Here is a fun science lesson I recently put together and taught during our term theme on colours. The pupils in my class all have a diagnosis of autism and severe learning difficulties and are working around P levels (UK assessment) P4 – P8. This would also be great for Read more…
Intensive Interaction I highly recommend the Intensive Interaction approach to learning early communication skills. I have had many positive and rewarding interactions with my pupils through using the Intensive Interaction principles. “Intensive Interaction is an approach to teaching the pre-speech fundamentals of communication to children and adults who have severe Read more…
Many children with autism are visual learners. Showing a child a picture can be much more meaningful than telling a child what to do. Pictures can aid a child’s learning and support them to be independent. An example of using pictures or symbols to aid learning and independence: dressing and Read more…
Choiceboard Creator: Review ChoiceBoard Creator is a great resource for creating your own customisable choice boards. This could be a choice board for giving a child a choice such as what they want to eat for lunch or to use as part of a comprehension activity such as answering “which Read more…
Makaton sign Signing is not just used for and by children who have hearing difficulties or who are deaf. Signing is used in many schools teaching autistic children as a way of reinforcing speech along with symbol use. Sign can help children learn key language. For some non verbal children, Read more…
The School Setting: A school setting for a child with autism should be highly structured and have familiar routines that the child can anticipate. Communication should be encouraged through speech as well as sign, symbols, photos and objects, depending on the ability of the child. A classroom set up specifically Read more…
Toilet training an 8 year old pre-verbal autistic child I currently have an 8 year old child with autism in my class who has not done a wee or poo in the toilet before. He is an energetic, non verbal child who has an understanding of when we is doing Read more…
Visual structure Structuring a lesson or activity by breaking it down into small parts with visual prompts can make the lesson/ activity manageable for autistic children because it enables the pupils to know what they will be doing now, next and when the activity is coming to an end. Here is Read more…
Lesson and activity visual instructions During my subject, class or group lessons I will give each child a visual step by step instruction resource that me and my teaching assistants will have made using a symbol computer program (My school uses ‘Communicate In Print’) I print the symbol resources I’ve Read more…
Days of the week board A visual days of the week board can be great for children with autism to learn the days of the week, the differences that happen on each day and how many days left there are until the end of the week. Here is an example Read more…