Morgan's ERR teacher, Lindsay Rodriguez, just sent this to me to include on the blog. I thought that was so nice of her!
Hints for Teachers:
The holiday season often means an increase in school assemblies, school holiday parties and activities. While this is a disruption to your regular schedule, you can often minimize the impact it has on your students if you plan ahead. Students with autism often have difficulty with transitions and with changes in routines. However, if you create and implement a picture schedule (or word schedule for students who can read) on a daily basis, it provides the student with a concrete representation of their schedule for the day. When there is gong to be a change to the routine such as an assembly, prep the student for that change by both pointing out the change (ie: "Johnny, after lunch today we are going to have a holiday party instead of going to gym.") and by indicating the change on the schedule.
The more changes there are to your daily schedule due to holiday activities etc., the more critical it is to adhere to a routine during the rest of the school day.
Maintain a classroom environment which is predictable and structured. When there are changes in daily schedules, having a classroom environment which is structured and predictable can make it easier for our students to deal with those changes.
Don't forget about behavior management systems. It's not hard for things to get a little hectic and for there to be lapses in the implementation of things like token economy systems. Remember, consistent implementation is the key to behavior change.
Reinforce, Reinforce, Reinforce! Be sure to reinforce students for accepting changes to their routines. These changes may not seem that significant to you or I, but they are significant for many of our students.
Parents and other family members often struggle with what to purchase for their child for the holidays. Take note of what types of activities your students gravitate towards during free play periods and share this information with parents. While listing specific toys is helpful, it is even more helpful when you can provide information about the type of activity the student enjoys. Does the student gravitate towards visually stimulating activities such as looking through a viewmaster or kaleidoscope or does he/she enjoy tactile activities like play-dough?
Individuals with autism often struggle with unstructured time, Help parents add more structure to their days during the holiday break by sharing ideas about activities you have done with your students that a parent could easily duplicate at home.
Hints for Parents:
While there are many changes in the daily routine during the holiday season, try to adhere to as much of your regular routine as possible. For example, while bedtime might be a bit delayed due to a holiday gathering, adhering to the same sequence of events on your child's schedule (ie: bath, story time then bed) maintains a level of predictability that is so important.
Consider getting your child together with other students from his/her class. Plan an activity that the two children can both do. It need not be elaborate or complicated. Having some type of structured activity helps to break up the day.
Save strong reinforcers for the holiday activities which are most likely to create the most amount of stress for your child. For example, if your child loves to watch dvds and struggles most with long car rides, consider not allowing your child access to favorite dvds for a few days before the trip. He/she would then be permitted to watch then during the long car ride. By being denied access to the dvds for a period of time, their strength as a reinforcer is increased.
Leave holiday parties before your child gets overwhelmed. Plan your arrival and expected departure time to coincide with the schedule of events. For example, if the party starts three hours before dinner is going to be served and this would be difficult for your child to deal with, plan your arrival closer to mealtime.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Visual Task Strips
My son often struggles to do simple activities in a certain order. For example, every night when it's time to shower, he goes into the bathroom, closes the door, and proceeds to dork around. He'll fill the sink with water, hand flap and watch himself in the mirror, anything that's a distraction.
You'd think he doesn't enjoy taking a shower, except once he gets started, he loves it so much that you have to pester him to get out. And once he's out, he'll wrap up in a towel and sit on the floor by the heat vent, etc.
He'll do all of these things--unless he's supervised. To help him focus a little more, I had his ERR teacher print out a visual task strip using her Boardmaker program. You can see a sample of it here: http://www.mayer-johnson.com/boardmaker-v-6/?gclid=COnq0ZDwgK0CFcVgTAodm1nETQ
The program basically allows you to make and print out a visual "schedule" of what to do next. My son, Morgan, has had many task strips for a variety of tasks, and they've all been very helpful to him. Now that he's reading we write task-list cards. But these visual cues are the best way to help a youngster to focus.
The Boardmaker software is expensive, about $329. I recommend you ask an ERR teacher or therapist who's working with your child if they have access to the program. Then think of a few daily scenarios that your child seems to struggle with. Write down the desired activity step by step and ask the teacher to print out a picture of each step. The software program has hundreds of images to choose from.
If you don't have access to this program, it's worth it to hand-draw some simple images for your child to follow. You could also take a picture of them doing each step, and then post the photos for easy reference.
This might seem like a time-consuming process to help your child visualize things better, but it's really what they need. And when they correctly practice something over and over, they can eventually toss the visual and feel a sense of pride in having accomplished their goal.
You'd think he doesn't enjoy taking a shower, except once he gets started, he loves it so much that you have to pester him to get out. And once he's out, he'll wrap up in a towel and sit on the floor by the heat vent, etc.
He'll do all of these things--unless he's supervised. To help him focus a little more, I had his ERR teacher print out a visual task strip using her Boardmaker program. You can see a sample of it here: http://www.mayer-johnson.com/boardmaker-v-6/?gclid=COnq0ZDwgK0CFcVgTAodm1nETQ
The program basically allows you to make and print out a visual "schedule" of what to do next. My son, Morgan, has had many task strips for a variety of tasks, and they've all been very helpful to him. Now that he's reading we write task-list cards. But these visual cues are the best way to help a youngster to focus.
The Boardmaker software is expensive, about $329. I recommend you ask an ERR teacher or therapist who's working with your child if they have access to the program. Then think of a few daily scenarios that your child seems to struggle with. Write down the desired activity step by step and ask the teacher to print out a picture of each step. The software program has hundreds of images to choose from.
If you don't have access to this program, it's worth it to hand-draw some simple images for your child to follow. You could also take a picture of them doing each step, and then post the photos for easy reference.
This might seem like a time-consuming process to help your child visualize things better, but it's really what they need. And when they correctly practice something over and over, they can eventually toss the visual and feel a sense of pride in having accomplished their goal.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Holiday Countdown without Meltdowns!
"When is it going to be Christmas?" your kids repeatedly ask. Especially if you have a child who relies on visual cues, you'll be answering the question until you're ready to pull your hair out. Or you can keep your hair and instead create an advent calendar to mark the countdown.
This year I've wrapped a simple gift for each day, starting Dec. 1. That gift was a Christmas Kids Bop CD that I was already planning to give my son. And since it couldn't wait until the 25th, it was a perfect advent gift. So I wrapped it and wrote #24 on the gift tag. He has since opened another CD and the new Smurfs DVD. The next gift is a gingerbread house kit.
In other words, I've tried to include festive things that we would enjoy during the holiday season anyway. Why not make them count as extra-special gifts?
Just to balance things out, I've turned an old advent box decoration into a daily service countdown. It has doors for each day, and I've tucked in a service idea behind each one. Some are simple, others a little more involved. I time it for weeknights vs. weekends, when we have a little more time to do something special for someone.
We also made a paper-chain advent for my mother-in-law who is struggling with Alzheimers. Our family wrote words of encouragement or told about a fun memory on each strip of paper. My son even joined in by writing a few words. Pictures would have worked great too. Then we stapled the paper links together and gave it to her when we visited at Thanksgiving. She's delighted to have something bright in her day, and we had a fun time putting the chain together.
Since we've already started December, you could simply modify the activity for the 12 Days of Christmas. And I've found you don't have to purchase gifts. Wrap up some small toy that they've likely forgotten, choose a secondhand item, or do a simple toy swap with a friend. No matter what's inside the gift, your child will just be thrilled to have a present to open.
Thanks to our hands-on craft and daily gifts, on any given day my son knows EXACTLY how many days are left until Christmas. And he's a little more content to wait for his gifts under the tree since he has a little something to look forward to each day.
This year I've wrapped a simple gift for each day, starting Dec. 1. That gift was a Christmas Kids Bop CD that I was already planning to give my son. And since it couldn't wait until the 25th, it was a perfect advent gift. So I wrapped it and wrote #24 on the gift tag. He has since opened another CD and the new Smurfs DVD. The next gift is a gingerbread house kit.
In other words, I've tried to include festive things that we would enjoy during the holiday season anyway. Why not make them count as extra-special gifts?
Just to balance things out, I've turned an old advent box decoration into a daily service countdown. It has doors for each day, and I've tucked in a service idea behind each one. Some are simple, others a little more involved. I time it for weeknights vs. weekends, when we have a little more time to do something special for someone.
We also made a paper-chain advent for my mother-in-law who is struggling with Alzheimers. Our family wrote words of encouragement or told about a fun memory on each strip of paper. My son even joined in by writing a few words. Pictures would have worked great too. Then we stapled the paper links together and gave it to her when we visited at Thanksgiving. She's delighted to have something bright in her day, and we had a fun time putting the chain together.
Since we've already started December, you could simply modify the activity for the 12 Days of Christmas. And I've found you don't have to purchase gifts. Wrap up some small toy that they've likely forgotten, choose a secondhand item, or do a simple toy swap with a friend. No matter what's inside the gift, your child will just be thrilled to have a present to open.
Thanks to our hands-on craft and daily gifts, on any given day my son knows EXACTLY how many days are left until Christmas. And he's a little more content to wait for his gifts under the tree since he has a little something to look forward to each day.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Role Play What You Want Your Child to Do
Since children on the spectrum tend to be strong visual learners, the example you set for them as parents is extremely important. Whenever our son is struggling to learn a task or do what is needed, we try to role play it with him.
For instance, we attend church every Sunday as a family. As part of our Sunday service, we partake of the Sacrament, which is about a 15-20 minute process. So we have role played how we should act during this time. We role play both good and bad behaviors. When my husband shows what we shouldn't do during the Sacrament (ie. whispering, wiggling, poking, etc.), my son loves to point out what his dad is doing "wrong."
During our role plays, we take turns and let him show the appropriate and inappropriate behaviors too. Also, as needed, we add props if it helps us to practice. For the Sacrament example, my husband put little pieces of bread on a plate and little cups of water on a separate plate. My son had been struggling to choose just the "right" piece of bread and cup of water every Sunday (too many options). So we showed him how to pick just one, that it didn't matter which one he chose.
Also, there was a time when our son wouldn't eat any of the Sacrament bread because, in his eyes, it looked mushy (from having been torn into bits). We tried role playing this, giving him the opportunity to break the bread into pieces and eat it, but his sensory issues kicked in and he would have nothing to do with the squished bread. So we just decided not to push it. If he didn't take the Sacrament bread at church, that was fine. Eventually, he decided it was OK and now participates regularly.
Also, when he was really little, he used to be frustrated with the little pieces of bread. He wanted more!!! So I'd always pack a slice or two of bread in his diaper bag, ready to fish out at the opportune time.
For instance, we attend church every Sunday as a family. As part of our Sunday service, we partake of the Sacrament, which is about a 15-20 minute process. So we have role played how we should act during this time. We role play both good and bad behaviors. When my husband shows what we shouldn't do during the Sacrament (ie. whispering, wiggling, poking, etc.), my son loves to point out what his dad is doing "wrong."
During our role plays, we take turns and let him show the appropriate and inappropriate behaviors too. Also, as needed, we add props if it helps us to practice. For the Sacrament example, my husband put little pieces of bread on a plate and little cups of water on a separate plate. My son had been struggling to choose just the "right" piece of bread and cup of water every Sunday (too many options). So we showed him how to pick just one, that it didn't matter which one he chose.
Also, there was a time when our son wouldn't eat any of the Sacrament bread because, in his eyes, it looked mushy (from having been torn into bits). We tried role playing this, giving him the opportunity to break the bread into pieces and eat it, but his sensory issues kicked in and he would have nothing to do with the squished bread. So we just decided not to push it. If he didn't take the Sacrament bread at church, that was fine. Eventually, he decided it was OK and now participates regularly.
Also, when he was really little, he used to be frustrated with the little pieces of bread. He wanted more!!! So I'd always pack a slice or two of bread in his diaper bag, ready to fish out at the opportune time.
Autism vs. Aspergers
I've really given this blog a lot of thought--maybe too much. Earlier this summer, while on vacation with a friend, we discussed whether this blog should be about Autism or Aspergers. My son is so high-functioning that she thought maybe I should rename it for Aspergers. And so, over time, I thought of a possible new blog title: Aspirations for Aspergers. But I still felt stuck.
I finally determined that the reason I hadn't pressed forward with the blog is that I don't feel that we fit either camp very well. My son, Morgan, is somewhere in between, but he is on the spectrum--he hand flaps a lot and finds repetitive motion comforting, has difficulty with some basic tasks (potty trained at age 5), and loves techy things. On the other hand, he makes eye contact well, is socially accepted (even with a few quirks), and prefers to be with others, except when playing video games, and not in large groups. He'll attend large-group functions with us, but he usually doesn't prefer them. He's also an advanced reader and recently earned a Citizenship Award at school, so he's considered a "model" student.
I share this background not to brag but because I want to be clear about my experience with Autism. For anyone who follows this blog, please know that my background is with a very high-functioning child. Part of that success is because we as parents, and a team of excellent teachers and professionals, have done A LOT of work with him, and part of the success is due to his natural abilities.
My goal is to help my son build upon the talents and strengths he has. My husband and I work hard to further our son's education and to greatly supplement his classroom schooling. Perhaps our ideas will help other parents with lower-functioning autistic children. If we can help anyone, or be helped, during this blogging venture, we will feel truly blessed.
I finally determined that the reason I hadn't pressed forward with the blog is that I don't feel that we fit either camp very well. My son, Morgan, is somewhere in between, but he is on the spectrum--he hand flaps a lot and finds repetitive motion comforting, has difficulty with some basic tasks (potty trained at age 5), and loves techy things. On the other hand, he makes eye contact well, is socially accepted (even with a few quirks), and prefers to be with others, except when playing video games, and not in large groups. He'll attend large-group functions with us, but he usually doesn't prefer them. He's also an advanced reader and recently earned a Citizenship Award at school, so he's considered a "model" student.
I share this background not to brag but because I want to be clear about my experience with Autism. For anyone who follows this blog, please know that my background is with a very high-functioning child. Part of that success is because we as parents, and a team of excellent teachers and professionals, have done A LOT of work with him, and part of the success is due to his natural abilities.
My goal is to help my son build upon the talents and strengths he has. My husband and I work hard to further our son's education and to greatly supplement his classroom schooling. Perhaps our ideas will help other parents with lower-functioning autistic children. If we can help anyone, or be helped, during this blogging venture, we will feel truly blessed.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Our New Blogging Adventure
How do you like Optimism 4 Autism? Any changes you'd suggest? Did I forget anything? I'm working on some informative posts and will have more information available soon. Meanwhile, I appreciate any feedback you have to offer. Thanks!
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