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Showing posts from October, 2020

Using visual supports with your kids on the spectrum .

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Children with autism are visual learners. Meaning most of them have difficulty in understanding language. Visuals are something we all use in our daily lives to navigate the world around us. Our kids have strength in learning visually. It helps them to understand language, do familiar routines, and complete daily living tasks.  Use of visual schedules There are different visual supports you can use with your child with autism. Visual schedules are one type of visual that can be used. A visual schedule helps the child to understand the order of activities they will be doing during the day so nothing comes as a surprise.  Most of our kids also struggle with transitions in which case a visual schedule is very helpful. There are different types of visual schedules available online. The other thing you can do is you can take photos of your child doing different activities and put it on a schedule.  We need to teach the child how to use the visual schedules the same way we teach them other s

How parents can help their children at home.

  How parents can help their children with autism at home Hi everyone! My name is Heather Cacioppo and I have been a special education teacher for seven years. I’ve worked with many different families over the years. I want to share with you some ways that parents can help their children learn at home. We are currently navigating a time where parents are stepping in as teachers at home and supporting their children academically more than ever. Us teachers see you: learning common core math, continuing to support your child’s social-emotional growth, and realizing what your child can and cannot do by themselves.  Now, more than ever, teachers and parents are working collaboratively to develop an educational day to meet the needs of each individual child. This is what special education needed.  What can parents do at home? Daily living skills  Are you picking out your child’s clothes every morning? Include your child in the process of picking out their clothes. Let them decide what they

Update on virtual learning for kids with special needs.

 Its been almost 4 weeks of virtual school as the pandemic continues. I must say my son is slowly settling down in the virtual learning routine as we know our kids thrive on a structure.  The program is well organized. It is a well-known fact the first month of school is basically important for our kids to learn the routines and the structure. It is a full-day school for kids 5 days a week. There is some amount of synchronous learning which occurs throughout the day wherein the learners and the teachers are present at the same place throughout the day.  There is a lot of individual work time given to students as per their ability. There are lots of tools and programs used to support student learning. Google platform in the form of google classroom and google meet are used to facilitate the program. The typical day begins around 9 am with the national anthem followed by a morning meeting. The morning meeting typically consists of children filling in information like the day of the week,