Around Town Round Up: Incorporating Interests Throughout the Day

Many students with autism and low-incidence disabilities have strong special interests. Often educators have used these interests to reward academic success, productivity, and targeted behaviors. But interests can be used for so much more! Today's Around Town Round Up has gathered some of the best examples of how our teams are incorporating student interests throughout the day to keep students engaged and motivated and make school fun!

Schedules

Start the day on the right foot by structuring the student's day using a special interest schedule. In the examples below, one student loves Blues Clues so the team made a Handy Dandy Notebook with scheduled activities on each page. 

The other student loved astronomy so his team created an Astronaut Training Protocol for the student's daily schedule. 

Annette Baker
Miami East Elementary, Miami East

Behavior Plans

Beyond using special interests as a reward activity, special interests can also be embedded into the behavior plan to help create a positive association with the tool. Rather than use generic tokens, incorporate special interests like elephants, Backyardig or even Pi like in the examples below!

Emily Ottmar
Stevenson Elementary, Mad River

Annette Baker
Miami East Elementary, Miami East

Sensory Supports

Do you ever have students who are resistant to sensory supports because they are new or different? Incorporating interests can help the student see the sensory supports in a positive way and leads to increased willingness to participate in sensory activities. We love the examples below from Pam Locker at Washington Primary showing how she incorporated a student's special interest in community helpers to create a weighted vest and preferential seating options. Her whole class loved their new "car" seats for circle time!

Pam Locker
Washington Primary, Piqua

The example below is another support for the student who loved astronomy. Each morning he did a sequence of exercises from his Space Program to start his day. These activities can be found on the Mission X: Train Like an Astronaut website. 

Cassie Zerkle
Miami East Elementary, Miami East

Academics

Probably one of the most impactful areas to incorporate interests is during academic times. This definitely makes learning more fun and can increase the student's attention to the task. 

Students at Trotwood ELC love these special interest activities incorporating bugs during OT and PT sessions. 

Heather Venters & Carla Hammond
Trotwood ELC, Trotwood

Another great fine motor activity is this Cinderella puzzle with a magic wand magnet. How neat!

Kirsten Johnson
Greene INC

The examples below incorporate special interests for reading activities including name sequencing, a magnificent personalized word wall, and an interactive board book. 

Molly Magoteaux
Kleptz ELC, Northmont

Therese Garison
Helke Elementary, Vandalia

Jamie Minnish
Prass Elementary, Kettering

For more examples of incorporating interests into academic activities, check out our previous post: 

Taskbox Time: Incorporating Interests

Another great resource for incorporating interests in the classroom is the book below by Paula Kluth and Patrick Schwarz Just Give Him the Whale!: 20 Ways to Use Fascinations, Areas of Expertise, and Strengths to Support Students with Autism