Tag Archives: learning

Pick of the Week: Unifix Cubes & Workbook with CD – Hands-on early math activities

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Perfect for early counting and mathematical operations, our newly added Unifix Cubes and accompanying Mathematics for Unifix Cubes Workbook and CD: Kindergarten will provide numerous activities and games for teaching young learners early math concepts. This week only, save 15%* on your set of Unifix Cubes and/or the accompanying Mathematics for Unifix Cubes Workbook and CD-Rom by entering our code UNIFIX at check-out.

Each set of Unifix Cubes contains 300 cubes in 10 assorted colors: red, dark blue, light blue, yellow, green, orange, maroon, brown, black, and white, great for teaching math concepts such as patterning, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and much more.

Your 90-page Mathematics for Unifix Cubes Workbook and CD: Kindergarten provides ready-to-use activities for early math, including worksheets, games, cards, and full teaching instructions, assessment, and extension suggestions. The accompanying CD-Rom contains a digital version of the workbook, as well as virtual Unifix Cubes that can be projected on the computer to make rods, patterns, and more.

Don’t forget to use promo code UNIFIX at check-out to save 15%* this week on your set of Unifix Cubes and Mathematics for Unifix Cubes Workbook and CD!

*Offer is valid until 11:59pm EDT on September 23rd, 2014. Not compatible with any other offers. Be sure there are no spaces or dashes in your code at check out!

Pick of the Week: Prepositions StoryCards—Learn basic prepositions & sequencing through storytelling!

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Learn and practice using basic prepositions with creative storytelling with story cards and finger-puppets! You can also save 15%* this week on Prepositions StoryCards by using our promo code PREPOS2 at checkout. This set of 48 beautifully illustrated cards is designed to develop children’s understanding of basic prepositions such as in, on, under, above, below, and around.

With only illustrations and no words, Prepositions StoryCards promotes expressive language in storytelling form, and each story is flexible to your student’s standards. An accompanying booklet includes suggested stories for each of the 4 sets of story cards, as well as approaches for building and reinforcing preliminary concepts, developing verbal comprehension, improving attention and listening skills, expanding expressive language and vocabulary, and sequencing.

Four felt finger-puppets depicting the main character in each story are also included as an interactive and playful tool for reinforcing preliminary concepts.

Don’t forget to take 15%* off your set of Prepositions StoryCards when you order it online or by phone with promo code PREPOS2 at checkout!

 

*Offer is valid until 11:59pm EDT on August 26th, 2014. Not compatible with any other offers. Be sure there are no spaces or dashes in your code at check out!

Modified Instructions for Parachute Play

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We’re excited to bring you the sixth installment of our series of Modified Instructions, created by Sam Blanco, BCBA. In this installment, we’re introducing Sam’s Modified Instructions for Parachute Play. Our bright and colorful parachutes are perfect for motivating young learners during the summer holidays.

   6ft-Parachute 12ft-Parachute

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Pick of the Week: “The Cow Says Moo” – 10 Tips to Teach Your Toddler to Talk

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Teach your child to communicate with words and expand his or her language skills with the new early intervention guide The Cow Says Moo. And this week only, you can take 15% off* your purchase of The Cow Says Moo by entering in our promo code MOO15 at check out!

The Cow Says Moo is an early intervention guide that teaches parents easy-to-use, common-sense strategies for helping their children learn to communicate. The 10 tips and appendices filled with songs, checklists, and resources rely on the same methods that practitioners use when providing direct home-based speech therapy to toddlers and their families.

Tips focus on things like giving your child a reason to talk, using sign language, oral motor exercises, finding the right word, pairing movement with sound and more.

This simple guide delivers speech therapy activities that any parent can implement right away.

Save 15%* on your order of The Cow Says Moo this week by mentioning or entering in promo code MOO15 at checkout.

*Offer is valid until 11:59pm EDT on July 1, 2014. Not compatible with any other offer. Be sure there are no dashes or spaces in your code at check out!

Different Roads iOS Apps Now Feature Family Sharing

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Apple has recently introduced a new Family Sharing feature, which allows up to 6 family members to browse and access each other’s iTunes, iBooks, and App Store purchases, as well as share photos, calendars, and locations with each other. We’re excited to announce that all of our Different Roads apps in the iTunes App Store have also begun to support this feature. Family Sharing also includes parental controls, enabling parents to approve purchases and downloads initiated by children first.

Different Roads to Learning Apps

Clean Up Cateogory Sorting AppClean-Up: Category Sorting  This highly-rated interactive program develops language, reasoning, and sorting and classifying skills in young learners. Players must “clean up” by putting 75 photographic images of toys, food, and clothing away in the correct shopping cart, refrigerator, or toy box. Each target is introduced by its label (“Where does the Apple go?”) in each round where players see 15 unique images. Correct responses receive visual and auditory reinforcement while incorrect answers are corrected by a visual prompt of the correct answer flashing. This app builds foundational sorting skills for students just developing their sorting and classifying skills. Available on iPhone and iPad.

Whats that Sound App

What’s that Sound? Learning to Listen and Identify Sounds  This interactive and easy-to-grasp game develops auditory discrimination and processing skills in young learners. Players will improve their skills by matching objects and their associated sounds. Simple auditory processing skills lay the foundation for learning how to read, speak and spell.
Available on iPhone and iPad.

 

What Goes Together App

What Goes Together?  This interactive program develops language, discrimination, and reasoning skills in young learners. Clear, colorful images of everyday objects promote an understanding of functions and the relationships between items that children encounter on a daily basis. With built-in reinforcement and error correction, this game provides a solid foundation in building critical expressive and receptive language skills. Available on iPhone and iPad.

Tell Me About It App

Tell Me About It!  Featured as Editor’s Choice on Best Apps for Kids, this universal app is specifically designed for children with autism and other speech and language delays. Based on the Applied Behavioral Analysis approach, this program mimics an actual one-on-one instructional session with a therapist. The app provides 15 categories of language targets, such as body parts, household items, clothing and food, and six levels of difficulty, which progressively become more difficult, from labelling to shared feature, function, and category. This app also features an easy-to-read report card, which provides tracking data for each child and an option to e-mail the report card results. Available on iPhone and iPad.

To discover all of our current apps and what Family Sharing can do for your family, visit our iTunes App Store page.

Pick of the Week: “Expanding and Combining Sentences” Interactive Workbook

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For students who are already able to talk or write in simple, choppy sentences, this interactive workbook will open gateways to success in language and literacy! Save 15%* on your purchase of Expanding and Combining Sentences by speech and language pathologist Marilyn M. Toomey this week only, by applying or mentioning our promo code EXPAND8 at check out!

Color picture pages, along with specific instructions, provide a means of evoking interesting and descriptive sentences from students.

Students will learn how to expand their sentences by using the color cues provided in the book, as pictures become progressively colorful and a new detail is added to the sequence. In no time at all, young learners will be able to tell an entire story by using complex and detailed sentences!

97 pages in total with 40 colored pages.  Preview the book.

This interactive workbook will be the perfect resource to teach the challenging task of making sentences more interesting with descriptive words.  Don’t forget – this week only, take 15% off* your order of Expanding and Combining Sentences by applying code EXPAND8 at checkout!

Marilyn M. Toomey is also the author of several other popular speech and language workbooks, such as Talking in Setences, Verbal Reasoning Activities, The Language of Perspective Taking, and much more.

*Offer is valid until 11:59pm EDT on 6/10/2014. Not compatible with other offers. Be sure there are no spaces or dashes in your code at checkout!

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

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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.

Here’s What Was in YOUR ABA Toolbox

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Thank you to all who participated in our ABA Toolbox giveaway last week! We’ve received some wonderful responses and feedback from parents, teachers, and therapists on their favorite products from our catalog and how they are using it with a special child, and we are thrilled to be sharing them with you!

Our biggest goal in this endeavor was to share with you the unbelievable wealth of experience and knowledge our community of parents, teachers, and therapists have in using our products in innovative and creative ways for their ABA programs.

 

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NEW! Modified Instructions for Games & Toys, Created by Sam Blanco, BCBA

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LetsPlay_WormThere are many great mainstream games available out there but it can sometimes be challenging to know if a particular game’s intended uses are feasible for a learner on the spectrum. With a few simple tips and modifications, many of these games can be altered to provide an excellent learning opportunity through play and most of all, fun.

We’ve worked with Sam to select some of our favorite games and toys. She’s field tested all of these with her students and figured out creative and innovative ways to adapt each game to meet the needs of her learners. Our Modified Instructions present 3-4 alternative ways to play the game, in addition to the regular intended uses suggested by the manufacturer. Sam’s Modified Instructions break down each adapted game by:

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

This week, we’re introducing the first set of Modified Instructions for S’Match! Memory Game available as a free download at Different Roads to Learning. Just follow the link and click on “Modified Instructions” to download your free copy.

S’Match! is a favorite around here as it presents an exciting new SPIN on the classic game of Memory. This engaging multi-player game challenges players to find matches by the attributes of color, number or category. The game allows readers and pre-readers to learn and play together as the colorful cards feature both pictures and words. Download our Modified Instructions for Use for S’Match! for free today!

Back to School Savings: New Low Price on Sign to Talk Nouns and Verbs!

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DRC_479_Sign_toTalk_NounsThe K&K Sign to Talk Nouns and Sign to Talk Verbs are a trusted resource designed to shape verbal language specifically for individuals with autism and other developmental challenges. It’s back to school time and we’re dropping the price of the cards by $20! The Sign to Talk Nouns are now $139 and the Verbs are $119!

The front of each card has a large 5″x7″, full-color, glossy photo of the target item. The reverse side contains a photo of the ASL sign, a written description of the hand shapes, and a series of Kaufman Speech to Language “word shells,” which are highly effective for shaping intelligible articulation.

The Sign to Talk Nouns include a variety of everyday objects (nouns) that children frequently request and that double as excellent reinforcers. The Kit contains 150 noun cards and the accompanying 40-page manual fully explains the approach. The Sign to Talk Verbs include 80 everyday actions that children frequently request  as well as the accompanying 40-page manual.

SigntoTalkVerbsTake advantage of the new low price on these excellent teaching tools while you can!