ALIST Spotlight- Karyn Smith & Heather Costa at Tri-Village High School

Today’s A-LIST Spotlight features a fabulous team of educators at Tri-Village High School. 

Intervention Specialist, Karyn Smith, and speech pathologist, Heather Costa, work together to meet the needs of every student to ensure students in the Tri-Village High School special needs program have the communication supports they need for functional communication across the day.  As you can see, this PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) book is well used!

Because this is a high school, the students are engaged in many functional jobs. The students have rotating job roles. A picture checklist is provided for each role.  The students spend much of their time outside the classroom for vocational training and life skills field trips.

  

Karyn does a great job developing a predictable routine for the students. Everyday one student will ask to make his favorite, chocolate pudding.  An interactive visual tool is provided to help the student make the pudding. He is able to do this independently now.

  

A visual support is given to help the student measure the milk.

  

The student also loves hot chocolate.  Visuals are used to teach the student the concept of “hot” and “cold” to give feedback about the hot chocolate.  Descriptive words are an important part of functional communication.

An interactive shopping list allows the students to build a list based on what is needed for the kitchen. The list is taken to the store. Each time an item from the list is placed in the cart, the picture can be removed from the list. This makes it easy to know what item to look for next.

This tool was created for a new paraprofessional to provide reminders of goals and supports when working with a particular student.

This small portable yes/no visual is consistently presented to give a student a way to respond when asked, “do you want…?”

A break room is available for scheduled breaks across the day to keep students regulated.

Technology is used to engage students and support writing. This student uses the Clicker software program for easy journaling.

Here are a few pages from a social story created to help a student who was experiencing anxiety at school.

The students in Karyn’s classroom have very diverse needs. With the support from Heather and her team, Karyn works hard to ensure that each student has every opportunity to grow and succeed.  We love that Karyn will reach out to us for support, even when the student is doing well, to get ideas to help the student meet a higher level of expectation.  It is always a pleasure to visit Karyn’s classroom at Tri Village High School and to see how well she and Heather collaborate to meet the needs of their students!

Organization Station-- Organizing Picture Icons

Visual Supports are an evidence-based practice for autism and many of the great classrooms we coach have visual supports for every aspect of the school day. With so many visual supports it can be difficult to keep track of every picture icon. Keeping these icons organized is essential to efficient management of visual supports and can be extremely helpful when a specific icon is needed at a moments notice.

Do you have a designated location to put icons that are found throughout the day? This strategy can make it easier to reset visual supports for students because you can quickly find misplaced icons.

Edison Elementary

Teach Love Autism

Simply Special Ed

These organization systems make it easy to see all of the visuals at once for quick access.

Laurie Maravetz
Schaefer Middle School, Springfield

Katie Bigelow and Casey Lathrop
Brookville Elementary, Brookville

Laurie Maravetz
Schaefer Middle School, Springfield

Peggy Ristau
Brookville Intermediate, Brookville

These systems are good for when you have multiple copies of the same icon such as schedule icons or reinforcer pictures.

Jennifer McGowan
Smith Middle School, Vandalia

Toni Mallot
Jane Chance Elementary, Miamisburg

Mandy Whitfield
MCESC Learning Center- East

Rylie Jarret
Stevenson Elementary, Mad River

Taylor Ruef
Stevenson Elementary, Mad River

For more great ideas for organizing visual supports in the classroom check out our previous Organization Station post:

Organization Station- Visuals

Regulation Rendezvous- Top 3 Tips for Adaptive Seating

Today many classrooms require students to be seated throughout a majority of their school day. This can be quite a challenge for our students with sensory processing differences. Follow these Top 3 Tips for adaptive seating to help your students stay regulated when they need to be seated.

1. Provide Physical Boundaries

Some students may have proprioceptive processing difficulty which can make it challenging for them to know where their body is in space. This can lead to them invading the space of others and can make it difficult to stay in one area. Physical boundaries give the student a defined area and can help them feel more secure. 

When seated at a desk or carpet, use arm rests to provide a physical boundary. Seating like a wooden Rifton chair or a Zuma chair with arm rests are great options that we often see. 

Rylie Jarrett & Denise Campbell
Stevenson Elementary, Mad River

When seated at the carpet, physical boundaries can be provided using a cube chair or for some even a carpet square can help keep them where they need to be. 

Kathy Timmerman
Fairbrook Elementary, Beavercreek

2. Allow for Movement

Many of our students actively seek vestibular movement throughout the day. They may rock in their chair or need to get up and pace. Providing seating options that allow for movement can help them be more focused. 

For desk or table work, we love these Zuma rockers that look like a typical school chair but have rounded legs to allow for rocking. 

Edison Elementary, Dayton

We have also seen an increase in classrooms using standing desks which can help students move around to stay engaged and alert. For students who need extra movement while at a standing desk, tape a box on the floor to provide a boundary for where they can pace. 

Annette Stine
Kyle Elementary, Troy

Tami Bartley
Fairborn Primary, Fairborn

We love this great use of a cocktail table to provide a standing option for students. 

Khristie Reed
Kettering Middle School, Kettering

At the carpet, scoop rockers or rocking gamer chairs can be great options. 

Bobbi Jo Chapman
Snyder Park Elementary, Springfield

Brittany Bush
Spinning Hills Middle School, Mad River

3. Give Support

It is important to make sure students are supported when seated. Without support, students can become distracted and uncomfortable. The effort needed for completing work may be too much if they are also actively trying to manage their discomfort. 

Many of our students have limited core strength and need their trunks supported when seated at the carpet. They may slouch, lean, W sit, extend their legs straight out, or lay down if seated for too long without support. These students may also appear restless and reposition often as they try to manage the seated position. Giving support to their trunk through providing a back rest can be a great way to keep them more engaged. 

Howda Hug Chair

Alisa Hartlage
Northridge Elementary, Northeastern

Ramel Mitchell
Kyle Elementary, Troy

On the carpet, some student may also struggle with completing work in their laps. Allowing them to lay on their stomachs to work or providing a floor or lap desk can be great alternatives. 

Brittany Sword
Valley Elementary, Beavercreek

It can often be difficult to find classroom chairs that are the correct size for all students. But this is so important because dangling legs can not only be uncomfortable but it can also effect blood circulation. Giving support ensures that stress on the student's muscles and joints is evenly distributed across their body.  Lack of support can cause increased strain on their body which can lead to fatigue, tight or achy muscles, joint stiffness and even pain. This can lead to students frequently repositioning and folding their legs up in the chair. Sometimes we see students wrapping their feet around the legs of the chair also. If you cannot obtain chairs at the correct size for each student, providing foot rests can be a great solution. These can be easily made using wood, boxes, or phone books wrapped in duct tape. 

Pam Ellender
Mad River Middle School, Mad River

There is no one-size-fits-all approach for adaptive seating and many classrooms have to differentiate to meet the unique needs of each student. We love this classroom's use of cube chairs, student chairs, rocking chairs, and even a cube chair wrapped in a body sock to make sure all of their students are able to engage in carpet time more readily!

Keelin DiMuccio
Fairbrook Elementary, Beavercreek

And how this classroom added weights to a student's chair so that she can get heavy work input by moving her chair from center to center.

Emily Colbert
Bruce Elementary, Eaton

For more ideas on meeting your students' seating needs check out our previous post on Preferential Seating. 

Communication Corner- Asking Questions and Getting Clarification

When using functional communication training with a student, it is important that you don't stop training once they develop the basic skills of protesting and requesting. There are so many functions of communication! To help students become well-rounded in their communication its is important to provide direct training on higher level functional communication skills as well. Today's Communication Corner provides ideas for functional communication training for Asking Questions and Getting Clarification. 

In our previous post on Answering Questions, we provided tips for teaching wh-question words. This will be a great starting point for Asking Questions too so we suggest revisiting that post to start. Through first working on answering questions with these cues, students will be provided with some great modeling of how questions are formulated. 

Use the same wh-question visuals to cue students on which type of question to ask during structured activities. Generalize this skill across question words, various activities, in different environments, and finally by fading the visual cues. 

Taylor Ruef
Stevenson Elementary, Mad River

What Questions

Consider the various ways they can use each question word so that their language sounds natural. For instance, instead of pointing at an item and just asking "what?" it would make more sense for them to point and ask "what's that?". 

You can also teach students to get clarification such as "what color?" or "what size?". Set up opportunities for them to practice this skill during structured activities such as asking peers "what color do you want?" when passing out markers or asking "what game do you want to play?" during free time. Provide visual cues such as scripts to help them remember the word order. 

Students can also learn to ask what others are doing. You can practice this skill by acting out actions, using toys or stuffed animals to perform actions, using video clips, or pictures. 

Where Questions

When practicing prepositions and positional words you can easily incorporate asking "where" questions. Move throughout the learning space and encourage the student to ask "where are you?". Then use objects and teach the student to ask "where is the...?". 

"Where" questions are also important when students need help locating materials. Use a script to help them ask "where is my...?". Introduce this skill through structured activities where you can hide items and the student has to ask for them. Then, generalize the skill across settings so the student can begin asking for items they want or need but are unable to find themselves. At times, you may need to sabotage the environment but hiding items you know they will need such as a pencil or toothbrush. 

Who Questions

Like when teaching "what", be sure to teach "who" in a way that sounds natural. For instance, you may teach the student to ask "who's that?" since that is a common phrase. Practice with pictures and videos to keep the student engaged and interested. 

When Questions

Many students with autism are very motivated by knowing when certain activities will occur throughout the day. This can be a great opportunity to teach them to ask "when" questions. They could ask "when do we have music?" or "when will we go outside?"

Do, Is, and Are Questions

In addition to wh-questions, there are other question forms to consider such as "Do", "Is, or "Are" Questions. Like with the wh-questions, teach these first in a structured setting that provides numerous opportunities for practice. Continue to use visual supports and scripts to help cue the student. There are a variety of games that you can play:

• Go Fish: For "do" you can play Go Fish and the student can ask "Do you have a...?". 
• Hidden Object: For "is" questions, hide an item in a bag and allow the student to feel it. Then, have them guess by asking "Is it a...?". 
• Charades: For "are" questions, play charades and have the student ask "Are you a...?". 

Practice Activities

There are tons of options when it comes to practicing questioning skills! ​Plan activities to allow students to practice asking questions such as interviewing peers or staff members. 

Jackie Vollmer
Driscoll Elementary, Centerville

Students can ask each other questions about  books they are reading. Provide visual cues to prompt the students to ask a variety of questions. Games such as "Guess Who"  and Who am I" are a good way to work on asking questions to clarify.  

Seek and find or blind board drawing games encourage the use of questions to determine where something is or how something should look. Role playing as a server at a restaurant will facilitate a variety of questions such as "where do you want to sit?", "when do you want your salad?" or  "how many cookies do you want?

Also, if your student uses an AAC device, provide opportunities to practice navigating to find different question words. You may find question words on the core page or on a subject related page. The device may have a link to a page of just question words.  It will be important to teach the learner how to find question words and formulate questions that are meaningful. The device may have a chat page with pre-program questions for quick and easy access.

For more ideas on functional communication training skills check out our previous Communication Corner posts:

Escape

Protest

Attention

Requesting Items or Activities

Providing Feedback

Participating in Group Activities

Answering Questions