Just Different

Fireworks for New Year’s Eve are a worldwide tradition. I, for one, love New Year’s Eve because it is a holiday celebrated by the entire world, as far as I know. But imagine if you have a sensory sensitivity or get overwhelmed by excess stimulation. Fireworks shows could be completely terrifying. If I put myself in the shoes of someone with autism, I imagine that by could be scared out of my mind, completely confused, and baffled by the reactions of other people.  I wrote a social story to help with this sort of situation. My goal with this book was to help kids understand why fireworks are being used—people think they are exciting and use them to celebrate various events—and how they can cope around fireworks.  One page of the book In book the book, I explain what may seem obvious to us, but not to a child: that fireworks will not come near you or hurt you. Some strategies mentioned that a child can use to cope with fireworks are: * keeping a comfort item with them * wearing noise c

Conversion rate Have you ever wondered what the conversion rate is on your TPT product statistics page? Or have you wondered what to do with that little number? For me, yes and yes.  Well, I don’t know yet what to do with it but I’m going on a journey to find out.  The conversion rate is the number of people who buy your product divided by the number of people who view your product. In other words, after people take a look at it, how many actually buy it?  Why is this useful? Imagine if you went to buy a new phone and the newest released version with all the bells and whistles was $200. After you investigate to make sure this is the real deal, you are convinced this is a genuine great deal. My guess is you would buy it then and there and so would 100% of everyone who sees that deal will also buy it. That product conversion rate is 100% and clearly the price is way too low. If the phone manufacturer increases the price to $800 they will still get lots of people to buy it because that’s

Autism awareness month For our students with autism, there are a few areas of need that can be unique (compared with other students in the classroom). I like to focus on safety, communication and social skills, just to name a few. Here are some resources for those needs.  And it's a SALE!! APRIL 5 - 8!! Safety The National Autism Association reports this startling statistic:  “In 2009, 2010, and 2011, accidental drowning accounted for 91% total U.S. deaths reported in children with an ASD ages 14 and younger subsequent to wandering/elopement.” [Autism & Safety Facts. National Autism Association. Web. 9 May 2016.] Print and laminate this book to pre-teach children what to do around water. Clear and simple illustrations help students focus on the main point. Repetitive text helps students remember what to do. At the end are five comprehension questions to check the students’ understanding. The story and questions are also available on Boom Learning:  Communication If you have a s

Social stories are an evidence-based practice (EBP) for working with students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (autism). There are plenty of social stories out there on TPT or blogs for almost any situation you can come up with. Then... you have a kid that breaks the mold. But who are we kidding? When you've met one person with autism, you've met one person with autism.  So here are some tips for writing a social story tailored to a specific need. (I'm also shamelessly including examples from a social story I wrote that is available on Teachers Pay Teachers and Boom Learning. ) 1. Think of a specific problem that you encounter with a child or a class of children. Phrase it in concrete terms for yourself. 2. Come up with concrete steps for a student to follow in that situation. What appropriate behavior should the student do?  3. Write concretely and concisely. 4. I suggest using repetition . Kind of like how I keep using the word concrete . 😁 5. Make sure that you end w

If I had a dollar for every time I heard myself say, "nice hands!" I could retire now. Anyone else feel that way sometimes??  One difficulty is that we don't want to ignore something hurtful that a student does to another student because the child on the receiving end may feel that their feelings are not being acknowledged. So planned ignoring / extinction is not possible at those times. However, I have some other ideas for you. Remember that understanding the function of the behavior is key! Then when you know the function, here are some strategies to deal with hurtful hands. 1. Positive practice If a student hits another student, you don't want to ignore it. You can have the student practice doing something better, like a hi five. Have them do it 3-5 times, then they will be tired of it that positive practice! 2. Social skills group game Make up a simple game practicing nice hands. This is me making up a game right now: play some music and tell the students when t

For our students that are non-verbal, it seems like you hit a wall in math because they cannot count out loud. However, ALL students can learn to count regardless of whether they are able to do so out loud. They can use their "inner voice" to count.  I have been developing some Boom cards and a TPT resource for these kids.  TPT Resource Here is a sample video of this product in use:  Boom Cards The Boom cards come in decks of 1-5 and 1-10 and there are 3 levels of each.  Level 1: This deck does not let the student put a counter in the wrong place. The highlight on the drop zone is a cue to students as to where to put the counters. Level 2: This deck allows the student to put counters anywhere on the 5 spaces. However, only the correct number of counters is provided. Level 3: This deck allows the student to put any number of counters anywhere on the 5 spaces. There are 5 counters available so they must pick the right number of counters based on the number shown at the top.