If you’ve been listening for a while, you’ve heard me talk about student engagement. I’ve talked about the need to keep them engaged and things to do to keep them engaged. But this time, I want to talk about it very explicitly in terms of why it’s the key to everything for students with ASD and other disabilities. 2:29 - What engagement means and what it looks like 4:36 - Why engagement is so important for your students 8:20 - The trick about engaging students you need to be aware of 9:04 - How to keep engagement on track during transitions 11:51 - How to schedule engaging activities when you have less staff on hand to help 14:52 - How to plan for unexpected breaks that can wreak havoc in your engagement scheduling Grab the transcript, freebie and resource links at http://autismclassroomresources.com/episode128 Autism Classroom Resources' Free Resource Library... http://library.autismclassroomresources.com Want more information about the Special Educator Academy? SpecialEducatorAcademy.com Join the Free Facebook Group specialeducatorsconnection.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/autismclassroomresources/message
How was the Special Educator Academy born? One of my biggest dreams has always been to create a place where special educators could come together and learn from each other. And Facebook, while great for connecting, wasn’t going to cut it. In this episode, I reveal how I came up with the idea for the academy, what if offers to educators like you, commonly asked questions about it, and how you can make use of it (even if you think you don’t have time). 00:56 - What it was like to work as a school consultant pre-Internet 4:38 - How the academy has changed over time to make it easier to find answers to your questions 7:00 - An area the academy covers that I know is always in need 9:03 - How the academy is designed to used in very small doses of time and still be worth it 12:09 - What the academy is intended to be Grab the transcript, freebie and resource links at http://autismclassroomresources.com/episode127 Autism Classroom Resources' Free Resource Library... http://library.autismclassroomresources.com Want more information about the Special Educator Academy? SpecialEducatorAcademy.com Join the Free Facebook Group specialeducatorsconnection.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/autismclassroomresources/message
July’s here! It’s an interesting month for us teachers. Everyone tends to slow down this time of year, go on vacation, and just relax and chill. But those of us in the teaching world take some time out of our summer to gear up for the new school year. So to move you forward in that direction, today I want to give you some idea of materials I’d prioritize as you sit by the pool and think about how you want to set up your classroom. 1:30 - How I used to spend my summers prepping for the classroom 5:12 - Ways to set up your visual schedules 6:33 - Making the use of visual schedules much easier (attention newer teachers!) 8:43 - What kind of picture schedule should you use? 12:29 - Ways to create materials for independent task work 14:09 - Why work tasks are important and the kinds of tasks you want to include Grab the transcript, freebie and resource links at http://autismclassroomresources.com/episode126 Autism Classroom Resources' Free Resource Library... http://library.autismclassroomresources.com Want more information about the Special Educator Academy? SpecialEducatorAcademy.com Join the Free Facebook Group specialeducatorsconnection.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/autismclassroomresources/message
Students (and not just autistic ones) can get stuck on specific topics or items that they just can’t seem to let go. But these obsessions serve a purpose for the student. It’s your job to figure out what that is and how to handle it. In this episode, I take a look at perseverations, functions they can serve, and some strategies you can use to address them in your classroom. 2:06 - How to know when you have a student who perseverates 3:54 - Figuring out what function perseveration serves for the student 10:37 - Ways to handle obsession-based perseveration 14:13 - My favorite concrete way to set limits on perseveration 17:09 - How to handle object-based perseveration Grab the transcript, freebie and resource links at http://autismclassroomresources.com/episode21 Autism Classroom Resources' Free Resource Library... http://library.autismclassroomresources.com Want more information about the Special Educator Academy? SpecialEducatorAcademy.com Join the Free Facebook Group specialeducatorsconnection.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/autismclassroomresources/message
The things I hear about visual schedules and autism always amaze me. I might hear some myths once or twice while others stick around for years. Some teachers don’t think they need to use them for their autistic students, but even some who do can have implicit biases that cause their visual schedules to not be as effective as they should. So in this episode, I want to set the record straight. If you’re a teacher or someone trying to help others who work with individuals on the spectrum, then these myth busters will help you see how visual schedules can aid your students with autism. 2:52 - Busting myth #1 about high-functioning students with autism 4:27 - The myth that scapegoats visual schedules for the way autistic students behave 5:49 - My counter to myth #3 about dependency on visual schedules 7:14 - The myth I see people embrace most often that drives me nuts 8:43 - Why visual schedules are more than just daily picture schedules Grab the transcript, freebie and resource links at http://autismclassroomresources.com/episode74 Autism Classroom Resources' Free Resource Library... http://library.autismclassroomresources.com Want more information about the Special Educator Academy? SpecialEducatorAcademy.com Join the Free Facebook Group specialeducatorsconnection.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/autismclassroomresources/message
I’ve talked about what makes a good behavior management system in the classroom. Today, I want to talk specifically about three classroom management systems you can use in a group setting. Not only can you use these systems in a general or special education classroom, but you can even tailor one of them to the individual student. So there should be something to match the needs of all different kinds of classrooms and kids. 1:40 - How to implement one of my favorite classroom management strategies: the marble jar system 5:14 - A variation of the marble jar system I’ve used in the past 6:36 - One disadvantage to using the marble jar system 7:06 - How to execute a strategy that’s been around since the late 60s-early 70s 11:40 - One disadvantage to be aware of when using this 2nd strategy 14:29 - The classroom management strategy that can be individualized Grab the transcript, freebie and resource links at http://autismclassroomresources.com/episode29 Autism Classroom Resources' Free Resource Library... http://library.autismclassroomresources.com Want more information about the Special Educator Academy? SpecialEducatorAcademy.com Join the Free Facebook Group specialeducatorsconnection.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/autismclassroomresources/message
Not getting hit by a student is better than getting hit and having to respond. I think that’s a statement we can all agree on. However, focusing on the form of student behavior requires waiting for the behavior to happen, though. Focusing on the function of the behavior instead allows you to do plenty of things to prevent the behavior from happening. So how can you support appropriate student behavior while discouraging inappropriate behavior? In this episode, I discuss what you can do to prevent behavioral problems through your classroom setup. 3:45 - How to have clearly defined expectations in place 6:29 - How to ensure your rules are understandable and not overwhelming for students 9:05 - How to have clear routines and procedures 13:50 - How to have planned responses to challenging behavior that avoid behavior reinforcement 17:36 - Differentiating the responses to behavior based on student needs 20:15 - How to avoid downtime by keeping students actively engaged in learning activities throughout the day 22:16 - Quickly recapping the strategies to prevent challenging behavior Grab the transcript, freebie and resource links at http://autismclassroomresources.com/episode7 Autism Classroom Resources' Free Resource Library... http://library.autismclassroomresources.com Want more information about the Special Educator Academy? SpecialEducatorAcademy.com Join the Free Facebook Group specialeducatorsconnection.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/autismclassroomresources/message
I want to veer off track a little today. I’ve dedicated this month to discuss the relationship between communication and behavior. But in this episode, I talk about what happens when you put your amazing behavior plan in place... and it still doesn’t work, despite your best efforts. What do you do then? Tune in to find out my step-by-step process! 1:36 - How to know if, how, when, and where behavior has actually changed 6:14 - Discovering if your behavior strategies are being implemented correctly 8:10 - Another common thing you might discover by talking with your staff 8:59 - Have you given the plan implementation enough time to work? If so, consider these questions 10:34 - What to do if problem behavior hasn’t decreased despite demonstrations of replacement behavior from the student 12:06 - When all else fails (a.k.a. going back to the drawing board) 13:56 - An important reminder about the FBA process (especially if you need some consolation) Grab the transcript, freebie and resource links at http://autismclassroomresources.com/episode125 Autism Classroom Resources' Free Resource Library... http://library.autismclassroomresources.com Want more information about the Special Educator Academy? SpecialEducatorAcademy.com Join the Free Facebook Group specialeducatorsconnection.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/autismclassroomresources/message
Communication doesn’t explain all challenging behavior in students with autism. What if behavior related to anxiety or sensory input gets reinforced inside the body? Those students who function in the average to above-average range still face hurdles, and one of them is an increased rate of anxiety and depression. In this episode, I discuss how you can address those with communication responses in your functional behavior assessment. 5:12 - The conversation with an Academy member that got me thinking 8:28 - The tricky nature of proper behavior analysis for students with anxiety disorders 11:14 - Keep this in mind when attempting to fit anxiety into the functional behavior analysis process 13:46 - An example of a behavior hypothesis for the FBA that takes anxiety into account 17:14 - Further illustrating why behavior and communication aren’t always necessarily the same Grab the transcript, freebie and resource links at http://autismclassroomresources.com/episode124 Autism Classroom Resources' Free Resource Library... http://library.autismclassroomresources.com Want more information about the Special Educator Academy? SpecialEducatorAcademy.com Join the Free Facebook Group specialeducatorsconnection.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/autismclassroomresources/message
Instructing small kids to “use their words” to replace problematic behavior with communication skills might be enough. But for your students who’ve built up habits around their challenging behavior, it’s not so easy. It takes some thought and planning to make it work. In this episode, I talk about functional communication training and how this process of teaching communication skills as a replacement to challenging behavior can be hugely effective and work really well in the classroom... when done right. 3:47 - The first step in functional communication training 4:41 - The single biggest decision you’ll make in your FC training 7:28 - Some guidelines to help you be efficient with step two of the process 10:57 - How I would approach implementing FCT in the classroom 13:08 - The keys to making functional communication training stick for the student Grab the transcript, freebie and resource links at http://autismclassroomresources.com/episode123 Autism Classroom Resources' Free Resource Library... http://library.autismclassroomresources.com Want more information about the Special Educator Academy? SpecialEducatorAcademy.com Join the Free Facebook Group specialeducatorsconnection.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/autismclassroomresources/message