I was recently in a classroom with a teacher who loved the article here at Noodle Nook about students with Echolalia and has been working with a particular student on that. She, however, is still struggling with authentic response and this student meeting their writing goal.
‘Ideas?’ She asked…
Of Course!
Try AAC and Sentence Stems!
Kids with Autism who get a poor night’s sleep often have problems with behaviors at school- that may be aggression and agitation, social withdrawal and isolation, or even sleeping in school. So what to do? This is a conversation worth having with parents, and may help you get through your day a little better!
Better Outcomes in Autism Units Then end is near! Some of you will be ending your school year so soon you can practically taste it…… Read More »Better Outcomes in Autism Units
So things are going well, and then they aren’t.
When you have students with behaviors in the classroom it can set off everything and everybody.
It gets out of control, FAST!
You may have read a previous post all about where to start with core vocabulary and communication boards for students who are nonverbal or minimally verbal. I have gotten a some great messages about AAC and core vocabulary success, but also questions on what to do next. Well, I’ve got a great roadmap for you!
If you have not read the post on AAC and Abuse in kids who are nonverbal or minimally verbal, please pop over and do so. There you will find a FREE communication board you can place near the door in your classroom to teach the word “GO”. Recently I was talking to a teacher who had great success using that FREEBIE board. He found his student was able to learn the word and effectively use the board to communicate places to go within one school week.
That’s amazing!
More importantly it shows that with consistent use, communication boards can be successful for students. His question, of course, was what to do next?
To answer that question and give everyone some guidance, below you will find a road map to introducing core vocabulary.Read More »Where to Start With Core Vocabulary
“I have a student in my class with pretty severe behaviors- he hits his head a lot. Like all the time. I feel bad when he goes home some days with huge red marks on his face, but I’m not sure what to do to get him to stop. What can I do?”
– Kenneth J.
Kenneth, I feel you. It is pretty hard as a teacher to sit back and watch a kid seriously hurt themselves. Head banging in Autism is actually very common. There are a handful of tricks you can try to lessen the rate and severity of head-hitting, but first you want to try to figure out the reason behind the hitting.
I read a lot… I wish I had time to read more! I recently read an article about instructional level text as a tool to improve reading. This has always been something that has bothered me. Teachers have long believed that the only text appropriate for older students who happened to be low readers is instructional level text. In other words, text that corresponds with their assessed reading level. I have always thought otherwise. When you get to students in middle and high school, presenting only instructional level text limits a student’s exposure to challenging materials and also throttles their learning. So what does that mean when you’re teaching literacy to students with Autism and significant disabilities?
It never fails, at least once a school year I walk into a high school classroom and see an almost adult reading a Dora or Barney book.
It literally makes me groan.
What would make anyone think a 17-year-old would want to read a Dora book? Whenever I talk about it with the teacher, the reaction is always the same. The student is reading a book that is appropriate for their “instructional reading level”.
It sounds very formal, and almost convincing… But truth be told, teachers have been holding on to the idea of instructional level text for so long- does it really apply when you’re teaching literacy to students with Autism or other significant disabilities?
Personally, I don’t think so.
It’s Going to be One Of Those Days… I used to have a student and, I swear, I knew if we were going to have… Read More »Behavior Strategies that Work BEFORE the Behavior
Instructional Strategies for Students with Autism I started in my first self-contained classroom mid semester… and it was tough. The routines and procedures are already… Read More »Instructional Strategies for Students with Autism
They’re in your classroom… and they’re pretty easy to use.
But they’re not.
They sit without batteries collecting dust.
They are programmed to do nothing.
But Why?
When I first encountered a BIGMack in the classroom I thought it was a nice little gadget that I would learn to use someday. Well, someday took a long time to come.
It wasn’t that it was complicated to use, but since I had never used one before it might as well have been quantum physics. It also wasn’t that it was useless, but since I had never used it before I didn’t know what I didn’t know.
To save you from the long learning curve involved in “I’ll eventually get to it”, let’s just cut to the chase. Here are 5 quick and easy things you can do with the stock of BIGMacks you have in your room.
