Yoga Pretzels

These easy yoga cards are great for children who need to slow their bodies down or if they need to take a sensory break. The cards show you how to do the pose in 4 easy steps.

BINGO

I really enjoy using this work system because it makes it fun for the children. This system is used for mainstreaming a child with Autism or ADHD.  I use this on a child who has trouble controlling his body, following directions and listening to teachers. Every child has different needs so you can modify this work system to make it work for you. The key to change those key behaviors is to catch the child doing whats on the bingo and mark it with a dry ease marker. Just like bingo if the child gets five in a row they earn free choice for five minutes.

What? Why? How? =

This work system is used to mainstream a child with Autism in a regular education classroom. (What) you write what the subject is that you want the child to be doing. (Why) in most cases I write expected because the children I teach know whats expected and whats unexpected. Sometimes, I may write " It makes your teachers happy." (How) I write how you need to be doing the task. With a quiet mouth, do work, eyes on teacher, and 2nd grade hands. (=) This means the child gets a reward if they complete the task that I' m asking them to do. In this case the reward is 5 mins of Angry Birds on the Ipad.

Boundaries

It's difficult for children who have Autism to control their body. So I use tape to show children boundaries. By making a square out of tape they see that their hands need to stay within that area. Sometime I even write quiet hands or use (PECS) to tape by the square. As a visual reminder for children.

1,2,3 magic

This strategy works for a lot of the older grades like 3rd and 4th that have difficult behaviors. On the left side of the paper is the child's schedule. When you move to the next column you will see this is where they earn their stars. (rewards) I usually do three stars before they earn treasure chest or free time. If you move to the next column you will see 1... If the child refuses to do their work or a task that you have asked them to do, then they get a 1. If you ask them again and they are still defiant, then that is 2. If they get to 3 they TAKE 5. Which is basically time out for five minutes.

TANTRUMS

All children that have Autism have their meltdowns or tantrums. A strategy that has worked for me is putting a mirror in front of their face so they can see what they look like when they are throwing a tantrum. It makes them realize how silly they look. Most the time they don't like it so it decrease the behavior. 

Using prompting and fading

Some of the children I work with always look for help from an adult which causes them to be less independent so a strategy I use is prompt and fade. Use prompts to guide your child to engage in a desired behavior or choose a correct answer. However, it is also important that you fade, or decrease your usage of promptings over some time. Fading your prompts will help your child engage in the desired behavior independently. It's natural to want to help your child, but don't prompt too much. Make sure you give your child chances to do things on their own.

Are you ready?!?

Some children with Autism cant always express to you when you they are ready to apologize, come back after a meltdown, and ect...So with these cards children don't have to say anything. You can put these cards out in front of the child and ask them if they are ready to join the group? (or whatever you would need to use them for) from my experience it has really helped communicate better with some of my kids.

Understanding Red Days and Green Days

Being able to understand right and wrong is really hard for children who have Autism. So going over the red day and the green day every morning reminds the child what he/she needs to do to have a good day. That if the child has a GREEN day he/she will earn treasure chest and everyone will have a happy green day. 

Rules and Rewards

This technique works great with children who might be impulsive or misbehave often. On this work system there are rules at the top with PECS (picture exchange communication system) that helps the child understand the rules. At the bottom there are rows of boxes. If the child is following the rules at the top then you give them a star in the box. If the child earns one row of stars which is 10 boxes then he/she gets a reward. They can earn up to 6 rewards within a day.