
Autism / Autism Spectrum Support Group
Autism is classified as a neurodevelopmental disorder which manifests itself in markedly abnormal social interaction, communication ability, patterns of interests, and patterns of behavior. Although the specific etiology of autism is unknown, many researchers suspect that autism results from genetically mediated vulnerabilities to environmental triggers.
Sorry to be so descriptive but that is what I did and it worked for Sean. He uses first and next cards now but the visual helped him before a lot!!!! I also had one for the weekend. Thats why I got two poster boards. Weekends are a little bit harder since its hard to schedule the weekend, but I did my best with that. I even had pics of us at gramas house if we were going there. Good luck if you need anyhelp I am here. Hugs Denise
Lord thats a picture schedual if i ever heard of one.
I do one for steven for the week.
or for days if its something new etc,
Step by step think of it like a recipie but your adding photos to adding the milk. Just like that :)
Make sense?
XO
Here you go Priscila, i searched for ya and this site is good for some examples and teaching :)
We had one for meals, she could pick cerial and etc for breakfast, we have her a few options for each meal.
She had one for moods, She had one for things she wanted too.
As well what she had going on thru the day.
It sounds like we had a lot of them. But the only main one was the full day.
The meal one she seen only before time to make meals.
We kept her daily and moods on the frig. We use mag's on the back of the photos n etc.
Another great place to get pictures is google images.
When I made my son a visual schedule and a daily/ weekly schedule is what I would recommend, I took a good sized cork board (about 3' X 2') and put the days of the week across the top using posterpard and stapled them up there. (start with Sunday because that is how real calendars are)
Next I took self stick velcro and put strips from top to bottom under each day. Even though they are self stick I stapled them on too because the self stick will peel off after you put pictures on and pull them off a few times.
Next start with the morning schedule. Put up all part os the morning, for example I had eat breakfast, brush teeth, get dressed, get back pack and coat, school bus.
After he left for school I would put up the the afternoon schedule that detailed from the time he got home until supper. After supper it was the evening routine.
Each time we did what was on his schedule I would first take him over and show him what it was time to do. When it was done I had him take it off the board so he could see it was all done.
Using the schedule in this was probably one of the very best things I have ever done for my son and he is now 22!
EVERYONE uses visual supports everyday. The calendar, phone book, grocery lists, post it notes, the TV guide the list could go on and on. We use them because we need to be able to access information. Our kids needs visuals 100 times more than we do yet so often parents and teachers don't use them.
Andy learned so so very much from using this schedule. Now, later, today, tomorrow, and how to negotiate. I could ask him when he wanted to do favorite activites and then I could put them on his "board."
It also helped me eliminate using the work NO. Kids with autism often hear NO as NEVER and then they meltdown.
If Andy wanted a cookie before supper I could say YES! ANd we would put the cookie picture after supper.
If he continued to ask for food then I knew it meant that he was REALLY hungry and I could give him something to eat.
Today Andy uses a dry earse board even though he doesn't read well. BUT he does sometimes go to his schedule and write down things he wants like "bagel" and we can negotiate about when we can go get pizza or when we can go to the mall. It really is an awesome and amazing support.
Oh and 1 more thing. Andy's language BOOMED awithin a month of using the visual schedule. using the pictures helped him use new words and more words.