Autism Acceptance Celebration!

It's Autism Awareness Day! Typically, every Sunday I host a freebie link up here on my blog called what you might know as "SPEDtacular Sunday Freebies." However, today we are all linking up our freebies over at Autism Classroom Resources to honor Autism Acceptance Month. There are tons of freebies waiting for you. Click here to access them!

A bunch of us have also marked an Autism related resource 50% off today too! Get my Disability Awareness Day kit for 1/2 price here and see just how easy it is to host this event at your school!

Then search the hashtag #AcceptAutism on Teachers Pay Teachers to find all of the other sales.

Don't forget to sport your blue today and light it up blue tonight to honor those living with Autism and to encourage acceptance.

Autistic Student OR Student with Autism?

This post has been a long time coming, but also a post that I have been very hesitant about writing! I've had thoughts of this post for nearly 2 years now, but have put it off due to it being such a controversial topic! I in no way want to offend others, but I'm ready to finally lay this first language thing on the table. I feel that it's way past due! 

So today I'm laying it out on the table! Autistic Student OR Student with Autism?!? Downs Child OR Child with Down Syndrome? Emotionally Disturbed Child OR a child with an Emotional Disturbance? Dyslexic Student OR Student with Dyslexia? To be completely honest with you and how I feel about it...who cares?? 

A child with Autism is an Autistic student. A child with Downs is a Downs child. A child with an Emotional Disturbance is an emotionally disturbed child!!! A child with Dyslexia is a Dyslexic child! How is it different?? I hear people and parents say in forums that I'm in, "Autism doesn't DEFINE my child." Well I'm sorry, but the people using these terms that you don't like, care about your child. They are trying to help your child and I'm sure in no way are they trying to define your child. 

I cannot believe how often I see teachers ridiculing other teachers in FB groups that I am a part of for using the wrong language. For goodness, sake! We have a teacher in a FB group pleading for assistance with a student, a teacher that is passionate about helping her student, that has taken the time to search and the courage to post for help and all the comments are ridiculing her/him for not using the correct language. I've seen them be belittled time and time again! Wow! Really? 

How many of these teachers never post again to ask for assistance?? How sad that we have to worry about such little things! And one member even stated that she was leaving the group due to people not using the correct language! Wow! 

I'm here to help kids and do what's best for kids! I love that we have the luxury of having collaborative groups on FB and I would NEVER, NEVER belittle someone due to their language and terminology! We all come from different cultures, languages, colleges, backgrounds, etc. and we all have different terminologies for different things. 

I LOVE what I do! I am passionate, dedicated and seriously LIVE, EAT, and BREATHE education! My students are a large part of my life! They're my kids! Yet, I often say Autistic student. I sometimes say Downs child. I say Emotionally Disturbed Student! Does that make me any lesser of a teacher? Of course not! Does it make me not as caring and passionate as the teacher that speaks "politically correct?" I think not! 

And speaking of being "politically correct." Here is one of Hilary Clinton's campaigns where this mother refers to her own child as an "Autistic Child." Should this language be a determining factor in who we vote for today? 



Even Dr. Ron Leaf, who is an icon of Autism, co-director of Autism Partnership, and the author of many best-selling books including "A Work in Progress," refers to students as Autistic students in his books. Should this keep people from buying his highly credible resources that help children with Autism?

Over the last year and a half of thinking of this post and seeing teachers and especially new teachers called out for this, I began to interview parents at my school to see if my language really made that much of a difference and if it offended them! I've always had an excellent rapport with all of my parents, so if I'm offending them in any way, I want to know. I interviewed 10 parents. Here are the results:

I asked all of the parents the same question. "I refer to your child as an Autistic Student (or whatever their child's disability is) rather than a child with Autism. Does that bother you? Are you okay with that?"

Parent #1: "Yeah, it doesn't matter to me. I don't see the difference."
Parent #2: "I don't care, I know you're providing him with the best care possible."
Parent #3: "What do you mean?"
Parent #4: "Who cares, we know she's Downs. It's not a secret."
Parent #5: "Should I be concerned?"
Parent #6: "Of course! I didn't know there was a difference."
Parent # 7: "She is emotionally disturbed. Doesn't matter how you look at it. It is what it is."
Parent # 8: "Can you repeat the two? What's the difference?"
Parent #9: "No, I trust that you will always do what's best for ________."
Parent #10: "What are you supposed to call it?"

Those of us that may not always remember to use "first language," or that don't always speak "politically correct," we are not DEFINING your child or your students. We love your child just like our own! Let's not continue to belittle others and dedicated teachers that hold these children dear to their heart. 

Let's leave the politics out and stop worrying about who's speaking "politically correct," and focus on what matters....the children!

Autism Awareness Day Blog Hop

Although the entire month of April is Autism Awareness Month, April 2nd is known as World Autism Awareness Day! So a few of my blogger pals and I decided to get together and throw a blog hop your way to celebrate Autism and increase awareness!  

I'm super excited to share some tips with you today about how I design programming for my students with Autism and my students with other Intellectual Disabilities. 

If you are not familiar with this book, it is a must have in any Autism classroom, or any other self-contained classroom for that matter! Although written for Autism, don't let that confuse you! I have found it to be very beneficial for all of my students with intellectual disabilities. It is researched-based, a systematic approach, very well-written, well thought out, detailed, and so EASY to follow and implement. It is my classroom bible! 

I'd love to show you how "A Work in Progress," can be a valuable tool in your classroom."A Work in Progress," edited by Dr. Ron Leaf and Dr. John McEachin of Autism Partnership, is a tool for teaching behavioral strategies and improving behavior of children with Autism. In addition, it provides a curriculum for programming and individualizing discrete trial teaching lessons with your students. This is extremely helpful for me as I live in a rural area and have very little local or on campus support. I do not teach an "Autism Program," but rather teach a self-contained class with a wide range of disabilities that can include students with Emotional Disturbance, health impairments, learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities, and Autism. It varies from year to year, and this year I only have one student with Autism in my class. Let me just tell you, I have made tremendous progress with all of my students with Intellectual Disabilities using this book!

Here is a peek at the Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT) programs offered in this book.  

Currently, I am using 4 of these programs with my one student; Functions, Asking Questions, Conversation-intermediate, and Joint Attention.

Here is a look at the Joint Attention program. Each program lists the objectives, prompts, entry criteria (what they should know prior to beginning this program), mastery criteria that includes generalization, the procedure, and easy to follow phases that guide you through an explicit and systematic teaching approach. 

 My student had already mastered phase 1, so as you can see I started my student on phase 2. She is currently on phase 4 after mastering phase 2 and 3. It depends upon your student(s) as to which phase you will begin each of them on. 

Here is a look at one of the other programs my student is currently working on.

This program has 10 phases as you can see below. My student is currently on phase 3. Each phase uses a systematic approach for teaching the skill. 

Most of the time we typically know where our students are and need to be. But, if you're unsure of what phase to start your student on; maybe your student is new; there is a curriculum assessment included in the book that allows you to assess and record their skills for each phase within each program.

And planning for your assistants has never been easier with the tools provided in this book! This sheet is all I need to ensure my assistants know the programs, the expectations, and are implementing my student's programs with fidelity. This keeps us all on the same page and consistent.

Here is how I use this page and set this up for my assistants so that they can be self-directed and run all of the programs themselves.   

 I create a binder for each student I use "A Work in Progress" with. I use just a one-inch binder. There's not much to it. Each program has just two pages in the binder. Page one is the page you see above. It is the program description and details. My assistants can refer to this page and see the procedure expected for teaching the skill, what they should say and expect the student to say, prompts, and any additional comments I may want to share with them. 

The second page for each program in the binder is the data recording sheet. So my assistants can quickly and easily read the program description, procedures, Sd, and detailed information on my individualized programming; implement and record the trials on the sheet included in the binder.

 I place the program description page in a sheet protector and the DTT recording sheet behind that (not in a sheet protector). I love these color coded edge sheet protectors!! It allows you to easily divide and separate each program without the need to add colored paper dividers or label tabs. 

 You can see here my student has 4 programs going that I can easily flip through!

"A Work in Progress" is a road map that gives you the tools needed to plan an individualized program for your students with Intellectual Disabilities, as well as guides you in shaping common behaviors amongst these children. It is a research-based systematic approach that has been very effective in my classroom. It is also a great resource for parents to implement in the home. The phases and detailed program descriptions make programming, teaching, and IEP goal writing so simple and easy, you will soon be calling it your classroom bible as well!!! 

In honor of World Autism Awareness Day, I'm giving a hard copy of this book away! Enter below to win a copy! Open to U.S. residents only and will be shipped directly to the winner via Amazon! I hope this book and my tips will ease programming and DTT in your classroom and help your students with Autism be more successful! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Next up is "All Things Special Ed." Thanks for joining in on our blog hop! Keep spreading awareness of Autism and light it up blue this evening. 

Light it up Blue,

Host a Disability Awareness Day at Your School!

Tis the season for spreading disability awareness! Spring seems to be the time where many groups and people engage in spreading awareness since World Down Syndrome Day is in March and Autism Awareness month is April! 

Every other year, I host a disability awareness day event at my school! Starting this a few years ago was the best thing I ever did! We get such a great response from everyone and the students just love it! It's neat to see how our regular Ed students transform and take on a better understanding of the "special" students that they go to school with every day! They become more caring and understanding. And hearing them talk about it for days, or come up to you a day or two later and say, "Now I understand why _______ does that in class" is just priceless! 

I host the event for 3rd-5th graders at my school. I do it during the school day and split it into two sessions. Three classes attend the morning session and three classes attend the afternoon session. I have 6 stations. Each station lasts for 20 minutes and has 2-3 activities they must complete. I count students off; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6....to determine who starts where and then students rotate clockwise every 20 minutes when I blow a whistle! With six 20-minute stations and the time taken to explain procedures and count students off, each session lasts for 2 1/4 hours. 

Here's a look at the activities and the six different stations.

I place task cards in all six stations, so students know exactly what to do! My students run the stations! I also have an adult volunteer in each station (typically the parents of my students), and the classroom teachers attending with their class also help in each station!

All stations are numbered.

I tape the numbers cards on the ends of the table and place the task cards in 8 x 10 plastic standing photo frames from Dollar Tree to stand on each table (as shown below).

Here is the letter I send out to my parents....

....and the letter I send out to the teachers.

Here's a peek at one of the activities at the "Physical Impairment" Station. 

The students at this station are learning sign language!

Here's a "large picture" of the event. You can see 5 of the centers in action here to get an idea of how it looks.

It's been two years since I held the event (since I  hold it every other year), but I'll be hosting again this May, and I cannot wait! 

I'd love to see others spreading awareness among our youth and in our schools, so I've compiled all of these resources and printables into a "Complete Disability Awareness Day Kit!"

With this kit, you can easily host your own Disability Awareness Day with very little prep or stress! 

If it's not included in this kit, you most likely already have it in your classroom!

All activity printables, signs, teacher letters, parent letters, letterhead, etc. are included. 

In fact, all you'll need to gather to host your event is:

paper

pencils

markers

cotton balls

yard sticks

masking tape

blindfolds

sandpaper

containers with lids

pennies

socks or gloves

radio/listening station

I hope you'll consider hosting your own Disability Awareness Day event! It really is life-changing for all of the students, and even for some of the staff, and our general Ed students need to have a better understanding of what these individuals live with every day! It will also be life-changing for you! Also when your students can run the stations, it gives them a great sense of belonging and builds their confidence!

If you'd like to ease your planning, you can take a look at my kit by clicking below!! Also, you can read another post I did about this event here.

Feel free to drop me any questions you may have about planning your event!

Bunches of Luck & Fun,

Make Your Own "Categories" Cards with What You May Already Have!

So I was looking to purchase some "Categories" cards to help me meet a goal for one of my students with Autism and then one of my assistants came up with a brilliant idea! Two minds are better than one! 

We realized that we had a couple of alphabet sets that we were not even using and they had so many categories! So I brought them home this weekend to sort them into categories and realized that the back sides of the letter dividers were also blank with a laminated area for labeling. 

So the sorting began! 

And when it was all said and done....I ended up wth 13 categories!!!

These are going to be perfect for teaching categories to my students and I didn't even have to purchase anything!! :)

Increase Play & Interaction in the Home

Here is one of the projects I was working on during the end of my Spring Break that I promised to share with you! 

I have a student with Autism that I am teaching play skills to. She is currently obsessed with technology. But she doesn't use it appropriately and stims to the extreme when she is on it. So we, the parents and I, have removed iPad and computer privileges from her school day and at home. In an effort to replace the technology and behavior, we are introducing her to many new age appropriate toys and teaching her appropriate play skills. 

Apparently at home, her interaction with her toys consists of lining her barbies and dolls up against a wall. So, we decided to set up a home program and a checkout system to where she could check out a classroom toy each day (that she has been introduced to and practiced using appropriately) to take home each day, every couple days, or each week....however long appropriate. 

In setting this up, I knew I needed not only a checkout system to keep track, but also something to guide the parents and hold them accountable for carrying out appropriate play opportunities at home. The parents also need a little push as they don't realize her capabilities and don't interact with her as much as they should due to her limited expressive communication skills. Well this is what I came up with and so far it is working out well. 

This will go home each Monday and be returned the following Monday. It is my hopes that this will initiate interaction between her and the parents, increase play opportunities, and decrease her self-stimulatory behaviors in the home. The parents will log the activity, who she played with, start/end time, and engagement. 

 Here is the checklist I made for checking out the toys/activities. 

This one is for an individual student and below is one for multiple students.

Click on any of the images to download for free. 

If you are working on play skills and/or interaction in the home, I hope these forms will be helpful for you! 

Also, if you haven't seen, my "Photo Classifying Cards" are free for the entire month of April in honor of National Autism Month!!! Regular $3.50 value! 

FIVE FOR FRIDAY!

Hi Guys!! It's been a hectic week and a week full of apples!!! 

This is how my week ended last Friday night!!

This is the result of shutting a laptop screen onto a pen lying on the keyboard!! )))SHATTERED(((!
I never even shut the lid of my laptop since it is pretty much confined to it's place on my desk. And neither one of my children that used it that day will confess!! But it is what it is! Of course, immediately having withdrawals, I was at Office Max the next day to make my new purchase!

HP Pavilion

This was my very first laptop ever about 6 years ago and I loved it. It was a very good computer to me, so I decided to go with this model again!

It's also the largest laptop I've ever had. This picture doesn't do it justice but it is a 17.5 inch. I have a love hate relationship with it right now though, because figuring out how to use Windows 8 has caused alot of frustration this week!! Thank god for GOOGLE! I hope I get used to it and soon LOVE it!


More exciting than that, is this! I ended up leaving the store with the "HP Instant Ink Printer" I've been wanting. 

Have you heard about the Instant Ink program? Never run out of ink again!! Never purchase ink from a store again....they deliver it right to your home. You pick a monthly plan to fit your printing needs and your printer automatically orders your ink when you start to run low. I have the "frequent printing plan" which is the most expensive plan, but for only $10 a month I can print 300 pages; color or b/w, it doesn't matter! And if you don't use all 300, they roll over to the next month! How awesome is that??! There are also plans for as low as $3 a month. You can check it out this amazing ink replacement service {here}.  

APPLE FUN!!!!

We started our Christmas gift photo booth calendars for our parents! These calendars are going to be soooo darn adorable with different photo props for each month, thanks to Deanna Jump and Mel! You can get these photo props and calendars {here}.

 We made homemade apple pie!

We did all sorts of apple activities including making these 3-D interactive apple folders from Regan Tunstall. You can get this product {here}.

The picture above this one is from First Grade Schoolhouse's unit and you can find it {here}.
I highly recommend both of these products!

We made homemade apple juice!
 

Then to compliment apple week, one of my Hispanic students brought me a Mexican candy apple. I thought it was so sweet and the candy apple.....delicious and unique from any other candy apple I've ever had! 
And to top the week off today....a surprise birthday pizza party for one of my darling Autistic students.

She doesn't get to have normal birthday parties like most children, because she doesn't know how to communicate and interact with other children. She doesn't have sleepovers and playdates like most children. Her "friends" are the ones that she spends her school day with. So it was a great way to end the week by providing her with a real birthday party experience......a party with games, the happy birthday song, fun, laughter, and a party with FRIENDS!!!