I am a special education teacher who has taught students with autism and developmental disabilities at a self-contained special needs school since 2005. I am currently working towards a PhD in Human Studies researching the effects of summer break on students with autism. I also maintain a website of resources to complement the ABLLS curriculum at trackingsheets.net.
I have been teaching emotions to my students. It is difficult to find clear, simple pictures of basic emotions, so here are the ones I took for happy, sad, and mad, as well as more difficult photos and oversimplified cartoons.
Photographs with Explanations: http://www.socialliteracytoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/lie-to-me-emotions.docx
Cartoon Emotions: http://www.archjrc.com/childsplace/emotionpuppets.html
Simple Photos of Simple Emotions:
I organized the school’s swim-a-thon this year. We also incorporated a fundraiser breakfast donated by Perkins restaurant.
Details were reported on in the Northern Life.
For our “No David” by David Shannon Literacy Unit, each student made their own book entitled “No [their name]“. The book was very simple:
No ___________
by ___________
__________’s teacher always said “No ___________”
No, ___________, No.
No! No! No!
No __[fill in silly behavior here]__!
Yes, _____________
I love you!
The students copied (or traced, or wrote, or allowed us to hand-over-hand, depending on their abilities) the story on the same lined paper used in “David Goes to School”, and then it was cut up and put on the different pages of the book. The students were then incorporated into the book using David’s body and their heads. The last page had arms around the student with the words “I love you!” My students love this story, and had a lot of fun with this activity.
David Mask: http://crisscrossapplesauce.typepad.com/files/no_david.pdf
After we read Cookie’s Week, I brought pictures of my new puppy to my class and we made our own book based on days of the week called “Musky’s Week”. It was quite silly.
This book was brought to my attention by a parent of a student with autism. I havn’t really taken a good look at it since it is a resource for new parents, but it helped them!
http://www.autismspeaks.org/family-services/tool-kits/100-day-kit
I have been asked how I organize my ABLLS resources so that they are handy when I work with students, so here it is. I put all of the students’ resources and tracking sheets for goals that are worked on using discrete trials in a bin. If two students are working on the same goal, I make another copy of the resources; I do not attempt to share resources between students. I put social skills goals, life skills goals, and goals being generalized to the natural environment separate from discrete trial goals and keep them with me so that I can track these things as I work on them throughout the day (eg. teeth brushing). Here is a picture of one student’s bin with some sample resources. It is important to be organized so that the trials can be done easily.
“On Monday, Cookie fell in the toilet. There was water everywhere.” We made a craft to show the trouble that Cookie got into every day. My favorite was Monday, with the lift-up toilet seat that revealed Cookie in the toilet!
I will be presenting at an international workshop on Disability at Laurentian University in Sudbury.
Disability: Definitions, Representation, Classification
We are starting a unit on Cookie’s Week by Cindy Ward and illustrated by Tomie Depaola. Cookie gets in trouble every day. We will use the book to enjoy literacy and make crafts around it, and to practice our days of the week. We will also do a craft for each day of the week to show the trouble Cookie gets into.
Ordering game http://www.archjrc.com/childsplace/cookieswk.html
Matching game http://curry.virginia.edu/go/wil/Cookie’s_Week_Activity_Card.pdf
Spelling http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/PetCookieLetterTiles.htm
Cookie craft http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/PetCatToiletPaperTube.htm
Acting it out http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/PetCookiesWeekFeltBoard.htm
Making a book http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/PetCookiesWeekBingoColoringPages.htm
Our family got a new puppy just in time for Christmas. He is a border collie lab cross, and we named him Maskisin, or Musky for short. He’s adorable! Welcome to the family, Musky!
