Safety Day & Trunk or Treat in Ogden, Utah

This is a great activity set for this week! A great activity for the whole family!

This is a great activity set for this week! A great activity for the whole family!

Seeing The Every Day

The Value Of A Day from seeing the everyday on Vimeo.

Have you ever heard of the magazine Seeing The Every Day? I had never heard of it, but a friend of mine gave me a copy a couple months ago, and I have fallen in love with it. I think that one of the reasons why it has resonated with me so much is because it focuses on how "small ordinary acts" shape our relationships and also affect our influence in strengthening the development of others.

This is exactly what what I love about teaching families about PLAY Project. We are focusing on relationships as we help their children with their development. One of the first techniques I teach families is called 'Being With' and that's exactly what it is. It's not about telling the child what to do, or how to do it, it's first just about being with them. Not just being there physically, but being present. Seeing what their interests are, seeing what their intentions are, and seeing what their ideas are. They may not have the verbal skills to tell us what they're thinking, but we can learn to observe and have rich interactions with them around what may feel like a very ordinary moment.

Interactions with a child with autism may sometimes be unpredictable, but we can still embrace those moments and rejoice in them. It's not about the end product, who cares if the art project doesn't go as planned. It's about the interactions we're having, it's about the relationship that we're building. At times you may not feel like you're accomplishing much, but I can promise you that through your loving interactions with your child, you are doing more than you can even imagine was possible. Nothing can replace those "ordinary moments" with the ones you love.

I want to share one of my favorite quotes from Seeing The Every Day, Issue 25. As you read it, you may think that your child doesn't have "conversations" with you, but I want you to think of a conversation as those back and forth interactions you have with one another, it doesn't matter if words are involved.

"As we focus on one another, very ordinary moments, even conversations, become significant opportunities to do what means the very most -- to come to better know and care for each other."

You can check out Seeing The Every Day at www.seeingtheeveryday.com.

The Value Of A Day from seeing the everyday on Vimeo.

Have you ever heard of the magazine Seeing The Every Day? I had never heard of it, but a friend of mine gave me a copy a couple months ago, and I have fallen in love with it. I think that one of the reasons why it has resonated with me so much is because it focuses on how "small ordinary acts" shape our relationships and also affect our influence in strengthening the development of others.

This is exactly what what I love about teaching families about PLAY Project. We are focusing on relationships as we help their children with their development. One of the first techniques I teach families is called 'Being With' and that's exactly what it is. It's not about telling the child what to do, or how to do it, it's first just about being with them. Not just being there physically, but being present. Seeing what their interests are, seeing what their intentions are, and seeing what their ideas are. They may not have the verbal skills to tell us what they're thinking, but we can learn to observe and have rich interactions with them around what may feel like a very ordinary moment.

Interactions with a child with autism may sometimes be unpredictable, but we can still embrace those moments and rejoice in them. It's not about the end product, who cares if the art project doesn't go as planned. It's about the interactions we're having, it's about the relationship that we're building. At times you may not feel like you're accomplishing much, but I can promise you that through your loving interactions with your child, you are doing more than you can even imagine was possible. Nothing can replace those "ordinary moments" with the ones you love.

I want to share one of my favorite quotes from Seeing The Every Day, Issue 25. As you read it, you may think that your child doesn't have "conversations" with you, but I want you to think of a conversation as those back and forth interactions you have with one another, it doesn't matter if words are involved.

"As we focus on one another, very ordinary moments, even conversations, become significant opportunities to do what means the very most -- to come to better know and care for each other."

You can check out Seeing The Every Day at www.seeingtheeveryday.com.

Circles of Communication

What is a circle of communication? The first half of the circle is an initiation (someone knocks on the door) and the second half is the response (someone else opens the door). There are all different sizes of circles. Some are big and obvious, and some are more subtle and sometimes we miss them if we're not paying close attention. A big circle might be calling someone's name and them turning around and saying "what?" A smaller circle might be when you're playing chase and your child glances back at you to see if you're still coming. A really subtle circle might be when you glance at your child and you see them briefly look back at you.

Circles can be really hard to count at times, but the important thing is this back and forth interaction. As we look at our world around us, it is all about these back and forth interactions with others. Relationships are based on these back and forth interactions. With some kids, this may be a difficult thing to master. They may not see a purpose in it, they may not find enjoyment in it, or they may just not know how to do it.

Dr. Stanley Greenspan introduces the functional developmental levels through DIR/Floortime. Circles of communication begin at functional developmental level 3. As we work with kids to help them progress through the functional developmental levels, it is important that we are aware of how many circles of communication they are getting. We use simple techniques to encourage more circles of communication. As the child increases the number of circles of communication they are having, we also bump them up to a higher functional developmental level.

These circles do not have to be verbal circles, a kid who does not talk yet can get hundreds of back and forth circles without saying a word. How do we do it? We do it through PLAY. It is important that as children learn to increase their circles of communication that we are giving them opportunities to express themselves on their own. We can tell a kid what to do every step of the way, but how much more rich and motivating would it be if the child is giving us cues of what they want instead. We need to follow their lead.

One of the many techniques that you can use is called 'playful obstruction.'  In many ways, that just means playing dumb. We're all good at that, even when we don't mean to be, right? Instead of doing all the mind reading that we tend to do, play dumb. Make the child open a few more circles to get what they want. Give them the wrong thing, say the wrong thing, make them expand, make them work. Just by playing dumb, you can extend the interaction. If it's really really motivating, then expect even more. Be aware of where that breaking point is, and take them to the limits. If you lose them, that's ok, then you know that next time you'll pull back a little sooner.

Having these circles of communication is really important, and is a pre-requisite to having conversations, or engaging in higher levels of play. Try to count how many consecutive circles your child has a time, and try to expand on that. If there's so many it's hard to count, great! Instead of working on the quantity of cirlces, start to work on the quality.

What is a circle of communication? The first half of the circle is an initiation (someone knocks on the door) and the second half is the response (someone else opens the door). There are all different sizes of circles. Some are big and obvious, and some are more subtle and sometimes we miss them if we're not paying close attention. A big circle might be calling someone's name and them turning around and saying "what?" A smaller circle might be when you're playing chase and your child glances back at you to see if you're still coming. A really subtle circle might be when you glance at your child and you see them briefly look back at you.

Circles can be really hard to count at times, but the important thing is this back and forth interaction. As we look at our world around us, it is all about these back and forth interactions with others. Relationships are based on these back and forth interactions. With some kids, this may be a difficult thing to master. They may not see a purpose in it, they may not find enjoyment in it, or they may just not know how to do it.

Dr. Stanley Greenspan introduces the functional developmental levels through DIR/Floortime. Circles of communication begin at functional developmental level 3. As we work with kids to help them progress through the functional developmental levels, it is important that we are aware of how many circles of communication they are getting. We use simple techniques to encourage more circles of communication. As the child increases the number of circles of communication they are having, we also bump them up to a higher functional developmental level.

These circles do not have to be verbal circles, a kid who does not talk yet can get hundreds of back and forth circles without saying a word. How do we do it? We do it through PLAY. It is important that as children learn to increase their circles of communication that we are giving them opportunities to express themselves on their own. We can tell a kid what to do every step of the way, but how much more rich and motivating would it be if the child is giving us cues of what they want instead. We need to follow their lead.

One of the many techniques that you can use is called 'playful obstruction.'  In many ways, that just means playing dumb. We're all good at that, even when we don't mean to be, right? Instead of doing all the mind reading that we tend to do, play dumb. Make the child open a few more circles to get what they want. Give them the wrong thing, say the wrong thing, make them expand, make them work. Just by playing dumb, you can extend the interaction. If it's really really motivating, then expect even more. Be aware of where that breaking point is, and take them to the limits. If you lose them, that's ok, then you know that next time you'll pull back a little sooner.

Having these circles of communication is really important, and is a pre-requisite to having conversations, or engaging in higher levels of play. Try to count how many consecutive circles your child has a time, and try to expand on that. If there's so many it's hard to count, great! Instead of working on the quantity of cirlces, start to work on the quality.

Show and Tell: Go Away Big Green Monster

A preschool favorite is always Go Away Big Green Monster! Last year I found the Go Away Big Green Monster app, and my students loved it. Their favorite part was the song, and I loved hearing them sing it at the top of their lungs. I wish the app was a little more interactive, like if the kids could move the body parts where they should go, or something like that. However, the song alone is worth the $2. The interactive part of the app is that you can touch the nose and it wiggles, or touch the hair and it wiggles and makes a noise.

The picture above is from a while ago when we made green monster faces. Last year I did this activity with my students, except I used a green paper plate and put velcro on it. We laminated the pieces and put velcro on them so that the kids were able to use their own monsters to put on and take off the body parts while we read the story together. The kids really liked that.

Things we learn from Go Away Big Green Monster:

• Body parts: eyes, nose, ears, hair, mouth, teeth
• Colors: yellow, bluish-greenish (?), red, white, purple, green
• Sequencing: Predicting what goes next
• Emotions: have the kids act out different emotions
• Reading: All my students could "read" this book independently. The receptive phrases make it an easy one to memorize.

One of the repetitive phrases is "Go Away" which one of my students would go home and yell "Go Away!" to everyone. The mom wasn't sure why he was doing this until we performed the song for the parents one day. Then it all made sense. So if you have a student that you do not want to teach this phrase to, you may want to reconsider reading this book ;)

You can buy Go Away Big Green Monster at my Amazon Affiliate site. They also have a puppet kit at Lakeshore Learning, I have that as well, it's a little more durable than a paper plate :) But the paper plate face is a great activity for those creative kids you have.

A preschool favorite is always Go Away Big Green Monster! Last year I found the Go Away Big Green Monster app, and my students loved it. Their favorite part was the song, and I loved hearing them sing it at the top of their lungs. I wish the app was a little more interactive, like if the kids could move the body parts where they should go, or something like that. However, the song alone is worth the $2. The interactive part of the app is that you can touch the nose and it wiggles, or touch the hair and it wiggles and makes a noise.

The picture above is from a while ago when we made green monster faces. Last year I did this activity with my students, except I used a green paper plate and put velcro on it. We laminated the pieces and put velcro on them so that the kids were able to use their own monsters to put on and take off the body parts while we read the story together. The kids really liked that.

Things we learn from Go Away Big Green Monster:

• Body parts: eyes, nose, ears, hair, mouth, teeth
• Colors: yellow, bluish-greenish (?), red, white, purple, green
• Sequencing: Predicting what goes next
• Emotions: have the kids act out different emotions
• Reading: All my students could "read" this book independently. The receptive phrases make it an easy one to memorize.

One of the repetitive phrases is "Go Away" which one of my students would go home and yell "Go Away!" to everyone. The mom wasn't sure why he was doing this until we performed the song for the parents one day. Then it all made sense. So if you have a student that you do not want to teach this phrase to, you may want to reconsider reading this book ;)

You can buy Go Away Big Green Monster at my Amazon Affiliate site. They also have a puppet kit at Lakeshore Learning, I have that as well, it's a little more durable than a paper plate :) But the paper plate face is a great activity for those creative kids you have.

Show and Tell: Room on the Broom

Room on the Broom is a great little halloween book by Julia Donaldson. There's so much you can do with this book, I love it.

Here are some skills you can work on with this book:

• Find the rhyming words
• Identifying animals: cat, dog, bird, frog, dragon
• Pretend play: act it out
• Prediction: what animal comes next, who finds the object that is lost, 
• "Reading" the book: let the kids fill in the words. There's great repetition in this book to help with that. Common words are Down!, Yes!, Whoosh!, and Is there room on the broom?
• Searching for items: Do a scavenger hunt while riding a broom
• Obstacle course: As you do the scavenger hunt, add some obstacles for good a good sensory motor activity
• Matching: match the animal to the item they found or to the thing they put in the cauldron
• Helping: Throughout the book, the animals are helping each other. Talk about how your students have helped each other.
• Emotions: happy, sad, scared, angry, surprised, grateful, ashamed, excited. Play charades with emotions.
• Science: Make a magic potion with things that everyone can put in the cauldron. Ask the kids what they would have added to the cauldron.

There's so much more, these are just a few ideas. You can order Room on the Broom at my Amazon Affiliate site. 

Room on the Broom is a great little halloween book by Julia Donaldson. There's so much you can do with this book, I love it.

Here are some skills you can work on with this book:

• Find the rhyming words
• Identifying animals: cat, dog, bird, frog, dragon
• Pretend play: act it out
• Prediction: what animal comes next, who finds the object that is lost, 
• "Reading" the book: let the kids fill in the words. There's great repetition in this book to help with that. Common words are Down!, Yes!, Whoosh!, and Is there room on the broom?
• Searching for items: Do a scavenger hunt while riding a broom
• Obstacle course: As you do the scavenger hunt, add some obstacles for good a good sensory motor activity
• Matching: match the animal to the item they found or to the thing they put in the cauldron
• Helping: Throughout the book, the animals are helping each other. Talk about how your students have helped each other.
• Emotions: happy, sad, scared, angry, surprised, grateful, ashamed, excited. Play charades with emotions.
• Science: Make a magic potion with things that everyone can put in the cauldron. Ask the kids what they would have added to the cauldron.

There's so much more, these are just a few ideas. You can order Room on the Broom at my Amazon Affiliate site. 

Greetings!

It's been a while since I've blogged, but I have made it a goal to get back into it.

Today I want to talk about greetings. Last year I had this student who had the ability to say hello, but just never did it. Every day I would say hello to him and every day he would just look at me blankly or he would just ignore me and look away. Sometimes I would prompt him to say hello to me, but he still never did it. Sometimes I would get really dramatic and say "WHY WON'T YOU SAY HI TO ME??!!??" and he would just laugh and think I was silly.

These past few weeks I have returned to his classroom to work with him on greetings for one of my school projects (yes, I decided to go back to school once again...learnings good, right?). So after a year of trying to get him to say hello to me, I wasn't expecting this to be extremely easy, but guess what...it was. Part of it was probably maturity, but part of it was also technique. I'm not saying that it's going to be easy with any kid you work with, it just happened to be easy this time.

The general prompting in the natural environment didn't work, we saw that, so I decided to combine a few techniques. I'm sharing this in hopes that it may give you some ideas of what you can do, not just for greeting but maybe for some other goals you might be working on. Some of you may read this and think, duh why didn't you do that in the first place, and I'm ok with that.  That's really what I was thinking once I started doing it.

First, baseline data was 0% for 3 consecutive days. He did not respond to one greeting he was given. The definition of greeting in this instance is responding to a greeting by saying "hello", "hi", or waving one hand towards the person being greeted.  After baseline was taken, here's what I did.

TELL PROCEDURE
In a one on one setting I said something like “when someone says “hello” or “hi” to you, they are being nice and would like you to respond back to them.  You can say “hello”, “hi”, or you can wave your hand in their direction.  If you know their name, you can say “hello” and then say their name. If you don’t know their name, or you don’t remember their name, it’s ok to just say “hello”, “hi”, or wave back to them.”
 Why did I not think of this before? What may seem obvious to us is not always obvious to kids struggling with autism. So this technique of explaining things actually has an official title, it's called the Tell Procedure. You simply state the rules.

VIDEO MODELING
Next we used some video modeling. I don't know that it was true video modeling because the people in my videos were just saying hi to the kid (we'll call him Junior). I had filmed about 10 people before I met with him and they all said "Hi, Junior." Easy to do with an iPad. So they modeled how to greet him, but I also used it as the antecedent to the target behavior (greeting). So we practiced. First I would ask if he knew that person while it was on a screenshot of them, if he did then I would model some things he could say. For example if it was me on the screen, he could say "Hi, Joy" or "Hello, Joy." Then we would press play, the person would say "Hi, Junior." and Junior would say "Hi" back. Pretty simple. Luckily he was compliant and was having fun with seeing who would be next on the screen.

POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT
We used some positive reinforcement giving a lot of praise and showing a lot of excitement every time he did it correctly. The nice thing about a goal like this is that there's a lot of natural positive reinforcement...when you say "hi" to people, they generally will smile or get excited to start talking to you (especially if you've never said hi to them before and now you are).

NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
After going through all the videos, we went into the hallway to practice. Luckily the staff were all great and would naturally say hello to Junior, and even some peers did as well. Being in the natural environment and interacting with a variety of people will help with generalization skills.  The progress that Junior made in those 10-15 minutes were pretty great.  Junior went from a 0% response to 60%, and continued averaging about a 70% response rate over the next 3 sessions.

MINIMUM-TO-MAXIMUM PROMPTING
While we would practice in the natural environment, I used a minimum-to-maximum prompting procedure. I would allow Junior to first respond independently, if he didn't respond then I would give a verbal prompt (i.e., "She just said hello, what do you say?"), if that didn't work then I would give a model (i.e., "Say hi"), then if that didn't work then I would give a physical prompt to wave his hand. He only ever ended up needing a verbal prompt (which never worked last year).

There are a lot of different techniques out there, sometimes it can work to your benefit to find ones that can be used effectively together, and you may have greater success.

It's been a while since I've blogged, but I have made it a goal to get back into it.

Today I want to talk about greetings. Last year I had this student who had the ability to say hello, but just never did it. Every day I would say hello to him and every day he would just look at me blankly or he would just ignore me and look away. Sometimes I would prompt him to say hello to me, but he still never did it. Sometimes I would get really dramatic and say "WHY WON'T YOU SAY HI TO ME??!!??" and he would just laugh and think I was silly.

These past few weeks I have returned to his classroom to work with him on greetings for one of my school projects (yes, I decided to go back to school once again...learnings good, right?). So after a year of trying to get him to say hello to me, I wasn't expecting this to be extremely easy, but guess what...it was. Part of it was probably maturity, but part of it was also technique. I'm not saying that it's going to be easy with any kid you work with, it just happened to be easy this time.

The general prompting in the natural environment didn't work, we saw that, so I decided to combine a few techniques. I'm sharing this in hopes that it may give you some ideas of what you can do, not just for greeting but maybe for some other goals you might be working on. Some of you may read this and think, duh why didn't you do that in the first place, and I'm ok with that.  That's really what I was thinking once I started doing it.

First, baseline data was 0% for 3 consecutive days. He did not respond to one greeting he was given. The definition of greeting in this instance is responding to a greeting by saying "hello", "hi", or waving one hand towards the person being greeted.  After baseline was taken, here's what I did.

TELL PROCEDURE
In a one on one setting I said something like “when someone says “hello” or “hi” to you, they are being nice and would like you to respond back to them.  You can say “hello”, “hi”, or you can wave your hand in their direction.  If you know their name, you can say “hello” and then say their name. If you don’t know their name, or you don’t remember their name, it’s ok to just say “hello”, “hi”, or wave back to them.”
 Why did I not think of this before? What may seem obvious to us is not always obvious to kids struggling with autism. So this technique of explaining things actually has an official title, it's called the Tell Procedure. You simply state the rules.

VIDEO MODELING
Next we used some video modeling. I don't know that it was true video modeling because the people in my videos were just saying hi to the kid (we'll call him Junior). I had filmed about 10 people before I met with him and they all said "Hi, Junior." Easy to do with an iPad. So they modeled how to greet him, but I also used it as the antecedent to the target behavior (greeting). So we practiced. First I would ask if he knew that person while it was on a screenshot of them, if he did then I would model some things he could say. For example if it was me on the screen, he could say "Hi, Joy" or "Hello, Joy." Then we would press play, the person would say "Hi, Junior." and Junior would say "Hi" back. Pretty simple. Luckily he was compliant and was having fun with seeing who would be next on the screen.

POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT
We used some positive reinforcement giving a lot of praise and showing a lot of excitement every time he did it correctly. The nice thing about a goal like this is that there's a lot of natural positive reinforcement...when you say "hi" to people, they generally will smile or get excited to start talking to you (especially if you've never said hi to them before and now you are).

NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
After going through all the videos, we went into the hallway to practice. Luckily the staff were all great and would naturally say hello to Junior, and even some peers did as well. Being in the natural environment and interacting with a variety of people will help with generalization skills.  The progress that Junior made in those 10-15 minutes were pretty great.  Junior went from a 0% response to 60%, and continued averaging about a 70% response rate over the next 3 sessions.

MINIMUM-TO-MAXIMUM PROMPTING
While we would practice in the natural environment, I used a minimum-to-maximum prompting procedure. I would allow Junior to first respond independently, if he didn't respond then I would give a verbal prompt (i.e., "She just said hello, what do you say?"), if that didn't work then I would give a model (i.e., "Say hi"), then if that didn't work then I would give a physical prompt to wave his hand. He only ever ended up needing a verbal prompt (which never worked last year).

There are a lot of different techniques out there, sometimes it can work to your benefit to find ones that can be used effectively together, and you may have greater success.

Counting Activity--Fighting Fires

My students loved this counting activity.  As we were preparing for the fire department to come to our school for an assembly we all practiced our firefighter skills.

Thanks to the father of one of my past students and the Salt Lake Fire Department, each one of my students (actually every student in our school) had a fire hat.  I made "fire extinguishers" out of empty water bottles covered in red paper, and I printed out "fires" and hung them throughout the hallway.  Each paper had a different number of flames on it that the kids would have to count.

We did this activity two different days.  The first day I had cards printed out with written numerals.  The kids would be at the "fire station" which was a designated place in the hall, and I would show them the number.  They would then have to go find the corresponding fire and put it out with their "fire extinguishers."  

The second time we did it, I had cards with flames on it, then the kids had to count those flames and find the matching flames in the hall.  That way they had to count more than once.  

Here are a few reasons why I loved this activity

• It was engaging, the kids loved it
• Math skills
• We worked on counting with one to one correspondence
• We worked on matching objects with written numerals
• Fine Motor
• Squeezing the spray bottles
• Thematic Play
• The kids were pretending they were fire fighters
• Teamwork
• When the kids would find the correct fire, they would call out to the others
• Turn taking
• The kids would take turns "spraying" the fire

My students loved this counting activity.  As we were preparing for the fire department to come to our school for an assembly we all practiced our firefighter skills.

Thanks to the father of one of my past students and the Salt Lake Fire Department, each one of my students (actually every student in our school) had a fire hat.  I made "fire extinguishers" out of empty water bottles covered in red paper, and I printed out "fires" and hung them throughout the hallway.  Each paper had a different number of flames on it that the kids would have to count.

We did this activity two different days.  The first day I had cards printed out with written numerals.  The kids would be at the "fire station" which was a designated place in the hall, and I would show them the number.  They would then have to go find the corresponding fire and put it out with their "fire extinguishers."  

The second time we did it, I had cards with flames on it, then the kids had to count those flames and find the matching flames in the hall.  That way they had to count more than once.  

Here are a few reasons why I loved this activity

• It was engaging, the kids loved it
• Math skills
• We worked on counting with one to one correspondence
• We worked on matching objects with written numerals
• Fine Motor
• Squeezing the spray bottles
• Thematic Play
• The kids were pretending they were fire fighters
• Teamwork
• When the kids would find the correct fire, they would call out to the others
• Turn taking
• The kids would take turns "spraying" the fire