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Sunday, December 19, 2010

AUTISM RESOURCES--Part 3

Good Monday Morning Everyone!

I (Dean) love and enjoy the seasons here in KY, but have to confess that winter is my least favorite. I need lots and lots of daylight to be a happy camper, so I shall be celebrating the Winter Solstice -“Shortest Day of the Year”- not for beginning of winter and it’s short days, but for the fact that we have reached the shortest day and soon the light of day will start extending! Seriously, I watch each minute being added each day!!

Today we travel to Kansas to see what those people have to share with us for Autism.
This website http://www.kansasasd.com/ made our list of favorites if for no other reason than their wonderful list of SOCIAL NARRATIVES! If you need a social narrative, I say check here first. You have approximately 150 narratives from which to choose!

From the home page simply click on the Social Narrative button to the left of the screen to be taken to their listing. The listings are compiled by skill to be taught; special interest; age range; whether it is a social story or a power card; and the format-Powerpoint, Word, PDF, or Boardmaker (TM).

Besides all those wonderful social stories, they also offer some very useful “Visual Supports” and “Visual Tasks” which can be found by clicking on the navigation buttons on the left of your screen.

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We are taking a Christmas break from the blogging so this will be the last blog of 2010, but we’ll be back on January 3rd to share our next website on Autism!

Being Christians, Leah and I say “MERRY CHRISTMAS” and hope yours is filled with peace, joy, and love!

Leah and Dean
www.2galsspeechproducts.com

Monday, December 13, 2010

AUTISM RESOURCES-Part 2

We wish we had really written about these in a more time considered manner because there are many wonderful seasonal activities for fall to be found in these sites. Oh well, at least you have them for next year!

Today we will be looking at HYPERLINK "http://www.cindysautisticsupport.com" http://www.cindysautisticsupport.com/ She is from Pennsylvania, so those of you from PA may already know about her site.

On her homepage the first thing you will see is that she offers us a monthly link from which you can access her monthly thematic page. As an example for November she offered activities from her classroom: A Turkey Poem, a Thanksgiving Poem and a Pumpkin; M&M Candy Math Worksheets (which she put up as pdfs so we can print and use them) as well as, recommended books, and links to all things Thanksgiving from other websites. You also find a few things for Veteran's Day!

Going back to the home page you’ll find approximately 33 links in boxes that will take you to her shared information. These are support and information pages and websites.
Tons of good information here. I’d like to bring to your attention the “printables from my classroom” box. (1st column 3rd row) This will take you to a page that lists all her worksheets. She has worksheets for spelling, writing, math, and counting. These worksheets are labeled by grade appropriateness, too!

Her site offers fantastic links for Autism Awareness, Classroom Management and Behavior, Communication and Speech links, Seasonal Pages, and Parent Resources.
Good information to have available as one of your resources!

We highly suggest your bookmark this site.

See you next week!
Leah and Dean
www.2galsspeechproducts.com

Sunday, December 5, 2010

AUTISM RESOURCES-Part 1

Hello Everyone! We hope you had a good Thanksgiving and are looking forward to Christmas.

Today we begin our next series on Autism. Even though all of us are at different levels in our skills, we all work with kids on our caseloads within the Autism Spectrum. All of us can use more information in this area and we all have different questions regarding “How do I do that?” It is our hope that as we introduce you to various sites in the next six weeks you’ll find one that will become indispensable to you.

Today’s visit is to http://www.autism4teachers.com/. This site is geared for the teacher and touches on so many, many topics related to working with the child. It contains information from setting up the room, to instructional ideas and materials, to behavioral considerations, to functional data sheets and so much more! We love this site and are thankful to the gals who are responsible for it’s development.

About those four gals: (in their own words)
“In 2004, the four of us found ourselves working together at Thornebrooke Elementary School. We each had a self-contained classroom for students with autism and worked together to support our students and each other. After working together for only a short period of time, we realized that each one of us had unique and effective teaching styles/strategies that we could share with one another. Although we have gone our separate ways and work at different schools, we still share ideas and support each other professionally. We continue to work together by partnering with CARD (Center for Autism and Related Disabilities) and meeting to share new ideas and techniques.”

Leah and I have found from our years of work together that two heads are always better than one, so having four heads has to produce a tremendous wealth of knowledge. Don’t you think?

It will be well worth your time to take a look at this site. If we started talking about all the wonderful things at your fingertips on this website this would quickly become a very long blog! Knowing your time is valuable we won’t go through it all but would like to urge you to take time to go look for yourselves. Here’s a link to the page that lists all the topics:
http://www.autism4teachers.com/autism4teachers_051.htm You will find information on communication, social skills, behavior support, parent support, visual supports, and thematic units just to name a few.
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Be extra patient with your kids this week as their excitement builds for Christmas!
Leah and Dean
www.2galsspeechproducts.com