Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Task C40-43, G11 - Adjectives

Ideas for Objects you can use to teach various attributes:

Big/Little - balls, socks, blocks, buttons, shoes, stones, Beanie babies, Oreo cookies & "minis", serving spoon / teaspoon, balloons, milk cartons

Long/Short - straws, pencils, pipe cleaners, lego blocks, chalk, pictures of different hairstyles, yarn / string, 6" & 12" ruler

Wet/Dry - washcloths, cotton balls, paper towels, sponges, socks, bath toys

Shapes - round / square block, shaped crackers, shape sorter shapes, cookies cut into shapes

New/Old - crayons, sponges

Color - blocks, buttons, socks, crayons, pipe cleaners, legos, rainbow goldfish,skittles, m&ms

Hard/Soft - play dough (leave one piece out to harden), sponges, nerf football (one soft, one hard), action figure and plush counterpart, bread crumbs / croutons, hard ball / pompoms, hard/soft visor hats

Rough/Smooth - stones, wallpaper samples, fabric squares, fingernail file (both sides), sandpaper (both sides), velcro (both sides)

Tall/Short - toy giraffes, block towers, paper cups, paper towel/toilet paper rolls

Thick or Fat/Thin - books, bread slices, sandwiches, candles

Fast/Slow - ideas?

Heavy/Light - identical containers, one full and one empty
for light: balloon, cottonball, feather
for heavy: medium size stone, heavy mug, pretend bag of "groceries"

Clean/Dirty - socks, cotton balls, play dough

Hot/Cold - water

Empty/Full - cups, dishes, bottles, bags of chips, candy bag

Open/Closed - doors, drawers, windows, boxes, envelopes, markers, doors on toy car, books, purses, lunch boxes

Sweet/Sour - sweet: candy, marshamallows; sour: pickles, lemon juice, grapefruit

Straight/Bent - straws, pipe cleaners, wire

If you have an idea for this task that you would like to share, please add a Comment. Thank you!

Saturday, March 17, 2007

C34, G6 - Actions

Here is a starter list of actions to teach:

baking, bending, breaking, building
carrying, catching, chasing, clapping, cleaning,
climbing, coloring, cooking, crawling, crying
dancing, digging, drawing, drinking, eating
falling, fishing, flying, following
giving, hiding, jumping, kicking
laughing, leaving, listening, looking
making, mowing, opening
painting, peeling, playing, pulling
pushing, putting away
raining, reading, riding, rolling, running
sharing, singing, sitting, sleeping
sliding, smelling, smiling, snowing
spilling, splashing, standing, swimming, swinging
talking, throwing, walking, waving

If you have an idea for this task that you would like to share, please add a Comment. Thank you!

Tasks C17-18, G9 - Body Parts


Visit www.preschoolbystormie.com/sgrossmotor.html for several body part identification activities.

Play "Hokey Pokey"

Sing My Fingers Are Starting To Wiggle
(Tune: The Bear Went Over the Mountain)
My fingers are starting to wiggle,
My fingers are starting to wiggle,
My fingers are starting to wiggle,
Wiggle all around. (substitute other body parts)

Play with a Mr. Potato Head - see: www.autismteachingtools.com/page/bbbbhb/bbbbmh

1. Play the “Touch Your Nose” game by having the students imitate the teacher’s actions. It may be easier for them to identify the teacher’s nose at first, rather than their own. Use a mirror to play “Touch Your Nose”. Have students find their noses and point to them in the mirror. Continue with other body parts.
2, Provide students with the outline of a face and pictures of the major facial parts (i.e., eyes, nose, mouth, ears). Instruct students to choose and place each picture appropriate on the face.
4. Play “Simon Says” with directions to touch specific body parts.
5. Use a full length mirror to explore body parts and their position on the body in relationship to another body part, (e.g., which is closer to the neck, fingers or toes?).
6. Have students lie down on the floor that has been covered with large sheets of paper. Trace students’ bodies and have them show body parts as requested on their own bodies and on the paper bodies. (source for the above ideas unknown... if you know, add a Comment)

Sing and move to "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes". Add this verse:

Ankles, elbows, feet and seat, feet and seat,
Ankles, elbows, feet and seat, feet and seat,
And hair and hips and chin and cheeks,
Ankles, elbows, feet and seat, feet and seat.

Sing the body part songs from: www.preschooleducation.com/sbody.shtml

A list of body parts to teach: ankle, arm, back, buttocks, cheek, chest, chin, ears, elbow, eyes, eyebrow, finger, fingernails, foot/feet, forehead, hair, hand, head, heel, hip, jaw, knee, legs, lips, mouth, neck, nose, shoulder, stomach, teeth, thigh, throat, toes, tongue, thumb, tummy, waist, wrist.

Receptive commands: show me ..., touch ..., where is ..., point to ..., tickle your ..., tap your ..., scratch your ..., can you find ..., do you see a ..., find the ...

If you have an idea for this task that you would like to share, please add a Comment. Thank you!

Task C14, 15, 23, 24 - Receptive Selection

The following excerpt is from my files. I don't know the original source. If you can identify the web source, please email me. Thank you.

"KEY – MAKE TACTING MEANINGFUL

The goal should be the child’s ability to tact each item in several contexts with several pictures, real objects, and under the guidance of several people in her environment, both in intensive trial and natural environment settings. If not, you are only teaching her tacting skills and not educating her toward recovery. I would rather have a child who fully understands and can effectively tact 10 items throughout her day than a child who can tact 1000 items but only reliant on the specifics of how those tacts were taught.

If you haven't, due to circumstance or time, been able to teach the skill of tacting across all of these conditions before moving on to the more difficult skill of TFFC's , the child is likely learning what is necessary in the ITT setting, only to get to your offered reinforcement and is not finding a personal reason or benefit to learning to tact. Not only will this cause the tacting to be slow going but the process of TFFC's is going to be even slower as the concept is more difficult.

I often think back to something Juliet Burk once wrote in an email which i have saved."Did it really take a month to teach what a microwave was? I remember the frustration of taking Evy into the kitchen and asking him to show me the microwave. Over and over, he would smile at me and walk toward something, hoping to see me smile and indicate that he was walking the right way. Day after day, I pointed it out and it just wouldn't stick! Then the moment a light bulb went off (in my head, not his), and I handed him a bag of microwave popcorn and said, "Put it in the microwave." He smiled and wandered. I led him over to it, we popped it together and ate. We did it the next day, and the third day, he knew where the microwave was. The joy! A microwave!"

If you have an idea for this task that you would like to share, please Email Me at cresanna@hotmail.com or add a Comment. Thank you!

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Task B10-14 - Puzzles

Cut old Christmas cards into puzzles.
Go to: www.preschoolbystormie.com/dchristmas.html

Yard sales are a wonderful source for cheap but good quality puzzles!

If you have an idea for this task that you would like to share, please add a Comment. Thank you!

Task B20 - Picture Sequences

Use familiar children's storybooks.
Go to: www.preschoolbystormie.com/learncentrs2.htm

Take pictures of siblings or friends doing a task. For example, get the popcorn...put in microwave...pour in bowl...eat....then another sequence can be, eat popcorn...empty bowl...put bowl in sink...wash hands. Original source unknown.

Take pictures of the individual steps to complete a task. For example, take a picture of functional play activities like block design using one-block then two-block, or a doll getting dressed, pieces of a puzzle, pieces of a train or car track, making a sandwich, etc. Routines can be used to teach the routine steps while teaching sequencing skills. Or try a comic strip sequence from the newspaper. Original source unknown.

If you have an idea for this task that you would like to share, please Email Me at cresanna@hotmail.com or add a Comment. Thank you!

Task B19 - Seriation

Use paint chips from your local home improvement store. Make sure that the variations in color are discernable ... try the task out on a friend first. You could also try wrapping popsicle sticks with various shades of embroidery floss.

Seriate various sizes of buttons that are the same color and shape.

For an idea on seriating Heavy to Light
Go to: www.preschoolbystormie.com/learncentrs3.htm

Draw your own seriation pictures of a stick figure, flower, box, happy face, tree, sun, etc

If you have an idea for this task that you would like to share, please Email Me at cresanna@hotmail.com or add a Comment. Thank you!

Task B8/B17 - Match or Continue a Pattern

On a piece of paper for each child, attach several different colored self-stick dots in a row to start a pattern (red, blue, red, blue; orange, yellow, green, orange, yellow green, etc.) Then give the children more dots and let them continue the pattern across their papers. When they have finished, start a new pattern on each paper, if desired.
Original source: http://members.tripod.com/~Patricia_F/mathscience.html

Color sets of tongue depressors with red, yellow and blue felt tip markers. Let the children use the tongue depressors for counting and sorting games. Or draw vertical red, yellow and blue lines on index cards. Have the children use the cards as guides to create color patterns with the tongue depressors. Variation: Use colored toothpicks instead of tongue depressors depending on the age of the child.
Original source: www.childfun.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=47

Create Bead Pattern Cards - Go to: www.preschoolbystormie.com/maycolors.html

Items to use for patterning: cereal, stickers, mini marshamallows, candy, paper chains, stamps, unifix cubes, links, hand movements, milk caps, beads, plastic animals, legos

Read the suggestions at Patterns Here, There and Everywhere! http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/RR/database/RR.09.96/hanlin1.html

Make Pattern Worms
www.geocities.com/libbyslearninglab/makeandtakeJuly.html

If you have an idea for this task that you would like to share, please Email Me at cresanna@hotmail.com or add a Comment. Thank you!

Monday, March 5, 2007

Task B5 - Sorting Non-Identical Items

Egg cartons or muffin tins are a great tool for this task.
  • Collect an assortment of buttons in different colors and shapes. Pick one up; name its color, and give it to your child. Ask him or her to find all the other buttons of the same color. Do this for all six colors. Original source: www.spa3.k12.sc.us/21st/Math.htm
  • Let your child help sort clothes for the wash (Colors, whites, permanent press) or fold clothes and group them according to family member.
  • Talk about the clothes you wear outside in the winter when it is cold and the summer when it is warm. Have the children create a summer scene on half of the paper and a winter scene on the other half. Original source: www.123child.com/misc/op.html
  • Try drawing a floor plan of the house on a large piece of paper, then discussing what goes in each room and matching pictures to the correct rooms.
  • Unique sorting trays - Go to: www.preschoolbystormie.com/finemotor.htm
  • Sorting "Alphabits" Cereal - Go to: www.preschoolbystormie.com/langandletters.htm
  • Fabric Print Sort - Go to: www.preschoolbystormie.com/dcolors.html
The ideas below are from www.esc2.net/centers/instructional/ADTech/F.A.C.E.S.%20-%20Vocational/Work%20Skills%20Prepartory.pdf

  • Provide the students with a box filled with plastic silverware (knives, forks, and spoons). Place three large plastic glasses in front of the box. Instruct the students to place all forks in one glass, all spoons in one glass, and all the knives in another.
  • Provide the students with 25 pennies, 25 nickels, 25 dimes, 25 quarters and four containers. Instruct the students to sort coins into separate containers according to type.
  • Provide the students with a box of different types of beads and five different strings. Place a different type of bead on each string. Instruct the students to look through the box and find beads that match the ones placed on the strings. As beads are located, have the students string them to make necklaces.
  • Provide the students with a big box of mixed crayons. Ask them to sort the crayons by colors and place them in empty boxes labeled for each color.
  • Provide the students with a box of assorted colored socks. Have them sort in pairs by matching colors.
  • Provide plastic clothespins and cups of assorted colors. Place all of the clothespins in a large container and place one of each of the colored cups in front of each student. Instruct the students to match colors by clipping a clothespin to a corresponding cup.
  • Have the students sort colored paper clips or rubber bands.
  • Provide the students with mixed packages of construction paper and have them sort sheets according to color.
  • Place a shape box/ball in front of the students (these toys usually require triangles, circles, or squares to be pushed through holes of the same shape.) Mix up the shapes that go into the box/ball and place them in a stack in front of the students. Tell the students to push the shapes through the appropriate shape holes into the box/ball.
  • Provide each student with one-half cup of each of the following items: kidney beans, pinto beans, elbow macaroni, shell macaroni, popcorn, etc. Have the students sort items into separate containers.
  • Have the students sort cookie cutters according to shape.
  • Get one pound each of different six-penny nails from a hardware store. Mix them together and place them in the middle of the table. Tell the students to sort the nails and put them back into their original boxes.
  • Give the students a bowl full of various size paper clips. Place the appropriate number of plastic baggies in front of the students and tell them to put a different size of clip into each and then continue sorting the clips this way until the bowl is empty.
  • Provide the students with various sizes of plates or glasses. Instruct them to sort by size.
  • Have the students sort letter size and legal size envelopes into two separate stacks.
If you have an idea for this task that you would like to share, please Email Me at cresanna@hotmail.com or add a Comment. Thank you!

Sunday, March 4, 2007

Reinforcer Games

Children throw a beanbag into the "earth tub", "moon tub" or "sun tub" for answering a question or completing a task. Picture at www.littlegiraffes.com/sky.html.

Select a simple picture that goes with a current theme or fits the child's interest. For each correct answer, allow the child to place a sticker on the picture. There's an example at www.littlegiraffes.com/valentines.html. Scroll down to Vocabulary Practice.

Make an Igloo game mat (www.littlegiraffes.com/winter.html - about halfway down the page) Put a marshmallow (or white pompom) on each block of the igloo for each correct answer.

Use a puzzle as a reinforcer. Let the child choose the puzzle. The therapist holds the pieces and gives one piece for every 2-3 responses.

Play Hangman- I put spaces on a dry erase board for hangman. Every 2-5 responses, I put a letter on the board. This motivates him to continue working and find out what will be written on the board. I usually write something that I'm going to let him do (such as play Nintendo) or I write down a character's name (either from Disney or Nintendo). -source unknown

Use wood blocks to spell words- This is the same concept as hangman, but I spell the words with blocks. This child is really reinforced by reading, so a lot of his program is centered around his reading ability. -source unknown

Social reinforcement- I often give him social reinforcement, but I use lines from his favorite movies to reinforce. For example instead of saying, "Good Job" i say "GROOVY BABY!! (Austin Powers)." He LOVES THIS! I also say things like "Shagadelic!!" He's an Austin powers fan...if you can't tell!!! -source unknown

If you happen to know the source of any of the last 3 games, please add a comment. I've collected tons of ideas and lost track of where some of them came from.

Reinforcers - Auditory

For a multiple-page reinforcer checklist in Word format, please contact me. Include your email address, and I will send a copy to you as an attachment. Please add your ideas in Comments. I will add them to upcoming revisions of the full checklist. Thanks!

blowing a whistle
blowing in bottles
blowing / talking into a cup to hear echo
bubble wrap
clappers
drum
duck noises
echo mic
egg shakers
game buzzer
gravity / groan tube
have therapist whistle
horns
keyboard (piano)
listening to music
listening to a watch
music box
party noisemakers
party poppers
pop a balloon
rain stick
ring a bell
silly sounds with lips
sing songs
sound books
squeaky toys
talking toy

If you have an idea for this task that you would like to share, please add a Comment. Thank you!

Reinforcers - Food

For a multiple-page reinforcer checklist in Word format, please contact me. Include your email address, and I will send a copy to you as an attachment. Please add your ideas in Comments. I will add them to upcoming revisions of the full checklist. Thanks!

animal crackers
cake
candy cane
candy kisses
Cheerios
cheese
cheese balls
chocolate chips
chocolate milk
Cookie Crisp cereal
cookies
corn chips
cottage cheese
Cracker Jacks
crackers
cupcakes
doughnuts
frosting
frozen M&Ms
fruit
Fruit Loops
fruit snacks
goldfish
gum
gummy bears
ice cream
ice cream toppings
jam/jelly
Jello jigglers
juice
lemonade
licorice
lollipops
M&Ms (esp the minis)
milk
mini marshamallows
peanut butter
popcorn
popsicle
potato chips
pretzels
pudding
raisins
raw veggies
Reese's pieces
salt & vinegar chips
Skittles
Smarties
soda
sour candy
Starburst
Trix
yogurt

If you have an idea for this task that you would like to share, please add a Comment. Thank you!

Saturday, March 3, 2007

Task B1-4 - Items for Matching

Of course, you can match almost anything ... here's a few creative ideas collected from several sources ...

character bandaids
buttons
Barbie shoes
ribbon scraps
cloth scraps
wallpaper cut into shapes
paint samples
small rubber animals
alphabet letters
2 sets of flashcards

If you have an idea for this task that you would like to share, please Email Me at cresanna@hotmail.com or add a Comment. Thank you!

Task B1-4 - Matching Games

Sticker Matching Lotto Game
at www.preschoolrainbow.org/preschool-winter.htm

Fossil Matching
at www.prekinders.com/matching.htm

Cut two squares each out of six different colors of construction paper and glue the squares on twelve index cards. Mix up the cards and spread them out face down on a table. Let one child begin by turning up two cards. If the colors match, let the child keep the cards. If they don't, have the child replace both cards face down exactly where they were before. Continue until all the cards have been matched. Then let the child who ended up with the most cards have the first turn when you start the game again.
Original Source: http://members.tripod.com/~Patricia_F/mathscience.html

Cut a 12-inch circle out of white tagboard and divide it into eight sections. Use crayons of markers to color each section a different color and draw matching colored dots on eight spring-type clothespins. Then let the children match the colors by clipping the clothespins around the edge of the wheel on the appropriate sections.
Original Source: http://members.tripod.com/~Patricia_F/mathscience.html

Glue a colored button to the bottom of a 6 cup muffin tin, using 6 different colors in each tin. (Have the same number and same color of buttons off to the side.) Encourage the children to match the colored buttons to the ones in the tins.
Original Source: http://members.tripod.com/~Patricia_F/mathscience.html

Memory games of all kinds are fun: you don't have to do the real "memory" rules...just matching the cards up and yelling "SAME!" is really fun for younger kids.

Another thing that is fun is to put photos of items you actually have (toys, flag, clock, stapler etc) into a small photo album. The kids look around and find the items in the room and match them up.

If you have a creative idea for this task that you would like to share, please Email Me at cresanna@hotmail.com or add a Comment. Thank you!

Task A11 - Waits for Reinforcer

What if the child can't WAIT? This just might be one of the most difficult areas for parents and children. Well, I have invented the WAIT card. This little card works magic! I use a 3x5 index card and just print the word "wait" on it.

Practice for this takes two or three seconds several times per day. Each time you practice using the "wait" card, increase the time.
  • Hold a "goodie" in your lap, and tell the child you are going to give it to him or her.
  • Hand the "wait" card to the child while saying "Please wait."
  • Almost immediately, give the child the "goodie" with one hand while taking the "wait" card with the other and saying "Thank you for waiting."
  • Slowly increase the "wait" time.

Remember a younger child cannot wait too long anyway, but this system really helps them learn how to wait. The "wait" card can be used to help children take turns in circle, wait in line to leave the classroom, and I like to hand one to a child along with the computer icon to help them wait when I need to change a program. Objects can also “wait.” For instance, a puzzle that needs to be finished at a later time can “wait” for the child to return. Just put the “wait” card on top of it. The "wait" card is a promise I never break. If I ask a child to wait, I always come back to him or her. Some very young children do not quite understand the concept of "wait" but do seem to understand they cannot get the "goodie" without the wait card. I hold out my hand and they might have to pick the card up off the floor, but they know it is the "ticket" to the prize.Try this ~~ it really works! We call this the "wait" card.

Original source: http://members.aol.com/room5/bright.html

If you have an idea for this task that you would like to share, please Email Me at cresanna@hotmail.com or add a Comment. Thank you!