If you teach autistic preschoolers, you already know that one lesson can look very different for each of the children sitting in front of you. You may be introducing the same classroom theme. Or working toward the same preschool standard. But each child may need a different way to access that learning.
One child may benefit from a simple matching activity with clear visual support. While another can work with sorting, early concepts, or more complex language. A child who needs additional support during one activity may need very little during another. All of those children can be learning alongside each other in the same preschool classroom.
And that can make curriculum planning tricky. Especially when you're also required to use a program like Creative Curriculum, Heggerty, 3 Cheers for Pre-K, Frog Street, or another district-selected curriculum.
We want to give autistic children access to rich, meaningful learning experiences. Without expecting everyone to participate or demonstrate their learning in exactly the same way. At the same time, teachers shouldn't have to create an entirely separate curriculum for every child just to provide the support they need.
That’s a big part of why I began developing the High Support Needs Curriculum (HSNC).
It was created specifically to help teachers provide meaningful, standards-based learning opportunities. Specifically for young autistic children with higher support needs, while still working alongside the curriculum their school or district requires.
Within the HSNC, you’ll see Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 activities. Those levels aren’t about deciding where a child belongs. They give teachers different amounts of support and complexity within the learning. Making it easier to choose an appropriate entry point for the child and skill in front of them.
We’re not leveling the child. We’re leveling the support so more children can access the learning.
Why Different Levels of Support?
When you see Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 activities inside the HSNC, those levels aren't labels for children. They're a way to think about how much support is built into an activity and what skills the activity asks a child to use.
A child may benefit from more support with one skill while needing much less support with another. That can also change depending on the environment, communication demands, regulation, familiarity with the activity, or even the day. We aren't deciding that a child is a Level 1, 2, or 3 learner.
Instead, the different levels give you options for creating access. One version of an activity might offer a more foundational starting point with additional visual support and fewer demands, while another may build in more language, steps, or complexity. The concept or classroom theme can stay connected while the support changes.
Rather than starting with one activity and asking, “How do I get every child to do this?” the levels help us ask a better question: “What support does this child need to access this learning?”
That's the purpose behind Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 in the HSNC. We're leveling the support, not the child.
What Level 1 Activities Look Like
Level 1 activities provide the most foundational entry point to a skill or concept. They keep the task simple and clear, with fewer steps and less language or complexity built into the activity.
You might see identical picture matching, simple put-in activities, basic visual discrimination, early fine motor actions, or other activities. Each allows a child to engage with a concept without requiring several skills at once. These activities can be especially helpful when you're introducing something new or when a child benefits from additional visual structure and support.
Simple doesn't mean unimportant. By reducing some of the demands within the activity, we can give children meaningful access to the learning without requiring skills that aren't necessary for the concept we're trying to teach.
What Level 2 Activities Look Like
Level 2 activities build on that foundation by adding another layer to the task. The concept may stay connected, while the activity introduces additional discrimination, language, steps, or independence.
For example, instead of identical matching, an activity might involve sorting, matching related pictures, working with early concepts, or completing a task with an additional step. We're not making something harder simply because we want a child to “move up.” We're adjusting the support and thinking intentionally about what the activity requires.
This gives teachers another option when a child needs less support with a particular skill but still benefits from the visual structure and hands-on learning built into the HSNC.
What Level 3 Activities Look Like
Level 3 activities offer less built-in support and more complexity. While continuing to provide the hands-on and visual approach that runs throughout the HSNC. Depending on the activity, that might mean additional language, more steps, early academic concepts, or opportunities to apply a skill in a more complex way.
Level 3 isn't a finish line, just as Level 1 isn't a starting box we need to get children out of. The three levels simply give teachers different ways to adjust the demands and supports within the learning.
A child might access a Level 3 activity in one area and benefit from a Level 1 activity somewhere else. They may even need a different level of support with the same concept on another day. The goal isn't progression through the levels. The goal is having enough options to choose the support that creates meaningful access in that moment.
Support Needs Can Change Across Skills
One of the most important things to understand about this system is that support needs aren't fixed. A child may need very different amounts or types of support depending on the skill, activity, environment, communication demands, or familiarity with what they're being asked to do.
For example, a child might access a Level 3 activity when it connects to a deep interest while benefiting from the additional structure of a Level 1 activity when exploring a new concept. Another child may understand a concept well but need more support because of the fine motor or language demands built into the task.
Development doesn't happen in a straight line, and we shouldn't expect support needs to either. They can vary across skills, across environments, and even from one day to the next.
That's why I don't want us asking, “What level is this child?” Instead, I want us to ask, “What support does this child need to access this activity right now?” That keeps the focus where it belongs: on adjusting the support, not labeling the learner.
What Is the HSNC?
The High Support Needs Curriculum (HSNC), is the curriculum support I'm creating inside the Autism Little Learners Membership.
I created it because preschool teachers are constantly trying to balance two very real needs. We need to support the individual developmental, communication, sensory, and learning needs of the children in front of us, while also meeting curriculum expectations and teaching the skills we're responsible for covering.
Those things shouldn't have to compete with each other.
The HSNC brings together themed, hands-on learning activities with curriculum guidance so teachers have a clearer path for planning instruction. Instead of searching through hundreds of individual resources and wondering what to teach next, members can use the HSNC to help connect activities to larger learning goals.
And because many of our classrooms include children with very different skill profiles, the Level 1, 2, and 3 approach is becoming an important part of how those materials are organized.
What Will You Find Inside the HSNC?
The HSNC continues to grow inside the Autism Little Learners Membership, with hands-on resources organized around familiar preschool themes and the skills young autistic learners are developing. You’ll find seasonal and high-interest themes such as Back to School, Community Helpers, Transportation, Clothing, Space, Farm, Ocean, Zoo, and Arctic Animals, along with many others that can be used throughout the school year.
Within those themes, you’ll find a variety of activities that allow you to work on similar concepts in different ways. These include things like matching and sorting, vocabulary, counting, fine motor activities, interactive books, letter and number activities, visual art projects, file folders, prepositions, verb + noun activities, sentence building, and visual supports.
Rather than needing to search for a completely different resource every time you're ready to work on a new skill, you can stay within a familiar theme and choose activities that make sense for the learners in front of you.
Autistic Preschool Learning Activities
The HSNC is also more than a collection of themed activities. Members have access to planning and implementation supports. Including a Teacher's Guide, scope and sequence, lesson-planning tools, and seasonal Core Guides. Plus, training videos, song choice boards, sample schedules, and picture-book supports for Core Words. These pieces help you see how individual resources can fit together as part of a larger plan. Instead of leaving you with another folder of activities to figure out on your own.
As I continue developing the HSNC, I'm also building out more Level 2, and Level 3 activities within these themes. That means you can begin with a shared classroom theme while choosing the activity or level that gives each child meaningful access to the learning. The goal isn't for every child to complete the same activity. It's to give you more ways to support different learners without planning an entirely separate curriculum for each one.
Because the HSNC is a growing part of the membership, new themes, activities, and supports will continue to be added over time. This gives members a curriculum resource they can keep coming back to as their students, classroom needs, and school year change.
Why the HSNC Lives Inside the Membership
The HSNC isn't a Teachers Pay Teachers product or a curriculum bundle you purchase once, download, and then have to figure out on your own. It's part of the Autism Little Learners Membership, and I made that choice intentionally.
Many teachers supporting young autistic children haven't received professional development specific to them. PD that truly prepares them for the needs they see in their classrooms every day. You may be a special education teacher looking for practical, autism-specific support. Or you may be a general education preschool teacher welcoming a child with higher support needs into your classroom, sometimes before that child even has a diagnosis or additional services in place.
Either way, having more activities to download doesn't necessarily answer the bigger question: How do I actually support this child?
That's where I want the membership to be different.
Inside the membership, the HSNC lives alongside training and support around things like regulation, connection, routines, AAC, visual supports, adapted books, and play. Plus other areas that directly affect a child's access to learning. Instead of simply handing you a resource and hoping you know how to use it. I can help you understand why you might choose a particular support. How to implement it, and how to adjust it for the individual children in front of you.
The community adds another layer of support. You aren't the only teacher wondering how to make circle time more accessible. What to try when a transition isn't working,, How to support a nonspeaking child, or how to adapt an activity for children with very different needs. Inside the membership, you're surrounded by other educators and caregivers asking those same kinds of questions. As well as sharing what's working and learning alongside you.
Because that's what real classrooms require.
You rarely need just a math activity or just a literacy activity. You may also need to think about how a child will communicate during an activity. What visual support could make the activity more predictable? Whether regulation needs are affecting participation. Or how to offer a different entry point without removing the learning opportunity altogether.
That's why I don't want the HSNC to become another giant folder of resources sitting on your computer. The resources matter, but knowing how to use them with the children in front of you matters even more.
The membership gives us space for both. You get the materials to support the learning. Along with the training, guidance, and community to help you put them into practice.
Supplement the Curriculum You're Already Required to Teach
Many preschool teachers don't get to choose their curriculum. Your school or district may require you to use Creative Curriculum, Heggerty, 3 Cheers for Pre-K, Frog Street, Big Day for PreK, or another established program. The challenge comes when the materials you're given don't match the current skill level or support needs of every child in your classroom.
You may be teaching a concept from your required curriculum while supporting one child who is working on foundational matching skills. Another who is ready to sort or categorize. And another who can engage with more complex language and early academic concepts. You still have the same curriculum expectations, but you need more than one way for children to access the learning.
That's where the HSNC and the Level 1, 2, and 3 activities come in.
The goal isn't to replace your required curriculum or give you another program to fit into an already packed day. Instead, the HSNC can supplement what you're already required to teach with hands-on, appropriately leveled materials designed with young autistic learners in mind. The curriculum connections inside the HSNC can also help you see where these resources fit alongside programs you're already using.
That means your class can explore the same theme, concept, or learning goal. Without expecting every child to demonstrate their understanding in exactly the same way. One child may need a more foundational entry point, while another is ready for additional language, steps, or complexity.
You aren't lowering the learning goal, and you aren't creating three completely separate curriculums. You're giving children different ways to access the learning that's already happening in your classroom.
That's what I want the HSNC to help make possible: meeting curriculum expectations while still meeting the individual children sitting in front of you.
Get Access to the HSNC
The High Support Needs Curriculum (HSNC) is available exclusively inside the Autism Little Learners Membership. It isn't sold separately on Teachers Pay Teachers because the HSNC was designed to be part of a larger system of resources, training, and ongoing support.
When you join the membership, you'll get access to the HSNC materials currently available in the member hub, including the growing Level 1, 2, and 3 activities, Core Guides, curriculum connections, and planning supports. But the HSNC is only one part of what you'll find inside.
The Autism Little Learners Membership also gives you access to additional supports. Supports like the full Adapted Book Library and hundreds of Autism Little Learners resources. Plus AAC and visual supports, deeper trainings, implementation challenges, and live opportunities to learn from and connect with me, Tara. You'll also become part of a community of educators and caregivers who understand what it means to support young autistic children with a wide range of support needs.
That ongoing support is important to me. I don't want to give you another folder of resources to download and leave you wondering how to use them. The trainings, live support, and community are there to help you take what you're learning and actually use it with the children in front of you.
Differentiated Preschool activities
As new HSNC themes, activities, and supports are created, they'll be added right inside the membership too. That means the curriculum can continue to grow alongside the other tools and training you have available.
If you've been trying to balance the curriculum you're required to teach with the learning, communication, regulation, and support needs of your students, that's exactly the gap I'm working to help fill.
The question isn't, “How do I get every child to do this activity?” It's, “What does this child need to access this learning?”
That's what we're building with the HSNC, and it's what we're working on together inside the Autism Little Learners Membership.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE AUTISM LITTLE LEARNERS MEMBERSHIP
Purchase Orders Are Welcome
If your school or district would like to purchase access to the Autism Little Learners Membership, we accept purchase orders (POs)! This can be a great option if you have access to classroom, special education, professional development, or district funds.
The Membership gives you access to the High Support Needs Curriculum (HSNC) along with the full Adapted Book Library, ready-to-use resources, trainings, live support, and so much more — all in one place.
If you need information to get the purchase order process started: [click here to learn more about purchasing with a PO →]
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