asd_teacher_uk

Do meltdowns have you stumped? You need to read this!

Co - regulation is a term used to explain how we can help children to be able to understand their own feelings, regulate their emotions and behaviours .

A child needs us to first show them how we handle our own feelings. We need to regularly label how we are feeling, our behaviours and how we plan to regulate.

It’s important that we do this for all of our emotions not just when angry.

Some children also find being very excited difficult to come down from.

Our role is a supportive one. We need to coach them through their feelings and give them options to regulate themselves when they are out of control.

Our body language and tone of voice needs to be calm and open.

Instead of saying don’t cry you are ok, say I can see you are sad it’s ok to cry.

We need to highlight that it’s ok to feel these emotions and that they are valid.

Do you practice co-regulation?

So I have bitten the bullet and alongside my bestie am putting on an introduction to visuals course!

We will be sharing our practice based knowledge to explain, demonstrate and discuss;

⭐️ What visuals are

⭐️ Why visuals are so important.

⭐️ How to use them effectively.

⭐️ How you can implement them at home/school

⭐️ How to use visuals to support independence.

⭐️ How visuals can reduce anxiety.

We will do this over three one hour informal group video calls.

All of this for only £15!!!

Dates for our first course are Thursday 22nd 29th April and 6th May!

This course is perfect for parents, family members, teachers, school support staff and anyone else looking for an introduction to visuals.

To book your place PM me and I will send you the booking details.

If you have any questions pop them in the comments below.

💙

Working in a classroom with high behavioural needs and challenges is hard!

It can be draining physically and mentally.

I think it’s really important to be able to voice our difficult days as well as our successful days.

It’s important to be able to admit that today has been hard, that my body hurts from the physical strain of keeping my little people safe, it’s ok to say I have no mental capacity left because I have used it all up being on high alert all day looking out for possible triggers and having to change direction constantly.

Trying my very best to enable my little people to feel safe and to support them to regulate but having to accept what ever I try isn’t good enough today.

It’s ok that I tried my very best but it still wasn’t enough because today one little person just found being back at school so very challenging.

So I will clean my many scratches and I will spend some time analysing what I can do to make tomorrow easier then I will watch trash tv and try and unwind.

Tomorrow is a fresh start! Tomorrow has very possibility of being fabulous!

Double tap if you have days like this.

What can you see?

Modelling core words is essential for supporting our children to communicate.

Did you know core words make up 80% of the words we speak every day!

If we want children to use the word see we first need to model using it.

Modelling using the word outside, inside, when talking about feelings, actions, objects. We want to show how it can be used in a variety of situations.

If you enjoy my posts please like ❤️ save 📩 and share 🔄

Let me know if there’s any words to struggle to model in the comments

Day 2 Look 👀

Today I was a top model!

I modelled the word look all day and it was surprising easy to fit it into all parts of the day.

I had planned to an activity where we looked at different characters within our class story but it was one of those days so it didn’t get done.

This didn’t mean that the modelling didn’t happen though I just used it at every opportunity.

As I modelled the word I showed the symbol either a single symbol or within a communication grid or on proloquo2go.

Having a focus word really helped me to remember to model and look for the opportunities!

Do you want to move away from just requesting?

Do you want to increase your range of vocabulary you model?

📸 Then this is the photo challenge for you!

For each day of March there is a core word prompt.

Use it to plan an activity or just use it as a focus to model that word all day long.

Join in if you are using symbols, sign, spoken language, makaton, PECs, electronic devices, computer devices or any other type of AAC! Let’s all share the whole spectrum of communication ❤️

Increasing our modelling of core words will support our children to start to understand them and then start using them, then adding them into their own sentences.

Let’s support our children not get stuck in an requesting rut by expanding the vocabulary they are exposed to.

If you want to join in on a daily basis - brilliant!

If you want to do one word a week. Fantastic!

Just remember to post using the hashtag and tag me in your posts.

It doesn’t have to be elaborate activities everyday, you may be only posting a photo of the word, but sharing how you did it and the impact it had on you, your confidence and the child/ren will certainly help and inspire others to join the modelling train 🚂

Make sure you follow the hashtag so that you get to see everyone’s fab ideas 💡 and connect with other great accounts.

Happy modelling!

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GUESS WHAT!

Visuals are for EVERYONE!

They will support ALL children.

We all use visuals to get through our daily lives. We use lists, calendars, recipes, instructions, street signs the list goes on.

I often hear love your visuals but .... “ my child doesn’t need visuals they are verbal” “ my class don’t need visuals they are able to understand verbal instructions”

Visuals WILL support all children of all abilities, verbal or pre - verbal!

Visuals can be adapted and personalised to meet all children’s needs and abilities.

🧱 Do you ever say I might as well talk to a brick wall ?? Use visuals!

🤔 Does your child always forget things? Use a visuals list!

⁉️Does your child loose concentration and doesn’t know what to do next? Use a visual!

🗣Does your child need reminding to do things? You guessed it use a visual 😂

Visuals offer support to know what’s coming next what’s expected of them and also gives the child control and independence which leads to a greater sense of achievement.

If you want to chat about how you can use visuals to support independence, lessen anxiety and support executive functioning skills leave a 🙌🏻 in the comments and I will be in touch x

Want to be a top model??

Language is what unites us helps us connect to people.

Language is not something that just happens it requires us to be immersed in it and to see it used in context in a wide range of situations.

When we are supporting our children to communicate we need to immerse ourselves in their means of communication and to talk to them using it.

We need to model then model some more than add an extra sprinkle of modelling!

Model with no demand. We want spontaneous communication not communication which is a cause and effect interaction.

Top tips

Start by modelling at a single word level and as you build your own confidence then extend it.

Reply using the child’s means of conversation - if they use PECs to ask for a spin reply yes spin.

Take advantages of times when you can model core words such as meal times - comment on the food eg delicious, crunchy, in, pour, big the list is endless.

Pick a core word a week then plan activities /opportunities around it - then model it over and over again!

What core word do you struggle to model?

Anyone else love being a behaviour detective??

Behaviours which challenge us also provide real challenges for the person exhibiting them.

One of my favourite things is to analyse behaviours and find supportive strategies. I do this not only to stop the behaviour but because I want to support the child to be emotionally regulated.

Dealing with the behaviour is a short term fix but dealing with the root cause will (hopefully) stop it from reoccurring.

I hear the phrase ‘there’s no trigger’ when trying to unpick behaviours. There may not be an external trigger that we can easily see but there is ALWAYS a trigger.

Here’s a few triggers I have found in the past after many abc observations and head scratching.

🥵 The temperature in one room was too hot.

💡 The fluorescent light was humming at a frequency that hurt.

👃 The smell of a certain snack.

🚌 bus route had been changed

All of these triggers were not easy to identify and it took time to look outside of the box and putting lots of information together to be able to identify them. But once identified the behaviours did stop.

What’s the most unusual trigger you have found?

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Meet my two loves!

TEACCH 😍 & Visuals 😍

So it will come as no surprise to you that I am once again preaching about the power of visuals

A night spent making handwriting resources did not end once I had designed all of the lovely resources it then turned into a widgit frenzy making individualised visuals to go with them.

I made each visual with a specific child in mind to be used as a tool to enable them to be able to complete the activity independently, even if they come across problems.

Some activities will have no visuals because they are not needed and some will have a selection.

For problem solving some of my class love a social story and will follow that to be able to deal with the emotions a problem brings with it and also to solve the problem. Other children just need a quick reference problem solving choice visual ( as shown in last pic)

Let me know your thoughts 💭

Do you use in task visuals?

TEACCH and Visuals are a marriage made in heaven!

TEACCH/independent work stations are an amazing tool to provide opportunities for children to become confident at working independently.

To support this process we must give the children all the tools and strategies they will need to complete the activities and also to deal with any issues that may arise.

Visuals can help with all of this!

An important thing to remember is that the visual supports are individual to a child and can be used in place of a prompt from an adult.

The activities shown are all activities I have made to support a child in my class who is showing a real interest in writing. He likes to have something to trace rather than copy so I created these for him.

I would love to hear what’s your thoughts on using in task visuals?

Double tap if you agree

🗣Are you tired of hearing your own voice when dealing with behaviour?

🧱 Is it like talking to a brick wall?

Try changing your language you will get the outcome that you want and feel less like a nagging Nora and more of a positive Polly.

Positive communication changes not only how we feel but how our message is received.

Give it a go!

Let me know what you think in the comments 👩‍💻

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