‘At the hospital’ - matching activity. Identify things found in the hospital. With this activity , I laminated and put velcro on the base board and matching cards. Two base boards included and two sets of cards for each baseboard - to cater for readers and non readers. Also appropriate for use as a cut and paste work sheet. ‘Who board - emergency services’ - another activity which I laminated / added velcro. Matching images of emergency service workers to their names. Again, also suitable for cut and paste activity if you prefer not to laminate. Suitable for mainstream and SEN - created for KS3 learners with autism and learning disabilities.

Colourful Semantics / Narrative - Interactive book with an Emergency Services theme. Who?-doing?-what? sentences. I laminated this to create a book, attaching with keyring rings. The child or young person goes through the book identifying who is doing what in each picture. For example: ‘Police officer-walking-dog’ or ‘Fireman-sliding-pole’. Tips: When printing, I printed the last 3 pages twice, using the first copy as a baseboard and chopping the second copy to make individual cards, which I attach with velcro to the baseboard. This works best for me as it keeps the pieces together and is easy to see if any cards are missing. While the child is becoming used to this activity, I talk them through each stage, encouraging them to identify ‘who?’ first, then ‘doing?’, then ‘what?’ Once the sentence is complete, I encourage them to repeat the sentence as a whole. If a child struggles to identify from a full page of options, try offering them a choice or two cards, gradually increasing the number of options as they become more familiar with the activity. Some children need prompts to really look at the picture and think about what they can see.

This is a pack of Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch resources I have used during a seaside topic with a mixed aged (KS1 / KS2) group of learners with autism. It includes a planning sheet to think about the lighthouse keeper's cottage, differentiated TEACCH style structured sheets to support writing about the Grinling's cottage, and images of the cottage for pupils to stick in their books before writing about the cottage. There is also a word mat to support spellings and jog memories. There is a mindmap type sheet to encourage pupils to reflect upon what the Grinlings thought about the naughty seagulls. There is a symbol supported powerpoint about lighthouses and a lighthouse fact sheet for children to complete. There are also differentiated grammar sheets for learners to decide whether to use 'and' or 'but' in a sentence.

A game I made for my small class of learners with autism. Suitable for any small group introduction - e.g. intervention group, speech and language, attention and listening. Learners throw a dice and move around the board. When they land on a question, they answer the question. I like to ask another member of the group a question relating to the answer, to encourage learners to pay attention to each other's answers - my children tend to have very little interest in each other! Supports social skills, attention and listening, turn taking. Used for specialist autism group but appropriate for any mainstream KS1 / KS2 group or older SEN group.

This is an interactive book I made for a ‘Community’ / ‘People who help us’ topic. I printed and laminated all of the pages and stuck velcro on the who / doing / what symbols underneath each picture. I printed the last 3 pages twice, cutting out the cards from one version and using the other version as a base page, on which to keep the cars when not in use. I include 2 options of this book - one with more text (i.e. ‘What is the policeman doing?’) and the other kept simple (i.e. ‘Who doing what?’) I’d be happy to change the frame colours if you use a different colour system for the categories. Feel free to message me. Used for children and young people with ASD / SALT / Learning Disabilities.

This is a booklet to monitor progress in making simple food and drinks for learners with SEND as part of a Life / Independent Skills Curriculum. Works well for learners with a range of additional needs at secondary and Post 16.

Worksheet to support pupils in reflecting on events in their lives so far. Developed for pupils with SEN and autism who struggled with reflection, recall and sequencing.

I made this resources to introduce similes to a mixed KS1 / KS2 group of students with autism. There is a mindmap used to introduce the idea - think of something which is white. Children used these to complete sentences I wrote on the whiteboard (we were reading The Little Polar Bear). There are 2 worksheets for children - identify a simile from a choice of 4 names pictures. There are a final 2 sheets using a visual mindmap to suggest alternative words for ‘cold’ and ‘worried’. Saved in PDF and in Publisher. Used in primary but also suitable for SEN / KS3.

Lego challenge cards, symbol supported for non / early readers. Some are Christmas themed as I’ve just made them to try and keep my children busy during this last week. Children choose or are given a card which gives an instruction - e.g. build a Christmas tree / first letter of your name and use Lego to build as instructed. It’s a fairly open ended activity but my hope is to provide more structure and purpose to play for my children with autism as some have very short attention spans and flit from activity to activity without any meaningful engagement. 24 cards in all, best printed onto card or laminated so they last.

A few resources from when we read Sharing a Shell. I teach a mixed age primary class, all with autism attending specialist ASD provision. Ability at the time ranged between P4 and approx Reception / Year 1 level. Resources are also suitable for mainstream learners working at this level. Download includes: Sharing a Shell book review - A4 sheet, learners identify who is in the story, where the story is set and what happened 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Sharing a Shell LA - position activity for my lowest ability learner, I used this with the child working 1:1 with a TA, discussing the picture and seeing if the child could identify ‘where’ (TA reading the sentence) Position Sharing a Shell - 2 near identical worksheets for children to write the appropriate word in the gap. I can draw… - these were to encourage mark making / fine motor skills. Frame with a prompt picture of the characters in Sharing a Shell. 3 x A4 sheets. Who words dotted - We did a lot of narrative and colourful semantic work in English lessons. This activity was to reinforce / generalise understanding of ‘who’ and to develop mark making / handwriting / recognition of character names (more able).

An interactive book I designed for pupils with ASD but also suitable for learners with Speech and Language Difficulties, SEN or KS1. Colourful Semantics support understanding of who / doing / what questions and also supports understanding of sentence structure. I make up the book by laminating whole pages. I then print off an additional copy of the who / doing / what pages, then chop and laminate these as individual cards. I add velcro to the whole page who / doing / what sheets and use these as a baseboard for the individual cards. I also add velcro to the who / doing / what table underneath each picture. The book can be assembled with a keyring / treasury tag. Keep the who / doing / what sheets separate so the child has them to refer to when looking at the picture. It’s simpler than I’m making it sound! I have used this type of book both as a one to one task and as an independent TEACCH task.

Editable personal fact-file, used for students with autism as part of Asdan work (New Horizons)

Resource created to support learners with ASD in understanding personality and appearance - this can be a real area of difficulty for learners with ASD. Children should write outside of the first image, describing 'outside', they write inside the second image to help them understand that personality is on the 'inside'.

Storyboard - designed for children with autism to reinforce their understanding of the story. Children sorted the order of the text as a group before drawing their own accompanying pictures. With my group of children (mixed aged KS1/KS2) I kept the text on the worksheet but I have included a publisher version so this activity could be adapted to a cut and stick activity, or children could write their own sentences.

Sorting activity for KS2 with SEN. Children cut and stick items into categories.

4 oval shapes for learners to draw - self portrait, things I like, my family, what I want to do when I grow up. When these are finished, ovals should be cut out and folded in half. Two halves should be stuck to one oval - making a 'cross' type shape when viewed from above. Apologies for my rubbish description! String can then be used to attach the 'basket' to the hot air balloon. A lovely 'getting to know you' craft for the beginning of the school year. These look nice strung in a line across a window.

Various winter topic activities. We have been reading Little Polar Bear so have learnt about the North Pole / Arctic and what adaptations polar bears have in order to live where they do. Activities include picture of a polar bear / cards for children to stick on sheet to label (polar bear physical appearance) Jungle / Arctic sorting table with 2 sets of cards for children to sort (set one - facts about the areas, set two - animals) Polar bear adaptations worksheet / facts to stick. Two different versions of this, one is simplified. Short North Pole PowerPoint I have included resources in publisher and PDF format. Used for children in KS1 and KS2 with autism. Also suitable for mainstream pupils / older pupils.

Cut and paste activity to visually reinforce simple fractions - halves, quarters and eighths. Created for KS3 students with autism.