Visual Strategies

Positive Reinforcement: A Powerful Tool

by Trish April 9, 2010

I just got the graph from the learning support teacher showing Michael’s timeouts from March. He currently gets a timeout only for yelling or screaming and for any aggressive actions (hitting, kicking or throwing things). Outside of these, he is prompted toward the desired behavior and positive behavior is reinforced through a visual token system. [...]

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The Think Sheet

by Trish December 1, 2009

The regular students in my son’s first grade classroom have to complete a think sheet if they pull all four of their cards in one day, so when we created my son’s behavior plan, we wanted to include a think sheet for use after a timeout (timeouts are for yelling or physical aggression only at [...]

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Try This Tuesday: Do You Have Something To Share?

by Trish November 11, 2008

The last couple of weeks I have been sharing about some of the ideas that came out of our recent team meeting at Michael’s school for Try This Tuesday: TTT#16: Micro Schedules TTT#17: Brainstorming I am still hoping to expand this column to include more of our readers’ ideas and even their challenges that they [...]

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We Love Schedules

by Trish September 19, 2008

If you’re interested in seeing what Michael’s visual schedule for kindergarten looks like, I have it posted over at 5 Minutes for Special Needs today. He likes it so much that I pulled out the whiteboard we have with the days of the week on it to write out our schedule for this week. We [...]

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Try This Tuesday: What To Do With All Those Holiday Greetings

by Trish September 16, 2008

We have another wonderful guest poster for this week’s Try This Tuesday at 5MFSN. PsychMamma is sharing a great idea for extending the use of all the photos that come with holiday greetings from friends and family. For all the details, check out Try This Tuesday: Educational Picture Ring.

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Try This Tuesday: School Starts How Soon?

by Trish August 19, 2008

Wow, less than a week until kindergarten starts! Michael is a bit nervous about it; he has been doing his little hair twirling thing for the last few days, and I haven’t noticed that since he finished preschool in June. Pop on over to 5 Minutes for Special Needs to see one strategy I implemented [...]

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Try This Tuesday: Using Videos As Teaching Tools

by Trish August 5, 2008

My son has always loved watching videos, so I started looking for ways to use them as teaching tools. Read more about it in this week’s Try This Tuesday post at 5 Minutes for Special Needs.

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Catching Up Is Hard To Do

by Trish August 5, 2008

This is a bit of a catch-up post, since I keep thinking of all the things I have been meaning to share but haven’t gotten to yet.  ‘Tis a bit long as well; my apologies – it was either this or four shorter posts and that would overwhelm even me! First, the Wordle The image [...]

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Autism Resources: Visual Strategies

by Trish April 24, 2008

What are Visual Strategies? The simple answer is that “visual strategies are ways to improve the communication process by using supports that can be seen.” (taken from a brief article by the Midland County Educational Service Agency, adapted from Linda Hodgdon’s book below). Examples in our daily lives might include a daily planner or to [...]

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Autism Resources: Social Skills

by Trish April 8, 2008

There are so many books and other resources for understanding and developing social skills, and I have to admit that I have not read much in this area yet. So I am actually looking for recommendations on what people have found helpful, especially as their kids were entering elementary school. Although it may or may [...]

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