Pick of the Week: Understanding Emotions

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The holiday season can be filled with anticipation for children.  Understanding and being able to express their emotions  is important for being able to manage them. Understanding Emotions is a small, simple deck of flashcards that teach how various emotions feel and when they might occur. Emotions depicted include happy, sad, angry, frustrated, excited and more. The 30 cards come on a handy ring and can be removed to provide multiple learning options.
Save 15% this week only on the Understanding Emotions Flashcards by entering the Promo Code BLOGUE11 at checkout.

*Offer expires on December 20, 2011 at 11:59 pm EST. Not compatible with any other offer. Be sure there are no spaces after the Promo Code when you enter it at checkout.

Holiday Gift Guide

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At this time of year, it can be a challenge to find an appropriate gift for the child with autism in your life. Aunts, uncles, grandparents, and family friends often call us inquiring about what a good present would be for the child with special needs in their lives. This year, we’ve put together a holiday gift guide with some suggestions for children on the spectrum. All of the items are educational while being fun and engaging. Hopefully, this will make your search a bit easier and you’ll be able to cross someone off your list!

And to sweeten things, we’re offering 15% off on these products through December 19. Just enter the Promo Code GIFTS11 at checkout to redeem your savings.

We wish all of you a very happy and healthy holiday season!

 

            Stocking Stuffers  

 

Hooray for Play– $12.95

Get everyone involved and pretend to be a firefighter, pirate, chef and more! These cards lead learners on the path to play.

 

Token Board– $5.95

Are all of those holiday cookies proving too tempting for your child? Use a token board to reinforce them for work accomplished with the reward of a holiday treat.

 

Go Talk Button– $11.95

Record a 10 second message and attach these small, handy buttons anywhere in the house. These are great for children with limited language and can keep them engaged in all the holiday cheer.

 

On the Road Toob– $9.95

Miniature vehicles provide fun opportunities for imaginative play as they VROOOM around the holiday table.

 

Presents

 

Wedgits Blocks and Design Cards- $23.99

Nest, stack, and link these blocks together to create endless shapes. The Wedgits are fun and challenging for the whole family.

 

Scents Sort Match-Up Kit- $39.95

Who can identify the smell of honey? What about the cantaloupe? Guessing each scent inevitably leads to laughter.

 

Wiggle and Giggle- $24.95

This board game is great for getting everyone active as players have to balance and move around according to what the spinner lands on.

 

Winomino-$29.95

With over 900 puzzle combinations possible, this game is ideal for students of all ages and levels. The geometrical puzzle develops fine motor, visual spatial and problem solving skills.

 

S’Match- $19.95

A fun SPIN on the classic Memory Game, S’Match requires players to find matches based on color, number or category.

 

Finding Good Apps for Children with Autism

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It’s amazing that a whole new market of educational tools have popped up in the market for educating individuals with ASD. In the last few months, there have been so many apps for autism to choose from that it’s difficult for parents and teachers to navigate and find the ones that will work best for their particular child. There are now entire sites dedicated to showcasing various Apps and describing them in detail to help you narrow your choices. Check out today’s Gadgetwise column in the NY Times for the list of 4 sites so you can make wiser choices for your student.

Pick of the Week: Time Tracker Mini

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We love this small, easy to program Time Tracker Mini! It’s a simple visual and auditory timer that has 360 degree viewing so it’s great for anywhere, in the classroom or at home. There are two simple dials: one for a total alarm time and one for the amount of warning time you’d like given before time is up. The timer turns green, yellow, then red as it counts down. The total alarm time can be set anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 hours in 5-minute increments.

Save 15% on the Time Tracker Mini this week only by entering the Promo Code BLOGTTM2 at checkout.

*Offer expires on December 6, 2011 at 11:59 pm EST. Not compatible with any other offer. Be sure there are no spaces after the Promo Code when you enter it at checkout.

20% Off Sale Starts Right Now!

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Happy Thanksgiving All! To celebrate, we’re offering 20% off storewide* today through Monday, November 28.

Enter the Promo Code THANKS11 at checkout to redeem your savings.

*Offer not valid for the follwoing products: VB MAPP Assessment Kits (DRK 700 & DRK 701), ABLLS-R Assessment Kits (DRK 702 & DRK 703), 10- Pack of VB MAPP Protocols (DRB 682), 25- Pack of VB MAPP Protocols (DRB 683)*
The coupon code must be entered during checkout to receive offer. Your order must be placed during the time of the
2011 Thanksgiving Sale to qualify for this special offer. This promotional offer may not be combinedwith any other promotional or discount offers. Discount cannot be applied to previous orders.
 Offer expires 11/28/11 at 11:59 pm EST.
Offer only valid on www.difflearn.com only. 

 

Pick of the Week: Learn to Respond Appropriately

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With the holidays coming up and socializing in full swing, Learn to Respond Appropriately flahcards offer children the skills to be successful in their interactions in various situations. There are 32 photographic images of social situations and the back of each card has the appropriate response. Examples include what to say on the phone, asking for a turn, expressing affection, commenting on events and more.

Save 15% this week only on the Learn to Respond Appropriately cards by entering the Promo Code BLOGLRA11 at checkout.

*Offer expires on November 29, 2011 at 11:59 pm EST. Not compatible with any other offer. Be sure there are no spaces after the Promo Code when you enter it at checkout.

Building Language for Your Child with Autism, Part 4: Building Expressive Vocabulary

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This is the step where your child learns to actually say the words out loud. All of the tasks described in previous posts 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 previously 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.

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:

  1. Start with words that are familiar to your child. Words like apple, cup and cookies may be better than ­saxophone or stethoscope.
  2. Start with pictures on a plain white, or a distraction free background.
  3. Make sure to have duplicates available for the matching tasks when you first start out.
  4. Consider taking multiple pictures of the same item (6 different apples for example) to help your child generalize their newly learned words.
  5. As your child becomes more comfortable learning new words move to more natural settings for your pictures.
  6. Have a broad range of pictures, across multiple categories, ready for when your child is ready to move forward!
  7. If you take the pictures yourself, consider having them laminated for durability.If you don’t have the time to make your own pictures, a 350-Card Set of photo flash cards called the Language Builder Picture Card Set is avaibable and is specifically tailored to meet the needs of an early language vocabulary building program.

 

This is a part of a series of guest posts by Angela Nelson on building language in children with autism. As the creator of the acclaimed Language Builder Picture Noun Card Set, Angela received her BA and JD from UCLA where she studied and practiced behavior psychology under Dr. Ivar Lovaas. She has been creating autism and special needs curriculum products since 1997.

 

 

Autism Moms Have Stress Similar To Combat Soldiers

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We came across this article from a few years ago but thought that the content was certainly still relevent: mothers of adolescents and adults with autism have stress levels that match that of soliders in combat!? According to the study reported in the Disability Scoop, mothers of children with autism spent a greater portion of their day caregiving, were twice as likely to be tired and three times as likely to have experienced a stressful event compared to mothers of children without disabilities. In addition, their bloodwork indicated that a hormone associated with stress was very low, consistent with people experiencing chronic stress such as soldiers in combat.

That said, the mothers in the group were just as likely as their peers to report a positive experience, volunteer their time and help out their friends, in spite of more stress and less sleep. How much more amazing can one group of people be?

As parents, particularly, the moms out there, do you feel you’re able to manage your stress effectively? Do you have any advice for other parents out there?

Pick of the Week: WEDGiTS Building Blocks and Design Cards

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We’ve been hearing rave reviews of the WEDGiTS for years but it wasn’t until we had them in hand that we realized how unbelievable these building sets are. The WEDGiTS can be nested, stacked, linked, and wedged together to create hundreds of different designs from just 15 pieces. Building with these develops dexterity, fine motor skills, sequencing and patterning abilities, as well as visual discrimination skills. You can build as far as your imagination takes you with the Starter Set or you can supplement it with the WEDGiTS Starter Set Design Cards to maximize the challenge. The cards are for users of all levels from 2-piece constructions to ones that utilize all the pieces in the set.

This week only, save 15% on the WEDGiTS Starter Set: 15 Pieces as well as the WEDGiTS Starter Set Design Cards by entering the promo code BLOGWEDG2 at checkout.

*Offer expires on November 22, 2011 at 11:59 pm EST. Not compatible with any other offer. Be sure there are no spaces after the Promo Code when you enter it at checkout.