Book focuses on talents of autistic artists

There is an interesting article by the Washington Times on special talents of children with special needs. The article also discusses the upcoming book that I have posted on a previous blog post. I really enjoy these articles and think more needs to be written and discussed about the talents that exist for many kids on the spectrum.

For once I would love for the autism education experts to not give me a glazed look every time I talk about how talented my sons art is or how he has an incredibly photographic memory. It gets to be really annoying when you know these looks are really just a fake smile suggesting that the person you are talking to is not really supposed to touch upon the cold facts that they believe these are only just splintered skills in certain areas that professionals really do not categorize as talent. They are more like an obsession with colors, shapes, numbers, music, art, memorizing.

But I know, as an artist, that these odd skills and rare abilities need to be enhanced. They are borderline genius in many kids and adults, and it is a shame that many just cannot appreciate the talent for what it is. It is almost as if no one really understands a photographic memory or an innate ability to paint, understand music or numbers. Seems education experts should really rethink how we can better accentuate these talents and use them as tools for more interaction and most of all for self esteem. When I was 8 and realized my artistic talents, I was thrilled. I think educators need to also appreciate this more in kids with specials needs and autism. Maybe part of the problem is we do not fully know how they think, thus we do not know how to help them except in our limited capacity of how we learn.

I also want to add, that it is very unfair for children with special needs. Just because they do not learn like other children should not mean that they are denied respect for their talents. If you have a small child that is "gifted" any parent would give them piano lessons or special tutoring in the area that they excel. We as parents of kids on the spectrum must do the same. Find their talents and let them sparkle and shine! You will be amazed at what they can accomplish when given the opportunities.

Special Deeds Children
Washington Times - Washington,DC,USA

There is something very Paul Gauguin — impenetrable colors and primitive forms — about Kevin Hosseini's oil paintings.

Which is very impressive in and of itself considering that Kevin is only 13 years old. Add to that the fact that he's autistic.

"Gauguin & Me" is an oil painting by Kevin Hosseini, a 13-year-old with autism.

"I've painted for three years. ... It makes me feel good," says the Carpinteria, Calif, resident who is working on a large oil painting with bold blues and greens. "It's an ocean scene," he explains.

Kevin's and about three dozen other young autistic artists' works will be presented in a coffee-table book, "Artism A-New," due out in October (submissions are still accepted through Aug. 15 at www.artismtoday.com).

Free Printable Classification Game

Free Printable Classification Game
by Jamie Sue
Free Printable Fun

Autistic children often struggle with classification. Knowing what things go together and understanding under what situations those items go together can often be challenging for autistic children. My son sometimes struggles with this. Recently a visitor named Missy contacted me via the Plugoo widget on this blog to request help in finding a printable that addressed classification.

I looked around, but to be honest, I couldn't find anything. If anyone knows of any good resources I'll be sure to list them. I think part of the problem was not knowing what to search for. I tried "category game" and "classification puzzle" and various combinations involving those words and I even broke down and searched for "things that go together" but I didn't come up with anything printable. I did find a nice board game similar to the one my speach therapist uses named (guess what?) Things That Go Together (looks like they couldn't figure out what to call it either) that was very reasonably priced. Considering how much laminating sheets are it might be worth it just to buy a copy of the game.

In the mean time, here is my version of a classification game:

Classification: things that go together puzzle in PowerPoint
Classification: things that go together puzzle in PDF
Classification: things that go tother classification puzzle high res original images for resizing at home .zip

Thanks to Jamie Sue for this wonderful article about Classification systems and creating fun game. Seems categories are not an easy topic and may be worth collecting more resources for. If you have any suggestions or links please feel free to pass on your information to us and others.

Jax Chachitz

Printables to understand the July 4th holiday for kids on the spectrum

Free printables at Family Education has a host of printable options for July 4th. I think using printed materials are a great visual reference and really help kids with Autism get the idea of a holiday celebration. When concepts branch across several avenues then this helps to generalize concepts. Here are just a few that I think are appropriate. Besides printables celebrate by decorating cupcakes or making jello or ice pops, visit a low key event or join in a parade, dress up the kids with red white and blue and join in your local festivities. Happy 4th of July! (I tried to only have ones that were more creative and not just your typical flag.)

Fourth of July Word Search
Printable. Celebrate America's independence with this printable Fourth of July word search.

Patriotic Resist
Printable. Create wax resist works of art using paint and crayons.

Patriotic Hat
Printable. Children create a patriotic hat that will be sure to show off their American pride.

Egg Carton Uncle Sam
Printable. Create an Uncle Sam sculpture and recycle egg chttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifartons at the same time!

Star Design
Printable. Create a picture using the stars and stripes as basic elements.

Mobile of people
Printable. Children can make a mobile of patriotic people by following the directions in this arts and crafts printable.

Patriotic Design
Printable. Everyone will enjoy this collage art activity.

Special Days
Printable. Employ a printable activity that helps build skills in recognizing names of U.S. holidays.

Teaching Children with Autism: Printables Can Help

By Jamie Sue Austin
Blog: Free Printable Fun

Autism is a neurological disorder that usually becomes apparent by age three. It typically causes delays in developing communication and social interaction skills. Autism currently affects 1 in 150 kids.

My son has Autism. He is an intelligent, energetic, and adventurous four year old boy. However, like most Autistic children he struggles with some basic language and speech concepts as well with understand social cause and effect. He is currently enrolled in speech therapy to help him improve his language skills. Teaching children with Autism requires a lot of repetitive instruction and learning materials that break complex social interactions or parts of language down into simple parts. Most of the resources that our speech therapist uses to teach my son come from specialized clearinghouses of special needs educational tools and are visual aides. Some can be prohibitively expensive for the average parent to purchase.

When my son had difficulty learning his prepositions I developed a printable based off of the resources his therapist was using. It worked very well. I began to incorporate other printables into our daily lives. I wrote a blog post about some of the printables I used and recieved a lot of positive feedback from parents.

Printables provide a wonderful free resource teaching children with Autism. Through my searches online I've found that there are free printables available to teach almost any concept. Some require only a small amount of modification and others require a great deal of creative thought. I use printables to teach speech and social concepts.

There are many times that I can't find the printable I want. Last year I wanted to teach my child what type of clothes to wear during what weather. We were struggling to keep him from walking outside in t-shirts during the winter! I couldn't find a printable that conveyed this lesson well. BUT, I did find an awesome picture of a little boy named Tommy at Learning Pages (free membership required). Tommy is the main character in "Tommy Tales", a free online book series available on the Learning Pages website. I used Tommy to create a folder game. My son and I spent time arranging weather conditions and clothing around and on Tommy until we had learned the concept. I encourage parents of Autistic children to create the printables they need when they can't find what they want. Or you can email me, and if I have time I'll create one for you. If you want a copy of my version of Tommy you can download it here, but keep in mind that I am most likely in severe copy write violation of the good people at Learning Pages. ****If you represent Learning Pages and would like this printable download removed just email me and I will do so.****

In this folder game I taught site words using clip art. We first started matching the pictures themselves. Then matching the words to the pictures. We ended with gluing the words under the correct pictures. Clip art is another great resource for making printables to teach any number of subjects. Good clip art (like the kind that comes from English as a second language websites like MES-English.com) can even be used as PECS. I've also used clip art to explain concepts like "Little" and "Big." I still have that printable if you need it you can download it here. The resolution wasn't very good on the clipart so of course the images are kind of fuzzy. But, it works just as well.

Printables are great for teaching children with autism conventional knowledge as well. My son and I just spent a whole day exploring frogs using printables we found online. When teaching about a subject I usually like to include a book, a craft, a puzzle or coloring page, and an activity. All of the information, ideas, and materials I needed to teach my son about frogs were available online and I managed to fill an entire rainy Saturday with froggy fun.

Don't underestimate the power of the humble printable in teaching children with Autism. Printables are a powerful tool for parents and educators. I will be creating and uploading more printables for teaching autistic children so book mark me.

Free Printable Emotions Game for kids with Autism from Free Printable Fun Blog

By Jamie Sue Austin
Blog: Free Printable Fun

Children with Autism often have difficulty recognizing and identifying emotions. They often miss the facial cues that other people rely on to gauge the moods of others. This printable emotions game is designed to help identify emotions on the faces of others.

How to use this game:

Print one copy of Emotions Bingo from either the PowerPoint or PDF file you downloaded. Cut out the blue circles on the last page. Call out the name of an emotion and challenge your child to place the blue circle in the correct spot. The child wins when either all of the emotions are covered or when three emotions in a row are covered (your choice.)

Other Uses:

Print one copy of emotions Bingo. Cut apart the game and use the squares as flash cards. Have the child draw various faces (happy, sad, disgusted) on the blue circles and match them with the flash cards.

Print one copy of Emotions Bingo. Cut apart the game and use the squares to play "memory." Place all the cards face down and have the children turn the cards over to find a matching pair of feelings (two sad people for example.) If the cards do not match turn them face down again. Continue until all cards are paired.

I would not consider this a beginning game for a child with Autism. I would suggest introducing emotions in the form of PECS first. This game serves to bridge between PECS and real life interpretation of emotions.

Printable Emotions Game for Autism PowerPoint

Pritnable Emotions Game for Autism PDF

FYI: Images were obtained from Flikr under the Creative Commons, modify, adapt, build upon, and commercial licenses where ever possible. If an image belongs to and you would like it removed please contact me.

RESOURCES ONLINE:

ABCTEACH: Has a nice collection of free printables for that would be useful in teaching emotions to autistic children available in several languages. My favorite flashcards on their site are here.

Austim-PPD.net: Has an active and wonderfully educational forum devoted to autism and PPD. Many great members work hard to provide each other with the resources they find. Here is a fabulous post giving links to emotion games and learning activities.

Edupics: Has some cute printable coloring pages focused on emotions. A lot of the pages have an Anime feel and would be suitable for a slightly older child.

Do2Learn: I can't say enough about Do2Learn and their AWESOME printables. But, have you checked out their games? The "Feelings Game" is an awesome companion to FreePrintableFun's Emotion Bingo and "Facial Expressions" is a great way for kids to learn how to identify a person's emotions.

This interesting printable from TeacherVision has children draw a face to match the feelings described in the sentence below. These flashcards from Happy Discipline are a quick print.

Enchanted Learning: Is a subscription site, but they do have nice printables. The printables are very well done, but I come across so many free printables that I haven't found justification for subscribing. However, if you are low on time this might be the one stop shop you've always dreamed of.

MES-English: Again, this site, which was originally design to teach English as a second language, shows how well designed their learning materials really are. They are perfect for teaching autistic children!

PictureSET: Actually, I couldn't find PECS for emotions on here, but I bet they are. There are SO MANY AWESOME visual aides that would work great for autistic children on this site, for free, that it's really unbelievable and deserves a special mention.

Thanks to Jamie Sue Austin for her wonderful blog called Free Printable Fun Blog

Autism One Art Festival in Chicago

The second annual Autism One Arts Festival in Chicago is running in conjunction with the conference Friday May 23rd to Sunday May 25th. The Art Festival is proud to present a wide variety of artists from painting to the performing arts. Its about life and passion and joy and celebrating the unique gifts our children bring to the world. I will have posters from my Autism Series for sale, titled I just want you to say mommy one time.

The festival also includes classes in music, acting and painting. Art can be the bridge to connect our children to the world. The Festival is free and open to the public. Here are also links to the various other artists showing and selling work. If you are in Chicago don't miss the event!

Trent Altman
Kaitren Beechey
Mark Rimland
Carly Hatton
Josh Peddle

A gallery that brings the work of a lot of different artists: Art on Main Gallery

Jax Chachitz

Peek in on the progress of an artist working with special needs kids

I am thrilled to share the work created by 3 incredible kids working with one very talented artist, Joanna Whitney. Joanna is new to the challenges of kids with special needs. But she has been able to make a valuable connection and tap into the creative energy of these incredible children.

I think it is wonderful that she is objective when dealing with the various disabilities, ASD, Autism, Aspergers Syndrome and Mental Health Issues. Sometimes as a parent or therapist, when you know only one way of interacting it really limits your creativity. My philosophy is to have a broad perspective of the traits of the disability, be educated about the dynamics of the disability. Watch, listen, learn from those surrounding the child, there are obvious successful methods to get the kids to interact, we all know them via the countless therapies. Exposing kids to art and an artist forces the artist/teacher to be exposed to the dynamic of the disability and try to think about how to inspire and communicate artistically. The communication is what is tapped into and flows via body language and expression. I find my son, watches me when I paint with him, he really is incredibly observant about the nuances of what I do as an artist. As an artist/teacher it is important to always remember it is about the experience of creating, not about what the final product looks like. As adults, we tend to get too involved in the final outcome and the "rules". Creating art should be just about creating art and does not have to be about talking, being verbal, body language is a valuable tool for communicating your wants, needs and desires. Whatever way that needs to be expressed.
It is wonderful to see some of the works created so far by the children working with Joanna Whitney. The spontaneous ideas that are overflowing. Exciting! Please visit her ongoing journal of progress, she has some fabulous ideas and genuinely wishes to inspire others out there. I am looking forward to seeing more. Will keep you all posted. http://www.joannawhitney.com/files/sn.html

Jax Chachitz

Resources for Teaching Children with Autism

I am trying to create a list of links of helpful and/or free websites. If your child has been diagnosed with a developmental delay and you have tried to find teaching materials, then you have more than likely experienced "sticker shock" For some reason the makers of toys and learning materials for children with developmental delays have to make more money than the rest of us for their labors. True, they provide a great service and thank god we do have access to the multitude of toys out there but . . . DO THE TOYS HAVE TO COST THAT MUCH! There is a point where pricing is becoming somewhat sketchy. Same goes for all those GFCF food products out there! Fortunately, there are some wonderful folks who have put their hearts ahead of their bank accounts and provided some free stuff for parents and teachers of children with autism and developmental delays.

The following links will take you to some wonderful web sites. Many are run by parents with children with Autism. Be sure to check out the free downloads, pictures, ideas, and more. If you know of any other web sites that have helped you, please email me at: jax@atelierjax.com. Enjoy:

Links I have reviewed: I will gradually try to add to this list. I also want to thank msn group for some of these website suggestions. I am pulling from various resources.

Hiyah - Written by a mother with 2 boys with Autism. "My name is Sara. I have 2 boys who both showed an interest in the computer, but didn't know how to use the mouse or keyboard. Since there was nothing on the market to meet their needs, I developed a series of educational computer software programs that they could operate on their own by simply pressing the spacebar. I am making these programs available at no charge to any parent or teacher who thinks they may be able to use them.

JAMBAV - Jambav uses its expertise in software to make a difference in the lives of children of all ages and all abilites. Check out the parent blog and especially ToonDoo, their cool new online comic strip creator. Create your own comic stips, publish, share and discuss!

STARFALL - You are gonna love this site and so will your child! Start with the A-B-C's and move to reading simple stories, like Zac the Rat. The graphics and sounds will keep most kids attention for a long time!

CHILDREN WITH CHALLENGES - Prewriting Activities, Fine Motor Skills, Cutting activities, Cheap do it yourself activity suggestions. Free, printable practice pages for tracing, copying letters, and more. Don't stop at this page. Go to the main page for some excellent suggestions for teaching children many fine-motor skills.

Accentuate the Positive - Not a toy or an activity but spread your appreciation!

Thomas the Tank Engine and Autism - "Thomas often serves as a 'gateway to learning' for children with ASD. The interest in Thomas provides children with the motivation and interest to try new things." This web site has some great ideas for using Thomas to help kids with autism learn. It has many great pictures of Thomas' facial expressions that can be used to teach emotions.

Funbrain.com - Many on-line learning and fun games for kids of all ages and grades.

Facial Expressions Game - An interesting resource "game" from DoToLearn. A computer generated facial expression simulator. Weird, but interesting with the nuances of facial expressions.

Beyond Autism Pecs Pictures/Icons Pages - The best collection of PECS pictures, links to all kinds of pictures, and sage advice from a parent who's "been there, done that." You're gonna love this page and amazing source of information and links!

Kids Fonts - Download fonts to create dot-to-dot letters so your child can print, begin cursive writing, or color his/her own name. They offer do-it-yourself supplies for teaching young children
to recognize and write their alphabet and numbers.

Superkids - Educational Software Review - For playing music, music - c scale, travel back in time, create your own math and vocabulary worksheets, play on-line games, and so much more!

Riley and Drew's Thomas The Tank Engine Site: Check out the coloring pages and characters at Thomas The Tank Engine Site.

Facial Expressions of Emotion - An interactive figure allows your child to make a face, guess the emotion, and then click to see if he is correct. Directions: Single click on a set of eyes and a mouth. Then single click on the Done button to check your emotion. If not successful, you will be encouraged to "try again." Very cool for kids who are struggling with recognizing facial expressions.

BillyBear4Kids.com - Print & Play Worksheet Games - Three skill levels. Print out practice sheets for alphabet, numbers, (dot-to-dot), writing, math, social studies, fun, and much more. Worth checking it out.

DoToLearn - Free picture cards, schedules, and tips for visual learners. Also includes products you can purchase. A great resource!

Thomas the Tank Engine Get the latest news on Thomas and the Magic Railroad and much more. Includes brief movies, many wonderful learning and fun games, simple activities, and great animations.

http://www.frontiernet.net/~imaging/train_set.html. Build and Run a Train Set Train Set for the Jet Set by Paul Flavin. A pretty cool toy train set that you can build, run, and control with your mouse. Make it run fast or slow. For the comuter and mathematical savvy.

KinderArt - KinderArt Coloring Pages are free, printable coloring sheets for children.

BrainCandy - Get Connected - A puzzle game in which you rearrange the wires to get everyone connected to the Internet. A challenging game. Requires great puzzle-solving ability, patience, and good mouse skills.

OZMO - Fun Toys and Interesting Stuff - Created by parents of an adult with autism and OCD to encourage easy, safe, wonderful fun with toys, posters, books, novelties, puzzles, jokes and other interesting stuff.

jax chachitz - artist - www.atelierjax.com

Stop Think Autism: Autism in the Marketplace

Be sure to check out this wonderful blog called Stop Think Autism. There is an interesting link to an article called Autism in the Marketplace. The article originates from Newsday.com. Here is an excerpt from the blog article. Thank you to Stop Think Autism for sharing this information.

"It's an interesting piece, and I'm fairly certain this is the first one of its kind I've come across. It discusses adult autistics (yes, Jenny, they really do exist), dealing with finances, living independently, and the difficult issue of legal guardianship. The story is from the parent's perspective. It deals mainly with adult autistics who would seem to need little, if any, services. Yet, they still run into major issues with finances and have difficulty with other day to day interactions."

"The story closely mirrors the ones I hear from families whose child is considered by the school to be "high functioning" and is dropped from special-ed or services. These children skim by, many drop-out or have major issues, especially in high school. If you can do fairly well with school assignments, sit still in class, they presume one doesn't need any extra help."

Jax Chachitz

Songs for Teaching: Great for kids on the Autism Spectrum

Some children with Autism seem to have an interest in music. I have found that music, acting out the songs and singing songs has been instrumental for my son on the Autism Spectrum. A Speech Therapist had told me it was pivitol in teaching language because it helps to connect the left and right brain. Never did I realize that my life as a parent would be dictated by songs! :)

Here is a great resource to use with a vast number of free songs including lyrics and downloads. The site is called Songs for Teaching, The Definitive Source for Educational Music. Here is an excerpt from the website:

"Creative teachers can use music to teach content across the curriculum -- to students of all ages. A host of educational experts brings you tested ideas for using the magic of music in your lesson plans.
This site contains thousands of pages for you to peruse -- many with lyrics, sound clips, and teaching suggestions. The top educational pros offer practical suggestions based on the latest in brain-based learning. Innovative teachers share their classroom pointers and extension activities using children's music.
Songs from a wide variety of popular artists are presented by academic subject. See the categories below to find educational music and children's songs that complement your lesson plans."

Enjoy!
jax chachitz

Virtual Reality for children with Autsim

This is a great article about the use of Virtual Reality for children with Autism. Written by Translating Autism: An Autism Research Blog

Title:Development of symbolic play through the use of virtual reality tools in children with autistic spectrum disorders
Source:Herrera, G., Alcantud, F., Jordan, R., Blanquer, A., Labajo, G., De Pablo, C. (2008). Development of symbolic play through the use of virtual reality tools in children with autistic spectrum disorders: Two case studies. Autism, 12(2), 143-157. DOI: 10.1177/1362361307086657

Here is the article from the above website. Please be sure to visit the site as it has much more in terms of links and information.

"In general, I tend to stay away from case reports (studies using one or just a couple of participants). Usually I don’t even read them, since most of the time I feel that, given what we know about methodology today, case reports should not even be published. I say ‘most of the time’ because once in a while a case report is published that reminds me why case reports are important: to provide us with insight as to where future research could focus. So I want to briefly review a case report published in the last issue of Autism as simply food for thought."

"Clinically, the absence of pretend play in early childhood is one of the most common features of ADSs. Parents report that their children do not engage in imaginary or pretend play and do not use toys as expected when play requires symbolic understanding. For example, when provided with a box of Star Wars figurines, a child may simply line up the figures making patterns on the floor and may not use the figures to recreate situations or scenes as expected. The assumption is that the child does not view the figures as symbolic representations of people. The authors of this paper wanted to use Virtual Reality as a tool to teach children with autism to use symbolic play. There is some evidence that suggest that symbolic play is of significant importance for the development of several cognitive skills including language, spontaneity, intention, etc. Thus, the authors argued that interventions that teach children to use symbolic play could be of benefit to children with ADSs."

"The authors used a computer virtual reality game “the Virtual Supermarket” to teach children to move from physically manipulating the objects (picking up items from the shelves), to engaging in functional play (dressing a doll with miniature clothing), to finally engaging in symbolic play (using a pair of trousers as an imaginary road). The authors used this game with two children, age 8 and 15, who had been diagnosed with Autism based on DSM-IV criteria. The two individuals received 28 sessions of this type of games during 2 ½ months. They were tested on a variety of measures before and after the intervention period. The authors stated that after the intervention period the children demonstrated improvement in functional use of objects, functional play (measured via the Test of Pretend Play – ToPP), symbolic play (ToPP), imagination understanding, and magic understanding."

"Although this study suffers from the common limitations of case studies, it is extremely interesting, and it should encourage future research in the use of virtual reality as an intervention tool for the teaching of symbolic understanding."