Learning to Learn
Learning to Learn Real Talk: The start of the school year is HARD. Given the circumstances of last year, with remote learning and COVID, so many of our students are starting over in the classroom. This year I have 6 kindergarteners on my caseload and I'm remembering...
Using TAH Resources With Older Students
One part of my OT assignment includes working in a life skill program for high school students 14-18 and a transition program for students 18-21 years old. The focus of these programs includes learning important skills to prepare for adult life. As an OT, I work...
Reading In An Early Childhood Classroom
I have met more and more young children interested in literacy. Although reading is not a skill we expect to be mastered at this age, I do not want to hold them back. Whether I am working with friend's children, my child, clients, or students, literacy is an important...
Independent Work Systems for Younger Students
I'm a huge fan of teaching independent work. In fact, I've talked before about how independent work has saved my classroom. Independent work can free your time so you are able to teach, access, and work with small groups while other students are working. It can work...
Moving Beyond Requesting (Part 6): Comparing and Contrasting
This is the conclusion post in a series called Moving Beyond Requesting. Previous posts highlight how to teach increased feature, function, and category vocabulary, negation, using those concepts in greater complexity, and describing. If you didn't read part 5, I hope...
How To Create A Year-Long Plan
I will be honest. There are never enough minutes in a day, but that's probably no surprise! In times of increasing anxiety, I remember to list the must haves of the week. Keeping track of everything is a lot; being a teacher is A LOT! I am big on organization and if...
Getting Setup with The Autism Helper Curriculum
The Leveled Daily Curriculum has been growing over the past few years. There are now 7 subjects: Language Arts, Reading Comprehension, Math, Science, Social Studies, Functional Literacy, and Functional Math. Level 0.5 and Level 4 has been added to several subjects.. I...
Who Needs a Picture Schedule?
The question in the title of this post is kind of a trick question. You can use pictures schedules anywhere and everywhere! Depending on the needs of your learners as individuals, they can be all around the classroom. Implementing picture schedules should not be a one...
How To Include Functional Gross Motor and Recess Activities
In all of my years of teaching, recess has never been my all time favorite time of the day. I love the time for our learners to get outside, enjoy nature, let out energy, play with peers, and have fun, however, I have experienced a lot of frustrations and tears due to...
Standards Based Read Alouds and Core Language Boards
Due to popular demand, I am here to show you a read aloud using a core language board! It has been incredible seeing the empowerment among teachers and their students through learning how to use core language. You can literally infuse core language everywhere. In...
How To Expand On “Put-In” Tasks
Working in an early childhood classroom, I have seen a lot of "put-in" and even "take out" tasks. These tasks are wonderful and work on many skills including hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, problem solving, and much more! I have seen everything from putting...
OT Tips for Choosing School Supplies
I know it is July, but before we know it the new school year will be upon us. With a new school year comes school supply shopping! Some of you may be preparing now to return in August or may be looking to get your shopping done early. If you don’t go back to school...
Utilizing Leveled Curriculums with ALL Students
As a classroom teacher I started using The Autism Helper’s Leveled Curriculum before 2016 and I have never looked back. I’ll never forget this epiphany I had working as a brand-new teacher with one of our second-grade students. I was being asked to implement grade...
All About Puzzles
Puzzles are a great way to work on fine and visual motor skills, visual perceptual skills and problem solving skills. Additionally, they can also be a calming self regulation tool or rec/leisure option. There are so many different kinds of puzzles out there and it can...
Three Tools for Independent Work
Every year, independent work saves my classroom. This coming year will be no different. I know I've got a large group of kindergarten students coming in this fall. If you teach kindergarten you know just how intense those first few months are. It feels like herding...
Summer Learning Bags For All
Purchasing Materials Our school district administration was able to purchase materials for each student in our entire school! We used these materials to create and send home Summer Learning Bags. These materials differ from what was sent home throughout the...
Focus on Five: Reading Resources
I know that the school year is winding down, but The Autism Helper is getting ready to offer the Roadmap to Reading online course! This course walks you through the whole process of teaching literacy to your students with autism. In anticipation of this course, I will...
Vehicle Themed File Folder Activities
My theme these past few weeks has been all about vehicles. I’ve been using vehicle themed adapted books, sorts, games, and other fun activities to work on various language skills with my students. To add to my vehicle fun I created a set of Vehicle Themed File...
Planning For the Extended School Year And Beyond
The extended school year is a wonderful time to practice the maintenance of skills that our learners gained throughout the school year. This is an important time for teachers and families to work together to incorporate generalization opportunities. When planning for...
Counting and Sorting Vehicle Fun
I’m finishing up my vehicle themed adapted book series this week with the book “How Many Vehicles Do You See?” This book is great to continue to build up those vehicle vocabulary terms while also working on those number concepts. I paired the book with a fun vehicle...