you have to work for everything. But it's only because I love you!

Oh and did I mention that we give really small portions, so that you have to ask for more? Or that we may not give you a spoon for your pudding unless you ask for it? And even then, we may give you a giant serving spoon that won't fit into your pudding cup, just so you have to tell us it's too big! And guess what – you have to wash your own plate and cup when you're done!

(I promise, I'm not as evil as I may seem. I try not to let the kiddos get too frustrated! I push them, but only to the next baby step beyond where they currently are. I don't expect a 5 year old who is completely nonverbal to walk in, say "Mrs. Mays, I want a cookie please" in order to get a snack. And lunch is free – you don't have to ask for it. We work on social communication and table manners at lunch time) :-)