More ASD awareness

 Hello again!
Just sharing some more pictures of the wonderful job our EA's did spreading Autism Awareness throughout our school....

 I was really floored by this bottom picture.  These puzzle pieces were completed by older peers who attend school with my students on a daily basis.  I hope they can be the start to be the voice for individuals with ASD in the future.

Here are some pictures as we prepare to celebrate Autism Awareness month at school!
My assistants are so creative!!

Inclusion

Close observation of correct implementation of one of my student's behavior plans has required my attendance to my students' special area classes.  This year my students have all special area classes with the general education population.  I just wanted to mention the importance of peer models to our students with autism.  The majority of my students were imitating students from the general education population.  Others, assigned to one-on-one support staff, required prompting to participate but it was just inspirational to see them in that environment!  Through exposure of this inclusive model, general education students will no longer learn to differentiate individuals with disabilities from themselves.

Upon starting my class "Special Education Systems" I was taught the beginnings of inclusion, which involved a movement specific to civil rights.  Wolf Wolfensberger wrote "Normalization", a book I have purchased that I have yet to read.  He was one of the first people to assign a word to a backwards ideology specific to individuals with disabilities.  When I wikapedia-ed Wolf Wolfensberger, a long line of social scientists and psychologists were named.  One of which, Uta Frith, who was mentioned in Schriebman's book.  I look forward to see who follows her studies.

When you hear about institutionalization, I don't think you can begin to think about how serious of an issue this was.  In the past individuals institutionalized did not receive exposure to the outside world. Now individuals with disabilities have rights.  Participation in a group home provides so much more than an institution ever could.  Thanks to several (unfortunate) mistakes, our nation has made leaps and bounds towards effective resources available to people with disabilities.

Inclusion is an extreme interest of mine.  In fact, I have researched schools such as Montclair University who houses a certificate program for an Inclusion Specialist.  I have a lot more to learn about including students with disabilities into regular education, but that doesn't mean it doesn't ignite a passion!

The Science and Fiction of Autism

For my Autism class I was required to read a book specific to Autism.  I chose The Science and Fiction of Autism by Laura Schreibman.  My assignment is to complete a book review.  As I prepare for the book review I will discuss how I enjoyed the book, how this book is laid out, and some highlights of it.

I was very impressed with the science discussed in this book.  We all know about "bogus treatments" specific to Autism however Schreibman backed up each treatment discussed (bogus or evidence-based).  This was an informative piece with a lot of welcomed opinion writing.  Schreibman shared her involvement with research studies.  She discussed the history of "psychodynamic" theory.  It was so affirming to hear how she would put this universally understood ideology into words!!!

Furthermore, when discussing identification of a core deficit in Autism in chapter 5, she offered a user-friendly assessment criteria.  This criteria included specificity, universality, persistence, and precedence.  Certainly, she spent a lot of time discussing the history of effectiveness of behavioral treatments specific to Autism.  In fact in chapter 3 she spends a lot of time discussing evaluation procedures for diagnosis and assessment.  She included controversies surrounding these treatments.

Alternative treatment methods were discussed in their entirety.  For example: she would begin by mentioning the name of the person responsible for the development of the treatment, and go into an in-depth description of the treatment.  I learned so much more about Floortime after reading chapter 7.  She discussed how these treatments are hard to evaluate, stressing the importance of emperically-based treatment methods.  I was blown away with information specific to genetic involvement in the etiology of Autism Spectrum disorder in chapter 4.  She really goes into depth about the genetic and environmental factors that are responsible for the disorder.

One disappointment would have to be the last chapter, when Schreibman discusses "Educate Autistic Children!.  This chapter begins discussing arguments specific to including students with Autism into the general education classroom.  Understanding the 3 types of arguments is valuable, however, I was expecting Schreibman to take her stand in one of these arguments, however, in her defense, this is probably align with the style of the book.

All in all I would highly recommend this book to those who are fascinated with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Dr. Seuss

Thanks to the wonderful world of Pinterest, here are some crafts my class made for Read Across America!

The Lorax!  This was a very interactive project and allowed for varying levels of difficulty!  His mustache was sketched from students's hands, and my higher functioning students were able to cut out the eyes, pupils, nose, and eyebrows.  My lower functioning students had these items pre-cut for them.  

Perhaps in one of my future posts I can show you how I set up my leveled projects.  This may seem easy to some, but it took me some time to achieve this in an organized way.  Its very similar to something the TEACCH would use.

This is adorable! One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish!

This was very interactive, and required students to follow directions. For example: each time they stamped a painted hand, they were instructed to wash their hands and return - this was a multi-stepped task, and they did very well.  Peer modeling is very effective!

Here are some very cute printables!  I wanted to make sure I had plenty of Dr. Seuss related activities, and I still have more on my desk.  The Truffle Tree book was great!  It required student concentration, and made a great opportunity for manding missing items in a scenario.  We were able to use them later for story time and everyone had a book!  The other Cat in the Hat ditto was just a fun coloring activity.  One of my students independently added the stripes on his hat!

Okay....that's all I have for today...until next time!!!!

Thanks for reading!

St. Patrick's Day Crafts

Its the time of year where I prepare crafts for the spring.

The holiday I will begin preparing crafts for is St. Patrick's Day!

I just purchased a Spring unit from teacherspayteachers.com seller, Sasha Hallagan.

She's one of my favorite sellers, and I have purchased several thematic units from her!

My students love the predictable format and it really helps teach them holiday vocabulary.

I use these units during circle time for group instruction, or independent work tasks.  

Please see a preview of the spring unit: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Spring-Vocabulary-Unit-for-Special-Education-or-Early-Childhood-1057276

Here is a picture (borrowed from Pinterest) of a leprechaun we made last year with our hands!

This was a fun sensory-based activity!

Like you will see with many of my other posts, of course, I found this idea on Pinterest!

Another sensory-based activity for perhaps a lower functioning group.

Pepper stamping!

I found some ideas I would like to try with my group this year.

Although some of my students are high functioning and others are not, accommodations can easily be made for all to create!

Hello,

Welcome to my new blog I have dedicated to Autism Awareness!
I am a K-2 Autistic Support teacher.  My classroom is dedicated to applied behavior analytic techniques and discrete trial instruction.
Please check-in regularly to see ideas I will post for my students!
These ideas include fine motor activities, art activities, and maybe a couple reviews on interventions I use!

Thanks for reading!