BBB AUTISM SUPPORT NETWORK

BBB AUTISM SUPPORT NETWORK/AUTISM SOCIETY ONTARIO (YORK REGION CHAPTER)

PRESENT

THE E-NEWS

http://www.bbbautism.com/about_bbb.htm

NEW WAYS TO TEACH OLD FAVORITES

Volume 7; Issue 2 September 26, 2002

ABA, IBI and various other behavioral programs are very popular right now, particularly in Ontario, where an exciting governmental initiative made it possible for some of our preschoolers with autism to experience some exemplary behavioral programs. Some parents have been implementing home ABA/IBI programs for years particularly after the publication of Catherine Maurice’s “Let Me Hear Your Voice”, and her follow up manual “Behavioral Interventions for Young Children with Autism”.

Whether you use behavioral teaching in your home or not, many of us have attempted to teach certain academic and self-help skills at different times to our kids. My son tends to thrive when we are careful to have regular maintenance sessions, but these can become boring with a result of tantrums and low scores.

This issue takes some very basic programs and adds a few twists to them to keep things interesting. This also helps with generalization; learning a skill in a variety of ways is a great way to bring what your child has learned into everyday life.

You don’t have to even believe in ABA to use these, they are fun games to use as a sneaky way to promote learning. If you have typically developing preschoolers, they are very appropriate as well.

We are also going to discuss a new way to deal with self-restrictive eaters. This was also an issue in our house for years, culminating in an alarming set of behaviors this past spring. Our mediator, Aliya, came up with a great idea that has worked wonders and I want to share it with you in the hopes you’ll find it helpful too!

Our wonderful readers have contributed some great strategies in “Cool Ideas for Teaching Children on the Spectrum”; we owe another debt of thanks to them!

I hope you enjoy our ideas, once again, I owe thanks to my team; Aliya, Lisa, Wendy, and Zeenat, along with our wonderful parent contributors!

Bee Cool,

Liz

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTIONS	ANNOUNCEMENT: NEW BBB PARENT GUIDE!
NEW WAYS TO TEACH	EATING DIFFICULTIES
COOL IDEAS FOR TEACHING KIDS ON THE SPECTRUM (PARENT CONTRIBUTIONS)	E-NEWS BITES
SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION	PAST ISSUES
BBB PARENT GUIDES	DISCLAIMER AND COPYWRITE

COMING SOON: BBB PARENT GUIDE – “GUIDE TO VACCINES IN ONTARIO” WRITTEN FOR PARENTS BY PARENTS. REQUEST YOUR COPY BY EMAILING liz@deaknet.com.

"Fishing for Numbers":

Materials needed: 1 Chopstick, self adhesive magnet sheets or rolls, paperclips, numbers (we used foam numbers from a bath puzzle, but you can use PECS or any other materials you have). Note: Instead of using magnets and paper clips, you can use both sides of a piece of Velcro.

- Attach magnet (or 1 side of Velcro) to end of chopstick – this is your rod (if child has good fine motor, you could make a more sophisticated rod)

- Attach paperclips (or other side of Velcro) to numbers.

Set Up: Have numbers in either groups, isolation or all together laid out; give ‘rod’ to student.

Sd (or verbal instruction): “Fish for Number ___”

Student follows direction using prompts (if necessary).

Remember, you are not teaching the directive “Fish For”, so if the student needs a prompt to ‘fish’ it should not be marked as incorrect. You’ll be amazed at how quickly many kids pick this up, though.

"Wheel of Clothing":

Materials needed: Big Foam Board cut in shape of a circle. More foam board in a contrasting colour cut out as an arrow. Split (butterfly) pin. PCS or photos of clothing (laminated), Velcro.

- Make a big “clock” out of the circular board by attaching the arrow in the middle with the split pin.

- Arrange one side of Velcro circularly at the outer rim of circle (i.e. where the numbers would go on a clock face)

- Put other side of Velcro on each picture of clothing

Ensure when attaching clothing that the location doesn’t interfere with the spinning of the arrow. If this happens, cut the arrow a fraction shorter.

Set Up: Place ‘clothing’ on corresponding pieces on Velcro on clock face.

Sd (or verbal instruction): “Spin for ______”

Student follows direction using prompts (if necessary).

Remember, you aren’t teaching the directive “Spin for”, so mark accordingly.

"Find the Alphabet":

Materials needed: Film canisters (most photo labs recycle these, so you can get them free of charge), Velcro, Alpha PCS

- Place reinforcers in one canister, keeping track of which canister they are in

- Stick one side of Velcro on lids of canisters, the other on the letters

- Place letters on canister lids, the letter you are teaching goes on the canister where you’ve hidden the reinforcers

Set Up: Place canisters with letters on them on table between mediator and student.

Sd (or verbal instruction): “Find the letter ____” (when student finds correct letter, say “Open” and allow them to retrieve treat)

Student follows direction using prompts (if necessary).

Remember, you aren’t teaching the directive “Find the letter” or “Open”, so mark accordingly.

"Hot Jumpers (colours)":

Materials needed: Sheets of construction paper in different colours.

Set Up: Place colours on the floor

Sd (or verbal instructions): “Jump on _____”

Student follows direction using prompts (if necessary).

Remember, you aren’t teaching the directive “Jump on”, so mark accordingly.

"Sponge Squeezers (shapes)":

Materials needed: Thin sponges, sharp scissors, shallow bowls, and water

Note: This is best performed at kitchen table; it can be a little messy!

- cut shapes out of sponges

- put shapes in bowls with just enough water added so the sponges soak it up

Set Up: Put bowls with sponges on table within reach of student

Sd (or verbal instructions): “Squeeze _____”

Student follows direction using prompts (if necessary).

Remember, you aren’t teaching the directive “Squeeze”, so mark accordingly.

All of the above can be changed around, for example, you can do “Sponge Squeezer Numbers”, “Find the Shape”, Wheel of Colours”, etc. Use your imagination to come up with more ideas. We use these to keep maintenance and daily review from getting boring. We schedule each program (using a different method) for each week and rotate weekly. If one program goes over really well, we take it out of circulation and save for the more challenging days!

Please remember to keep art supplies out of the reach of children; also, these programs are more effective if they are not available any time the child wants them.

SCHEDULING:

If you do have a home program, you are going to want to rotate your games. An example would be:

	Fishing for COLOURS
	NUMBER Hot Jumpers
	Sponge Squeezing SHAPES
	Find the ALPHABET
	Wheel of CLOTHING

	Fishing for CLOTHING
	ALPHA Hot Jumpers
	Sponge Squeezing NUMBERS
	Find the COLOURS
	Wheel of SHAPES