My son is weird - is that true?

As a mother that does Psychology and will have a minor in Social Work this video struck me, because so many parents need help with what the mind tell them about their children and have difficulty to accept their children.
Our kids are what they are and once the conceptions of what they should be fall our heart will be so much more in peace.

Ask yourself in the midst of doubt and frustration : is that true?

Video Modeling Lego Duplo Truck

FREE File Learning to Count Objects Basic

I did another free file on the series of learning to count objects. This is one is more basic level and more ABA style a better approach, is specially good for lower functioning kids.
There are many objects that can help us with that many that we have at home already.
The file come also with 2 pictures and some tutorial how can you use the file.

Some toys that are great for this,

Wood Blocks,

There are many option to vary the technique you don't want to use the same thing over and over they will get tired of the activity.

DOWNLOAD HERE 

Enjoy !

Teaching the meaning of Numbers

We all want our kids to count with Autistic kids something they grab really fast is the memorization of speaking number sequence like 1,2,3...
But the real work is making them understand the value of numbers and also put the numbers in the correct order by themselves.
So many times they know how to count, but if you scramble numbers do they know to put the numbers in order?
I started to think about things we could do at home.
So I did 2 files and one of them free which is a great companion.
The first one is Learning Numbers 1-2 Basic Level vol 1 which first is matching numbers, matching the values of the numbers and more advanced the child creates the value herself.

You can check more samples  HERE.

I did a FREE File Learning to count Mats vol 1 FREE which is a great companion.
It's basically mats that you can use objects like buttons, beads, anything for the child to put the right
amount on the mats and as a bonus I've included 2 color match sorting mat.

I did as vol 1 because I hope to do some more. Download FREE HERE.

Play Sequence and FREE file

 I 've discovered this new blog from a SLP browsing podcasts at iTunes. Her podcasts are short but very informative and one of the episodes caught my attention because is about the stuff I love to research and strive for my son which is: play. This particular one was about play sequence which is very important for kids with Autism. Play skills is something in the field I like to research it never really crossed my mind how imagination, curiosity are things so normal for us but it's such a struggle for kids with autism. And many people have no idea including parents that things have to be really laid out in step by step sequences, it makes them to understand better and it's close to the way they think no matter what age they are. So I decided to start with play-dough play sequence mats. Sometimes people want to start right away with all this play-dough kits and gadgets but the kids have no idea how to use them and end up using play-dough in their mouth or other things.
So I decided to start a collection of play-dough sequence mat and this my first one.

There are about 9 pages and it's FREE. You can download here.

Soon I will see if I start to recording a video on how to use those. 

Thanks

Blocks Video Modeling 1

Video modeling using Larsen Toylab Shape Match Blocks

LarsenToy Lab BlocksReview

Shape Match Puzzle by Larsen Toy Labs

Mega Bloks Learn and Build + Free Sequence Cards

I saw this on sale at Target and could not resist. I think it's a great way to start using sequence blocks and also for the kids that are on the first stages of knowing words and spelling. 

Of course with Autistic kids that have low play skills I think is good to start with blocks that are straight forward with directions and play, what I mean is that with this toy there is not a lot of pretend involved but rather is about getting used to letters and words.

But even better is to have sequence cards specially to low level play skills kids like my son.

Once they learn to use the sequence cards that can be one activity they can use on their independent activity schedule.

The only bad thing is that I wish we have enough blocks to not use two letters in one block and two designs together that can be confusing but I guess you can buy two sets. (I didn't know that would be that way).

I did sequence for all the 3 letter worlds: cat,dog,car,bus

Once you print them I used a simple picture album for target less than $2 

the important thing is when the word changes from cat to dog for example let a blank space between them to make it clear the activity stop and other start.

- At put just the letters you are using. Very simple than as the child gets better start putting together with other letter so the child can look for the correct ones.

- You have to use the same colors as in the pictures.

You can get all the pictures to do the sequence for cat, dog, car and bus HERE.

More to come later.

Thanks