Amy Laurent

Supporting children, parents & educators

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Introductions

Free Visual Support:Introductions (PDF) Introductions (DOCX)

The new school year is typically filled with opportunities for new students and staff to meet. Teachers often scramble to gain information about their students and vice versa. “Introductions” is a series of supports to help expedite this initial exchange of information for symbolic communicators. Included in this series are leveled surveys that teachers can give to their students to complete either in school or at home with a parent’s help. Leveled templates for teachers to share information about themselves with their students are also included. Finally, there are templates for letters that students can use to introduce themselves to their teachers. The video provides a brief overview of the supports as well as additional suggestions for modifications.

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Temperature

Free Visual Support:Temperature (PDF)

To help students really understand the concept of temperature, it is important to teach the concept from many different perspectives. This support helps represent temperature in terms of degrees, descriptive words, and appropriate attire. This visual can be used to support teaching in a group, such as during calendar, or on an individual basis, such as in the home to help an individual make appropriate choices about what clothes to wear on a given day. The video contains a brief description of the support.

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Important Times

Free Visual Support:Important Times (PDF)

Enhancing predictability for individuals diagnosed on the Autism Spectrum helps to alleviate the experience of unnecessary stress and anxiety. This simple visual support, Important Times, helps a student to understand the flow of their daily schedule, while also providing an opportunity to practice telling time. These clocks can be used to create a bulletin board for the whole class to reference throughout the school day or to provide an individual with a personalized visual support. There are 5 large clocks- 4 that are labeled with generally recognized Important Times and 1 blank clock to allow for individualization. A single sheet containing the 4 pre-labeled clocks which can be easily used to support an individual student is also included as part of the downloadable file. Clock faces can be filled in by staff in advance or they can be completed by students using laminated copies and dry erase markers as part of an academic lesson. Space is provided for both analogue and digital time. The video contains a brief description of the support and possibilities for modifications.