Everyday Teaching Autism Resources

Summer is here. I have taught 10 or more summer school (or Extended School years) in the past. But I am taking this summer off to refresh my mindset that has been set in the same and very routined manner for the last 2 years.

This is what I do and will do this summer!

Summer is a great time to focus on skills to “catch up” the discrepancy to be able to join and participate in class successfully during the regular school years. Most of my students with autism struggle due to a lack of foundation skills like communication, fine motor skills, social skills, etc. Without those skills, they often have a hard time connecting to their peers in class, attending to the teacher’s instruction, and completing whatever assignment is given in class.

1. Fine Motor Skills

Young learners got to have natural opportunities to practice their fine motor skills throughout the day. Opening up the snack package, peeling off the sticker from your favorite store, etc. Developing fine motor skills in early childhood is criticial in order to proceed to the higher level of motor skills such as writing a sentence or more. To increase fine motor skills in early childhood, we should give our loved ones adqueate time and necessary prompts to try and master these skills.

I have created a set of summer-themed fine motor skills worksheets. It contains 37 pages of practice worksheets targeting cutting, coloring, drawing a line, matching, and completing simple arts and crafts.

It’s perfect for young learners who are working on fine motor skills in early childhood! Also, It will be a great tool for special education teachers and occupational therapists who work with students struggling in these areas

2. Social Skills

Social skills with autism spectrum disorder have known the biggested barrier to pursue a well deserved qualty of life. It seems that displaying adquate join attention and social skills within a peer group seem one of the most promosing indicators to success in our loved ones’ school life. For those who are young, summer school can be the best time to work on specific social skills that will help them thrive during the regular school year. Being in a small group instruction, and more time with 1:1 staff support could help them work on these skills of turn taking, waiting, initiating, making comments, responding to questions from teachers and peers, etc. They are sound simple and easy goals- but it is the crucial factor for sucess in the school life.

3. Outdoor Game and Table Game

One question we have to ask before evaluationg social skills for our love ones is that if he or she mastered the rule of given social context. For example, we should first examine whether our loved ones can play the turn taking game by the rule. Many of our students often don’t show interest in the playground games or boardgame the next kid enjoys so much. They may not learn the rule by watching the peers in action. In that case, direct teaching the rule of target games/toys/activities would be mandotory before considering social skills components. Summer school is a great time to learn how to play these indoor/outdoor games with small group of peers. There are not a great deal of pressure to win or lose the game.