April 28: Supporting communication using shared reading

Many kids love to read. And many kids love to read the same books over and over and over again! This can be one advantage to using shared reading as a strategy to work on communication skills with your child. (Shared reading is reading with a child, not simply to a child, and is an interactive reading experience that involves having a conversation around a book.) Using the same book over and over again to teach core vocabulary can be an effective way to provide repetitive modelling of language for your child!

We can use core vocabulary boards and topic boards (the ones with fringe/specific vocabulary) to facilitate communication during a shared reading experience with a child. When we model language with a core board when reading, it is important to remember that this is a conversation, not an interrogation. We are inviting a child to respond if they wish, not expecting/forcing a response! We are providing expectant pauses to allow children time to process and form a response. And we are accepting any responses and reflecting that response using the core board. What I mean by reflecting the response is that if you make a comment and your child responds by smiling, touching something, or looking at something, we can reflect their response by using the core board. We could say, "I think you like that", while pointing to "you" and "like" on our core board. We interpret their message for them, even if their response does not seem intentional and does not involve them speaking or pointing to a picture on a core board. Like I mentioned in my last blog post about core boards and communication, it may take a LONG time for children to begin using core boards to expressively communicate, so our job at first is simply to provide A LOT of modelling! 😀

Many of our students really enjoy alphabet books. After making this blog post I'm going to email you an animal specific topic board as well as an alphabet board that you could use while reading an alphabet book in conjunction with the traditional core board. This way, you could use the core board to make comments, like "I see", and the topic boards to say "e" and "elephant".

Another type of book that is nice to use in a shared reading experience is any type of book that has repetition. For example, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" might be a good book to read with your child as it is highly predictable, uses powerful rhythm, a little bit of rhyming, and includes repetitive use of core words (look/see, me, what, you).

Here's an example of a teacher using the "CAR" reading strategy with her student while doing some shared reading with a core board. CAR stands for comment, ask a question, and respond by adding a little more.

When the teacher responds, "ya, you're right, they're going to help", she may simply be interpreting the student's message for them. The student may have given no response, but the teacher created a response to model for the student how they could make their own response one day.

Finally, here's an example of the types of conversations that could be started while reading books with your child, as well as the types of core words you could target.

And remember, you don't have to sit and read an entire book from start to finish with your child! I know many children are not ready to sit and read a whole book yet. So choosing just 2 pages to look at together and talk about is a great start! Happy reading! 😊

April 23: Core vocabulary & communication

I want to spend the next couple blog posts talking about core vocabulary and communication.

Core vocabulary is a small set of highly useful words that makes up about 70% of what we say on a daily basis. Core words are words like: go, stop, I, no, want, what, in. The advantage of teaching core language to students with complex communication needs is that these words can be combined to make a variety of different messages, like: no go, want go, go in, etc. Here is an example of some types of core vocabulary boards we would use at school with our students:

Some core boards are colour-coded based on category (yellow for pronouns, green for verbs, etc.), and some are not.

Today I will email you some different types of core vocabulary boards you can download and print to try using with your child at home if you would like. I will also send some communication topic boards you could use to facilitate communication with highly specific vocabulary (aka "fringe vocabulary") while doing things like cooking or playing with play doh.

Check out the following video that describes the difference between teaching core vocabulary and fringe vocabulary (highly specific vocabulary that can only be used to mean ONE thing):

When we first introduce core vocabulary to our students, our job is simply to MODEL. Just like teaching any other form of language or communication, students will not innately know how to use it, so we must teach them! There are many different types of activities you could incorporate at home using core vocabulary. I will list some examples below:

Teaching go:

• Point to the word go on the core board while playing with cars ("the car can go down the ramp!")
• Point to the word go on the core board during meal times ("go sit down")
• Point to the word go on the core board during bed time routine ("go brush your teeth", "go to your bedroom", "go pick a book")

Teaching want:

• Point to the word want on the core board while playing with cars ("you want the red car", "I want a turn")
• Point to the word want on the core board during meal times ("do you want a cookie?", "I want more")
• Point to the word want on the core board during bed time routine ("Mom wants a kiss", "you want the Dora book")

It's important to recognize that when modelling the use of core language with a core board, you do not need to point to every word you say. For example, if you were to say "I want more cookies", you could just point to the word "I", or you could point to "I" and "want", or you could point to "I" and "want" and "more" and then use a specific food topic board to point to the word "cookies". It all depends on your child's level of understanding, and what core words you would like to teach.

Here's an example of how to use a core board during 7 everyday games:

Here's an example of how to use a core board combined with some fringe vocabulary specific to playing with lego:

So, try incorporating some modelling of core vocabulary at home when interacting with your child to support their communication skill development! The hope is that eventually they will be able to use core boards to communicate expressively with others. Please let me know if you have any further questions about related to core vocabulary or communication in general. Take care!

April 15: Conditions for success

On your child's IPP, you will see a section titled "conditions for success". This is where a students' unique social/emotional, physical, cultural, and intellectual needs are considered in an effort to create optimal learning experiences for them at school. Many of our students' conditions for success include sensory considerations. In this blog post I'd like to discuss how you could consider your child's conditions for success at home from a sensory perspective in order to best prepare them for at-home learning.

First, I wanted to include the following video that describes some common sensory needs that children with autism may have and how to cope with them:

Some common strategies we incorporate at school to support our students' sensory needs are:

• offering noise-reducing headphones 
• offering frequent movement breaks (i.e. jumping on the trampoline, running, heavy work like carrying full backpacks, pushing/pulling a wagon)
• providing access to sensory play/tactile input (i.e. rice and sand sensory bins, water play)
• turning off bright classroom lights and using alternate lighting like lamps or coloured/twinkly lights
• offering quiet breaks after active periods (i.e. dimming the lights and playing quiet music after coming back from gym class) → if you want to use the same music videos we use at school for our quiet breaks, check out this link: https://www.symbaloo.com/shared/AAAABn9THxwAA42ADFXFWw==

You all probably know what sensory experiences your child is over- or under-sensitive to by now, but I will include the following sensory symptoms checklist in case you are interested in revisiting this: https://sensationalbrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/SB-Sensory-Checklist-English-2017.pdf

I also wanted to include the following ideas for calming and alerting activities you could incorporate at home:

Here's another website with some great sensory ideas you can incorporate at home: https://inclusiveteach.com/2020/03/20/150-sensory-learning-ideas/?fbclid=IwAR2NoV_UQUTyYI4VVW09saGr0KeFpVLjbZupPYncznOx2dT4VnWRMKUdVd4

Finally, if you are interested in trying to make some of your own sensory bins at home (most of our students LOVE them), a quick Google search gives you TONS of ideas for cheap, easy bins you can make at home--often with materials you already have! Playing with sensory bins are often great independent activities that children can engage in without too much adult direction, so perhaps YOU can take a break! 😜

April 8: Using household items to work on matching and sorting skills

I've been talking with some of you lately about how to use household items to work on matching or sorting skills. We work on these skills with our students a lot at school. These are great skills that are easily transferable to the work place one day (think of jobs that may involve sorting cutlery, stocking shelves, etc.). I wanted to share some photos of ideas I've found that you could try at home:

Use a deck of cards to have your child sort a pile of black and a pile of red. To make it more challenging, they could sort by number, put in numerical order, or even sort by suit afterwards!

Use coloured paper to cut into small pieces and have your child sort the pieces onto the corresponding coloured mats. This could also be made into a sort by shape task!

Have your child sort some beans by colour.

Use random household objects to sort by colour on plates.  

Use letters from alphabet puzzles to make a sort by letter activity. 

A more challenging literacy sorting activity could be sorting objects/toys into baskets labelled with their beginning sound/letter.

Use fridge magnet letters to sort by colour. This could also work as a sorting by uppercase or lowercase letter task.

As a numeracy challenge, use beans or other food items to count out the correct number of objects into the corresponding numbered bowls.

Muffin tins also work great to sort objects like pompoms by colour. 

Have your child sort socks by colour (and as an additional skill, fold/roll them!), sort cutlery, match lids to the corresponding Tupperware containers, and use ice cube trays to sort buttons by colour.

April 6: Tips for parents for home learning

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to link you to another great blog post from the Autism Helper website that lists 5 tips for parents to support home learning: https://theautismhelper.com/focus-on-five-tips-for-parents-for-home-learning/

It talks about how to:

• create a schedule
• make rules for learning time
• motivate your child
• use simple teaching strategies (like "I do, we do, you do" and "errorless learning")
• practice life skills

In speaking with you last week, it sounds like most (if not all of you) are using daily schedules with your child. That's great! And I love how in the above blog post the writer reminds us that our schedules don't have to be fancy - they can simply be quick drawings and words on a scrap piece of paper! So remember there's no pressure to print off colour visuals or laminate your schedules. Do what works for you!

I also wanted to highlight the information given in the above blog about errorless learning. In our classroom, my education assistants and I refer to the "prompt hierarchy" when teaching our students new skills to incorporate errorless learning techniques. As shown in the picture below, the most invasive/highest level of prompt is a full physical prompt (i.e., help child complete a puzzle with hand-over-hand prompting to put pieces into correct holes). The least invasive/lowest level of prompt is a visual prompt (i.e., help child complete a puzzle by simply showing them a picture of the completed puzzle). When first being introduced, a student may need full physical prompts to complete the puzzle. Over time, prompting is faded, and the student may only need gestural prompts, then verbal prompts, and then they can eventually do the puzzle independently (without prompts). Teaching new skills in this way reduces frustration for students, allows them to practice the skill the correct way (rather than making an error and having to "un-learn" that error), and therefore decreases task-avoidant behaviours (i.e., wanting to stop doing the puzzle because it's too hard or they keep doing it wrong).

Check out the following video that gives some examples of what errorless learning looks like:

I know you are all just parents - not therapists - but I want to share the successful strategies we use at school with your children in the hopes that they may make things easier for you at home! Trying to put on a therapist or teacher hat at home with your child may not be easy; lots of times our students associate "work" with their at-home therapists or with school. So take it easy on yourself if your child is not responding well when you try to pull out the work bin at home with them...

That being said, I know you are all experts on your children, have been on this journey with them from the beginning, and know them the best! So a lot of this information may be old news to you. Please know I am just attempting to share as many universal strategies as I can on our blog to help those of you looking for more guidance. 😊 Take care, and happy Monday!

-Heather

April 2: World Autism Awareness Day

April 2nd is World Autism Awareness Day. This morning I spent some time watching Temple Grandin videos on Youtube. I had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Grandin speak at a conference in Calgary a few years ago, and I have read some of her books. I love her message that the world needs all types of minds, and that we need to build on the unique talents that people with autism have. If you haven't already, check out the movie about her life starring Claire Danes. She has such an amazing mind, and her ability to articulate her experience allows those of us who love someone with autism to perhaps understand them a little bit more.

Something I try to do as a teacher is use my students' unique interests to motivate them in learning. As parents, you know your child best, and can hopefully use your child's interests to help support your at-home learning journey! Something we do at school is try to gather a running list of student interests that we can use as motivators. For example, student A may like cause and effect toys, m&m chocolates, and high fives. We use those motivators to support us in encouraging student A to participate in non-preferred activities, like toilet training or sitting at their desk to do some work. Remember that everyone is motivated by something! Adults go to work everyday for a paycheque, not just out of the goodness of their hearts... So, before you ask your kid to do something challenging at home, think, what is their currency? It will help your child buy-in to doing those not-so-fun things in life! 😊

April 1. Our new reality: online learning!

Hi everyone,

By now I have connected with all of you and it's been great to hear about how things have been going at home! I know these are challenging times, and these huge changes to our normal routines have been hard for everyone. I hope moving forward we can work together to create at-home learning programming that will support you and your children in areas that are important to you. I know each of you are at a different stage in what you are looking for from me, and that's ok. Do what you can and what works for your family! And please don't hesitate to ask for things that you need from me!

Going forward, I am going to be using the classroom blog to post general activities and strategies that can be used for all students. I will send individual activities or strategies for your child to you via email.

Today I am going to email a daily schedule document for you to print off and use if you do not already have a visual schedule at home for your child. In the classroom we use visual schedules to support student understanding and reduce anxiety about what is happening in their day. Visual schedules can also increase independence, and reduce push-back from students about participating in non-preferred tasks (i.e., Mom didn't say it's time for work, the schedule says it's time for work!). 😜

Please check out the video below about the importance of structure and routine from the Autism Helper. She is a board certified behaviour analyst and former special education teacher. Start the video at 4.30 to hear her explain how providing structure and routine increases predictability for kids. I'm sure many of you are already following some sort of daily schedule with your child at home, and now that school may be happening from home for the next 3 months this is even more important! Consider having a clear working space for your child if you don't already. Asking them to all of a sudden start doing work in their bedroom where they usually play may not go over well!

*Please let me know if there are specific visuals you need for a daily schedule that are not included in the document I send and I can make you them.*

That's all for now, stay safe and healthy! 😊

-Heather