Special needs and the Christmas School Play

It's that time of year when the classroom routine turns it's focus to the all-important Christmas play. Be it the Nativity or another, teachers everywhere are hoping that it goes well - without tears, injury or disaster!
For parents who have children with special needs, it is a time to see how their child is getting on independently and (as all us parents notice...) in comparisson to their peers.

It's not an easy time for all. There are many kids who do not enjoy school play preparation. This could be because:

• It's out of the routine
• It's too noisy and confusing
• It's not fun or interesting for them
• They don't want to do it and feel they have no option

Some kids are without the ability to interpret or voice their feelings, and will undoubtedly display problem behaviour - such as interrupting the rehearsals in whatever way they can, or showing their ususal behaviours that signal a need to escape or gain attention.

The stress that some children feel is difficult for us to comprehend. We want so much for them to take part and share the pride of their achievements - but for some kids, we must ask ourselves as parents and teachers - 'Is it really that important?'

If your child or student is having difficulty, consider offering a choice:

1. You don't have to take part in the play.
2. You can say your poem, song or line just by yourself and leave the stage.
3. You take part if you want to, but you must not disrupt the other children.

Personally, I think choice 2 is the best of both worlds - especially for a child who has ASD. They get to take part and have a chance to read their peom or line, but in their own space, and without too many distractions.

I know I'm the first to encourage kids with special needs to integrate and take part and learn new social skills, but some things just will not matter in ten years time if they did/did not take part. Life could be a lot simpler if some kids, given a choice, did not have to.

So - if they do want to, and when you go to watch the school Christmas play, please bear these
questions in mind:

How many kids (non-diagnosed kids) are crying and don't want to take part ?
How many others arn't singing all the songs or doing all the actions?
How many others don't want to wear the hat, crown or costume?
Is it you or your child who is actually bothered they weren't picked to be Joseph?

Enjoy! and Happy Christmas to you all,

Claire.

CHRISTMAS COMPETITION !

To celebrrrate the updated release of our Social Skills software - 'Hello' and 'How Are You?' - we are giving them away in our facebook competition.

You can enter from anywhere in the world - closing date is 18th December 2010.

To enter, go to our Facebook page, like us, and answer the simple competition question!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hometrain/200851608031?ref=ts

Our games now have extra features, new cover designs and are compatable with both PC and MAC. They work great on interactive whiteboards too.

You can view them on our new-look site: www.hometrain.ie

You can also get into the festive spirit by lifting the boredom of our terrible weather and cabin fever here by checking out the Christmas printables in our Free resources:

http://www.hometrain.ie/christmas.php

Claire.

Hear the Hometrain Radio Interview

If you want to hear today's interview all about HT and our games, go here:

http://www.hometrain.ie/aboutus.php

Claire.

Social Skills Resources for Inclusive Mainstream Schools

Teachers - This could be the best thing you learn about today!

Finding quality and appropriate classroom resources for special needs students that assist with integration is a challenge for many schools.
Do you find you have

“Rarely enough time in a typical school week for the planning and collaboration
needed to make inclusion work well” ?

(Deborah McKnight – Director of Special Education, San Fransisco)

The solution is here at Hometrain!
We have developed a clever range of teaching games, designed to accompany the curriculum, help with problem behaviour and develop the skills of your teachers without spending valuable time away from the classroom.

Introducing ‘Hello’ and ‘How Are You?’
Our interactive computer games are designed for 1-1 teaching and for the whole class to play, talk about and learn.
There are 8 friendly boy and girl characters with fun games that explore different social scenarios. Each game has a video narrator who takes the children through different social scenarios,

Topics include:
Social skills – greetings, asking and answering questions, making friends, exploring emotions, expressing pain, what to do in social scenarios.
Games explore: behaviour in different social scenarios, learning about our bodies, identifying emotions and comprehension of the game or character.

Full printable teaching resources and parent information is included with each programme. Sending these home is a most effective way of demonstrating to parents your level of commitment to providing an inclusive service to their child.

Promoting good practice in your inclusive school:
When children learn how to initiate social communication within natural contexts – such as: home, community and school, they respond appropriately to the communications of others. From here, they can begin to develop positive relationships with others. Therefore, teaching communication and social skills should be a very high priority in an inclusive school.

With Hometrain products, establishing positive inclusion, behaviour and teaching social skills in the classroom is about to get a whole lot easier!

For more info go to: http://www.hometrain.ie/

Did you see our free printables?? - Christmas colouring pages are there too:

http://www.hometrain.ie/resources/

What Wagner teaches us...

Being different is o.k. Let our U.K. X-Factor friend Wagner remind us that being different makes for a much more interesting world. Why does Wagner get more votes than Katie? Because he's more interesting, we want to keep him every week. Jedward had the same effect.
Wouldn't it be boring if the contestants were all of the same personality and talent?
Normalisation should not be the focus of teaching our children - let's embrace their differences, (quirky though they may be) and celebrate that being 'normal' is alright for some, but wouldn't the X-factor be a lot less interesting now if Katie (or someone else) stayed in and Wagner went out?

In the world of marketing, the article this week in The Sunday Business Post by Greg Canty talks about just this - daring to be different, putting your head above the rest will get you noticed. Not following the norm in your approach to life, people and education will undoubtedly raise a few eyebrows, but weigh it up - what would you rather be?
(Before you answer, Jedward have more than 2million in the bank......)

So here's our answer to Greg in Sunday Business Post- thank you for your article. We may or may not make 2 million, but we had great fun following your advice to 'grow your hair long, grow a moustache, buy a white flowing shirt and a big chain with a gold medallion....' - well here's a video snip of our response.
We are inspired by our differences. Love it or not, we had fun!

Claire.

Finding Christmas Presants for Special Needs Kids

Around this time of year, when Hallo'ween is over and thoughts turn to Christmas, notions of presants and shopping slowly start to come to mind.

For me, Christmas shopping is a nice neccessity, I love giving (and receiving) gifts, but what to get for each person is a November-long puzzle!

It's also around this time when I get asked for suggestions of what to buy for children with special needs. Finding toys and games that are appropriate can be difficult.

Here are a few ideas to consider:

Ask their Parents - find out what the chid is into, or if parents have ideas.

Things to ask are: (if it's puzzles or games) What is their piece-range for puzzles? - you might be suprised, some kids are extremely capable of jigsaws and puzzles with way more pieces than you imagine!

If you have something in mind, and you're not sure, it might be a good idea to run it passed the parents first.

If a child is into press-button cause and effect toys such as v-tech and they are getting a little older for baby/toddler toys, consider press-button books or computer games as an alternative.

If you are looking for something to help encourage motor skills, try the good old fashioned outdoors play equipment. Balls of different sizes and textures are great, and balance boards, hoppers and hula hoops are always useful.

Look for small, fun things that parents hide away and take out and use as reinforcers on difficult days - you will be thanked for these at a later date! Hand-held video games, bubbles, press button and light-up toys, small books etc, are great.

Take the child out for the day - give a voucher for a day out, and better still, bring them yourself if you can!

Books for bedtime and outings are always useful.

And my favourite idea? Make the child's own story book. Include their photographs, pets and family on an adventure.

I'll add more ideas as we get nearer, but feel free to post your ideas here:

Claire.

Teaching Social Skills in Primary School

Most primary school classrooms include one or more children who have difficulty with social skills. This could be due to a diagnosis of a condition such as: Autism, Aspergers or Down Syndrome. Difficulties may also relate to a child’s social circumstances within their family and community, needing a little extra help to relate to their peers.

Social Skills at primary level include:
Greetings
Understanding 2-way communication
Conversation skills
Eye contact
Body language
How we relate to each other

How does SST help with child’s future social development?

Children who lack social skills may:

Have difficulty making and maintaining friendships
Become socially isolated when they are older
Be at risk of emotional and psychological disorders
Experience fear of rejection and failure

Social Skills Training (SST) is a vital part of child development and could well be the most valuable lesson you teach today.

How can our programmes help?
Through ‘Hello’ and ‘How Are You?’ primary social skills are taught in a fun and easy way. Teach both 1-1 on a laptop/PC – and include the full class on your whiteboard.
Having both options is great to help with integration of special needs children into mainstream classes.
Even better - our interactive game includes all the teaching resources you need to print and use.

To view demos of our games visit: http://www.hometrain.ie
You can go there for more social skills information too.

Claire.

Demo of 'How Are You?' game!

You can take a look through the game here -

just click on the link below:

http://www.hometrain.ie/howareyou/#demo

Enjoy!

Claire.

'How Are You?' Game helps with bullying

A descision for many parents who have children with special needs
is letting their child out to play with their peers in the street, play area or local green. Developing relationships and playing with friends is a natural part of growing up, and a positive step forward, but a hard decision for parents to make when the time comes.

Nurturing and encouraging new friendships with your child is fine when it's comfortable, and you know the parents of the other children well.


However, it can be difficult if you notice your child is not being treated well by the other children, by ways that include: name calling, bullying, teasing and even physical violence.

Your child may not have told you this is happening, have the words to express their upset, or have a true understanding of what is happening to them.

Finding out how much your child understands about social skills and rules is by playing the game 'How Are You?' at home or in the classroom.

One of the sections of the How Are You? game is called 'Dont' Do That' - this section (like all of sections in the game) was designed with a group of schoolage children with different special needs. It explores scenarios including:

• Pushing and Kicking



• Name calling



• Being ignored



• Someone taking your toys/belongings

This part of 'How Are You?' teaches simple language skills for conflict resolution and responses to bullies. It also has a section called 'Ouch! That Hurt' - which helps children understand pain and how to tell someone where they are hurt. A whole range of printable worksheets and coloring pages are on the programme.

'How Are You?' covers basic emotions and social skills too. Other sections are called: 'How Are You?' 'Why Emotions Change?' and 'Staying Calm' - all with the eight boy and girl characters. There are three great games too.

With this game, children are playing and learning, letting you know how they feel about social highs and lows without feeling under pressure to directly discuss confusing emotions.

Take a look - it's here now: http://www.hometrain.ie/howareyou/

Best regards, Claire.

Launching 'How Are You?'

Helping children to learn about, understand and express their emotions can be a difficult task.

How Are You? - our new social skills game for special needs children, is being launched this weekend.

The topics it covers are:

• Social awareness


• Understanding and expressing feelings


• Relating to others


• Staying Calm
  
• Expressing pain when hurt


• Coping with bullying
  

There are many different sections of the game that teach using interactive images, sounds, voices and narration. There are also three fun games:

1. My Feelings Game - children explore and learn different emotions


2. What Should I do? Game - children answer questions about social rules


3. My Body Game - learn about different names for body parts

All our games are designed with and for special needs children with accessibility in mind. There is a large pointer, every screen is easy to navigate and you can go anywhere in the game with just one click.

Our games work on a home laptops and school whiteboards.

We pride ourselves in promoting learner independence and computer confidence too.

There is a pack of printable teaching resources with 'How Are You?' - come and play our games this Friday and Saturday (15th and 16th Oct) at our stand at the Irish Teaching and Learning Festival:

If you can't make the festival, a demo will be online next week on our site.
If you have any questions about 'How Are You?' - please contact me here or through the website.

Claire.

Stop Whining!

In every household in every country (even in other languages) every child as some stage, whether we like it or not, will be WHINEY.

I don't know about you, but it's one of my top five parent hates.



O.K. we can all whine, but when it becomes a behaviour with a child, such as whining in response to your (almost) every suggestion or request - here's a few ideas to help them stop:

• Ignoring the whine. Remind your child they are whining, and you will relpy to a normal voice.



• Use a sign. Have a 'No Whining' sign to hand in the kitchen can be more useful than you think!



• Write a Social Story. Write a short story with a whiney character. When a child hears you reading the whiney lines (exaggerate these), they will find it fun. Talk to them afterwards about the character, and what it was like to listen to. Talk about how the character can use their normal voice to say how they feel.



• Make a whine-o-meter. Seriously! Put the following numbers 1-5 on a chart,

1. Normal voice 2. A little whiney 3. Whining 4. Very Whiney

5. Loud and way too Whiney

Using pictures to illustrate each one is good. Let your child know what number they are on the chart, and see which voice they can use to get down to number 1.

I am writing a few social stories about whining at the moment, I'll add them to the site under the social skills section soon! If you have any thoughts, or tried and tested methods of 'Whine Reduction', please add them here.

Good luck!


Claire.

Things you will learn at our new workshop....

Social Skills are the hot topic for Hometrain right now, and preparations for our new workshop on October 12th are going well.

The tag line for this workshop is:

"Using Practical Ideas and Play Methods to Teach Children Social Skills"
- and it will do exactly what it says on the tin (with empahsis on the word Practical).
So what will you learn?

• About social skills
• How to write social stories
• How to write songs for social skills
• What you need to begin social skills teaching
• Techniques about working with challenging behaviour
• Enough new social skills games and activities to last a lifetime!

There's a FREE copy of new game 'Hello' for everyone in the audience, a fab resource pack and lots more.

If you haven't booked your place yet, remember the closing date is October 5th. To print a booking form click here:
http://www.hometrain.ie/download.php?file=Blanch_Workshop_Booking_Form.pdf

It's at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Blanchardstown 7:30-9:30pm - all other details are on our site: http://www.hometrain.ie/workshops/

See you there,

Claire.

Why I should not shout in class...

Why social skills teaching?

We want our children to be able to relate to others and for other's to

respond well towards them.

Right.

When debating this statement with one of my social skills students:
'Why I should not shout in class'
John is 7. I asked the question.
John: Because its too loud
Claire: How will the teacher feel?
John: Sad. No wait... (pause) Angry
Claire: Why is that?
John: Because it's too loud and I'm being too loud

Consider what's invloved in teaching the social skills lesson relating to the statement:
Does he worry about what the teacher thinks of his behaviour? What's his understanding of his peers' perspective? He knows not to shout, and he knows it's too loud, so why does he keep doing it? How can he tell the teacher is both sad and angry? Does he understand and accept there are consequences to his behaviour? Why should/shouldn't he raise his voice to be heard? The list goes on.

In previous sessions, and with John's parents, we established:
1) How John relates to others
2) What difficulties he has interacting
3) At what level is his understanding in relation to his peers

With our list, we then unpick the social skills and rules for each behaviour John has difficulty with, and combining our knowledge of John's:

• Thought processes
• Social and emotional skills
• Flexibility of thought (If I shout in class, then....what will happen?)
• Imagination skills

The we can devise a social skills teaching plan that is effective. (hopefully)

I am certainly not advocating 'normalisation' of our children - the world is full of people who communicate in different ways for a multitude of reasons. Each one of us has our communication difficulties. I am of the opinion that combining flexibility of thought and social rules with imagination will be a help a child's skills in relating to and responding to others.

(You may have noticed that right now I am preparing for the upcoming social skills workshop in October.)
The challenge of producing ideas to help teach social skills is interesting, fun and mindbending! They are like ancient philosophies - the more you think about them, the harder and more complex they get!

'What's the sound of one hand clapping?' is the social skills equivalent to 'Why I should not shout in class'.

Claire.

Ten things you may not know about us....

With an online company, it's hard to show people just how normal and customer-friendly we are. I'm starting to get a bit confused between Faceland, blogs and just how much personal info people really miss out on not meeting us face-to-face here at HT.
Well, we are quite normal. In case you didn't already know......

1) Hometrain is run by husband and wife team Claire and William Whyte.
2) We design and produce all our products here in Ireland.
3) Teaching workshops are part of our main face-to-face contact with our customers.
4) We are developing a series of 5 social skills computer games.
5) We aim to be Ireland's leading social skills resource company.
6) Claire has a social skills group called 'Hello' on Saturdays.
7) Claire is a play specialist and a teacher. She's the writer, illustrator and director.
8) William is the designer, producer, programmer, director and web designer.
9) William can speak Spanish, secretly likes heavy metal and is a bit of tech-head.
10) Claire is expecting baby number two and is quite good at baking cakes.

So I hope that's cleared up a few details - looking forward to meeting any of you who are coming to our social skills workshop on 12th Oct. See you there!

Claire.

Helping Your Child Make Friends

Which Social Skills does your child need in order for them to make friends?

Basic Social skills do not come naturally for many children and as they get older, they might catch up on the academic work, and struggle with the social interaction.

This is the case for many children who attend our social skills group in Meath.

Social skills by their nature are difficult to teach - especially to children who appear to have little motivation to interact with peers (unless they want something....) - so what can you do?

Consider these questions:

Does your child understand what 'friends' are?

Do they know what does 'Hello' means? and we say it?

Can they answer 'What's your name?'

The answer to these questions will give you a place to start.

In our group, we begin with basic 1-word social skills and build from there. You can do th same at home.

Tips to teach basic communication skills:

1) Use 'Hello' and 'Hello (name)' when you meet people. Encourage your child to look at, say or sign 'hello' to someone at least once every day.

2) See if they can remember something about their friend or friends - such as their names, what they are wearing, what they played with at school etc.

3) Practice answering 'what's your name?' - use their name as a prompt with the answer.

These basic questions are the ones many people will be asking your child out and about, or at school. If they can understand everyday questions and reply, it will help build your child's social confidence. When they can make basic social interactions, further attempts will follow.

All of these questions are covered in our social skills game 'Hello' which is designed to teach these skills - take a look at: http://www.hometrain.ie/ 'Hello', free social skills info and printables.

Claire.

'Hello' New Social Skills Game

If you are wondering where we have been over the passed few months, it's all about our new launch!!

We have a brilliant new game called 'Hello' available now. It is the first in a series of 5 interactive games (CD-Roms) designed to help teach basic social skills.

The topics covered are:

Saying Hello, Asking and answering everyday questions: 'What's your name?' and 'How old are you?' There are sections about making friends, games and a teaching resource section of printable games, worksheets and colouring pages.

Kids can easily navigate the game themselves, and at each stage, the 8 characters are interactive.

Please have a look at the demo:

http://www.hometrain.ie/hello

Claire x

Read all about it! Hyperlexia

As a pre-school home tutor, I would normally avoid teaching a child to read, so as they would progress at school and not get 'bored' if they were too far ahead.

However, one child who I have been working with since the age of two, is now 5. We discussed the idea of maybe introducing some basic words prior to school.

That was four weeks ago.

What happened? He could instantly read and remember over 50 words and is now on his third junior reader.

Better than that, we are using this skill to help his speech. He is using a word chart with no pictures to verbally request. For example: 'Can I have', followed by his choice of breakfast, lunch or dinner etc. He is literally 'eating words'.

Written words have opened a new door for this child, his desire to read and make sentences is rapidly improving his speech and general communication. It seems to be exremly grounding, and is helping him make sense of language.

Hyperlexia is the term for this trait, please feel free to share any insights, teaching ideas or experiences you have on this, I would be very interesed.

Claire x

'Hello' Social Skills Summer Group !

Hi everyone,

I have a small number of places left on my Social Skills Summer course called 'Hello' here in Meath. It's a basic verbal interaction group, that if all goes well, I will continue on weekly until December (4-7 years) - we have been beavering away this year and also launching our CDROM called 'Hello' which is our 2010 social skills project, but that's later this Summer.

Anyone interested in testing the programme at home (for free) ??



Check out the site this week for more info and details about the Hello group.
www.hometrain.ie

Oh and by the way, you might notice my name now is Claire Whyte, as I am embracing my newly married name!


Claire x

Two Good Choices

I want to share my favourite approach to problem behaviours. It's easy and straight forward and can be used in almost any situation that may trigger for undesirable behaviour.

We all know about anticeedant, behaviour and consequence as a formula to hypothesise the function of a behaviour. Mainly, problem behaviour is to avoid/escape, or for attention.
It is in the day to day family routine, that most parents experience stress when they are either asking their child to stop what they are doing (computer,t.v.) and do something they don't want to (toilet, put on shoes, coat, eat etc) or trying to encourage them to a task, such as brushing teeth or going to the workroom/classroom.

So here's where Two Good Choices can help.

Giving choices allows the child to feel they are in control of a situation that is usually dictated by us. Taking away the initial trigger for escape-motivated behaviour can be done by offering two choices that they like, such as location, how you are getting there, activity, reward or reinforcer.

For example: A child who does not want to go into the classroom, or up to bed may begin to escape at the mention that it's time to go. Two good choices: Shall we jump or piggy back?

Example 2: Handwashing or brushing teeth. Two good choices: Do you want a Thomas or Aeroplane sticker for brushing your teeth?

Example 3: Working at the table. Two good choices: Do you want to do counting with beads or animals? Do you want to work at the table or easel?

Example 4: Getting dressed. Two good choices: Do you want your blue or green coat? Shoes or runners?
The list is endless.
When a child feels they have some part in decision making, it can immediatley change a situation that may have been difficult.

It works for me, hope it does for you!

Claire.

PECS PECS PECS

Hi everyone!

If you haven't checked out our free resources lately in

Homentrain.ie, it's worth a new look!

Finally, have the PECS up for free download, and

hopefully we'll add more soon.

They're on A4 sheets, so it's easy to save the PDF's and print at your leisure.

If you want to read more about how to use PECS, go to the Child Communication page on http://www.hometrain.ie/

Dust off those laminators and get cutting!

Claire x

Free visual timetables - PECS

Hi,

Just a quickie to let everyone know we have a range of free pecs images for visual timetables to print off to use at home. There is a going to school one that has all the images on one A4 - so you won't be ages printing them!

My other favourite is the morning routine - which is also all on one A4 page.

I'm working on more, keep checking hometrain.ie for more free printables.

More PECS on the way!

Claire x

How has Play Changed since we were kids?

In many (or most..) of my talks, I will, at some point, ask everyone to write down a memory of play from their childhood. Try it now for ten seconds. Compare it to your kids today.

Most adults report a significant diference between their childhoods and the play experiences of their children today.
O.k. so we have ( or had) more money, more accessories, more toys that do more things, more instantly accessible computer games - that do not require a 30min loading time and 'syntax errors in 12' - or to fast forward and rewind a tape to find the song we want. In short, we do not have to wait, even to play sports we can stay in our living rooms with the consolation of our consoles. And mobile phones are self-contained entertainment devices.

But on the other hand, children today have a lot less freedom, less space and increased traffic and 'stranger danger' makes us a lot less reluctant to let our children play unsupervised. Especially kids with special needs.
We working mums make up a huge portion of the workforce, and so the environmental addition of childcare facilities is a relative factor in the evolution of play.


When we were kids, and certainly this comes up in discussion, we were outside all the time (actually, we weren't allowed in) and made our own fun. I'm not sure if my mother would have considered describing our play preferences or decide what was normal or typical play or not! But outdoors were percieved safe, and so long as we weren't a nuisance, we were o.k. We came in at night and ate like horses.

So how do these changes in play affect how we view the play preferences of kids with special needs? Do they exaggerate children's abilities and disabilities?
Do we constantly have to strive to entertain, amuse and stimulate kids today?
If the recession getting us back to good old basics - and can we include play? I hope so.

Thought for today is:

If our kids were born as our peers, how would their play be different? What
impact do the fast, flashy playthings of their generation, and
environmental changes have on their lives? Would they be different?

What do you think?

Claire x

Balls! The best fun I had all week, so far....

This week I'm writing about balls.

I love the days when you take a step back, look at the kids and say, o.k. let's leave our tuition for a minute and just have fun for the sake of it.

Bouncy balls - the smallish ones are the best, they serve no purpose but fly everywhere, resulting only in fits of laughter, smiles and pure silliness (and that was just from me).

Absolutley divine.

I brought spikey balls, flashing puffer balls and smelly balls into the mix (from our shop at hometrain..of course) and had even more fun.

How many words and wonderful descriptive language being used? Tonnes.

Which ball do you want? Shall I roll, throw or bounce? Can you catch the ball? Big or Small? Fast or Slow? High or low?

I urge you to stop for ten minutes, clear the decks (and the desk) grab the kids, produce a bag of bouncy balls, and go for it!!

And if you haven't played with bouncy balls for a while - try it by yourself first!

If you've no balls - shame on you. Get some!

Enjoy.

Claire x

Mums and Tutors - I need your teaching ideas !!

This week I want ideas. Lots of them - big, small, whatever, please get your typing fingers ready!

Who has or is working with a child with asd, and, although they have a repertoire of more than 300 words spanning labelling and functional language, they show little interest in 'talking'??

Taking the step from labelling pictures at the classroom table, to talking about things can seem miles apart.

We can start with teaching a strong labelling repertiore - which builds language, confidence, accuracy and communication. O.k. Then we go onto teaching the function of items and objects (you write with a ..........pencil) - which is also helpful and builds on language.

Now - to the next part. Answering a variety questions. 'Wh' questions - What, Who, Where, When, Why, and How ? are our textbook selection. And we use pictures and verbal prompts for teaching these - such as pictures of people, places, storyboards etc.

So far so good, and the student can answer some questions - and fluently when practised. Where do you go from here? My stategy at this stage is to have a stack of random questions (influenced by the intraverbal questions in ABLL's appendix) - practise them with and without visual prompts, and build from there. Using reinforcers to keep their interest at the table during the questions (I'm asking about 8 at a time inbetween other activities) and giving the list to mum to practise randomly at home. Repetition of varied questions will hopefully lead to the student answering basic questions without a prompt, and so on.

My question is this:

Is this the best way to teach answering questions? I know every child is different etc, but if you have an idea or activity that worked, I'd love to hear it! Any of your teaching ideas for practical social/classroom skills will be great for all to see and use.

Thanks, in anticipation for ideas,

Claire x

Unconditional Positive Regard!

This is undoubtedly one of the most difficult aspects of teaching children with challenging behaviour, and I don't know a single teacher or parent who do not struggle with this from time to time - if not daily!

I recently had a testing day with one of my students. His SNA remarked that she had 'NEVER seen me anything but positive' and upbeat in relation to challenging behaviour. I was taken aback by her surpise, and answered 'I'm only human' I got a hug in return for my honesty!

We all love the kids we work with, and that goes without saying. So, when a carefully planned piece of work is immediatly torn, discarded to the floor the second its presented, and you've replaced your little apprentice on their chair for the umpteenth time today, then they leave the room - again.


And as you fall over the chair, slip on the discarded work, and be hit by the rebounding door, it's a natural reaction to feel your unconditional positive reagard slipping away, and frustration setting in.

It's time to stop what you're doing, breathe, and think on the spot about what is happening.
Is the cause of your frustration that you've prepped the work and now it's time wasted? Is the child's behaviour getting the better of you? Whether it's just the day, or that you know they can easily do the task at hand, don't get stressed, try this:

Clear the space, forget the task for now and bring out something fun and physical like water play or playdough - something you know your little student will be happy to play with. Get down on the floor and play for a while. (You will require energy for this!)
Return to the task at another time and don't be hard on yourself. You will quickly return to being a happy, in control tutor who is a very reinforcing and fun person.

Again - have fun!
Claire.

Chair-pushing v Communication!

If you are considering teaching communication to children with special needs, it is important to first look at the relationship we have with the child. With both verbal and non-verbal behaviour in mind, answer these questions:
How often do you organise or give your child something you know they want or like, without them having to make an attempt to communicate?
Do you leave your child to help themselves - is everything they need readily available to them?

Yes, it avoids a melt-down, frustration and can keep a little peace at home, but does anticipating their needs teach communication? Not really.
So how can you teach every day language, such as 'mands' and requests without causing too much stress??

1) Decide 'today's the day' - a change in your own behaviour requires prep. Pick a day to go for it.

2) Choose a small range of favoured items, food, drink, toys and create PECS for these. If your child is verbal, make sure they can label the items you choose.

3) Organise how you display these items - playdough cutters and no play dough, garage without cars, cup with no juice etc. (it is important to leave them out, as many children will not look for a drink or toy if they haven't seen a cup or the garage).

If you keep a basket with the required items, and have a picture or the word for the things they want, teach your child if they give you a picture, they get the item straight away.
Depending on your child's understanding, it may take a few days to teach, but stick with it. If they can push a chair across the kitchen floor, climb onto the worktop, open a press and take out a biscuit, you can be fairly sure they can master picture exchange!!
Remeber to say the word as you get the picture card and again when you give the item, this will help with labelling skills.

Have fun and persist! Any ideas?
For more ideas, go to: www.hometrain.ie
Claire.