Facilitating Communication in Nonverbal Students with Autism

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Kidspiration is a software program that can aid teachers and parents in facilitating communication, comprehension, language and much more.

The Kidspiration program has language activities to use on your computer and also has templates and graphics for you to create personalized graphic organizers . Graphic organizers are a great tool for kids with and without special needs. The visual reinforces whatever it is you are trying to teach.

You can download a free 30-day trial of this software for your use at home! Check it out!

You can also check out sample graphic organizers on their site by clicking on the links to the left.

The graphic above is part of a self-regulation/ feelings curriculum I have used with my students in their in-home program. I spend at least one home session to introduce this concept of self-regulation as it pertains to the specific child and then we spend copious amounts of time role-playing the strategies. We go as far as videotaping the child role-playing the strategy and then reviewing the tape to comment on the the success of our role-play. I also videotape the children working and often catch them in moments of frustration when they were unable to independently implement a calming strategy. We review those tapes as well and we discuss what can be done next time to avoid getting to such a high level of frustration. A large part of the curriculum is teaching a child to recognize within him or herself when he or she is beginning to feel dysregulated and knowing which calming/revving strategy to use to compensate.

Using Kidspiration, I created a graphic with a student of mine to review the various calming strategies available during a home session. These strategies can also be used in the classroom. Using a graphic organizer made this material more accessible to the student and also kept him engaged for the entire lesson. I have tried simply "lecturing" on this topic and, believe me, you lose the student's attention pretty quickly. Visuals are helpful and after we created it, we printed it out and he has it up in his room and in his classroom as a reminder when he is struggling to regulate.