My brain hurts. It's about to explode. My mind is going 10 million miles per hour and it won't stop.
I am at an amazing autism workshop this week and the amount of information is absolutely unbelievable! I wonder how I got through my undergrad and graduate programs without learning all of these great strategies and techniques! Actually, the fact is that I already knew a lot of this stuff, but hearing it from new people has given me a new prospective.
I could honestly go on for hours about everything I am learning, but the truth of the matter is that I can't implement it all right away. There is not enough time in the day and its unrealistic to turn my classroom into a new program with less than three months left. I have begun to prioritize the projects I am going to implement as soon as I get back. Then, this summer I can focus on setting up everything for the fall.
Priority #1: Create Areas in my Classroom
Students with autism are very visual learners. They are also very unorganized by nature, so it is important to create different spaces that they can relate certain tasks or activities with and to help them organize their tasks. In my classroom these seems completely unrealistic. I have 2 horse shoe shaped tables that are used for many purposes including snack, centers, art, and 1 on 1 work. The important part is to differentiate the tasks so that students don't get confused. I didn't think that this was a problem in my classroom until I really began to think about my little non-verbal guy with autism. Every time we go towards the tables he pulls out his goldfish snack card. Is it possible he isn't always hungry? Is it possible he only associates those tables with snack time and not work time? The first think I am going to do when I get back to my classroom is create place mats specifically for snack time. This way, the students can associate the table AND the place mats as snack time. I am also going to consistently use a blue table cloth on the table during art projects to help the students associate that it is time for art. The rest of my room seems to be set up pretty nicely. I have a free explore area, a books & puzzles area, and a circle time area.
Priority #2: Circle Time Signals
Students with autism have a difficult time processing language and learn much better from visual cues. Often times during circle time I have students shouting out with they should be thinking or starting off topic conversations. I also have a difficult time with my general education students shouting out answers without giving my lower students wait time. I often pair a verbal prompt such as "turn on your listening ears" with a motion, but not all of the students get it. I am going to create signs for circle time to prompt students to listen, think, and talk. For "listen", used during story time or directions, I will have a picture of a giant ear. For "think", I am going to have a picture of a student "tapping his thinker", and for "talk" I am going to use a picture of a student raising his hand. Hopefully this will be a quick success and help with classroom management!
Priority #3: Communication Corner
This workshop has focused a lot on student schedules and using those as the first step in communication. I do use a picture schedule with my students, but some of them are not at that abstract level yet and really need an object schedule. I would like to work on creating a "Communication Corner" where student's schedules can be placed and a collection of objects, photographs, and picture symbols can be kept for choice making opportunities and transitioning students from one activity to another. This project will take a while to create a set up, but I feel it is important to begin this now, so that my students have more opportunities to appropriately communicate.
I will be sure to keep you updated on my progress with these 3 projects : )
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