Before you start whipping around shelves and desks trying to make centers or even before you try and get going on some visual schedules for your students, there are some essential questions you MUST ask yourself. Yes – I am advising you to talk to yourself like a crazy person. Take yourself out for a glass of wine to make it more enjoyable if you must but...

Drumroll please – the Summer of the Seven Steps has officially begun! This summer will be dedicated to an over indulgent explanation and elaboration of my Seven Steps for Setting Up a Stellar Autism Room (check out the summer calendar). This week we will be talking about Organization and Planning. This is where it all begins. I like to think of this as the...

  A few quick freebies for you. Warning: this contain quite literally the most adorable clipart ever from Cinnamon Design Studios. Ugh. Those chocolate covered strawberries, the bunting, the lemons. I die. Crazy cute. These are roll and color worksheets which are some of my favs. Roll two dice, count the dots, and color the matching number. Great to work on...

So in the theme of the week, I would like to share my summer plans for my website. I shared my summer school plans, my summer craft plans, but most importantly what will The Autism Helper be up to this summer? I’d like to do a change of pace over here at The Autism Helper. The summer posts are going to be ones I refer back to throughout the next school year. I...

If you are in my boat and planning to weather the long summer months inside of a stuffy classroom – you have come to the right place! I have been in hard core researching mode (ie. pintersting while on my couch!) to get together some fun (and let’s be honest – easy) ideas for summer school. Pinterest is overflowing with adorableness for summer. But...

Are you spending your summer laying by pool sipping a skinny girl margarita and flipping through the latest issue of US weekly? Yea, me neither. While I do hope to sneak in my fair share of pool time, I will be spending my summer hanging out with some hilarious guys. They tell like it is, never pass up the opportunity to laugh at someone’s fart, and know the...

It’s the end of the school year. The sweet taste of sleeping in, lazy mornings, and maybe some late afternoon cocktailing is right around the corners. It’s time to say good bye to hand sanitizer, broken pencils, data sheets, and whiny voices… momentarily at least. So how do you deal with this transition? And most importantly how do you deal with...

We had so much fun with our vegetable exploratory learning activity a few weeks ago that we decided to continue the streak and do fruits! These are such fun end of the year activities when everyone (including the teachers) are sick and tired of the same old structured work tasks. Don’t worry – there was still plenty of language and learning included! We...

Have I shared my summer resolution? I am DONE spending money on my class. Let’s see how strongly I stick to it but I’m trying hard. That doesn’t mean I’m stopping the endless stream of creativity that keeps me up late at night, that means I just need to get creative about creating tasks. This new task could be used for countless types of skill...

You ready for a math challenge? Any of you have kiddos who are a complete math whiz? I do. And to be completely honest – I sometimes have a hard time keeping up with him. I was excited to review this app because I don’t often seek out complicated or challenging math apps because I tend to look for apps that will be good for a larger group of my students...

I have some really exciting news to share! The Autism Helper is off to Texas! I am beyond thrilled to be presenting next week at Region 16′s annual Autism Conference in Amarillo Texas! I am presenting two break out sessions – Classroom Setup and Literacy. The classroom setup talk will be based on my Seven Steps to Setting up a Stellar Autism Room. The...

Another pinsperation success! This work task hits all of my must haves: quick to set up, adaptable for multiple students, and CHEAP! At the end of the school year – you know it pains me to bust out my wallet for more school expenses. No worries for this task – I had all of the materials on hand and it took literally less than 5 minutes to make and prep....

Each year the end of the year labor of love tends to take over my existence. I have decided to tone it down a little bit this year  but don’t worry there will still be some extravaganza like festivities. We always do an end of the party where we invite parents. This year our party will be combined with a double decker tour bus field trip. Which obviously...

Assistive Technology update: my guy got approved for his AAC device and we are now the proud owners of a brand new Nova Chat! (check out my post on get ready for an AAC evaluation) I am used to Dynavoxs so this a whole new ball game for me but I am won over. The nova chat rocks  my world – it’s small and light, easy to understand, easy to navigate, and...

I am a self diagnosed perfectionist. I want everything to be just right. Perfect corners, straight lines, dotted i’s – you get the point. I have some really awesome resources in my classroom (thank you donorschoose!) but sometimes those amazing acitiveties still don’t fit into my perfectionist requirements. They are almost there – but not...

Another great game from Super Duper. I have been LOVING their stuff lately. My kids and I had a blast with this one – Jeepers Peepers. I might have had more fun than they did. I swear I have played a drinking version of this game in college…. haha. Anyways – I highly recommend this fun game. It targeted describing skills, asking questions,...

Another month – another bingo. I have to tell ya – it’s going to feel awesome next year when I have these puppies ready to go each month! No more down the wire, last week of the months, scrambling to get the game made! These bingo games have become a staple in my higher functioning students’ independent morning routine and a repeat act in my...

My school has been on a healthy eating kick! We keeping up the momentum we gained during our NFL Play 60 win are having a school wide theme of healthy eating and exercise. We are doing a family reading night next week with this theme as well as a door decorating contest. Now although it’s been my year long mission to become more crafty and cutesy – I...

I was trying to thinking of something a little different to post about today. I took a walk through my iphoto folder and came across an idea that I am shocked I haven’t shared yet – the Apple Store Field Trip. It’s like the holy grail of field trips, right? A complete trip dedicated to playing with iPads. You’ve gotta be freaken kidding me. My...

Summer time is near! THANK GOD! I am ready for flip flops, ice cream, and bbqs. No end is sight for me as far as school goes. Summer school will take me up until August. But summer school is half days – so no complaints here! I don’t know about you – but as the year winds down, everything we are doing starts to feel… stale. Those same units...