Autism In The Classroom

Did you know gentle vibration can be extremely calming and soothing for people on the autism spectrum?  A simple vibration toy or product can calm and sooth an autistic person who is feeling overwhelmed or in the middle of a melt down.  They can also sooth an autistic person who is feeling anxious.  Sometimes parents and therapists will give a child with autism a vibrating toy to help with a situation that usually causes a melt down to help keep the person clam during the stressful situation.  While some vibration furniture can run into thousands of dollars here are a few vibrating toys and items for people on the autism spectrum that won’t break the bank!   Vibration products make great gifts for people with autism, Asperger’s or PDD-NOS.

Vibrating Mats

There are a variety of vibrating mats and massage mats out there.  Some also include heat.  When looking at a massage mat make sure that it is a vibrating mat and not the shiatsu style massage.  The shiatsu style mats have hard rolling balls built into the mats.  While some may enjoy this type of massage, for many it is not calming and for some may feel painful.  A favorite mat we recommend is the Vibramat.  This mat is very durable and versatile.  You can place a bean bag chair on top of it for an instant massage chair.  You can stand on it or lie on it and it will automatically shut off after four hours.

Vibrating Pillow

Vibrating pillows are often nice options for the home or classroom.  Some have switches and some are pressure activated.  If you are working with a child who is particularly self injurious it’s best to try and find a pressure activated pillows with no outside switches or hardware that could potentially scratch or harm the autistic person when in the middle of a melt down.  Again remember to avoid the shiatsu style pillows.

Vibrating Toys

Fortunately there are a wide variety of vibration toys to choose from.  Often you can find these toys in the baby section of a store.  Many of these toys are soft, plush toys that are activated by pulling a string.  A favorite massage toy we recommend is a vibrating dinosaur egg.  This egg is small and easy to carry and it doesn’t look like a baby toy so it looks more socially appropriate for children and teens.

Hand Held Massagers & Mini Massage 

There are a variety of hand held massagers and mini massage items you can buy online.  The large variety of styles and shapes make it easy to find something in a favorite color or style, best of all most of these units only cost between $6.00 – $35.00 so they won’t break the bank.  You can even find animal massagers that are fun and engaging for children.

Vibrating Mitt

A newer vibration product that is working well for parents and therapists is the vibrating mitt.  This soft mitt features a soft sheep skin cover.  To use it just place the mitt anywhere on someones body and push down for instant on the spot massage.  This device is pressure activated so there is no on and off switch to worry about.  Also, because it is pressure activated it conserves battery life.

Vibrating Snake

Finally believe it or not, flexible vibrating tubes or “vibrating snakes” are also very calming and work well with people on the autism spectrum.  These flexible tubes can be positioned almost anywhere on the body to provide soothing vibration.  They work well when someone is sitting or laying down too.  The soft rubber cover of these tubes make them a good choice for someone who is agitated.

By: Angela Nelson

Labeling and Requesting are the most basic of all full sentence activities, and provide a basis for your student to understand that communication requires more than single word utterances. The following list of activities offers just a few examples of the many lessons you can use to help build full sentences and a more complete system of communication with your child.

Adjectives

You can use picture cards to discuss adjectives or descriptive words. Some adjectives are clear from the pictures, such as “the apple is round” or “the frog is green.” Other adjectives draw more on a child’s real-world experience, like “the bunny is soft” or “the banana is sweet.” To teach adjectives, you can start with a receptive task. Place cards in front of your child and ask them to “find something green” or “point to something that is round.” This receptive language activity will allow your student to hear some of the adjectives you use, before trying to come up with their own descriptive words when you start to build sentences with them.

To transition this activity to expressive language, you can hold up a picture and ask your student, “What color is the frog?” You will need to prompt your student at first either verbally or using a cue card method as described above.

Wh question

Use a picture of a common item to teach adjectives and WH questions.

Picture cards provide a great opportunity to practice “Wh” questions. You can show your student a picture and ask him or her to answer questions such as “What color is the frog?” “Where would you find a plate?”  “When do you use a pillow?” “Why do you use soap?”

To start, some of these questions will fall easily out of the adjectives lessons you have already practiced, such as “What color is it?” Other questions will provide a new challenge for your student.

Tell me about

Use pictures with which your student is already familiar. The best pictures will be the ones you have practiced extensively on the Adjectives and Wh Questions. Show your student a picture and ask him or her to tell you about the item in the picture.

The first things that your student should be able to tell you about the pictures are the responses that they learned in Adjectives and Wh Questions. The difference with this drill is that you student has to generate the content themselves rather than respond to your question. When you ask your student “What color is it?” they know color is the relevant detail. In the Tell Me About lesson, students have to decide for themselves that color is a relevant thing to tell you about the picture.

You can start with scripted responses, using the picture to cue your student. Then you can progress to more creative responses that might not be so obvious from the picture. For example, show your student a picture of a duck. Ask your student, “Can you tell me about a duck?” By looking at the picture, your student can get some basic answers. “A Duck has feathers.” “A duck has webbed feet.” “A duck has a bill.” As your student becomes more familiar with this activity, you may progress to things about a duck that are not readily apparent from the picture. “A duck can swim.’ “A duck says ‘quack quack,’” “A duck lays eggs.”

The Tell Me about Lesson also gives you the opportunity to increase the length of your student’s verbal activity. Start by requiring the student to tell you only one detail about the picture. Then move up to two, or three or more details. Of course, if you ask your student to tell you three things about the picture, you may have difficulty if they haven’t mastered counting skills. Here’s a trick: hand your student three blocks and have them toss a block into a bucket with every detail they tell you. This is a great way to help your student count their answers, and it makes it fun for them!

Storytelling

The next step in this language building series is Storytelling. Again, this activity builds on the previous lessons. Show your student a familiar picture card and ask your student to “Tell you a story” about the picture. The first elements of the story will likely be familiar from the Tell Me About lesson. For example:

“Tell me a story about a duck.”

“There was a duck, it had webbed feet, feathers, and a bill. The duck went for a swim in the pond, then it laid some eggs and said ‘quack quack’”

As your student’s language skills grow, so will the creativity of the stories!

Generalization

The setting in which you begin to teach language skills is very structured and formal. However these new skills will become more valuable as they generalize across time and setting, and with various communication partners. To help promote generalization, you can start by moving your therapy session to different places – starting even with different rooms in the house.

Next, it is important that the skills your child has learned in the formal therapy session be practiced throughout other aspects of the child’s life, such as during family time and at school. Make sure to bring the cards (or have second sets) to dinner, to the store, to school, etc. Whenever you communicate with your child, require the same full sentences that are expected during therapy. Stop and take the time to use the prompt cards if necessary.

Finally, keep good records and good communication channels open with all of the other professionals and family members in your child’s life. You should send a notebook back and forth to school, or perhaps start an electronic communication log to make sure teachers are requiring the same sentences, using the same words, and bringing in the same prompts as you are at home and in therapy. Consistency is a major key to building and generalizing successful language skills to help your child interact with the world around them.

Angela Nelson received her BA and JD from UCLA where she studied and practiced behavior psychology under Dr. Ivar Lovaas. As Founder and CEO of Stages Learning Materials, Angela has created autism and special needs curriculum products since 1997.

By: Angela Nelson

We talked in the last post about building vocabulary, now it’s time to teach your child with autism how to speak in simple sentences. Last post we talked about the importance of using a set of realistic photos as visual prompts to help students learn various nouns, occupations, and emotions. This stage of language development can feel repetitive and basic, focusing only on learning single-word responses. However, when a child with autism begins to gain expressive language skills, it’s an exciting time to watch language emerge and leads the way for speaking simple sentences.

Labeling Sentences

After a child can say several single words when presented with a picture, the next step is to take these single word answers and turn them into complete sentences.

To develop sentences the key is to start simple. As a first step teach the child to use an article along with the word. For example, when showing the child a picture card move toward an answer of “an apple” or “a car.” Once the child has mastered this step it’s time to teach them “It is an apple” or “It is a car.”

As you begin to teach your child to use  full sentences, you will need to use prompts in the beginning. The most common method is verbal modeling.  But it is important to fade the verbal prompt as soon as possible. To help your child answer in full sentences without using a verbal prompt, you can make some simple visual cues.

Teaching simple sentences with the Language Builder Cards

Written cue cards are a great method to remind your student to use full sentences. For example, if you show your child a picture of a car, and ask “What is it?” your child is likely to answer “car.” To prompt your child to use the article “a” with the word car, you can start by putting a cue card in front of the picture with the word “a” on it. Have your child touch each card (the “a” card and then the picture card) as they say the words “a car.” The next step would be to add cue cards for “It is a car.” When your child starts to grasp the concept of speaking multi-word sentences, you can begin to fade the visual cue card prompts.

Requesting Sentences

Another important type of sentence that your child will need to learn to use is a Requesting Sentence. When your child learns to use communication to make requests and get their needs met, it will reduce their frustration level, which will in turn reduce the frequency of tantrums and outbursts.

To teach this skill begin by sorting through your picture cards to find pictures of items your child likes and that you have available to give to them. Food items are often the most successful to start with. For example: Cheese, Raisins, Juice, Popcorn, and Apple. Stick a magnet to the back of each picture and place the pictures on the refrigerator. Write the word “I” on one index card and the word “want” on another and place those on the refrigerator also. When you know your child wants a specific food (as most parents often do), pull the corresponding picture down into the “I want” sentence. Use the visual cues as a prompt to help your child remember to use the full sentence to request their desired food. As always, you should fade the prompts as your student begins to master this full sentence activity

Using cue cards to teach simple sentences.

A Note on Using Cue Cards to Prompt

You may think: Why am I using written words to prompt my child? He can’t speak well, so what makes anyone think he can read?

The cards are not meant for your child to read. They are merely place markers. It makes as much sense to use the words as anything else. However, you could also use something as simple and nondescript such as blocks or blank cards for your child to touch as they say the words. The idea is to give your child a visual reminder to speak the extra words. In fact there are schools of thought suggesting that if you tie spoken words to physical activity that it creates more neural pathways for the words to attach to. Regardless, you can choose to use the word cards, or to use a more neutral object. Decide what works best for your child.

Angela Nelson received her BA and JD from UCLA where she studied and practiced behavior psychology under Dr. Ivar Lovaas. As Founder and CEO of Stages Learning Materials, Angela has created autism and special needs curriculum products since 1997.

By Angela Nelson

Building Expressive Vocabulary
Expressive language is the step where your child learns to actually say words out loud. All of the tasks we talked about in Part 1 come into play when building your child’s expressive vocabulary. Picture cards are a useful tool again, because it just isn’t feasible to bring every object directly to your child. We certainly want them to learn the words bus and airplane, but it’s difficult to get those items into your living room!

The basic idea for building expressive vocabulary using picture cards is just to hold the card up and ask your child “what is it?” The intricacy comes in knowing how to prompt your child and how to fade that prompt. We talked in Part 1 about the importance of your child being able to imitate the words that you say. Imitation is the basis for the prompts you will use to build your child’s expressive vocabulary.

The first several times you ask your child the name of a new picture, you will likely have to model the word for him or her. For example, you ask your child “What is it?” If you do not get a response, you say “apple.” Ideally your child repeats the word “apple.” After a few tries, you can shorten your prompt to “app….” And then to “aaaa…….” And then perhaps to just opening your mouth as if to say “aaaa…” but not making a sound.

Building Vocabulary Using the Language Builder Card Set

A Comprehensive Picture Card Library
It is a good idea to have a large selection of pictures ready to go when you start to teach the lessons we just described. Here are a few tips to help you choose or take appropriate pictures:

• Start with words that are familiar to your child. Words like apple, cup and cookies may be better than saxophone or stethoscope.
• Start with pictures on a plain white, or a distraction free background.
• Make sure to have duplicates available for the matching tasks when you first start out.
• Consider taking multiple pictures of the same item (6 different apples for example) to help your child generalize their newly learned words.
• As your child becomes more comfortable learning new words move to more natural settings for your pictures.
• Have a broad range of pictures, across multiple categories, ready for when your child is ready to move forward!
• If you take the pictures yourself, consider having them laminated for durability.

If you would like to purchase a set of photo cards to meet the needs of your new language program we recommend the  350-Card Set of photo flash cards called the Language Builder Picture Card Set, developed by Stages Learning Materials which is specifically tailored to meet the needs of an early language vocabulary building program.  This set is currently on sale at the National Autism Resources autism store.

Angela Nelson received her BA and JD from UCLA where she studied and practiced behavior psychology under Dr. Ivar Lovaas. As Founder and CEO of Stages Learning Materials, Angela has created autism and special needs curriculum products since 1997.

By: Angela Nelson

Language development varies from child to child, and there are wide ranges of expected “normal” language development in young children. If you have concerns about your child’s language development, you should discuss this with your pediatrician.

By the age of two a child should be able to:

• Follow simple commands or instructions
• Point to an object or picture when it is named for him or her
• Recognize names of familiar objects, body parts and familiar faces
• Repeat words spoken by others
• Use simple phrases and 2 – 4 word sentences by 18 – 24 months

As we all know, there is no “typical” child with autism. Children on the Autism Spectrum may meet some of these objectives, all of these objectives, or none of these objectives. The goal is to identify your child’s specific language deficits (the areas you see them falling behind) and takes steps to help them catch up.

The first stages of language development,  involve listening to words, imitating words, and building a basic vocabulary. In your child’s education program you may have heard professionals use terms like Receptive Language, Echolalia, Modeling, Matching, or Expressive Language. Don’t let these terms intimidate you. Really, they just mean… listening to words, imitating words, and building a basic vocabulary.

Encouraging Emerging Language Skills

A basic step in typical language development is imitation. Many parents are surprised to learn that a parent imitating their child is almost as important as the child imitating the parent! When a 12 month old child looks at his or her mother and says “mamamama,” the mother almost instinctively replies back, “that’s right ‘mama.’” This feedback reinforces the child’s vocalization and encourages them to keep on chatting. Although children with autism may have delayed onset of this type of behavior, or may have some setbacks along the way; it is important to remember to continue to imitate vocalizations with your child to encourage verbal behavior.

Imitation will also provide the first steps in the formation of words for your child. This time I mean your child imitating you! While you are hoping to hear your child imitating full words, remember, this starts with imitating vowels, consonants and syllables. If you say “aaaaa” and your child responds back with “aaaaa,” this is a cause for celebration. You are one step closer to your child saying “ma” or  “apple” than you were before they could (or would) imitate your vocalization. Eventually, modeling words will become the way you build your child’s expressive vocabulary!

Language Builder Picture Cards: Identical Matching

Developmental Psychologist, Jean Piaget, observed that a child first becomes aware of a concept and then acquires the words to convey that concept. Think about this for a moment: a child has to know that an apple is a distinct and separate item, before they know they should give it a name. They have to realize that the apple is different than, say, a cup. This is where matching comes in.

To teach this concept you can use pictures of objects.  Place two pictures on the table in front of your child, one picture of an apple, and the other of a cup (or some non-apple picture). Hand your child an identical picture of an apple. Ask your child to “match” the apples, or to “put with same.”

When your child can consistently match the two cards, regardless of the position of the cards, they likely understand that the apple is a distinct object. Now we are one step closer to giving that object a name!

Building Receptive Vocabulary

Receptive language refers to the thought process involved in hearing, processing and comprehending spoken language. When we mentioned above that a two year old child should be able to follow simple commands, point to objects when they are named, and recognize names of familiar objects; these objectives were examples of receptive language skills.

There are a number of ways to help build your child’s receptive vocabulary. Using photo cards, like the Language Builder Picture Cards,  is one basic and concrete vocabulary building tool that you can do at home. Place pictures of common objects on the table in front of your child. Ask your child to “touch the cookies” or “give me the hat.” When your child can follow the command and consistently select the requested picture, you have added a new word to their receptive vocabulary.

It is likely that your child will need help selecting the correct card… especially the first few times you try this task. Here is a trick to help make picking the right word easier. Start with just one card on the table and increase the number of pictures slowly. For example, if you are trying to teach the word cookies

1. Start with just the picture of the cookies on the table.
2. After your child has learned to touch the cookies picture on request, add a blank card to the table. Ask your child to touch the cookies picture several more times, rotating the position of the two cards each time.
3. Then, add a second picture to the table, and a third, and a fourth.
4. Once your child can select the cookies picture each time, introduce new words using the same method!

Language Builder Picture Cards: Receptive Labeling Can Progress from One Card to Multiple Cards

Angela Nelson received her BA and JD from UCLA where she studied and practiced behavior psychology under Dr. Ivar Lovaas. As Founder and CEO of Stages Learning Materials, Angela has created autism and special needs curriculum products since 1997.

Do you have a student with autism or ADD/ADHD in your class that has a hard time sitting still or focusing?  Often providing small opportunities for movement can actually increase your special students concentration.  The key is to find something discrete that allows for some movement, but doesn’t become a distraction to the class.  Here are our top five strategies:

Use an Exercise Band around the Student’s Chair legs.

A simple exercise band wrapped around the front of a student’s chair legs allows a child to kick and get their energy out, increasing focus and decreasing distracting movements.  Best of all if the student is sitting at a desk it’s completely quiet and out of the site of other students.

Give the Child a Small Hand Fidget.

There are a couple of hand fidgets that work really well in the classroom depending on the student.  Small stretchy frogs have long been a classroom favorite.  These work well because they’re inexpensive, discrete, and are great for squishing between fingers.  This is a nice option for mainstream kids who tend to lose things.  Usually they come in a bag so a teacher can keep a supply in her desk for the times a student really needs it.

Isoflex balls work well with older students who may also be dealing with anxiety.   Squeezing the ball or putting it between a student’s hands to squish can instantly relieve tension and increase focus. A micro bead filling provides enough give so that it takes some effort to squeeze, but not too much effort.  However, the skins of these balls are made of several thin layers of latex.  So if you have a destructive student, or one with a latex allergy, look at another option.

Tangle Relax This fidget can be broken into two smaller rings, is very sturdy, and fairly inexpensive.  It comes with a bumpy rubber skin that is a very pleasant tactile experience.  Extremely durable, this is a nice option for elementary age students as well as adults.  However, it is designed to snap open and shut and can break into small parts that could pose a choking hazard for young children or those with cognitive challenges.

Let them Sit on a “Wiggle Seat“

A simple wiggle seat a student  can sit on can encourage exercising the student’s  core muscles.  These small core exercises can keep energy levels down, decrease distractions and help with focus.  If you have a student  with posture issues you may want to get a Move N Sit. This is a wedge shaped cushion that encourages the pelvis to tilt forward aligning the spine.  Thankfully, there are discount versions available that are just as good.

Let them chew something.

Do you have a student who is sucking or chewing on their clothes, hands or pencils?  If so this may be a calming or focusing strategy.  Why not give them something appropriate to chew on?  There are a variety of inexpensive chewable jewelry options as well as clear pencil toppers you can use in the classroom.  For younger children (preschool and under) a popular option is a Teether Ball.  Not only is it a chewy, but it can keep hands busy during circle time.

Try a weighted vest, or Lap Pad.

Easily distracted students may respond positively to the additional weight of a weighted lap pad or  a weighted vest provides.  In a recent review article from the Journal of Autism Developmental Disorders the author noted:

“Five of the seven studies reported some improvements in behavior of children with ASD.  Weighted vests seemed to reduce stereotypic (repetitive) behaviors in some of the children. The vests increased attention or on-task time for some children.  However, these were small studies and could not measure behaviors reliably.”

Every child is different.  Sometimes finding a focus strategy for your special student takes some trial and error.  If you have a helpful focus strategy please share it!

Since many children with autism spectrum have a difficult time understanding emotions we offer several varieties of emotion flashcards sets. We often get questions about these items, so here is a little information about each of our emotion flash cards sets.

Stages Language Builder Emotion Cards: In terms of emotion flashcards sets, this set is the cream of the crop. This card set features 80 3.5” x 5” photo cards that depict various facial expressions and emotions. The nice thing about this set is each emotion is featured eight times by different people. These emotions are: happy, sad, angry, surprised and disgusted. This is very helpful for generalizing recognition of emotions. The set also features 40 more images depicting real-life situations and activities that elicit a wide range of emotions. On the back of these cards are suggested conversation starters that are specific to each scenario. This card set is very popular for intensive behavioral programs, home use with parents and early intervention classrooms.

People and Emotion Photographic Learning Cards: This emotion card set offers a variety of ways to explore people and emotions. This set features 22 photographs of emotions that moves beyond basic emotions and looks at more subtle emotions such as shy, grouchy, or worried. This set also includes 23 photographs of families from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. 23 photographs of children engaged in common school and social activities. 22 photographs of people engaged in common careers that children see in their community. This set also includes a resource guide with additional teaching suggestions, activity ideas and word lists.  This set is very popular in preschool and early intervention classrooms.

Emotions Flash Cards: This set features 22 high quality photographic cards that represent a wide range of emotions. Each 8” x 5” card features a close-up of a young child’s face. The common emotions happy, sad, worried and angry are each featured three times, which helps with generalization. Several other emotions are also pictured including surprised, scared, serious, bored and disgusted. The size of these cards also make them a nice choice for circle time, bulletin boards or other small group settings.

More Emotions Flash Cards: The More Emotions Flash Card set is a continuation of the Emotions flash cards. This set continues to show pictures of happy, sad, and angry as well as lots more emotions such as lonely, surprised, sick and nervous. Use this with the Emotions Flash Cards to create an extensive high quality set of flashcards that examine emotions.

Facial Expressions Flash Cards: This flash card set features 45 4″ x  5″ photographs of children displaying a wide variety of emotions and facial expressions. Close shots of children’s faces ensure that learners will focus on the facial expressions. Emotions include happy, sad, angry, surprised, as well as more subtle emotions such as worried, upset or bored. The discussion and story starters include guided questions that develop expressive language skills while teaching children how to recognize emotions in others, describe their own feelings and demonstrate empathy.

By: Kimberly L. Gallo

“He’s acting weird,” words of concern from me to my husband. “Maybe he has autism,” I blurted out of nowhere. Autism… What is autism? Why did I just say that word out loud to my husband? Especially since I have no idea what autism is?

This was the start of our journey; the word came flying out of my mouth and I knew it must have come out for a reason. It was then that I looked up the word “autism” online. The year was 2003. After finding a list of signs of autism on my computer screen, and seeing that our son had all five signs, I was convinced.

The same week of his diagnosis, our younger son was born. It didn’t take long to see that our new baby was more interested in the letters on my shirt than looking into my eyes. Here we go again.

I craved eye contact and smiles from my sons. It didn’t seem fair that I had to work so hard for what other parents got naturally from their children. So I set out to make joint attention my goal. I had my face in my children’s faces as much as I possibly could. I remember one time singing “Row, row, row your boat” to my 4 month old son. I was smiling and singing while he cried and tried to get away from me. I had the advantage though, he was not mobile yet.

Being a constant cheerleader was the hardest thing I have ever done and the most rewarding thing at the same time. When I got a shared moment of happiness, I felt like I was on top of the world.

Knowing how hard it is to create that bond between parent and child with autism, and knowing how vitally important the bond is, I was spurred into action to create a product that would make interacting with ASD kids something to look forward to. I wanted to make products for parents and educators that could bring out the laughter and the eye contact in a way that was fun for everyone. My husband and I created “Playtime with Zeebu” for this purpose.

First and foremost, Zeebu games, DVD, books, and puppets are tools that help parents and educators connect with their ASD children. The DVD and all of the activity books come with user guides and games that help parents facilitate joint attention. The Zebu puppet acts as a bridge from the video to the real world enticing children with ASD to want to play along with their parents and care givers. In the back of each of our activity books there is a section called “Playing Together Games”. This section has my favorite face to face games; games that my children still ask to play today.

My journey is not over; my boys are now 8 and 9 years old. Like most parents of children with autism, I am constantly looking for a new key that will unlock the part of their brain that autism has closed off. I take it as a challenge; I enjoy the hunt for the key because when I find the key that fits, when that door is opened, it will give me more energy and a purpose to tackle the next locked door.

During the winter when children have few opportunities to go outside it can be difficult for students to focus.  It can be especially difficult for students with special needs to focus or sit still during teaching times. Here are a few tips to help your students focus when medication is not an option.

Help students focus with a mouth fidget.  Gum, chewy tubes or chewelry, work well to help students calm or refocus.

Provide students with a Fidget.   Fidgets are small toys a student can hold in their hand that can help students increase focus and attention. (Rotz, Wright, 2005) Good fidgets should have a combination of an interesting tactile composition, pliability, and some movement opportunities for the hands and fingers.

Let students stand while they work or sit on a Seating Discs.  Children who have problems focusing in the classroom may “under register” movement and without that ability they can’t focus. Although they look strong in quick actions, the body can’t endure long periods of sitting or standing. Sit discs are ideal for providing kids with movement and tactile stimulation while sitting in their seats. Literature indicates positive effects of dynamic seating for children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) for attention and classroom behaviors (Schilling & Swartz, 2004; Schilling, Washington, Billingsley, & Deitz, 2003). As a group, students with IEPs and those considered At-Risk demonstrated overall improvements and/or consistencies in rate, accuracy, fluency, and comprehension while seated on an air-filled cushion. Students with IEPs showed the greatest increase in reading rate and comprehension with a full or almost full grade level of improvement noted. Best of all, both the teacher and the students in this study noted that the air-filled cushion was not disruptive and easily fit into the classroom routine.

Use a visual timer to help students focus. A visual timer help students understand the passage of time and they can monitor their own activities. Better time awareness can help with focus and attention and also relieve stress and anxiety.

Help students focus by creating a simple card with the word “wait” written on it. For some students this extra reminder can help to keep them seated. Its important when using a wait card to make sure there is ample time for breaks.

Help fidgety students focus and burn off some energy with an exercise band.  Place the band around the bottom of your student’s two front chair legs. Students can sit and fidget with their feet without disturbing the class.

Use a Weighted Vest, Lap Pad, or Shoulder Weights.   According to a study by the Challenge Infant Developmental Center, Brooklyn, New York (Fertel-Daly, Hinojosa, 2001) children with autism, who used a weighted vest, displayed an increase in attention to task and decrease in self-stimulatory behaviors. The most consistent improvement observed was the decreased number of distractions.

We hope this simple suggestions will help your students focus.  If you have an idea or technique that you have used to help your students focus, please share it!

Roland Rotz, Sarah Wright (2005) Fidget to Focus, New York, iUniverse, Inc.

Schilling, D. L. & Schwartz, I. S. (2004).  Alternative Seating for Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Effects on Classroom Behavior. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.  34, 423-432.

Schilling, D.L., Washington, K., Billingsley, F.F., Deitz, J. (2003). Classroom seating for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: Therapy balls versus chairs. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 57(5), 534-41.

Fertel-Daly D, Bedell G, Hinojosa J., (2001). Effects of a weightedvest on attention to task and self-stimulatory behaviors in preschoolers with pervasive developmental disorders. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, Nov-Dec;55(6):629-40.

Transitioning can be difficult and stressful for people with autism spectrum disorder.   Here are five techniques that can help to reduce anxiety and give a sense of predictability to transitions.

1. Create a Schedule

Create a schedule the student can refer to.  This can be a simple written list of activities or a sequence of pictures or both. Schedules can prepare a student for a transition by allowing them to anticipate upcoming activities and understand the sequence of events that will occur. Using schedules can decrease transition time and lower anxiety and melt downs.

2. Show Activities as Finished

Marking activities as finished naturally prepares the student for the next activity. If using a picture schedule have a finished pocket for the student to place the picture of the completed activity in. For routine schedules, laminate the schedule with a box next to each picture that the student can check off as complete. Or simply use a piece of paper and write out the schedule and allow the student to cross each item off as it is completed.

 3. Use a Timer

Time is an abstract concept that can be difficult for autistic students to understand. Using a timer gives students a visual of how much time is left before a transition. It can also help to keep some kids on task for projects they don’t like, because they can see it has an end. Some timers, like the Time Timer give an additional visual of the countdown of time.

 4. Make sure there is ample time for transitions.

Rushing to stay on schedule is stressful for anyone. Especially with new routines at school allow adequate time for autistic students to process the transition and move on to the next activity.

 5. Give the student a transition item.

Sometimes carrying a familiar item during a transition can add a sense of continuity and comfort. Some students keep an object with them throughout the day.  For others it’s helpful if they get the item after they have completed a project.  Allowing the student to get the transition item may help prepare them to move on to the next activity.