There is no one piece of advice that I offer more than “Prepare your child.” We all know that children with autism tend to be inflexible in their adherence to routine. Any unexpected change in their daily schedule can present emotional and behavioral difficulties for all involved. That is why it is important to prepare your child for any potential disruptions. This includes fire safety and it just so happens that the National Fire Protection Association has created some great resources to help you. Check out the social story that can be customized to include your child’s personal information below!
Tag Archives: visual supports
Special Screening of Harry Potter for Hearing & Sight Impaired Children
Awhile back, we told you about AMC Entertainment offering special monthly viewings for children with autism spectrum disorders where they dim the lights and turn down the sound to make movie watching less of an overwhelming experience for children with sensory issues. Well, as the latest Harry Potter movie makes its way to theaters, a movie theater in Richmond, Virginia is offering special opening weekend screenings for individuals who are hearing and sight-impaired. We think it’s fantastic that more mainstream outlets are taking individuals with special needs into account!
YouTube!
Here at Different Roads to Learning, we’re doing our best to keep up with the ever shifting changes in technology. There’s a ton of wonderful stuff on the internet and on YouTube but who has the time to sift through endless videos, trying to find one that is age-appropritate and addresses the skills you’re working on with your children and students. To take advantage of some of the great, free stuff out there, we’ve created our very own Difflearn YouTube Channel! Stacy, our fantastic and tireless Behavioral Consultant, has been assembling quality videos that you can use for Feeding & Nutrition, Reinforcement and she’s got a whole section for Play.
Please let us know what else you’d like to see up there or what you’re using for reinforcement or teaching play and social skills. We look forward to hearing from you!
Video Modeling by Mary Beth Palo of Watch Me Learn
Mary Beth is a dear friend of ours. Many of you know her as the amazing mother who used video modeling to help her son learn to speak. From there came the Watch Me Learn Video Series which has received near unanimous praise. Here are her thoughts on Video Modeling and how Watch Me Learn came to be.
“I was fortunate enough to see Temple Grandin speak years ago…. before she became a star….. I went to the presentation on a whim – I guess to get out of the house (pathetic right?) Being the mother of an autistic child leads you to do things that a “normal” person wouldn’t be caught dead doing! At the time, I believe that she only had one book published; Thinking in Pictures.
In that book and in her presentation she referred to her thought process as going back in her mind, retrieving a video tape from her mind’s library and then playing the proper video to think/see…. This hit me like a 2×4 across the head….
I am mostly an auditory thinker….. so I guess it didn’t dawn on me that this could be so impactful on educating. Couple this information with 2 years of therapy for my son with no progress, and a light bulb went off in my head. Pure desperation led me to video modeling. After my first attempt at VM, as a result my son was speaking within 2 ½ weeks. Well, needless to say, video became my life and my son just kept learning and learning. Video was our main teacher and our therapy hours were used for generalizing the skills he learned on video.
Video modeling can be used in sooooo many ways – self modeling, peer modeling, etc… and it can be used to teach sooooo many skills – from simple receptive language, imitation skills to complex social skills. Research supports video modeling as an evidence-based teaching method and it has been recognized by the CEC(Council for Exceptional Children) as a valid means of teaching. The research exists and more will be coming.
Now, when I teach my son, I always have visuals. Of course, he was most successful with video, but after years of strictly video, we have been able to branch out into other visual inputs. The learning is always faster with visual inputs ….. even in 6th grade when we are using cookie dough and chocolate chips to make a visual model of the atom nucleus – who would have thought?
Why does it work? Well, I don’t have the scientific answer to that – as I have yet to find a study researching the brain activity while watching VM. Watching children for years and knowing how and what they react to, it is easy to see the reason why VM works. Children love tv, children love other children, children have an inherent desire to be social and VM provides not only repetition but also removes outside distractions enabling a child to concentrate on one thing.
Today, there are many VM products on the market. These products allow you an easy way to experiment with VM and a great learning opportunity for your children. VM can also be done in the home, school, therapy and out in public. You need to decide what is best for you and the child.
I am the proud mother of Brett Palo – a 12 year old boy who is now mainstreamed in 6th grade. Without VM, he would not be there. As a result of his success with VM and a zillion phone calls from other desperate mothers, Watch Me Learn Videos were created. Watch Me Learn’s goal is to teach children in their natural environment – at home, in school and most importantly through play! A child’s job is to play – let them do their job and learn at the same time! They will learn without even knowing it!
Astronauts, Pirates and Superheros. Oh My!
Many children look forward to Halloween with the costumes, candy, parties and being with friends. However, for parents of children with autism the approach of October 31 and the extra challenges might bring about stress and anxiety. Here are some tips to help it go more smoothly.
- Choose a costume together! This can take time so start early. I like to start by looking through catalogs or online with the child to determine which costume they are most excited about. This decision won’t be made right away. I find that children on the spectrum need to see their options several times before they can accurately determine which one they would like. Once you decide on the basic theme it is always a good idea to see the different options in person and consider sensory issues. How does the fabric feel? Does it require things to be worn on their head? Are there uncomfortable seams or does it require face paint?
- It is a good idea to expand your child’s general knowledge on the theme related to their costume and on Halloween in general. This is easily accomplished with books and videos. I use YouTube all the time for expanding play schemas.
- Practice! It is so simple and makes such a difference when it actually comes time for trick-or-treating. Takes turns being the one handing out the candy and the one doing the trick-or-treating. This also involves rehearsing questions and statements they might encounter such as “What are you?” or “You are so scary.”
- Ease into it. It’s best not to wait until Halloween to put on the costume. Set aside time to try on different parts of the costume and use positive reinforcement to increase the number of items until your child is comfortable with the entire costume.
Check out our new YouTube page, it’s a work in progress but we hope to do all the work for you in finding relevant clips for teaching and reinforcement.
The TimeBuddy Clock is here!
We’ve been waiting since February for the TimeBuddy to arrive and it’s finally here!
This wonderful and customizable clock is designed to help young children with daily routines and time management. TimeBuddy is a battery-operated 24-hour activity clock with alarm settings. The alarm can be set for up to three different activities. The clock dial points to visual icons which consist of reusable stickers that are placed at actual times throughout the day by the parent, giving children cues on when to start and stop certain activities. You can also set the clock to literally speak three different phrases in your choice of three languages (English, Spanish, and French). There’s even an option for a user-recorded message of up to 15 seconds to allow parents to record a personalized message and you can insert the child’s name into the pre-programmed messages.