Category Archives: Daily Living Skills

Autism Awareness Month: DIY Spatial Awareness Button Buddy

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sugar aunts 1Looking for a simple tool to help improve your student’s handwriting skills? Check out this super easy, DIY solution from Sugar Aunts called the Spatial Awareness Button Buddy!  This tool helps youngsters accurately space letters and words within a sentence using a small Popsicle stick and a button.

Simply glue a button to one end of a Popsicle stick and instruct the student to lay the Button Buddy on its side to indicate where they should place the next letter as shown in the photo below.

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Once the child has completed a word, ask them to lay the Button Buddy flat on their paper, with the button right next to their last letter.  Show them that the space between each word is as long as the width of a button and have them write their next word on the opposite side of their Button Buddy.

Continue on until your little writer has mastered their new spatial awareness skills and can write full sentences without their Button Buddy!

For more spatial awareness activities and ideas, read the full article from Sugar Aunts here.  Otherwise, let us know what other crafts and activities you have come up with to help your students improve their handwriting in the comments section!

Autism Awareness Month: Free Gum Ball Alphabet Matching Activity

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Gumball Activity 1Start Autism Awareness Month on a sweet note with this gum ball alphabet matching activity! This free, easy-prep printable from lifeovercs.com and 123 Homeschool 4 Me helps young learners build strong letter recognition skills by asking them to match lowercase letter gumballs with uppercase letter gumball machines. All you have to do is print, cut and play!

Once your student gains mastery and confidence in their letter matching skills, consider asking them to complete the following more advanced tasks:

  • Sort the letters alphabetically
  • Sort vowels from consonants
  • Flip all the cards over for an instant memory letter matching game!

Gumball Activity 2To make sure that your letters last, we recommend printing the activity on cardstock or laminating the letters for longer use.

You can download this free printable here, but don’t forget to let us know in what other ways you and your students utilized this alphabet activity in the comments section!

Pick of the Week: People & Occupations in the Community

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Understanding who important community helpers are and their roles in the community is vital to daily living skills in students with autism. This week, we’ve compiled all of our best tools for teaching your students about people and their occupations, including their tools of the trade. You can also save 15% on any of these sale items by using our promo code NEIGHBORS at check-out!

People Occupations Graphic

View our entire sale here.

*Offer is valid through March 29, 2016 at 11:59pm EST. Not compatible with any other offers. Be sure there are no spaces or dashes in your code NEIGHBORS at check-out. Call us at (800) 853-1057 with any inquiries.

Pick of the Week: Inchimals Animal Blocks – Teach measurement, number concepts, and more

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Inchimals Animal Blocks are a fun and effective way to teach measurement, number concept, addition, subtraction, and pre-algebra to children of many ages. Beautifully crafted, Inchimals contains 12 wooden animal blocks measuring anywhere from 1 inch (the tiny ladybug) to 12 inches (the towering giraffe). This week, take 15% off your order of the Inchimals by entering in our promo code INCHIMALS at check-out.

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With exact inch segments, written numerals, representative dots, and cute animals, Inchimals is a multi-purpose toy that encourages creativity, interaction, logic and mathematics mastery.

*Offer is valid for one-time use through March 8, 2016 at 11:59pm EST. Promotion does not apply to past purchases. Be sure there are no spaces or dashes in your code INCHIMALS at check-out. Call our friendly customer service team at (800) 853-1057 with any inquiries.

Pick of the Week: Clue Cards – 5 games in one to teach socioemotional skills

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Clue Cards teaches students how to interpret social situations, read facial expressions, and understand metaphorical forms of speech. This week, you can save 15%* on Clue Cards – just enter promo code CLUECARDS when you check out online! Play 5 different games to teach inferencing, faces and feelings, body language, exploring Wh- questions, and a variety of common idioms!

Therapists, teachers and parents can uses the cards and games included in this set to help students perceive and understand the details of social presentation. Because the cards are flexible and adaptable, they can be used with both younger and older children, with mild or sever socioemotional difficulties. There are instructions for 5 different games along with 100 reward chips, targeted for players ages 6–16.

  1. Get a Clue: Players find “clues” in social situations and make inferences based on those clues (15 Social Situation Cards).
  2. Faces and Feelings: Link expressions with associated emotions (20 Feeling Cards, 20 Faces Cards).
  3. Body Language: Matching photos and captions, children explore body language for clues about thoughts and feelings (24 Photo Cards, 24 Caption Cards).
  4. The 5 W’s: Analyze 10 social scenes by asking “who-what-where-when-why” questions (10 Social Scene Cards, 1 Spinner).
  5. In Other Words: Learn the idioms and proverbs that often pop up in social conversation (30 Idiom Cards, 30 Idiom Definition Cards, 26 Proverb Cards, 26 Proverb Definition Cards).

*Offer lasts through March 1, 2016 at 11:59 PM EST. Be sure there are no spaces or dashes in your code CLUECARDS at check-out! Not valid on past purchases.

Pick of the Week: Wh- Question ConversaCards

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Encourage discussion and critical thinking in students with these decks of Wh- Question ConversaCards. This week, you can also save 15%* on your order of any or all of these sets. Just use promo code WHCARDS when you check out online or over the phone!

Covering 6 different topics – Where Does It Go, What Happened, What Comes Next, What Do You Do With It, What Do You Need, and What Do You Like – each set comes with 54 cards and a Resource Guide containing helpful strategies and suggestions for prompts. Learning to respond to “what” and “where” questions is the foundation of conversation and expressive language. These flashcards can be used to teach sequencing, storytelling and logical thinking for a wide range of ability levels!

Don’t forget to use our promo code WHCARDS to take 15% off* when you order your set(s) of Wh- Question ConversaCards this week!

*Offer is valid through February 16, 2016. Be sure there are no spaces or dashes in your code WHCARDS at check-out! Call our customer service team at (800) 853-1057 with inquiries.

Pick of the Week: Rainbow Sorting Crayons

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These charming giant crayons contain 48 different manipulatives sorted by color that can be used to teach patterns, counting, colors, and more. This week, we’re also letting you save 15% on  your set of the Rainbow Sorting Crayons – just apply our promo code CRAYONS when you check out online!

There are 8 cardboard crayon-shaped tubes with plastic lids. Use the manipulatives for teaching patterning, counting, color identification, 2-D to 3-D matching, and language development to young learners. The best part is that the crayons serve as built-in storage so cleanup is a cinch!

Don’t forget to use our promo code CRAYONS at check-out this week to save 15% on your set of the Rainbow Sorting Crayons.

*Offer is valid for one-time use through February 9, 2016 at 11:59pm EST. Promotion does not apply to past purchases. Be sure there are no spaces or dashes in your code CRAYONS at check-out. Call our friendly customer service team at (800) 853-1057 with any inquiries.

Pick of the Week: Save 15% on ALL of our Emotions Flashcards!

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Emotions language cards are great tools for teaching language and facial expressions in a variety of contexts to young learners. Promote discussion about a range of emotions, why people may feel a certain way, and possible responses to these feelings with our collection of emotions flash cards.

This week, you can also save 15% on any of these Emotions flashcards sets. Just enter our promo code EMOTIONS when you check out online.

>>> View our entire sale here. <<<

*Offer is valid for one-time use through February 2, 2016 at 11:59pm EST. Promotion does not apply to past purchases. Be sure there are no spaces or dashes in your code EMOTIONS at check-out. Call our friendly customer service team at (800) 853-1057 with any inquiries.

Pick of the Week: NEW! Super Sorting Pie

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Teach early number skills, colors, shapes, and sorting skills with this fruity Super Sorting Pie! The pie also comes with sorting cards that can be placed in the bottom of the pan to provide visual cues for students. This week, save 15% on your order of the Super Sorting Pie and start sorting! Use our promo code PIE15 at check-out to redeem these savings.

The top crust also becomes a nifty bowl to conveniently hold the fruit counters. Students can also practice fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination with the included tweezers.

The set comes with 60 counters (7 fruits in 5 different colors), 1 plastic pie plate with a cover & removable divider, 3 double-sided sorting cards, 2 jumbo tweezers, and an Activity Guide for suggested lessons. The Super Sorting Pie measures 8¾ inches in diameter.

Take 15%* off your order of the Super Sorting Pie this week with discount code PIE15 at check-out!

*Offer is valid for one-time use only through January 19, 2016 at 11:59pm EST. Be sure there are no spaces or dashes in your code PIE15 at check-out! Contact our friendly staff at (800) 853-1057 with any inquiries.

Pick of the Week: Coin-U-Lator + Worksheets!

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Learn about money with this fun and interactive coin-counting calculator. With reinforcing voice acknowledgements such as “Good Job!” or “Way to Go!” kids will enjoy learning how to count money and how to determine how much is needed to make a purchase with the Coin-U-Lator.

The Coin-U-Lator also comes with accompanying worksheets that offer lessons and further practice for learning how to count money. The workbook comes with 100 reproducible worksheets that are arranged in progressive levels of difficulty.

This week, save 15%* on your order of both the Coin-U-Lator and Coin-U-Lator Worksheets and get a head-start on teaching your young learner how to count money in a fun and engaging way! Use promo code COIN15 when you check out online.

*Offer expires on December 29, 2015 at 11:59pm EST. Offer is not valid on past purchases. Be sure there are no spaces or dashes in your code COIN15 at check-out! Call our friendly customer service team at (800) 853-1057 with any inquiries.