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Teacher Tips

With the rates of abuse growing higher year after year, what can you do to protect your students? One word: AAC!

AAC and Abuse

    It seems like such a long time between a student entering pre-kindergarten and aging out of high school.  The truth is it’s just a fraction of their lifetimes. In the little time we have, our most important responsibility is to equip our students with an effective way to communicate with others. It is essential to make the connection between AAC and abuse so we can intentionally lower the rate of abuse for nonverbal students.

    With the rates of abuse growing higher year after year, what can you do to protect your students? One word: AAC! 5 Must Dos to get more AAC use in your classroom and reduce future abuse.

    Meet Tricia…

    I was in a classroom just last week and a 20 year old young woman was exhibiting some severe behaviors. She, let’s call her Tricia, was a student with Down Syndrome and a severe Speech Impairment. Most of what Tricia said came out as grunts and points.

    That day Tricia went through an entire 30 seconds of emphatically grunting and pointing and making facial expressions to the para-educator in the classroom. The teacher was standing next to me and I asked him what Tricia had said.

    He replied “Damned if I know.”

    Clearly the aide didn’t know either. She looked confused at Tricia and asked her “What do you want?” That was the straw… Tricia punched her arm, pushed her and moved to a nearby table where she proceeded to throw all the papers and materials onto the floor.

    The behavior escalated from there.

     

    Later, when calm had returned, I asked the teacher how Tricia expressed her wants and needs. He looked at me and replied, “I guess she doesn’t.”

     

    *Sigh*

    Read More »AAC and Abuse

    Looking for some easy ways to use BIGMacks in your classroom? Here are 5 quick and easy ideas that will help!

    Meaningful Ways to BIGMack

      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?

      Meaningful Ways to BIGMack

      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.

      Read More »Meaningful Ways to BIGMack

      HELP- What do for my Autistic Student who licks everything? Practical Tips and Tricks.

      Autistic Student Licks Everything

        Student with Autism Licks Everything

        “My autistic student has licking habits.

        She licks everything.

        Everything means books, paper, plastic, the ground… all.

        How should I teach her?”

            -M. Basel

        HELP- What do for my Autistic Student who licks everything? Practical Tips and Tricks.

        It can be a real challenge when students present behaviors that are extreme or that really cross the divide of what is socially acceptable.

        Licking everything is one of those…

        And having a student who licks everything is actually just a version of stimming behavior that’s so typical in students with autism. There’s no way for you to just expect a student with this type of behavior to suddenly stop.

        Instead what you will have to do is redirect the behavior into something more acceptable and also more hygienic.

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        Why Do Kids with Autism Kids Do That? Plus Teacher Tips to Help!

        Why Do Kids with Autism Do That?

          I have seen the power struggle first hand. A teacher, thinking they are doing the right thing and wanting to be in charge of a classroom, tells a kid with Autism to take their hands off their ears and work on an assignment in front of them. They students doesn’t comply. The teacher tries to coax or plead or force compliance… and they don’t succeed.

          Why Do Kids with Autism Kids Do That? Plus Teacher Tips to Help!

          The question is, why do kids with Autism do that?

          I think if teachers really thought about the answer to that question, they would address students in the classroom differently and really pick their battles.

          I used to work with a boy whose Autism presented pretty severely. He was nonverbal, had a lot of repetitive behavior, including rocking, and he nearly always had his hands over his ears. When a hand was needed to do something, he would press his shoulder to his ear and use that instead. I had a new paraeducator working with me over a summer session and the first day she really insisted he put his hands down. He would do it for just seconds and then his hands would return to his shoulders. I told her to let him leave his hands there and she asked Why? Why does he do that.

          Do you wonder too?

          Read on!

          Read More »Why Do Kids with Autism Do That?
          Prompting Hierarchy - Using Cues and Prompts the right way

          Prompting Hierarchy

            I was duped. And I know you will understand that it wasn’t the student duping me- I duped myself because I didn’t use the prompting hierarchy!

            I will never forget the day I took a group of students to Taco Bell for a Community-Based Instruction Trip. There was a student in a wheelchair who required a high level of support on campus. We cut her food, opened all her packaging, and even put food on the fork at times to make sure she has access. With the limited use of one side of her body and processing delays, she just needed it.