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AAC: What is it? Who Uses it? Why Should I Teach It?
AAC stands for Augmentative and Alternative Communication. It’s a right for everyone who struggles with speech or communicating their ideas effectively. We must take the initiative in Special Education and get teaching AAC as a priority. October is AAC awareness month so I thought I would have a chat about the what, who and why of AAC. Read on to…
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What’s In The Bag: A Great Activity For Autistic Learners
‘What’s in the bag’ is a fun and engaging activity for Autistic students and Early Years learners. It’s great for teaching students to increase attention, for extending language and teaching Augmentative and Alternative Communication (A.A.C.) core words. Read on to find out how I do it and view a video example. ‘What’s In The Bag’. What is it all about?…
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Fairy Tales: Fun Lessons That Students Will Love
Fairy Tales are great to teach a range of goals. Incorporating drama, play, songs, instruments and technology; they can be so much fun. Have you considered this strategy as part of shared reading for teaching comprehension, extending comprehension or assessing? I love to use music, pictures and props to teach retell. Let’s take a look at how it works. Fairy…
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Songs – Great for Transitions in SpEd Classrooms
Songs are a great way to transition students in SpEd. They just seem to tune in (oops no pun intended) which is exactly what we are looking for! Grab their attention and get them moving in an orderly and timely fashion. Read on for a couple of ideas I have to share about using songs to transition. Why use Songs?…
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Teaching Literacy in SpEd- When is it ok to use picture symbols?
Teaching literacy in Special Education can be such a challenge. Some students have a real struggle with many aspects of reading. It’s hard! They have to learn the alphabet, phonemic awareness, concepts of print; onset and rime; syllables, phonics, sight words, sentence structure, grammar and hardest of all comprehension. Many of our learners also have complex communication needs. In SpEd…
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Literacy Overview for Very Emergent Learners
A literacy overview is an important planning step to allow for the best teaching and learning opportunities in a self-contained class. Here is a quick overview of what I plan and a downloadable planner to get you started. Literacy Overview-What to Include Making decisions about what to include can be daunting. Where do we begin to consider what to include…
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Incy Wincy Spider and Hey Diddle – BOOM CARDS
Hey Diddle Diddle and Incy Wincy Spider are two well loved Nursery Rhymes and they can now be enjoyed digitally. This fun product is great for students in Special Education settings or Early years learners either for distance learning or in the classroom. The Boom cards are housed on the wow.boomlearning.com site and available for learning on iPad, desktop or…
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Preference Assessment in Special Ed – 5 Things To Know
Preference Assessment (or Reinforcement Inventories) are very important. What are they? Why are they important? Who contributes? When and how do I assess and record? For the answers to these questions and more read on. (1) What is a Preference Assessment? It is an assessment of preferred tasks, games, foods, drinks, songs, toys, sensory objects, You Tube clips, people and…
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Boom Cards: Alphabet Match It – Letter Ee
Boom cards are digital games that are interactive and fun. I have found them to be a valuable teaching tool. What are they? Why do I love them? How do you get them? Read on to find out more and download a FREE Match It Letter Ee while you are here. Boom Cards: What are they? Boom cards are digital…
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The Great Easter Egg Hunt
How do we have an Easter Egg hunt in a lockdown? Well it’s tricky but not impossible. It will certainly be a different kind of Easter this year given the COVID-19 lockdown. Questions such as “will the Easter Bunny still be able to come?”, and “can we afford Easter eggs this year?”are surfacing. How are you handling these tricky questions?…
