Summer Travel Tips for Families Living with Autism

A new article from the Autism Society of America. Wishing you a great summer!

http://www.autism-society.org/blog/summer-travel-tips-for.html

Theme Token Boards

One of the many free printables from TeachTown! Here is a document that contains all of TeachTown's token reward boards. Just print the page(s) you need. Themes include farm animals, playground, and ocean. http://web.teachtown.com/pdf/funstuff/tokenboards/tokenboard_all_TeachTown.pdf

If you prefer to print them one at a time, you can access them on TeachTown's freebie page: http://web.teachtown.com/funstuff/

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Rewards for Kids! Ready-To-Use Charts and Activities for Positive Parenting

Buy the book from Amazon.com, and Amazon donates a percentage of your purchase to Positively Autism!

10 College Programs for Students With Autism

A list of 10 colleges that offer support programs to help students with Autism successfully complete a college degree. From Best Colleges Online.

http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2011/05/25/10-impressive-special-college-programs-for-students-with-autism

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Click the images above to view the books at Amazon.com . Amazon.com donates a percentage of your purchases to Positively Autism.

File Folder Games

Positively Autism's collection of file folder games specifically designed for students with autism. These games focus on skills such as matching, basic math, rhyming, and reading number words.

http://www.positivelyautism.com/free/01foldergames.html

You can view all of the free resources at Positively Autism here: http://www.positivelyautism.com/free/

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JobTIPS - A Free Employment Program

Description from the JobTIPS website: "JobTIPS is a free program designed to help individuals with disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder explore career interests, seek and obtain employment, and successfully maintain employment. JobTIPS addresses the social and behavioral differences that might make identifying, obtaining, and keeping a job more difficult for you.



Though JobTIPS is designed for direct use by individuals with autism and other disabilities, this program (including all of the printables, assessments, and videos) is also suitable for delivery by teachers, family members, clinicians, mentors, and job coaches."
 
It also includes videos of office social behaviors, such as greeting a co-worker and lots of great lessons and activities on a wide variety of topics. A great resource from Do2Learn!
 
JobTIPS website: http://www.do2learn.com/JobTIPS/index.html
 
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Developing Talents: Careers for Individuals with Asperger Syndrome and High-Functioning Autism by Temple Grandin and Kate Duffy

Click the book image above to buy the book from Amazon.com. Amazon donate a percentage of your purchase to Positively Autism!

Customized "Waiting" Social Story

Creating this free, customized Social Story about "waiting" requires registration for this website's newsletter. You also enter specific informaiton about your child such as name, school name, favorite toy, etc.

From Sandbox Learning. The link below is to the newsletter registration page. Once you sign-up, instructions on creating the Social Story will be sent to your e-mail.
http://www.sandbox-learning.com/RunScript.asp?ap=Member_reg.asp&np=1&page=1&p=ASP\~PgDefault.asp

There is also an instructional video available on YouTube on how to create the Social Story:


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By Carol Gray
I highly recommends this book! A great resource for parents and teachers. Click the picture above to read more about this book and purchase it from Amazon.com.

Underwater Supernanny Superstars™ Reward Chart

A reward/point chart with an ocean animals theme. This could be used in a classroom and/or for a self-monitoring chart. See this month's blog posts on Positively Autism for more information about self monitoring.

http://www.supernanny.com/Reward-Charts/-/5-to-7-year-olds/-/Underwater-Supernanny-Superstars-Reward-Chart.aspx

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Summer Vacation Social Story

A story similar to yesterday's "Last Day of School" Social Story. From British Columbia Provincial Centre: Special Education Technology.

http://www.setbc.org/pictureset/resources/summer_vacation/summer_vacation.pdf

Last Day of School Social Story

I can't believe it will be here soon! Here's a Social Story (with PECS-type images) about the last day of school from Slater Software.

http://www.slatersoftware.com/Last%20Day%20of%20School%20SocialStory.pdf


The Last Day of School by Louise Borden

Enter to Win a Gift Certificate from The Gray Center

From The Gray Center's Facebook page:

"Would you like to win $50 to spend at The Gray Center? Complete a short survey about the way(s) we have benefited you, your family, and your community at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2NYM8T2 . Four prizes will be awarded!"

Here is more information about The Gray Center and Social StoriesTM: http://thegraycenter.org/


The New Social Story Book

SeizureTracker App/Printables

As far as I know, an account on this site is free. It allows you to track things like medication dosage and seizure activity. It also has free printable tracking sheets that correspond to the SeizureTracker program on the site.

SeizureTracker: https://seizuretracker.com/
Printable tracking sheets: https://seizuretracker.com/Seizure_Log_Printable.php

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Seizures and Epilepsy in Childhood: A Guide (Johns Hopkins Press Health Book)


Mommy, I Feel Funny! A Child's Experience with Epilepsy

Telling Time Flashcards

A set of telling time (to the hour) flashcards. I like these because they list the dignital time (such as 1:00) right under the picture of a clock showing that time. I believe it was Temple Grandin who recommends that flash cards for students with autism include the term on the same side as the picture, to help make the connection.
The flashcards from from AdaptiveWorksheets.com .

http://www.adaptiveworksheets.com/free/freepdfs/clocks.pdf


My Book of Telling Time (Kumon Workbooks)

I'm not generally a huge fan of workbooks, but the Kumon series has worked very well for my students.

Guide on Bullying and Children with Disabilities

Walk A Mile In Their Shoes: Bullying and the Child with Special Needs, A Report and Guide from AbilityPath.org

Includes information on bullying statistics, bullying signs, and cyberbullying.

http://www.abilitypath.org/areas-of-development/learning--schools/bullying/articles/walk-a-mile-in-their-shoes.pdf

Teaching Students with Autism: A Resource Guide for Schools

A helpful online book from the British Columbia Ministry of Education, Special Programs Branch. Includes chapters on characteristics, teaching strategies, managing behavior, and IEP development.

http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/specialed/docs/autism.pdf

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Educating Students With Autism: A Quick Start Manual by Jo Webber, Brenda Scheuermann

Today's Freebie: Special Education Scorecards for the United States

This publication of the National Center for Learning Disabilities, lists state-by-state information including the state's US Department of Education rating, federal special education funding, and graduation rates for students with IEPs.

http://www.ncld.org/images/stories/OnCapitolHill/PolicyRelatedPublications/StateScorecards/AllStates.pdf

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Wrightslaw: All About IEPs

Mother's Day Social Story

Here is a Social Story about what a family might do for Mother's Day. From Slater Software.

Happy Mother's Day!

http://www.slatersoftware.com/Mothers%20Day%20Social%20Story.pdf

100 Free Printables from Scholastic

In honor of their teacher appreciation week, Scholastic is offering 100 free printables. These include student interest surveys, behavior reward cards, graphic organizers, and more.

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3751875

Video/Article: Brain Exercises and Classroom Music to Reduce Test Anxiety

This is more of a general teaching resource, but I thought I'd share as our students sometimes have increased anxiety about changes in routine, such as state or standardized testing. Please feel free to leave a comment and share any experiences you've had with these strategies for students with autism. 
Here's the resource: a video demonstration of "brain exercises" and music in the classroom to help students reduce their test anxiety. From Scholastic.http://blogs.scholastic.com/classroom_solutions/2011/05/state-assessments-reducing-test-anxiety.html

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Articles Explaining Autism to Peers/Siblings

I had a request for articles on explaining an Asperger's diagnosis to siblings, and here are a couple of articles I found from kidshealth.org. I like the article for teens better, as it is a little more positive and it addresses Asperger's directly. The article for kids is a little more basic, and just addresses autism in general.

For kids: http://kidshealth.org/kid/health_problems/brain/autism.html

For teens: http://teenshealth.org/teen/diseases_conditions/learning/autism.html

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My Friend with Autism: A Coloring Book for Peers and Siblings

Wandering Safety Brochure

After reading recent research on autism and wandering (http://www.autismspeaks.org/inthenews/ian_wander_study.php), I wanted to re-post this brochure with safety tips and resources on wandering. From the National Autism Association.

http://nationalautismassociation.org/pdf/autism_wandering_FULL%20SHEET%20BROCHURE.pdf

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Lost & Found Temporary Tattoos