Re: matching and sorting activities?

[Guest guest]

Charlyne,

Thanks for your input. I am leaning towards having Brook attend the same

highschool that Miles goes to. At least that teacher wasn't trying to tell me

what Brook could do before meeting him like the other one was. For me the choice

is like deciding to enroll your two year old in highschool or college, neither

are appropriate and just because highschool is not as advanced as college, it is

still way over the ability of a 2 yr old to comprehend. I'm talking about the

special ed program here, not the regular ed classes.

I really don't like it when people who don't know Brook make a lot of

assumptions about him. They are usually so far off. The teacher who said that

Brook would rise to her expectations is actually the mother of a child with DS,

a few years younger than Brook. She doesn't know what it is like to have a

child with DS/ASD, but seems to think she can get him to do what the other kids

in the class can do, even though they are much higher functioning than Brook and

don't have his diagnosis.

I had the same situation with Brook's current teacher who I like a lot. The

first few years and even now she was trying to get him to do all sorts of things

that are way above his level. She claimed that he was talking a lot, etc. He was

not talking. Finally after we got some very good advice on IEP goals, etc from

the autism specialist who is the Dir.of the Child Dev. Center at Children's Hosp

I got her to start teaching him things that are appropriate for his level.

That's what I am looking for, things you would teach an 18 month to 2 yr old

child. I need some ideas about things like matching and sorting activities and

other activities that a very young child would be learning.

Marisa

Miles 17, Brook 14, Genevieve 6

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 5/22/2004 12:55:57 AM Eastern Daylight Time,

mpoggi1@... writes:

> I need some ideas about things like matching and sorting activities and

> other activities that a very young child would be learning.

>

Hi Marissa,

I am not certain where is at but I would ask for thematic units of

teaching matching transportation items, clothes, food, holidays, weather etc.

They have some great software programs that the school can build each theme on.

Is this what you had in mind?

Charlyne

Mom to Zeb 11 DS/OCD/ASD?

[Guest guest]

Strategies to Promote Learning: (Home & School)

Beginning Ideas:

* Use physical structure to clarify and organize

* Visual schedules

* Promote Imitation

* Communication

* Promoting other learning

Visual Schedules:

Associates an item with the variety of places in childs' day,

- Cup or plate for meals

- Favorite bath toy for bath time

- Pillow for bed time

- Car toy for time to get in the car.

* Present the items when it is time to go to the places

* May also use photographs

Recurring themes through all learning

* Use child's interests

* Promote active positive engagement

* Push for spontaneity

* Set up initation

* Work for generalization

* Use routines

* Look for natural reinforcers

* Throughout natural environment with natural materials

Physical Structure

Home:

* Eating at the table

* Bath toys in the bathroom

* Boundaries for play areas

* A place for everything and everything in its place

School:

* Work area

* Group area

* Leisure area

* Self-help area

Imitation (often a deficit area for children with autism)

* Imitate child's actions

* Establish " rituals " around routine activities

* Physically prompt them through imitation-fade the prompt over time

* Get as many family members and friends involved in regular imitation

* Pair a few words with activities

Imitation ideas

* Gross motor- clapping hands, hands on head, stomping feet, standing, jumping

* With objects- bang spoons on pans, demo different things to do with a toy cat,

put small things into containers, demo functional movements with functional

objects

* Vocal/Verbal- imitate child's sounds, sing song tones, simple words - praise

any approximations

Interaction

* Meet them at their interests

* Use food to promote interaction

* Establish " rituals " around routine activities

* Stay relaxed about interaction

* Involve as many family members and friends as possible in the plan

Interaction - Joint Attention

* Joint attention is another common deficit for children with autism - examples

include

- Orienting and attending to a social partner

- Shifting gaze between people and objects

- Following the gaze and point of another person

- Being able to draw another person's attention

to objects or events in order to share the

experience.

* Look for opportunities to promote and shape these behaviors.

Routines - to promote all kinds of learning

* Washing hands and face

* Combing or brushing hair

* brushing teeth

* Dressing / Undressing

* Preparing for meal or snack

* Getting ready for nap or bedtime

* Getting ready to go somewhere

Communication

* Use items from the visual schedule to

" tell " child what is coming next

* Allow them to use items from the visual

schedule to make choice

* Encourage and exchange of the item,

picture, or word to get a desired activity

* Less is more to start - don't model too

many words in the beginning

* Honor all attempts to communicate

Promoting Other Learning

* Use child's interest - tie other

learning to " obsessions "

- Match

- Sort

- Give me

- Tell me

(Tisha , M.A, &

Cissy , M. Ed,)

[Guest guest]

what about colors,and sequencing, and the biggie recognizing his name when

written down. Im trying to pull out all that we did when nathan went to the DLC

in my memory um, lets see, they worked lots on basics like group

socialization, potty training, communication communication, communication, and

basics,

like clothing/dressing, self hlep skills that a toddler would do, it didnt

matter

that it matched but just putting on a pair of socks took us a few years for

nathan to accomplish. lots of crafts that utilized FMS and his colors and

shapes related to wheather and stuff going on in the outside world, eg christmas

or

easter or st patricks day, winter or summer stuff like that. im not sure if

any of this is of any help. I mainly remember working on communication and

behavior management as nathan was awful due to lack of communication hence we

worked more on signing and intro duced pecs and pictures shawna

[Guest guest]

WOW this is great! i think you hit everything. shawna