I teach young people with social communication difficulties, including autism.
I have worked in both primary and secondary mainstream ARCs and also specialist provision and I love my job!
I am slowly uploading resources that have worked well so check back every now and again.
If there are any resources or activities that you would like to see in my shop, feel free to message me. I love making resources!
I teach young people with social communication difficulties, including autism.
I have worked in both primary and secondary mainstream ARCs and also specialist provision and I love my job!
I am slowly uploading resources that have worked well so check back every now and again.
If there are any resources or activities that you would like to see in my shop, feel free to message me. I love making resources!
4 basic visual discrimination / category activities, used as workstation tasks / morning jobs for learners with autism. Activity to encourage generalisation and begin to develop flexible thinking / categories.
Best laminated with velcro strips on base boards, corresponding velcro on picture cards. However could also be printed and used as a worksheet.
4 worksheets - 3 of these require learners to label pictures using positional language (e.g. behind, in front, under etc) 1 worksheet requires learners to correctly label coloured flowers.
Used for learners in autism provision but also suitable for mainstream KS1, EAL or older learners with SEN.
10 pages of activities designed to co-ordinate with White Rose, Y1, Block 2, Place Value to 50.
Would also be useful to develop / reinforce basic maths skills with any age group or SEN / intervention groups.
3 and 4 times table peg cards. Chop and laminate. Children use clothes pegs, clipping the peg on the correct answer.
Domino groups of 4 - my children will stick in book then write which 4 x table sum matches the group.
x 2 and x 4 function machine - my children struggle to understand that multiplying by 4 is the same as doubling twice.
Designed for SEN / autism mixed age class but equally appropriate for mainstream / SEN.
Problem Scale activity. Designed for children who struggle with resilience or to differentiate a big problem from a tiny problem. Accompanying cards give problem suggestions for discussion of where each problem would fit on the problem scale - is the problem a huge one or a tiny one.
This activity is suitable for 1 to 1 or small group work. It could be extended by use of the feelings poster to encourage learners to think about how each problem would make them feel. Theory of Mind skills can also be promoted through discussion if a problem is viewed differently by learners.
Question cards, children to clip a clothes peg onto the correct answer (yes or no). Some questions are literal, others require reasoning / knowledge of concepts such as biggest / youngest, prepositions, colours or general knowledge.
I use these as TEACCH workstation tasks (Box Jobs) within my autism classroom. I laminate the baseboards and cards, adding velcro so the resource is reusable. It could however be used as a worksheet task.
One set is to sort items into the categories - fruit / vegetable / animals.
One set involves learners sorting prepositions - in / on / under
One set involves sorting colour
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.
This is a simple worksheet I made as part of out Ancient Greek topic, for a mixed aged / ability group of children with autism. Children used a sheet containing the ancient Greek alphabet to complete the worksheet.
Simple Orion story for primary children with SEN / autism
We read the story together on the PowerPoint.
The word document was cut into strips and we sequenced them as a group.
We then made our own telescopes from cardboard tubes to look at the Orion constellation (used our telescopes to look at a square of card with pin pricks to show the 'Orion constellation').
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.
One sheet to introduce the idea of writing lists.
One sheet to support children to use the information from the list to write a sentence. This sheet ties in with Robin's Winter Song which we are beginning after half term but doesn't need reference to the book - it could just be an independent list of what animals eat.
Designed for KS2 children with significant SEN / autism.
Designed for my SEN / autistic learners who are mixed age but following White Rose Y3 (weeks 1 - 3, though likely to take my learners longer):
Comparing statements
Related calculations
Multiply 2 digit number by 1 digit
I used this to develop very basic counting skills in a child with significant needs. It can be used as a cut and paste worksheet (3 worksheets if you print the table 3 times) or laminated and used as a re-useable sorting / workstation task.
I also used the laminated cards to play counting games with the child - giving him a selection of cards (all of the cards would have been overwhelming) and asking him to find 3 apples / 2 bananas etc. Once he became more confident with this, the next step would be to give him a selection of cards and ask him to find all of the threes / all of the twos etc. As this child was particularly motivated by superheroes, I included some superhero cards too.
Resources used in my ASD specialist provision class last year, this was a mixed age and ability class who found positional language very difficult to master, even with lots of practical lessons! The pictures used are coloured teddies as we had teddy counters in class. I’ve chosen the colours to match the counter colours so we could use physical teddies for children who needed a more concrete experience.
Teddy before / after - 3 A4 sheets. Two of these sheets have a line of teddies at the top, with an arrow to show the direction that they have lined up in. Children need to answer ‘before’ questions (e.g. ‘who is before orange teddy?’) As most of the children had limited literacy skills, I included a strip of teddies at the bottom of the sheet so they could cut and stick instead. This allowed for more independence.
The 3rd sheet was an extension for my more able children. Children had to use ‘before’ or ‘after’ correctly in sentences about the teddies.
Position Teddy - 5 A4 sheets.
Sheet 1: 3 lines of coloured teddies
Sheet 2: simple tables
Children are given one of the 3 teddy strips which they use to complete the table on sheet 2.
Sheet 3: black and white teddy strips to colour
Sheet 4 and 5: directions strips
Children are given a black and white strip and a sheet of directions (e.g. ‘Red teddy is 1st’ so the child colours the first teddy in their strip red)
I chopped and laminated these where appropriate (the teddy strips and instructions) so they were reuseable. They can also be left as they are and glued into books.
Together with some practical work, these activities covered maths lessons for over a week. If laminated, they are also good to come back to as one off refreshers, or for 1:1 or intervention work.
4 baseboards and 16 cards (best laminated to make the resource last longer). Baseboards each showing 4 items. Pupils use the accompanying cards to identify which items go together (e.g. head goes with cap). Boards and cards are colour coded to ensure that the sets don’t get mixed up.
I used these as workstation tasks / morning jobs but they could also be printed and used as worksheets.
Designed for children with autism / social communication difficulties to develop reasoning / logical thinking and for the child to begin to make connections. Can be extended by asking the child / young person to explain their reasoning.
This is a 2 page fact sheet designed for my class who were a mixed age primary group, all with autism, attending a specialist provision. This group were working between P6 and approximately a Y1 level. The activity was designed to increase learner’s awareness of basic facts relating to themselves as few of the class were aware of basic personal information such as their full name, birthday and address. As the activity was geared around them, they were more engaged than usual and most were able to remember the key facts after practising asking and answering each other.
I also linked this to our maths - taking about how many of each eye colour / shoe size etc and measuring heights, hands and feet. I will upload that separately.
Activities suitable for any age group working at this level.
Eye is to be coloured in with appropriate colour - in case anyone is wondering why there is nowhere to write the eye colour!
I made this for a little boy with autism who was working at mid P Levels. This was to develop his basic one to one correspondence of numbers up to 10 and ordering numbers. The activity is suitable for mainstream or any aged learner who is working at a basic maths level.
There are 10 A4 sheets in total:
5 have 2 cards on 1 A4 sheet. These sheets have apple trees with a numbered basket (1 - 10). The idea of these was that the child places the matching number of ‘apples’ on the tree. For apples I used red counters or small red pompoms.
There is an A4 apple tree with a space to place a number card on - this could be used in 2 ways: Adult (or peer) places up to 10 ‘apples’ on the tree and the child has to find the correct number card or the adult / peer places a number card in the space provided and the child has to place the correct number of ‘apples’ on the tree.
The other pages have apple themed number cards to use with the A4 apple tree. They could also be used on their own for ordering, identifying which number comes next or is missing…or print twice and use as a memory game.
This activity would be best laminated / velcroed.
Its a bit of a random addition but as he could also rote count in 10’s to 100, I included number cards for 10’s numbers to develop his ability to recognise the numbers.
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.