Teaching Functional Living Skills to Children with Autism at the Grocery Store

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Different Roads to Learning

We hear over and over again how children with autism may need hundreds or even thousands of opportunities to practice a skill before acquiring it. It’s important to keep this fact in mind when it comes to functional living skills (e.g. making the bed, cooking a meal, etc.). Many of the parents I work with prefer to focus on academic skills rather than functional living skills. Some feel that by focusing on functional living skills, they’re giving up on larger goals for their child, such as being placed in a general education environment, having the opportunity to go to college, and/or having the opportunity to have a career.

I always encourage parents to focus on both academic and functional living skills. While it may seem unnecessary to start thinking about teaching a nine year old how to grocery shop, it’s really just providing them with many, many opportunities to practice the skill. Typically developing children “practice” grocery shopping from a young age by watching their parents and playing “store” with friends, but children with autism are unlikely to observe their parents while they’re shopping or to play such games as “store” without explicit instruction. By practicing the skill with your child early on, you’re promoting future independence.

You can practice these skills when you are in the grocery store with your child, and you may just find that your child enjoys shopping. (Grocery shopping is a favorite activity for two of my current students.) It may be beneficial for you to just start out with one skill, choosing the one you think your child is the most likely to experience success with or that your child will be the most motivated by.

BEGINNER SKILLS

Choosing if you need a cart or a basket (Is our list long or short? Do we have big or small items?)
Using a grocery list (reading the list, crossing off items already placed in cart/basket)
Using supermarket signs to find items (understanding categories, knowing where to look for signs)
Greeting cashier

INTERMEDIATE SKILLS

Choosing good fruit or vegetables (looking for bruises, identifying ripeness)
Giving money to cashier
Accepting change from cashier
Taking bags when it’s time to leave

ADVANCED SKILLS

Comparison shopping (looking at unit price, comparing prices of two brands)
Making sure you received correct change
Returning an item that is damaged

You shouldn’t limit these skills to just the grocery store either. All of these skills are useful in department stores, pharmacies, book stores, and more. Your child may be more motivated to use these skills at the book store or a toy store. You can help your child learn the skills there, then generalize them to other types of stores.

If you need help getting started, you should ask your child’s teacher or therapist to accompany you on your first trip. They can help you identify the appropriate steps to put your child on the path to independence.

5 Essential Resources for Your ABA Program

Posted on April 15, 2014 by Different Roads to Learning

Our focus here at Different Roads to Learning is always on supporting the language and social skills in children on the spectrum through evidence-based interventions. We’re staunch believers in Applied Behavior Analysis and we’ve built our extensive product line around the tools that will best support these programs. As we continue to focus on Autism Awareness this month, we asked our BCBA Sam Blanco to choose five of her go-to resources and tell us a bit about why they’re integral components in her work. This week, we’re are also offering a 15% discount* on these five essential resources from our catalog. Be sure to use our promo code ESSABA5 when you check out online or mention it when you call us at (800) 853-1057.

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When you work with children with autism, you typically are focused on four goal areas: developing language and communication skills, improving social skills, increasing independence in both academic and daily living tasks, and addressing any maladaptive behaviors. While there are a wealth of resources available to help achieve goals in these areas, there are five resources I really can’t live without.

VB-MAPP: The Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program by Mark L. Sundberg, Ph.D. is essential. It’s easy to use, provides a wealth of information in a relatively short period of time, and allows you to prioritize the unique needs of your particular learner. Beyond the milestones assessment, I love that the VB-MAPP provides a way to assess and measure barriers to learning such as aggressive behaviors, prompt dependence, and defective scanning skill. Finally, as a special educator, it can be difficult at times to know how your student is doing compared to his/her peers in a general education environment. The Transition Assessment portion of the VB-MAPP allows you to assess and measure progress towards specific skills necessary for transitioning to a less restrictive environment.

Language Builder Picture Cards: After the VB-MAPP, these cards are the first investment you should make if you’re working with learners with autism. They are designed to help you teach a wide range of skills including receptive language, expressive language, matching, sorting by category, and identifying feature, function, and class. I use these cards to play games with my learner to practice prepositions (such as hiding a card picturing a frog and having the learner find it by listening to directions like “the frog is under the pillow.”) I also use the cards as prompts for a “What am I thinking of” game. For this game I can look at the picture, then give the learner clues so he/she can guess what I’m describing (such as “I’m green. I have four legs. I hop.”) I then trade turns, and the learner has to look at a picture and provide clues for me to guess what is pictured. All in all, the Language Builder Picture Cards provide so many opportunities for language development you’ll never regret the investment.

Time Timer: I love the Time Timer so much that I actually own the 3-inch, 8-inch, and 12-inch models. For young learners, the clear visual indicator of the passage of time helps prepare them for transitions, complete transitions with greater levels of independence, and begin to understand the passage of time. Older learners use it to manage their time better during tasks, regulate their own behavior, and increase independence in both academic and daily living skill tasks. For all students, it helps facilitate a better understanding of the concept of time. When I taught in the classroom, I used the 12-inch model so that it was clearly visible for all students. I love the 3-inch model for older students who still need the visual tool.

A Work in Progress: When I first began teaching learners with autism, a colleague recommended A Work in Progress to me, and I have come back to it again and again over the years. It provides strategies and a curriculum for addressing the needs of learners with autism, including topics such as self-stimulatory behaviors, sleep problems, eating problems, toilet training, and social play. Most importantly, it describes how to meet the needs of learners with autism in language that is accessible. The curriculum portion of the book describes in detail what a teaching session should look like and how to run discrete trials. It also provides comprehensive instructions for dozens of programs.

Verbal Behavior Targets: Unlike A Work in Progress, this book is not a curriculum, but, as Luckevich states in the introduction, a guide to selecting targets “to meet the unique language goals of each individual child.” Verbal Behavior Targets provides hundreds of targets for each stage of language development (split into 6 chapters: words; multiple words; instructions and questions; sentences; category, feature, and function; and conversation topics. I know there have been many moments in the past, especially when I was first starting out, in which my learner would master a target skill and I would struggle to come up with additional targets. This book helps you continue to push your learner towards independence by providing a vast number of targets in developmentally appropriate sequence. And did I mention she also included data sheets?

As a therapist, finding quality teaching resources can be challenging. There are so many products to choose from and the choice and cost can be overwhelming. The items described above are not only high-quality, but are essential to providing the best possible learning environment. Investing in a few versatile, solid products saves you money over the long term, makes both teaching and prep time more efficient, and helps provide a vast range of possibilities for student learning.

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This week only, you can save 15%* on any of these products on Sam’s list of 5 essential ABA resources by using promo code ESSABA5 when you check out online.

*Offer expires at 11:59pm ET on April 22, 2014. Not valid on past orders or with any other promotions and offers. Be sure there are no spaces or dashes in your code at check out!

Pick of the Week: The Incredible Flexible You Preschool Curriculum

Posted on March 25, 2014 by Different Roads to Learning

Help your young learners develop the skills they need to be flexible social thinkers and problem solvers with the brand new Incredible Flexible You Curriculum: A Social Thinking Curriculum for the Preschool and Early Elementary Years. Because Social Thinking is a thought-based approach that is explicitly taught through describing and demonstrating concrete concepts through structured play, it is best utilized with students who have the capacity to learn through language. To help you get started on the Social Thinking curriculum with your early learner, we are offering a 15% discount* on your next order of The Incredible Flexible You Curriculum set. Just use promo code DRLTIFY1 at checkout!

In this curriculum, the authors describe the social development process in easy-to-understand terms. Students will learn about the social mind, social expectations, their own thinking, and that of others, to help them make better decisions. Better yet, teachers and caregivers will learn how to explain these abstract concepts to them.

Detailed instructional lesson plans, complete with Teaching Moment specifics, motivating in-classroom structured activities, educational plan goals, and learn-at-home family letters give educators and parents the knowledge and tools they need to help young children develop better social skills.

The set consists of a 200-page curriculum manual, 5 story books, a CD, and tote bag. This curriculum is specifically for use with children ages 4-7, as it combines a social learning framework used in schools with music and dramatic play activities that appeal to early learners. Play is the learning environment of young children, and this curriculum capitalizes on this idea.

Don’t forget – you can save 15%* on your set of The Incredible Flexible You Curriculum by applying our promotional code DRLTIFY1 at checkout!

*Offer is not valid on previous purchases or with any other offer. Promo code expires on April 1, 2014 at 11:59pm EST. Be sure there are no spaces or dashes in your code at checkout!

Pick of the Week: Snap Shots Critical Thinking Photo Cards

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Different Roads to Learning

Promote higher-level thinking with these cards that combine critical thinking and visual literacy to teach students to look at the “big picture” as they investigate complex ideas and reach reason-based conclusions. Save 15% on your order of the Snap Shots Critical Thinking Photo Cards this week only by entering in our promotional code SNAPSH6 at checkout!

We have two beautiful sets of photo flashcards available for students in PreK and Grades 1 and up. The photos on these cards are all brain-teasing, eye-sharpening scenes that press students to look a little deeper as they develop complex ideas such as cause and effect, predicting, and making inferences. Each photo flashcard depicts a scene on the front and contains four accompanying questions on the back of each card. Over 150 prompts in each set encourage personal responses from students and help boost speaking, listening, and writing skills.

The PreK set contains photo cards that depict scenes of young children in various playtime, home, and classroom activities, such as cooking, reading, gardening, blowing out birthday candles, playing piano, and much more.

The photo cards in the Grade 1 set depict scenes of nature, as well as children and adults in various situations and settings, such as hitting a baseball, packing and moving, cooking, grocery shopping, and much more.

Remember – this week only, you can take 15%* off your purchase of one or more of the PreK and Grade 1 levels of the Snap Shots Critical Thinking Photo Cards by using code SNAPSH6 when you check out online.

*Valid through March 25, 2014 at 11:59pm EST. Not compatible with any other offer. Be sure there are no spaces or dashes in the code at checkout!

Pick of the Week: Circle Time Learning Activity

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Different Roads to Learning

Teach math skills in an active way! Sharpen early math skills, along with shape, number, and color recognition through a variety of kinesthetic games with the All Around Learning Circle Time Activity Set. Gathering for circle time has never been so much fun. This week only, save 15% on your order of the All Around Learning Circle Time Activity Set by entering in promo code ALLCRC7 at checkout.

Learning through play will help encourage gross motor skill development and group cooperation skills, as well as increase self-esteem and positive attitudes in your students. This set includes: one lightweight, wipe-clean vinyl mat that measures 4 feet in diameter and folds easily for storage; five inflatable cubes (5 inches each); five canvas bean bags in red, orange, yellow, green, and blue (3 inches each); and an Activity Guide that offers suggestions for activities, such as Color Find, Circle Around the Colors, Number Line-Up, Number Toss, and more. This circle time mat is a wonderful addition to the classroom and in the home for more structured learning.

Don’t forget – this week only, you can take 15% off your order of the All Around Learning Circle Time Activity Set by using code ALLCRC7 when you check out!

Pick of the Week: Should I or Shouldn’t I?

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Different Roads to Learning

New from the Social Thinking team, Should I or Shouldn’t I? encourages players to think about their own behavior choices and compare how their perceptions match—or don’t—those of others. The game is built on the idea of perspective-taking and explores social behaviors from different viewpoints to help develop understanding of how these affect relationships with others. The object of the game is to have players think about their own thoughts and behaviors and those of others in various situations. This week, we’re featuring both the Middle/High School and Elementary School editions as our Pick of the Week with a 15% discount to your order. Just enter in promo code SHOULDI3 to redeem your savings at checkout.

The brand-new Elementary School edition fosters important discussions about social situations that elementary-aged students ages 8-11 may encounter at home, at school, and out in the community. Between the ages of 8-11, the social demands placed on kids begin to change. Teachers expect kids to be more socially aware of others and be more independent in monitoring their own social behaviors. Kids of this age are also expected to successfully navigate unstructured social experiences such as recess and lunch. For many, this is difficult. As kids move through grades 3-5, play also changes from being imaginative to being competitive. Kids “hang out” more, which often translates into increasingly sophisticated conversations where group members must figure out other people’s motives and intentions. Overall, social nuance becomes much more complex.

This game gives kids a chance to explore this shifting social landscape and learn how their own views compare/contrast with the way their peers view things. The Prompt and Challenge cards address a wide range of age-matched situations that arise at school, during down time together, or in the community. However, it is always wise for parents or therapists to read through the cards and remove those that may be inappropriate for any of the players or that are mismatched to their level of social functioning or social understanding.

The Middle/High School edition is designed to give preteens and teens a fun and motivating way to improve their social sense, practice taking the perspectives of others, and discuss relevant teen issues in a nonjudgmental setting. Questions posed on the Prompt and Challenge cards address a wide variety of teenage-related situations, such as interacting at home, at school, at a friend’s home, the mall, the grocery store, at a party or the library, at the movies or on a date. For some alternative ways to play, check out Sam Blanco‘s set of Modified Instructions for the Middle/High School edition of this game.

Each edition can be played 1-on-1 with a therapist or in a group of up to 6 players. Each set includes: 100 Prompt cards to practice perspective taking; 50 Challenge cards that help generalize learning; 6 sets of Voting Cards; 6 copies of the 5-Point Behavior Rating Scale; and a Teaching Guide that provides in depth instruction for preparing students to play and meeting the unique needs of each individual learner.Should I or Shouldn’t I? will be perfect if you are looking for structured activities to teach complex social skills to elementary school-aged and teens with autism or other developmental delays. Don’t forget—this week only, you can save 15% on your order of the Should I or Shouldn’t I? Elementary School Edition or Middle/High School Edition by entering in SHOULDI3 at checkout.

Modified Instructions for “All Around Town”

Posted on February 13, 2014 by Different Roads to Learning

We’re excited to bring you the second installment in our new series of Modified Instructions, created by Sam Blanco, BCBA. Sam’s Modified Instructions present 3-4 additional ways to play a mainstream game to make it most useful and accessible for our students with special needs. These alternative instructions break down each adapted game by:

Age/Skill Level
Number of Players
Object
Skills Required
Materials Needed
Prep
Instructions
Considerations

We’re thrilled to introduce Modified Instructions for the All Around Town game, an all-time favorite around here. The game helps reinforce logic, sorting, and social skills in your student.

All Around Town is a multi-player game that engages students as they explore stores in the neighborhood and develop sorting, thinking, and organizational skills. The shops in this town are just like the ones you have visited in your neighborhood! As you move around the game board, you’ll visit the grocery store, furniture store, book store, clothing store, pet store and art supply store. Race around town and collect a card from every store and match them to your game mat. In addition to developing logic skills, players will also sharpen their social skills and awareness of community locations. Don’t forget to download our free Modified Instructions for All Around Town today!

Pick of the Week: “Introducing Inference”

Posted on February 4, 2014 by Different Roads to Learning

Our ability to infer or to draw conclusions given partial information is a cornerstone of our reasoning process. It is important for students to be able to infer or draw conclusions in their daily lives as well as in academic settings comfortably and confidently. Guessing, implying, hinting, suggesting, supposing and reasoning are just a few of the mental processes in which we draw inference. For language students, using inference as they problem-solve will also enable them to explain how they come to their conclusions. This week only, we are offering a 15% discount on one of our favorites, “Introducing Inference” by Marilyn Toomey, to help you make inference more friendly to your student. Just enter in our promotional code INFER11 at checkout to redeem your savings.

The aim is to teach students that using inference in their reasoning process is using their best judgment. In the first part of the book, students identify missing parts of people, objects, or animals. For example, an image of bike with a missing wheel is accompanied by “A bicycle is supposed to have two ______, but this bicycle has only one. One ______ is missing.”

In later activities, students move on to looking for missing information in sequenced events that are presented in pictures. They are asked to explain what part of the sequence or process is missing. Finally, students will learn to predict and analyze outcomes as they read or listen to simple scenarios.

Click here for a preview of the inside of the book!

Remember, this week only, save 15%* on your order of “Introducing Inference” by entering in promo code INFER11 at checkout!

*Offer is valid through Feb. 11, 2014 at 11:59pm EST. Not compatible with any other offer. Be sure there are no spaces or dashes in the code at checkout!

Pick of the Week: Social Thinking Books

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Different Roads to Learning

Social thinking is what we do when we interact with people–how we think about people affects how we behave, which in turn affects how others respond to us, which in turn affects our own feelings. More than 15 years ago, Michelle Garcia Winner coined the term Social Thinking® and developed the related treatment approach for individuals with high-functioning autism, Asperger’s and similar challenges as she treated her students. The term social thinking now encompasses many treatment programs broadly described as “teaching social thinking and related skills.” These strategies share common traits and differ from “social skills” teachings by building specific thinking strategies that occur prior to social communication and interaction.

To help you get started on the Social Thinking® curriculum with your child, this week only, we’re offering a 15% discount on our Social Thinking books: Think Social! A Social Thinking Curriculum for School-Age Students, Thinking About YOU Thinking About ME (2nd Edition), Social Thinking Worksheets for Tweens and Teens: Learning to Read In-Between the Social Lines, and Worksheets! for Teaching Social Thinking and Related Skills. Use promo code BLOGSOCL4* on your online order at checkout.

Think Social! A Social Thinking Curriculum for School-Age Students addresses methods for teaching social-cognitive and -communicative skills to students with deficits in those areas using the Social Thinking Model. This is a core Social Thinking curriculum book and complements Thinking About YOU Thinking About ME.

The 69 included lessons teach students the basics of working and thinking in a group. Each chapter addresses how to use and interpret language (verbal and nonverbal) to understand the contexts where real communication happens. The lessons contained can be used from kindergarten through adulthood, and parents and professionals are encouraged to modify the activities to make them age-appropriate. The beginning lessons introduce the Social Thinking Vocabulary to students and caregivers, so that it can be used throughout the day. Each chapter concludes with IEP goal suggestions to reinforce the concepts. Each chapter also provides a list of educational standards to tie it to the academics of the classroom. An included CD-ROM (Mac/PC compatible) contains all the handouts that accompany the lessons in the book.

Thinking About YOU Thinking About ME presents concrete lessons and strategies for enhancing perspective-taking in students across all ages, as well as information on how to apply them in different settings. It is designed for use by both parents and professionals with students from kindergarten through grade 12. Packed with assessments, teaching methods, and worksheets, this manual covers Michelle Garcia Winner’s perspective-taking model, the four steps of communication (which creates a framework for understanding the complexities of social thinking), sample IEP goals and benchmarks along with complete lessons that can be used in a school or therapeutic setting, Social Behavior Mapping (which presents visual ways to teach students the impact of behavior on themselves and others), the Social Thinking Dynamic Assessment Protocol (which explores why many assessments fall short and provides 25 pages of templates to use as an informal assessment strategy), as well as concrete strategies and templates to help students build their own dynamic social thinking abilities.

Social Thinking Worksheets for Tweens and Teens focuses on (pre)adolescent social concepts that explore how social rules and expectations change with age and require more mature social thinking and social skills. This book covers lessons on friendship, being bossy, participating in groups, and more. There are 160 worksheets across 9 lesson sections along with a PC/MAC compatible CD that contains all the worksheets for downloading. The material in this book may also be used by older students who are less mature or who learn this type of information more slowly.

Worksheets! For Teaching Social Thinking and Related Skills encourages students with Asperger’s Syndrome, autism spectrum disorders (higher functioning), ADHD, NVLD and undiagnosed others to process more deeply what social thinking means to them. This book provides parents and educators with ways to explore breaking down abstract social thinking concepts into concrete ways for students to work on them individually or in group settings. Lessons are organized into categories that include friendship, perspective taking, self-monitoring, being part of a group, problem solving and more. Some worksheets are appropriate for grades K-4, but they work best with grades 5-12.

Remember, this week only, save 15% on your order of any of our Social Thinking® books by entering in the promo code BLOGSOCL4* at checkout!

*Offer is valid until Nov. 19, 2013 at 11:59pm EST. Not compatible with any other offer. Be sure there are no spaces in the promo code at checkout!

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