Free Visual Support:The Student Home/School Journal (PDF)

Students on the spectrum who demonstrate emerging language skills often struggle with communicating about past events. This challenge is almost universal due to the difficulties they face in joint attention, perspective taking, and language formulation. These difficulties present a special challenge for school age students and impact their abilities to communicate across the contexts of home and school. This visual support, The Student Home/School Journal, is designed to help scaffold a student’s abilities with cross-contextual communication. The Student Home/School Journal consists of 2 Journal sheets. One is designed to be filled out by a student at school and to be shared at home. While, the other is designed to be completed by the student at home and shared at school. Both of the sheets use color coded word combinations paired with a consistent, simple choice making formats to structure the student’s communication. The video tutorial briefly describes the structure of the support and its use.

Free Visual Support:Classmate Social Culture Survey (PDF)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=pTB31-y_t5U%26hl%3Den%26fs%3D1

The Classmate Social Culture Survey is adapted from the work of Lorraine Kamp and Laurie Smith (2006). This survey is designed to glean information about peer culture and lingo that can be used in creative ways to provide students with social cognitive difficulties “something to talk about with their peers.” Consistent with The Participation Model (Beukelman & Mirenda, 2005) which stresses scaffolding communication opportunities that build on strengths and interests, this survey collects information directly from a student’s peers and potential communication partners. When giving the survey to peers to complete, adults should stress the importance of giving “real” answers rather than “ones that adults would expect.” This aspect is critical to ensure usability of the tool. Once the answers are collected, they can be used in a variety of ways to support students in meaningful, real interactions with their peers. Two examples of possibilities are offered as part of this download and described in the video tutorial.

Free Visual Support:Regular Routes, Detours, and Different Routes (PDF)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=s8r3swa-oYo%26hl%3Den%26fs%3D1

Regular Routes, Detours, and Different Routes is a Social StoryTM written to help students understand changes to their schedules. This Social Story(TM) is written for students who are particularly interested in transportation. Bus Routes and Detour symbols are used to help students comprehend changes to their schedule. Emphasis is placed on the students still “arriving” at their final destination, the end of the school day, despite following a Different Route including Detours. Detour symbols for use on students’ schedules are also included in the download. The video tutorial briefly explains the structure and rationale for the Social Story(TM).

Free Visual Support:ZigZags (PDF)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=2DO7Lw2xmjE%26hl%3Den%26fs%3D1

Students on the Autism Spectrum and those with related disabilities often have difficulty comprehending and coping with changes to their daily schedules. ZigZags Happen and Help with ZigZags are two Social StoriesTM written to help students understand and cope with schedule changes. In my practice, I have found that giving the concept of “change” a name (e.g., a ZigZag) is an extremely helpful strategy which supports students’ abilities to productively deal with unanticipated schedule changes. Both of these Social StoriesTM are most appropriate for students who are able to read written text with good comprehension. ZigZag symbols for use on students’ schedules are also included in the download. The video tutorial briefly explains the structure and rationale for the Social StoriesTM.

Free Visual Support:The Volume Meter (PDF)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=2YPJDY7ZbK0%26hl%3Den%26fs%3D1

The Volume Meter is designed to be used with students who have difficulty adjusting their voice volume to match the social expectation of the environment that they are in. To be used most effectively, a student must have a conceptual understanding of volume. The Volume Meter uses both numerical and descriptive categories to help facilitate understanding and build knowledge of volume related categories/vocabulary. This support is designed to be used interactively and dynamically to provide students with clear feedback related to “expected volume,” as well as their personal volume. The support is available for download in 2 sizes. The smaller size is designed for portable use with a single student. The larger is designed for use in providing feedback to groups of students. The video tutorial describes the design, assembly, and use of the support.

Check out this musical adaptation of the Volume Meter created by Kim Oden a Music teacher in Cobb County Georgia.
Dynamic Levels (PDF)

Thanks for sharing Ms. Oden! What a GREAT idea!

Free Visual Support:Matching Clouds (PDF)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=sNGHAdZh1No%26hl%3Den%26fs%3D1

Matching Clouds is a modified version of CLOUDS, a book that combines literacy numeracy and fun. It is written for children who are beginning to understand text and numbers. The visually augmented text using Boardmaker symbols is designed to help children see the connections between words and to bolster comprehension. In addition, Matching Clouds is designed to be an interactive book for kids in which they can match cut out cloud shapes and numbers with those on the pages of the book. The video tutorial briefly describes the activity and the assembly of the book.

Free Visual Support:Clouds (PDF)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=l4R_EQHJHd8%26hl%3Den%26fs%3D1

CLOUDS is a activity book that combines literacy, numeracy, and fun! It is written for children who are at the conversational stage of language development and who are learning the concept of one-to-one correspondence. Clouds is designed to be an interactive story that encourages kids to count along while they “fill in the clouds” with the predetermined number of cotton balls, pieces of popcorn, or small marshmallows. Adults should determine the appropriateness of these materials for individual children and should always provide supervision. The video tutorial briefly describes the design of the book and it’s assembly.

Free Visual Support:Red Light / Green Light (PDF)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=E9V8twnsP-I%26hl%3Den%26fs%3D1

Red Light / Green Light is a popular playground game for children of all ages. The visual supports included in this download are designed to help children play with their peers successfully. For children who are ready to understand the symbolic nature of the game and comprehend simple sentences, the first two pages of the support are designed to impart the rules of the game according to imaginary roles. For children with more limited language and play abilities – simply using the final support, the actual “stop light,” along with peer models may facilitate their participation. The “stop light” is designed to be printed out, folded in half and laminated. Either the child who is the “stop light” or an assistant can flip the card to show the “green light” or “red light” according to the child pretending to be the stop light’s directions. The video tutorial describes the use of the three visual supports included in the download, as well as a simple variation on the classic game.

Free Visual Support:Duck, Duck, Goose (PDF)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=tdC6do1um2k%26hl%3Den%26fs%3D1

Duck, Duck, Goose is a popular social game played in many early childhood programs. Success playing this game is dependent on a child’s ability to keep the directions of the game in his working memory, to monitor other’s non-verbal cues, and to process language. The simple visual support included in this download is designed to help support a child’s abilities in each of these areas, and in turn engage in successful play with his peers. The video tutorial describes the assembly and use of the support.

Free Visual Support:Who Goes First? (PDF)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=wUIrdb7g57o%26hl%3Den%26fs%3D1

Who Goes First? Children with social disabilities often struggle with taking turns and deciding who goes first. This challenge is almost universal due to difficulties with joint attention, perspective taking, and social monitoring often faced by children with ASD. This support uses a web format to help students recall and utilize different common methods for deciding who goes first. Each graphic in the web, represents a different rhyme or game used for this purpose. The video tutorial describes the design and use of the web for decision making.