Free Printable Preposition Game for kids with Autism

Free Printable Preposition Game by Jamie Sue Austin. Visit this wonderful blog called Free Printable Fun for Everyone. Below is her post about a great visual tool for helping to teach and generalize prepositions. This type of game could also expand to various prepositions by putting velcro in various places, and expand in terms of other images - flowers, bugs, leaves, rocks, etc. Visit her site to download images.

My son is having trouble with his prepositions. So I created a game for him. This is similar to the games used in a speech or OT therapy setting and would be good for a child with Autism or PPD. I laminated images of lilly pads and attached them with velcro dots to clear plastic cups (so that I could demonstrate "under"). I purchased a set of cheap frogs to use as manipulatables. I created cue cards that show the frogs in various positions with the lilly pads. You can see a photo of the finished product above. Because not everyone will have access to the same frogs, I've included pictures of the frogs that can be used instead. If you are using pictures of the frogs you won't need the cups. But, I still recommend laminating the images.

Bristle Blocks with silly faces great for kids with Autism

Bristle Blocks Twirl Tots in Bin
Thanks to Parents Toys for bringing back the classic bristle blocks in new exciting colors and with lovely characters to liven up play. The put together characters all have funny faces which are great for kids on the autism spectrum. Identify sad, silly, happy, crying, and some that could go either way. Great for imaginative play scenarios and creating clever little spinning contraptions. Build and create using motor skills while providing hours of imaginative and captivating play. Only drawback notorious with bristle blocks is that they never stay together so easily.

Playful Patterns by Discovery Toys

Discovery Toys has a creative and simple toy set called Playful Patterns. For some reason we have gotten a great amount of use out of and it seems to be constantly rediscovered as a toy. It consists of geometric foam pieces that match the designs on the pattern cards. Cards have simple images like a rocket ship, boat, fish, fox, clown, etc. The various shapes fit into the cards which create a clever method of helping a child to understand that images are made up of shapes. That square can be a fish, the rectangles are arms and legs on the clown, squares and triangles can create a rocket ship to the moon. My son loves this toy, and he just wants to continue to play all the various cards all the time. Our set includes over 100 shapes of various bright colors and 20 cards with 34 designs.
Some of the skills helped are language development, identifying colors, shapes, creating images. Problem solving skills, child must figure out what goes where to complete card. Great hand eye coordination and help with fine motor skills to place pieces on correct shapes, visual scanning for locating the correct pieces. I also have expanded play with creating our own scenarios from the shapes. One drawback is that for little fingers sometimes putting the pieces on the shapes can be difficult and a bit frustrating. My son has mastered asking for help, so I see the positive side. This set also has allowed for some great one on one focused activity to sit and simply play with your child to fill the cards. Time well spent!
This product is not in stock at Amazon but you can probably search for a version on Ebay or from the creator, Discovery Toys.