The Autism & Low-Incidence Coaching Team: January 2023

Monday, January 30, 2023

Regulation Rendezvous: More Exercise

As we have shared previously, exercise is an evidence-based practice for students with autism spectrum disorders. It has been identified to improve behavior, increase school readiness, improve academic outcomes, and improve motor skill development. Exercise is defined as an increase in physical exertion for a minimum of 10 minutes that occurs on a regular basis. The physical exertion is measured by an elevation in the participant’s heart rate and an increase in core body temperature as evidenced by sweat production.

Today's Regulation Rendezvous features examples of exercise equipment and visual supports we have seen in the districts we support.

Equipment

There is some truly neat exercise equipment out there! We love seeing all the creative ways our teams incorporate this equipment into daily routines, transitions, sensory breaks, and related service therapy sessions.

Climbing Wall
Amy Pratt
Springcreek Primary, Piqua

Obstacle Course
Michelle Gardner
Cookson Elementary, Troy

Obstacle Course
Michelle Gardner
Heywood Elementary, Troy

Student Weight Room
Wayne High School, Huber Heights

AmTryke
Amy Pratt
Springcreek Primary, Piqua

Color Hop Game
Five Below

Stationary Bike
Julia Millikin
Milton Union Elementary, Milton Union

Exercise Dice
Five Below

Tricycles
Amy Pratt
Springcreek Primary, Piqua

Stationary Bike and Exercise Balls
Bobbi Jo Chapman
Snyder Park Elementary, Springcreek

Visual Supports

Exercise often begins with a warm-up activity, followed by the exercise activity, and finishes with a cool-down activity. To help students with completing exercises in a predetermined sequence, many of our team provide visual supports.

S'cool Moves Poster
Tracey Cooper
Tecumseh Elementary, Clark County ESC

Astronaut Exercise Sequence
Cassie Zerkle
Miami East Elementary, Miami County ESC

Sensory Circuit
Bobbi Jo Chapman
Snyder Park Elementary, Springfield

Sensory Break Visuals
Emma McKenzie
Tipp Middle School, Tipp City

Movement Station
Marissa Steinhelfer
West Carrollton, MCESC

S'cool Moves Station
Tracey Cooper
Tecumseh Elementary, Clark County ESC

Warm Up Sequence Choices
Tracey Cooper
Tecumseh Elementary, Clark County ESC

To find more great ideas for incorporating exercise for your students, check out our previous post:

Exercise

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

A-LIST Spotlight: Nichole Dunn, Intervention Specialist at Miamisburg Middle School

We are excited to kick off the new year with another A-LIST Spotlight! This month we are featuring Nichole Dunn who is an Intervention Specialist at Miamisburg Middle School. We have been so impressed with Nichole's classroom including her individualized supports, paraprofessional management, data collection, and daily structure (just to name a few!). She does such a great job collaborating with our team and we have really appreciated her willingness to share her expertise with others through our remote panel during the school closures and when we have asked for individual teachers to reach out.

When asked to share some supports from her classroom, Nichole provided some fabulous examples! Nichole shared the following:

Incentive Charts:
I use and create multiple types of incentive charts for my students. I believe that students need to work and use tools that are developmentally appropriate. Each chart has been created based on the student's needs. My students pick their own rewards. They also have a visual reminder on their desk that a colleague made to remind them about our expectations.

Zones of Regulation:
My students and staff use our Zones of Regulation bulletin board for a daily check-in system. I started having staff use the system to model for my students that they don’t always have to be in the green zone. My students have a visual reference of the Zones of Regulation and different emotions for each zone. We use this when we are talking about the zones to help students develop an understanding of their emotions. One of my students is using the zones of regulation and sensory tool board to help him regulate himself depending on his zone. He is first asked to pick which zone he is in and then he chooses a sensory tool from his chosen zone.

Independence:

I use a variety of visuals in my classroom to help my students find the items they need. My students use a 3-drawer system for their personal school supplies where we have placed visuals to help with executive functioning and independence.

I also use a task box system which allows my students to independently complete their task box items. Students use this system to locate their names and the correct numbered boxes for each day of the week. We use a large paper clip to help students identify the day of the week. All supplies in the classroom are also labeled with a picture and the word, again to encourage independence.

Support for Staff:

My lesson plans are organized into 4 groups this year, My staff knows that each group is assigned its own box. Inside that box are file folders labeled with the days of the week. All of the materials that will fit in the folders are located in the group's box to allow them to have easy access to finding what they need to carry out the lesson. Any additional materials that don’t fit in the bins such as educational games are placed on the counter by the group bins for easy access. This allows my staff to independently gather the materials they need for each group.

Each student has their own goal work binder that is used for data collection along with keeping work that goes with each goal for the student. The binders are divided into sections based on their goals. Each section contains a data tracking sheet and works for them to complete. This system allows me to keep all my student's data in one place. It will enable my staff to have easy access to data tracking sheets and goal work. This is wonderful because when my staff needs additional tasks for my student they know to independently go to their goal work binder and find work that is on their level. The binders also have resources for students and staff to use that go along with skills we are working on during instruction.

Sensory:

I am blessed to have a lot of different sensory items in my district to use in my classroom. Sensory items are used based on each of my students based on their zone of regulation and needs.

Schedules:

I use a whole class schedule that I change each day depending on our schedule. We use an arrow to move down as we move from one activity to the other. I like this system because it allows me to easily change things or even write on the board as our plans might change during the day.

Some of my students need their own schedule system at their desks. I take clear sleeves and type out our schedule for each day placing them inside the sleeves. My students use a dry-erase maker and mark their items off as our daily progress. This system also allows me to easily and quickly make changes using a dry-erase marker when our activities for the day change.

Nichole, thank you for these wonderful examples and for being such a fabulous partner to our team!

Monday, January 9, 2023

Academic Area: Systematically Teaching Functional Sight Words

For many of our students, new skill acquisition requires a great deal of repetition. It is important that for these students, instruction is deliberately planned and systematically carried out in order to best meet their learning needs and to ensure the most accurate monitoring of progress. Today's Academic Area provides guidelines and examples for Systematically Teaching Functional Sight Words.

For some students, it is important to focus on functional sight words that have the most meaning for them. These may be words they find motivating (such as food words or the names of friends or family members) or they may be words they need to apply in everyday situations (such as core words, grocery words, or clothing words). When teaching functional sight words, follow this systematic plan:

1. Pre-Assessment

· Assess student knowledge of target sight words using a list or flashcards. Record baseline data.

Allison Officer
Stevenson Elementary, Mad River

2. Direct Instruction

· Refer to baseline data to choose which words to provide direct instruction on. Focus on 1-2 words per teaching session.

· Ask the student to match the target sight word flashcard to a corresponding picture or icon.

· Repeat 3-5 times until the student demonstrates fluency.

3. Matching with Distractors

· Incorporate 1-2 previously mastered words into the picture-matching practice.

· Mix up cards frequently to keep the student engaged and focused.

· Repeat mixing and matching 3-5 times until the student demonstrates fluency.

Allison Officer
Stevenson Elementary, Mad River

4. Receptive Identification

· Provide a field of 3-5 flashcards and ask the student to receptively identify (i.e. “find”, “point to”, “give me”) a sight word upon request. You can also use a sight word board for students to point to or circle the requested word.

Allison Officer
Stevenson Elementary, Mad River

· Repeat mixing and receptively identifying 3-5 times until the student demonstrates fluency.

5. Expressive Identification

· Display one flashcard at a time and have the student expressively identify each flashcard.

6. Generalization

· Generalize new sight word knowledge through a variety of activities including worksheets, sentence comprehension, word searches, interactive books, games, or finding within a text.