Tag Archives: teaching tools

Celebrate Better Speech & Hearing Month with Us – 15% OFF Workbooks!

Posted on by

We’re celebrating Better Speech & Hearing Month with a special focus on auditory processing and expressive language skills. Today through the end of May, use our promo code SPCHLANG when you check out to take 15%* off some of our favorite speech and language workbooks!

These workbooks provide a wealth of activities that you can start using with your students immediately. Clearly organized and easy to use, each book is perfect for teachers.

View our entire sale here.

*Promotion is valid until May 31, 2016 at 11:59pm EST. Offer cannot be applied to previous purchases, combined with any other offers, transferred, refunded, or redeemed and/or exchanged for cash or credit. Different Roads to Learning reserves the right to change or cancel this promotion at any time. To redeem offer at differentroads.com, enter promo code SPCHLANG at checkout.

 

Pick of the Week: Executive Function Books & Curricula

Posted on by

Executive function is a set of mental processes that help us organize, make plans, focus our attention, remember things, and juggle multiple tasks. This week, you can SAVE 15%* on any of our books on executive function in students with autism. Use use our promo code EXECFXN at check-out!

Executive Function Books

Unstuck & On Target is a robust classroom-based curriculum book that helps educators and service providers teach executive function skills to high-functioning students with autism through ready-to-use lessons, materials lists, and intervention tips that reinforce lessons throughout the school day. Topics touched upon include flexibility vocabulary, coping strategies, setting goals, and flexibility in friendship. Lessons will target specific skills, free up the instructor’s time, fit easily into any curriculum, ensure generalization to strengthen home-school connection, and best of all, make learning fun and engaging for students in the classroom! The guide also comes with an accompanying CD-ROM that contains printable game cards, student worksheets, and other materials for each lesson.

Solving Executive Function Challenges is a practical resource for parents, teachers, and therapists helping high-functioning students with autism improve on their executive function skills. To be used with or without the curriculum Unstuck & On Target, this book contains strategies to teach EF skills, including setting and achieving goals and being flexible, as well as ideas for accommodations and actions to address common problems, such as keeping positive, avoiding overload, and coping.

Executive Skills in Children and Adolescents explains how executive function processes develop and why they play such a key role in children’s behavior and school performance. With more than 24 reproducible checklists, questionnaires, planning sheets, and assessment tools, this manual provides step-by-step guidelines and practical tools to promote executive skill development by implementing environmental modifications, individualized instruction, coaching, and whole-class interventions.

*Promotion is valid until May 24, 2016 at 11:59pm EST. Offer cannot be applied to previous purchases, combined with anyother offers, transferred, refunded, or redeemed and/or exchanged for cash or credit. Different Roads to Learning reserves the right to change or cancel this promotion at any time. To redeem offer at differentroads.com, enter promo code EXECFXN at checkout.

Autism Awareness Month: Free Color Sorting Jar Activity

Posted on by

Check out this Color Sorting Jar Activity designed by Lavinia Pop from In My World! This printable activity includes four different color jars: red, orange, yellow, and green. It also includes sixteen different corresponding images, four for each color jar.

To create the color sorting jar, you cut around the edges of each color jar. Then, you cut out all of the color pictures. Once all the pictures are cut out, you can mix and start sorting the objects into the same color jar! You can also use the jars for sorting different color objects from home or the classroom.

We recommend printing the activity on cardstock or laminating the jars and objects for longer use.

To download this free printable click here. For more fun activities and ideas, you can read the full post from In My World here!

The Essential ABA Sale! – Discounted items for your ABA program

Posted on by

EssentialABASale_01

We’re wrapping up Autism Awareness Month by discounting collection of some of our bestselling products that are most essential to creating and running an ABA program. Use our promo code APRILABA this week to take 15%* off any of these these flashcards, token boards, Time Timers, books, and more!

EssentialABASale_02

EssentialABASale_03

EssentialABASale_04

Don’t forget to mention or apply our code APRILABA when you check out! View the entire sale here.

* Promotion is valid until May 3, 2016 at 11:59pm EST. Offer cannot be applied to previous purchases, combined with anyother offers, transferred, refunded, or redeemed and/or exchanged for cash or credit. Different Roads to Learning reserves the right to change or cancel this promotion at any time. To redeem offer at differentroads.com, enter promo code APRILABA at checkout.

Autism Awareness Month: Free Cookie Number Matching Printable

Posted on by

Cookie-Jar-Number-MatchingIf Cookie Monster could play any math literacy game, we’re sure this free Cookie Jar Number Matching activity would be the winner! This free printable from Totschooling.net includes three representations of numbers one through ten to help build counting and number recognition skills.

To play, all you have to do is print all the pages and cut out each cookie individually. You can then have the student either match cookies to the jar containing the written names of the numbers or the jar containing the corresponding numerals.  If you want to make the activity even more challenging, you can print out an extra numeral jar or an extra number name jar page and cut out each circle to create more options to match!

cookie-matching 2You can download the free printable by clicking here and don’t forget to share with us all the other creative ways you and your students build math literacy skills!

What Is Procedural Fidelity In ABA?

Posted on by

It is not uncommon for parents or practitioners to implement a new intervention that appears to be working well, then after a few weeks or months report that the intervention has stopped working. Often, the change in behavior in feels like a mystery and leaves people scrambling for a new intervention. But before searching for a new intervention, you should consider the possibility of problems with procedural fidelity, which “refers to the accuracy with which the intervention or treatment is implemented” (Mayer, Sulzer-Azaroff, & Wallace, 2014).

Problems with procedural fidelity in ABA are common, and you will experience more success with your interventions if you take steps to address fidelity at the outset. Here are a few suggestions:

  • Post the steps in a visible spot. Clearly list the steps of the procedure and put them in a spot where you will see them often. This might be on the actual data collection sheet or on the wall. One parent I worked with had a Post-it® note with the steps for our intervention attached to her computer screen. Another parent kept the steps inside the ID part of his wallet, where they were protected and visible each time he opened his wallet.
  • Plan meetings to go over the steps. As part of your intervention, set brief monthly or quarterly meetings to go over the steps of the intervention and be sure everyone is maintaining procedural fidelity.
  • Assess for procedural fidelity. Schedule observations to ensure that each step of the intervention is implemented as described. If you do not have someone who can supervise you, take video of yourself implementing the intervention, watch it and compare your actions to the steps outlined in the intervention plan.
  • Outline steps for systematic fading of the intervention. When implementing an intervention, the goal is to have the learner eventually exhibiting the desirable behavior without prompts or planned reinforcement. Sometimes when a parent or practitioner sees the learner’s behavior improving, they begin to remove the prompts or planned reinforcement before the learner is quite ready for it. By writing a plan for fading the intervention into the plan, you make it clear to everyone involved what the requirements are for each step towards mastery.

REFERENCES

Mayer, G.R., Sulzer-Azaroff, B., & Wallace, M. (2014). Behavior analysis for lasting change (3rd ed.). Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY: Sloan Publishing.

WRITTEN BY SAM BLANCO, MSED, BCBA

Sam is an ABA provider for students ages 3–12 in NYC. Working in education for ten years with students with Autism Spectrum Disorders and other developmental delays, Sam has developed strategies for achieving a multitude of academic, behavior, and social goals. Sam is currently pursuing her PhD in Applied Behavior Analysis at Endicott College.

Autism Awareness Month: Free Social Skills Fortune Teller Activity

Posted on by

IMG_0882-764x1024While these fortune tellers may not be able to tell your future, they are sure to help your children with autism develop their social skills!  This free printable, created by Joel Shaul from Autism Teaching Strategies, makes social learning fun by having students pair up and offer conversation starters using a Social Skills Fortune Teller.  All you have to do is print, cut, fold and play!

The activity comes with separate templates to make six different fortune tellers.  Each of the templates help students work on the following skills:

  • Asking questions
  • Giving compliments
  • Talking about emotions
  • As well as self-help strategies for teasing and bullying.

For further tips, instructions for use, and to download this free printable, click here and don’t forget to share all the other fun ways you and your students have fun developing social skills by leaving a comment below!

Product Highlight: POWER-Solving® – A new social skills curriculum

Posted on by

POWER-Solving-Feature_01

Available in child and adolescent levels, this new social skills curriculum teaches students how to become independent problem-solvers via a hands-on and interactive approach through visual cues and supports.

We offer class kits including 5 or 10 sets of Student Workbooks and Facilitator Guides to accommodate larger groups.

This social skills curriculum teaches students to problem-solve first using their “toolbox” (i.e., the five steps of POWER-Solving®) and then to apply this “toolbox” to various social situations, allowing them to develop and enhance their social-emotional skills. Child and Adolescent Student Workbook Sets when paired with their corresponding Facilitator Guides will help students successfully solve problems in various social situations at school, home, and in the community.

Each Student Workbook Set and Facilitator’s Guide Set covers 4 areas of everyday social situations:

  1. Introduction (recommended that students complete this first)
  2. Social Conversation
  3. Developing Friendships
  4. Anger Management

Learn more about the curriculum here.

Autism Awareness Month: Free Crayon Number Sorting Activity

Posted on by

crayon 1Get creative with this free number sorting activity designed by Lavinia Pop from In My World! This crayon inspired printable includes five different representations of a single number.  These symbols include line segments, dots, words, finger counting, as well as numerals.

To create the crayon pouches, simply cut around the outer edges and fold along the dotted center line.  Then glue, tape or staple the remaining bottom and side edges.  Once complete, cut out all the crayons and mix to start sorting!crayon 2We recommend printing the activity on cardstock or laminating the crayons and pockets for longer use.

To download this free printable click here and for more math literacy activities and ideas, you can read the full post from In My World here!

Autism Awareness Month: Free Owl Opposites Flashcard Activity

Posted on by

Encourage your students’ cognitive, language and word recognition skills with this free Owl Opposites Flashcards Printable from 1+1+1=1!

owl 1The entire set features an adorable pair of owl friends who demonstrate the following sixteen different opposites:

  • Short/tall
  • Hot/cold
  • Slow/fast
  • White/blackowl 2
  • Big/small
  • Clean/dirty
  • More/less
  • Dry/wet
  • Same/different
  • Light/heavy
  • Low/high
  • Hard/soft
  • Short/long
  • Front/back
  • Empty/full
  • Weak/strong

Laminate or print on cardstock for longer use and attach on a metal ring to keep the cards all together.

To print out your free Owls Opposites Flashcards, click here. We hope you and your students have a hoot with this printable!