Here is an article written by our favorite printable expert, Jamie Sue Austin. It is posted on the How to site, which also seems like a great resource for information
How to Use Printables to Teach Children with Autism
By Jamie Austin
Teaching children with autism can be difficult at times. Autism affects how a child processes information. Repetition is often the best way for children with autism to learn something new. Teaching materials specially designed for children with autism can be prohibitively expensive. Printables, online items that can be printed for free, can be used to create folder games, PECS cards and picture schedules for children with autism. Explore various ways to use printables in your daily lessons.
Instructions
Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Step1
Use printables to create folder games. Folder games help easily illustrate key concepts for children with autism. Folder games are usually comprised of a variety of images which a child can match or manipulate to achieve a goal. For example, to teach a child with autism about animals and their habitats using printables you would search online for clip art of various animals and pictures of various habitats that those animals would reside in. A picture of a frog would match with a picture of a pond. Print out and cut apart all the images. Glue the images of the habitats to the inside of a manila folder. Have the child match the images of the animals to the correct habitats. Use clear laminate, contact paper or packing tape to protect the images.
Step2
Use prinables to create PECS cards. PECS, or Picture Exchange Communication System, cards are pictures used to convey information. A child who cannot verbalize his needs can use a picture to communicate with others. PECS cards can be found online and printed out for use with the child. PictureSET and MESEnglish are two excellent resources for printable PECs and PEC-style cards.
Step3
Use printables to create a picture schedule. Picture schedules help maintain order during a multi-step activity and help reduce anxiety for children with autism. Knowing what comes next in a sequence can help children with autism more easily transition from one aspect of an activity to the next. Print images that can be readily identified by the child and arrange them in order to create a picture schedule. Use a picture schedule to convey an entire day’s worth of activities or as a visual reminder to help the child complete a multi-step activity like using the bathroom. Do2Learn has many free printable picture schedules.
Step4
Use printables to improve coloring and writing skills. Many children with autism need extra practice when it comes to correct writing grip. Printable coloring pages can be found on almost any subject. Giving a child with autism coloring pages on subjects that interest them can help motivate her to practice coloring and writing skills.
Step5
Use printables to improve cutting and pasting skills. Many children with autism need extra practice when it comes to cutting with scissors and pasting. Cutting and pasting are important skills for all children and are a prerequisite for surpassing early education. By using printables focused on subjects that interest the child, the child will become more motivated to improve his cutting and pasting skills.
Showing posts with label Printable. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Printable. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
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
Monday, June 30, 2008
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.
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.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Teaching Children with Autism Categories, Free Card Games
Free Printable Categories Game
by Jamie Sue Austin
Blog: http://freeprintablefun.org/
Jamie Sue Austin has written a game for Categories of objects. Sometimes a difficult concept for kids on the spectrum to generalize.
Categorizing objects into groups (for example: a chair, a couch, and a bed are all furniture) can be difficult for children with autism. Understanding negatives (i.e. this is not food) can also be a struggle. I created category cards to practice these concepts. (If you have problems downloading the cards from that link try it here: http://www.mediafire.com/?isyzmt2hddt)
There are several ways to play:
Sorting:
Print the cards and cut them apart. Help the child sort the cards into categories.
Flash Card Games:
1. Place three of the four cards in a category in front of the child (i.e. three food items) show the child two more cards, the remaining category item (such as food) and a non-category item. Ask the child to pick the one that goes with the cards in front of them.
2. Place two cards in front of the child (i.e. an apple and a mouse) and ask the child to identify which card is not the other (which one is NOT the mouse?)
3. Place three cards in front of the child, two of which will be of the same category, the third one which is not (i. e. an apple, a sandwich, and a bed) ask the child to identify which item does not belong (which one is NOT food?)
Category Memory Game:
Place all the cards face down. Have to child flip over the cards one by one. Try to match categories.
While you are learning about categories Do2Learn has a nice little "what's different" game on thier site. :)
by Jamie Sue Austin
Blog: http://freeprintablefun.org/
Jamie Sue Austin has written a game for Categories of objects. Sometimes a difficult concept for kids on the spectrum to generalize.
Categorizing objects into groups (for example: a chair, a couch, and a bed are all furniture) can be difficult for children with autism. Understanding negatives (i.e. this is not food) can also be a struggle. I created category cards to practice these concepts. (If you have problems downloading the cards from that link try it here: http://www.mediafire.com/?isyzmt2hddt)
There are several ways to play:
Sorting:
Print the cards and cut them apart. Help the child sort the cards into categories.
Flash Card Games:
1. Place three of the four cards in a category in front of the child (i.e. three food items) show the child two more cards, the remaining category item (such as food) and a non-category item. Ask the child to pick the one that goes with the cards in front of them.
2. Place two cards in front of the child (i.e. an apple and a mouse) and ask the child to identify which card is not the other (which one is NOT the mouse?)
3. Place three cards in front of the child, two of which will be of the same category, the third one which is not (i. e. an apple, a sandwich, and a bed) ask the child to identify which item does not belong (which one is NOT food?)
Category Memory Game:
Place all the cards face down. Have to child flip over the cards one by one. Try to match categories.
While you are learning about categories Do2Learn has a nice little "what's different" game on thier site. :)
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
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
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.
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
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
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:
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
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.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Free Printable Fun for Kids with Autism
Free Printable Learning Activities for Autistic Children
by Jamie Sue Austin
Blog: Free Printable Fun
Finding printable learning activities online for children is easy. There are a wealth of sites that offer great resources for teaching children at home.
Sites for parents offers a HUGE listing of websites that offer quality educational printables. http://www.sitesforparents.com/
For parents of autistic children the resources are smaller, but still available. While I believe there are wonderful, affordable materials out there for parents to purchase, it's nice to try things for free before committing to purchases that may not work for the individual child. If you have a laminating machine at home (who doesn't, right?) then you can actually substitute many purchased learning materials for free ones.
Do2Learn has some wonderful illustrations that can be used to help autistic children create and maintain a schedule. Print, laminate, add Velcro stickies.. POOF! You're done. I have to commend this site for giving away for free what a lot of parents have been paying for. http://www.do2learn.com/
LearningPage has a great selection of worksheets and printable books that would be excellent for both typical children learning their fundamentals and autistic children learning vocabulary, sequencing, and categorizing. The site is free but requires registration. High five for the developers of this resource as they provide an almost complete K-5 curriculum's worth of activities. http://www.learningpage.com/
MES-English.com is a site that has wonderful printables for those learning English as a second language. The illustrations are snappy and the concepts uncluttered. They would work well for teaching vocabulary, daily routine, adverbs and adjectives, and prepositions to children with autism. I myself use their preposition cards. This is a truly stunning site. The printables are offered in many different formats so that you can choose which best suits your needs. I'm very fond of the PowerPoint layouts because it allows me to print 6 images to a sheet of card stock, which I can laminate for my child to use.
While I'm sure that these materials were not created with an autistic child in mind they are just as impressive as those that are. I have to give the creator some serious kudos on that.
If a child is learning a second language they are an excellent resource as well because most of the printables are available in more than one language. Aside from flash cards they offer coloring sheet, phonics worksheets, printable stickers, and great clip art. A wonderful free site!!! http://www.mes-english.com/flashcards.php
And just for fun... Here's a random paper toy. It's an autism awareness car!
http://www.buttonsandmore.com/toycar/ulthm.htm
Thanks to Jamie Sue for letting us use your article: Free Printable Learning Activities for Autistic Children. The free printable fun blog also has a nice selection of other links. www.freeprintablefun.blogspot.com
by Jamie Sue Austin
Blog: Free Printable Fun
Finding printable learning activities online for children is easy. There are a wealth of sites that offer great resources for teaching children at home.
Sites for parents offers a HUGE listing of websites that offer quality educational printables. http://www.sitesforparents.com/
For parents of autistic children the resources are smaller, but still available. While I believe there are wonderful, affordable materials out there for parents to purchase, it's nice to try things for free before committing to purchases that may not work for the individual child. If you have a laminating machine at home (who doesn't, right?) then you can actually substitute many purchased learning materials for free ones.
Do2Learn has some wonderful illustrations that can be used to help autistic children create and maintain a schedule. Print, laminate, add Velcro stickies.. POOF! You're done. I have to commend this site for giving away for free what a lot of parents have been paying for. http://www.do2learn.com/
LearningPage has a great selection of worksheets and printable books that would be excellent for both typical children learning their fundamentals and autistic children learning vocabulary, sequencing, and categorizing. The site is free but requires registration. High five for the developers of this resource as they provide an almost complete K-5 curriculum's worth of activities. http://www.learningpage.com/
MES-English.com is a site that has wonderful printables for those learning English as a second language. The illustrations are snappy and the concepts uncluttered. They would work well for teaching vocabulary, daily routine, adverbs and adjectives, and prepositions to children with autism. I myself use their preposition cards. This is a truly stunning site. The printables are offered in many different formats so that you can choose which best suits your needs. I'm very fond of the PowerPoint layouts because it allows me to print 6 images to a sheet of card stock, which I can laminate for my child to use.
While I'm sure that these materials were not created with an autistic child in mind they are just as impressive as those that are. I have to give the creator some serious kudos on that.
If a child is learning a second language they are an excellent resource as well because most of the printables are available in more than one language. Aside from flash cards they offer coloring sheet, phonics worksheets, printable stickers, and great clip art. A wonderful free site!!! http://www.mes-english.com/flashcards.php
And just for fun... Here's a random paper toy. It's an autism awareness car!
http://www.buttonsandmore.com/toycar/ulthm.htm
Thanks to Jamie Sue for letting us use your article: Free Printable Learning Activities for Autistic Children. The free printable fun blog also has a nice selection of other links. www.freeprintablefun.blogspot.com
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