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Hey everybody, this is Tara and you're listening to the Autism Little Learners Podcast. This week I'm gonna share with you my five favorite visuals that I use in an autism classroom. The reason I'm sharing these five visual supports is because I've seen them work over and over again. You are not going to wanna miss this episode. See you inside the show. Hi,
I'm Tara and this is the Autism Little Learners Podcast. I am a speech language pathologist with a twist. I've run my own communication-based classroom for over two decades, and I'm so excited to share actionable tips and strategies for supporting young autistic children. My goal is to help you feel more confident and successful when teaching your autistic child or students at the early childhood level.
If you are ready to learn some tried and true strategies that really work, this is the podcast for you. Let's get started. Today we will continue to chat about visual supports and autism. And this is one of my favorite things to talk about because creating visuals for your autism classroom allows you to bring out your creative side. This is a piece of my job that I love.
Sometimes it's getting creative and finding visual supports that can create predictable systems that will benefit my whole classroom. And other times it's getting creative and individualizing visual supports based on my student's needs and interest areas. So I'm gonna go through my five favorite visual supports and tell you why I like them so much and why I think you should try implementing them too. Number one is the all done bucket.
Now if you listen to episode two, you learned a lot about the all done bucket. The reason this visual support is in my top five favorites for an autism classroom is because it can be used with all of your students throughout the day. It's also really easily implemented by staff members, which is key for consistency. The all done bucket becomes one of those predictable systems in the classroom that your little learners will come to easily recognize.
You can go back to episode two to learn all about the all done bucket, but here it is in a nutshell. An all dump bucket is a visual support that really can be used to help your autistic students understand when it's time to be done with a toyed activity. And the all done bucket creates this predictable routine that can drastically decreased stress and anxiety for our little ones.
It's also a strategy that helps improve transitions. And you guys, who doesn't want that? I know in my classroom, anytime we can improve transitions for one of my students, two of my students, all of my students, it makes the whole class run a whole lot smoother. So go back to episode two if you want to learn more in depth about the all done Bucket number two,
my favorite list is what we call the star chart. Now the star chart is a visual strategy that was developed by Carrie Dunbar. And Carrie is well known and highly regarded. She's an autism specialist from Minnesota. And if you've heard of the five point scale strategy, that's from Carrie. Anyway, the star chart may look like a token economy system, but it's actually totally different.
A token economy system is used in a behavioral approach to reinforce positive behavior. For example, the child might earn five stickers for behavior or completing tasks and then they earn some sort of treat or reward. And in contrast, the star chart, the way that we use it in our classroom, shows the passage of time. So the stars aren't earned by the child.
They are simply a visual way to count down to the end of an activity. So just like the all done bucket, the star chart creates a visual and predictable routine for your autistic students. The two times that I consistently use the strategy in my classroom or during gym class, and when we're out on the pla, the playground for recess, let's chat about how I use it at recess.
Two of us adults are on the playground and we have star charts and we take all of the stars off and we make sure that we have a bus picture at the end of the chart cuz that's usually where we're going after recess. So whatever you have, whatever you're transitioning to next, that's what you're gonna wanna have at the end of the chart. So we each approach a student and we get down on their level.
This is a really important part, you guys. We get face to face and we show them the chart and we put on the first star, we say one star, and then we point to the next four pieces of Velcro that are empty and say 1, 2, 3, 4 more then bus. And between the two adults that are holding the star charts, we walk around the playground and we make sure that we're showing one to showing them one by one to each of our students.
And every now and then we check in with each other to signal, yeah, I'm gonna add another star to the chart. And we continue this process until we get to five stars. And so we try to get around to all the students several times throughout our time on the playground to show the stars as we're going along. And when we reach five stars,
showing them the five stars and then saying 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 time for bus. And so all of the adults from my classroom will have a bus picture in their pocket to show the students when, when it's time to transition, make sure all of the adults that are with you have the picture of where you're transitioning to next so that you are sure to show it to every student.
So once kids understand this visual strategy, it really, really improves transitions. Now if you're a teacher, you might be thinking, my students are only three and four years old, they're non-speaking. Will they understand this strategy? Oh my gosh, you guys, yes, yes, yes. My students are three and four years old, mostly non-speaking. And when you use the star chart consistently,
they do get it. I'll share a couple of the ways that I know when my students are starting to understand so that you can kind of be looking for that when you implement it. One way is when you're on the playground and you start to notice a student avoiding or running from the adult who's approaching them with the star chart. And I'm laughing because we usually giggle on the inside when this happens,
it's a pretty good cue that the child is communicating to you without words, Hey, I don't want my time on the playground to end so I'm gonna avoid the lady with the star chart because they have made that connection. Oh my gosh, the star chart eventually means we're gonna be all done out here. But it's one of those indicators that the little one is starting to understand the visual strategy.
So this is a really good thing. Another way that kids show that they are learning the star chart system is when they start to touch the stars and the Velcro when you count. So remember you're face to face and you're pointing and if they start touching them, they most likely won't say anything at first and that's okay. But sometimes we'll offer a star to the child to put on the star chart when it's time.
So I might say, Aiden look three stars and I give him the third star to put on and guide him his hand to the Velcro and kids will start putting them on. So it's a great way to involve them once you've tried it several times and they're kind of getting used to you coming up to them with the star chart. Now I have a student last year who did not seem to be looking at the star chart at all,
and this is pretty common. She didn't touch it, she didn't point to the stars, she didn't put the stars on, but we showed it to her anyway. We're presuming competence, right? And so when she came back to school this year after having most of the summer off, she immediately started pointing to the stars on the and the Velcro, she remembered it you guys.
So it took her a year to interact with it, but it was sinking in and it was impacting her in a positive way. If you're a parent listening, I know you might be wondering, how can I use the star chart at home? Well, you could use the star chart to count down time until you need to to be done with free play and move on to something else like eating dinner.
You could also use it when you're playing outside or out on a playground and that will help you transition back inside or to the car. Cuz I know I hear from a lot of families that transitions away from the playground are really tough. And you know what? They're tough for any parents of any young child, but for parents of autistic children, it can be even more challenging.
So even if it doesn't seem like the star chart is making impact right away, keep going with it and presume competence over time. These transitions most likely will get easier when you're using this visual strategy. Sometimes I get the question, well, when do I use a star chart versus a visual timer? And I'll tell you for me, this is what works.
I usually use the star chart for longer periods of time, like 15 minutes or more. And I use the digital timer for short periods of time, like two minutes. And then you know we're moving on to something else. Another amazing thing about the star chart is that it's flexible. You can control the amount of time until the activity ends. So it doesn't have to be like,
oh, one star equals five minutes. What if you were outside and it started storming and you needed to come in and you were only on two stars? Well then you could add the next three stars more quickly. What if the buses are late at school? Add those stars more slowly if you know ahead of time that the bus is gonna be late.
But I can tell you that I would a thousand percent rather wait for a late bus on the playground or in my classroom than out in that bus pickup area. I'm sure you agree with me on that. Waiting is so hard for our students, so, so hard. So for parents, if you're on the playground, you can also be flexible with it and decide how long it takes to put the five stars on,
depending on how much time you have to be there or how your child's doing. Let's say things are going well and you wanna stay longer, well then just take longer to put the five stars on. But if you start to have some issues and you wanna leave on a good note versus maybe your child looking like they're gonna have a meltdown, add the five stars faster so you can leave on a positive note.
Number three in my top five visual supports for an autism classroom is the weight mat. Now if you remember in episode two, I describe the all done bucket as a miracle tool. Well, the weight mat is pretty much near that same status. So many of you have implemented this visual strategy in your autism classroom and at home with great success. And I love all the pictures that you've sent me.
Now let's get down to the basics. A weight mat is a simple concept that I came up with a few years ago. There were so many times when my paras and I were doing activities with students and their little hands were full of objects and small toys. You know what I'm talking about? I am totally okay with my students holding all these small items in their hands and most of them need it to help them reduce anxiety.
They're little comfort items, but they can get in the way. And especially if we're working on tasks that require both hands or when these little items become too distracting to focus on anything else. So the weight mat gives kids a place to put these little objects while they work. And it's different from an all done bucket because they don't have to be completely all done with these objects.
They just need to wait a little bit and they'll get 'em back. And we all know that our students really get attached to the little objects they carry around. So implementing a predictable system is gonna help build trust and reduce anxiety about letting go of these objects. Now you might be saying, Hey Tara, that sounds great, but my student will never let go of his favorite items.
My answer to that is that it takes time for this to work. So I recommend starting with really short amounts of time and building from there. That way you can build the trust. So help put the items on the weight mat and do one little thing like match a picture to a file folder, put something in a Dropbox and then give the items back.
So it's really, really fast. And over time you build trust. I'll tell you about a student just like that. So last year I had this little three year old in my class and he's autistic, non-speaking and he loved holding little dinosaurs in his hands, both hands. Now picture it, they're just full of these little dinosaurs and if you asked them to put put them down on the table during work time,
he would whine or cry. He would not let go of them at all. He was really protective of them. So we were kind of skeptical when we introduced the weight mat. And I say skeptical because he was so attached to these dinosaurs and like I said, so protective of them. How would we ever get him to put them down on a weight mat?
We started small little moments of putting the dinosaurs on the weight mat and slowly over a few months you guys, he caught on. And then one day we were transitioning over to the work table and he went ahead of me and he grabbed the weight mat off of the windowsill and he put the dinosaurs on the weight mat by himself. Talk about a predictable routine.
It was habit. He knew exactly what to do and he trusted us. We were so excited. And to this day he still has this strategy down pat and doesn't resist at all. So if you're a a teacher thinking about the weight mat, you might be thinking, well, when's a good time to use a weight mat? Well, I am so glad you asked.
We have weight mats all around the room at our work tables, so they're easy to grab when you need one. Another really good place to have one handy is at the snack table cuz sometimes kids need their hands to eat. And another great place to have one is in the bathroom. And that's because you know, you carry all these little things in.
And many years ago I had a student carry one of his favorite little matchbox cars in and he accidentally dropped in the toilet and there was an automatic flush and down it went and it was horrible. It was a horrible day in my classroom. I felt so bad for him. So a weight mat can be a place in the bathroom. You could put these things too where put it down while you're going to the bathroom and washing hands and then we'll get it right back.
So building in that routine is really great. Really they work anywhere. You just need to have multiple copies so that you have it there when you need it, right? That's the way to be consistent. As a parent. You might wonder if a weight mat can be used at home and yeah, absolutely. You can use it during meal times or any other time of day that you identify as a time that your child needs to use both of their hands.
Number four first. Then boards. Most of you have probably heard of first, then boards or first then visuals. And these have become a staple in most autism classrooms. And it's a visual strategy that helps students understand the sequence of two activities a lot of times. First, then boards are used in a behavioral approach and they're used just for non-preferred activities,
followed by preferred activities. And I'd like to challenge you to think of it a little bit differently. It doesn't always have to be non-preferred activity followed by preferred activity. I look at a first then as the beginning of a way to teach a sequence on a visual schedule. So it's okay to have playtime first, then group time. I totally get the idea as to why behavior specialists use preferred activity.
Second, it makes sense that any of us would work harder with the carrot dangling in front of us. But so often with my young students, I find that they are just learning pictures and they're just learning how to use a visual schedule. So it can be helpful to get their attention by putting a favorite activity first and then really think about how you're going to end the activity and ensure a smooth transition to whatever is next.
And so this could be using an all done bucket and a highly motivating transition object to make that transition. Number five are adapted books and adapted books have quickly become one of my favorite activities in the classroom and at home. Over the past year, you guys, I created a year round adapted board book set. Each theme has visuals for six board books,
and the feedback from educators and parents has been phenomenal. So I encourage you to look into adding a couple of adapt books into your home or classroom and see how your students respond. For our littlest learners or students who have difficulty maintaining attention when the teacher's reading adapted books can really help, you're giving their busy little hand something to hold onto the picture and you're making it very predictable as to how to engage with the book and visually interact ma by matching the picture to the page on the book.
It's a recipe for increased engagement. So this can be done using any books, but at the early childhood level, using a board book can provide more durable pages that will hold up better. And so that's why I have been using the board books. It's just a lot better choice at the level with three and four year olds. But let me share some feedback that a mama in my classroom sent me this year.
I sent her some visuals to adapt some books that she had at home for her son, and he has responded so well. And for the podcasts episode today, we'll call him Aiden. She said, I was amazed that Aiden knew exactly what he was supposed to do with all of the individual ca picture cards to match them to each page. And he did it all correctly with no help.
She said in addition to that, the most amazing part for me was that Aiden let me read the whole book to him without interruption or frustration. He was sitting right next to me calmly and quietly listening to my reading and engaging in the activity. She said he's never done that before. He didn't even do it with the few books that are his favorites.
He would just turn the pages really quickly and be done. And she said, I never have been able to read any book to him, even if I tried until today. Cue the tears, you guys, this special time with his mama was so much more important than any other skill that I could have taught him at school. So I'll be doing an entire podcast about adapted books in the new near future.
So stay tuned. Okay, here's your action plan for the week. If you have not downloaded the visual support starter set, go do that now, www.autismlittlelearners.com/visuals, V I S U A L S. In that set, you're gonna find visuals for the alt done bucket, star chart, weight mat first, then board, and the visuals for the book,
brown bear, brown bear. Choose one of these visual supports and get it assembled and implement it. Remember, start with one or two. You don't have to do all of these at once. Once you implement it, I want you to DM me on Instagram or Facebook and let me know which visual strategy you are going to put together to try. While you're in my dms,
send me a question, something you'd like answered on a future podcast episode. I'd love to answer your questions. Now, never, ever forget even for a moment how truly amazing you are. See you next week for a brand new episode. I'm sending a big virtual hug your way because you just finished another episode of the Autism Little Learners Podcast. Thank you so much for listening.
If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media, or leave a rating and review. If you have had success with any of the strategies that you learned about in this podcast, I would love to hear from you. Send me a DM on Instagram or Facebook at autism little learners.
Don't forget to grab your free visual support starter set by going to autism little learners.com/visuals. And always remember to find the good in every day.
