***PhotoStory***

PhotoStory...This was such a big help for one of my students! I have a student who is very impulsive and has a lot of difficulty with transitions. I used the PhotoStory program to give him another type of schedule for his day in my classroom, and we took pictures of him and myself doing activities that we do everyday. I also made a social story for him to look at on his way to school. He has it memorized. When he arrives to school, he immediately goes to our computer station and we watch his PhotoStory picture schedule and label each activity as it shows on the slide. The music I used was for only him. He likes music, where as some students would be very distracted by it. It has helped him start of the day calm as well. As we watch the short 1 min and 30 second PhotoStory, I brush his arms and legs. It is a perfect time for him to calm down before any activities take place. So beneficial!

Resource: http://millie.furman.edu/mll/tutorials/photostory3/index.htm

Simple and Very Effective Tool to Help With Handwriting

One thing that I have found helpful is to break all of the crayons in half :) This was something our OT suggested for a student who had difficulty with fine motor tasks, especially handwriting. Preschoolers hands are little enough to do a fisted grasp very easily on a regular sized crayon; however, when you break the crayon in half, it almost forces them to use the pincer grasp/tri-pod grasp to hold the crayon. We use this when they first start out learning how to hold a crayon/writing utensil and slowly fadie the crayon prompt by using a bigger crayon or by using the Pip Squeak Markers (I think Crayola makes them) for the next level of writing can help them become more independent.

Interactive Reading Books!

One thing almost all of my students have enjoyed is our interactive beginning reading books. These books have categories anywhere from letters uppercase and lowercase to emotions to actions to sequencing. Picture Icons are used to tell the story or to teach the concept at hand, while also teaching concepts of print. As the student turns the page, I have them choose the picture that matches the concept or the story sequence (either out of an array of 2 or out an array of 5 depending on skill level), and they match the picture onto each page to create the story. This has also be used to teach sound-symbol correltation with most of my students. It gives them something to do and something to complete for each page, which helps my students with Autism stay focused by having a beginning and an end for each concept or each page.

Interactive Reading Books by Greenhouse Publications! We have the following books in my classroom: How Many?, What Color is it?, I Go To School!, Things I do at Home, Action!, Sounds good to me!, The Ups and Downs of Opposites, How do I feel?, I have feelings, too!, What happened and why?, Who's First?, Meet the Word Family, What's it for?, What do you say?, What do you do?....they have been great teaching tools for a variety of levels. Some of them are similar to social stories, and each book can be used in more than one way depending on the student's level. The website has information regarding pricing!

I've made a lot of sentence stems for my students using boardmaker as well! I purchased a small laminater for my classroom and we are able to laminate them and use velcro with a variety of picture icons for them to create different sentences! I love Boardmaker!!

http://www.greenhousepub.com/

Ideas to Teach Math Concepts in Preschool

In the preschool, we have a mixture of students. Some need discrete trial to learn new skills, while others seem to learn better in small groups with movement, games, and music are involved. We use touch math to teach beginning math concepts (1-1 correspondence). My students really enjoy when we have our number block game. We have a cube that has plastic pockets on each side. We put written numerals and big flash cards with dots and take turns throwing the block (its soft!) in the air and either identifying the number shown when the blck drops, or performing 1-1 correspondence with the dots. I have also used a talking calculator with one of my high functioning students who is transitioning into general ed. kindergarten next year. He is a visual and auditory learning.

PLUK and The Federation for Children with Special Needs

http://www.pluk.org/AT1.html
http://fcsn.org/index.php

PLUK stands for Parents, Let's Unite for Kids. PLUK, (http://www.pluk.org/AT1.html) along with The Federation for Children with Special Needs ( http://fcsn.org/index.php ) combined efforts to create a “Family Guide to Assistive Technology”. The site was edited by Katharin A. Kelker, Ed.D. It is a production of Roger Holt, ATP and was illustrated by Karen Moses in 1997. This site is a beneficial site for families of individuals with special needs. It gives a great overview of how using technology early in an individual’s life can be significantly beneficial to the individual and gives information for parents to becoming advocates of Assistive Technology for their child. It seems that many parents expect the educators and therapists to be responsible for their child’s equipment, but this site shows the parents how they can be effective team members for getting information and equipment for their child, based on their child’s needs. Along with providing information for parents to become advocates for their child regarding assistive technology and equipment, the site gives information regarding types of assistive technology, examples of when assistive technology is appropriate, scenarios that parents can relate to, and factors to consider when determining what Assistive Technology to use. Any student with a disability would benefit from having parents as advocates, and students who need assistive technology would benefit from having parents at advocates for equipment!

• http://www.nsnet.org/
• http://www.nsnet.org/atc/tools/
• http://www.nsnet.org/atc/tools/lowtohightech.html
  (Low Tech Assistive Technology and High-Tech Assistive Technology)

The site http://www.nsnet.org/ provides links to help support students and adults that have a disability. NSNET is run by Nova Scotia Community Organization Network. The site provided a “Tool Box” that was full of; “Assistive Technology Tools, Tips and Tricks” This was prepared as a presentation by James Roy, a Coordinator for Technical Resource Centre (TRC) in Waterville Nova Scotia. This site benefits all students and adults with “Learning Disabilities and Cognitive Challenges.” In the site, the list of Low Tech Assistive Technology and Mid-High Tech Assistive Technology was great because it provided specific examples in a list format. This was a great site for my parents who were interested in the types of Assistive Technology, because it was a list that was easily read and followed. The site also broke down different types of Assistive Technology for different areas of concern (i.e. Writing, Spelling, Reading) Students who have SLP, Autism, MR, and Orthopedic Impairments would benefit from Assistive Technology listed on this site (depending on the individual student’s needs of course!)

::USEFUL SITE::

Assistive Technology for Children with Autism

http://www.specialed.us/autism/assist/asst10.htm

This site is very beneficial to parents and educators of students with special needs; especially students with Autism. The most widely used and known Assistive Technology for students with Autism are visuals. Visuals can be used as daily schedules, reinforcement systems, choices, pictures exchanges for communication, and can be anything from actual objects, to pictures of objects, to picture icons to represent objects. “Boardmaker” is referenced on the site, http://www.specialed.us/autism/assist/asst10.htm and is described as a “user-friendly program for both adults and children [that] offers a 3,000 Picture Communication Symbol (PCS) library in either black/white or color, and can be accompanied by any written word/message.” Boardmaker is a great program that can benefit students. For example, in my classroom we use pictures schedules and icons all day, everyday. The information regarding the different types of visuals (i.e. real objects, photos, lined drawings, etc.) was beneficial to myself, my staff members, and the parents of my students, and we have become more aware of all of the visual techniques we use throughout our school day in our Autism Preschool. This information has helped my parents begin to incorporate visuals in their home environments. As an educator, I have been able to use Boardmaker to provided picture icons for the families of my students, so we can focus on transition goals and communication goals in the home and at school! The information regarding visuals has also given my parents more comfort in using visuals in general. Along with information regarding visuals, the article was written by Susan Stokes under a contract with CESA 7 and funded by a discretionary grant from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Susan Strokes, an Autism consultant , gave great basic information of what Assistive Technology can be used for and why it is beneficial. Students with MR, Orthopedic Impairments, and SLP would also greatly benefit by using visuals throughout their school day.