I haven’t seen the movie yet – as I don’t think I want to have anything interfere with my impression of Temple Grandin.

I saw Temple speak years ago….  before she became a star…..  and what sticks in my mind the most was her discussion of how she thinks….  in pictures….  hence her book “thinking in pictures”

She refers to her thought process as going back in her mind, retrieving a video tape from her mind’s library and then playing the proper video to think….  This hit me like a 2×4 across the head…. 

I am mostly an auditory thinker….. so I guess it didn’t dawn on me that this could be so impactful on educating,  Now, when I teach my son, I always have visuals.  Of course, he was most successful with video, but after years of strictly video, we have been able to branch out into many other inputs including auditory.  But the learning is always faster with visual inputs ….. 

What we need to realize is that not all people think alike – and we need to find each child’s talent and teach to that talent…..  and in my son’s case, visual is the way to go…

If you have a chance and you think you may know someone who requires visual teaching, watch this clip and read her book.   It really is very moving.

http://www.ted.com/talks/temple_grandin_the_world_needs_all_kinds_of_minds.html

The Finished Project

Sorry to be repetitive – but I think society needs a 2×4 to get this….   not you….  but the higher ups…..  you know .. the ones who make the decisions on how to educate our children ….

The teachers get it … the parents get it… and certainly the children get it!

Here is an example…. 

My son built this airplane today – his first lego project since about 14 months of age (hes 11 now)

And this is how he did it…..

VISUAL instructions

I could have explained to him how to build this lego plane – until  I was blue in the face….. and the plane would never have been finished….

But Lego gets it – so they include visual instructions – to complete a task!  

Imagine what would happen if we did this in school ….

So – once again, I am promoting visual instructions – in many formats – pictures, video (my favorite), signs, etc….

The science says it works, the children say it works, even the toy companies utilize it!    So, exactly when do you think we will start using it in our schools?  I guess I just need to work much faster….

Sharing with you a new link that was posted today…

It was very touching to me and made my day …. knowing that I had made a difference….

http://autisminautumn.com/home/watch-me-learn.html

02-we-are-the-champions

Today is a day of glory for us – a day of celebrating success achieved over a course of 9 years. For the past 9 years, we have tirelessly worked at teaching my son language, motor skills, attention skills, social skills, life skills and much much more. Those 9 years of teaching were also coupled with researching and implementing medical treatments for the many medical conditions that are a part of autism.

There were many professionals from various fields who said it couldn’t be done. This post is being written for those of you out there who hopefully doubt the nay-sayers and for those of you who have a nagging feeling in your gut that is telling you that the professionals may not have all of the answers and that you may some of the answers yourself. This story of a child’s accomplishments serves the purpose of stirring those gut feelings and encouraging you to follow your gut!

By the age of 4 1/2, three different doctors affiliated with three very reputable institutions advised me that my son’s condition would not change and simply encouraged me to accept his condition and to be realistic about his not so optimistic future.

Yesterday at Indiana University, Brett tool 3rd place in the one meter and three meter events at AAU Diving Nationals for 11 year old boys. A far cry from the institutional life he was slotted for! While his dives were beautiful and 3rd place was a huge accomplishment, it paled in comparison to the real life social skills that Brett demonstrated. There was probably not one single person in the acquatic center that understood what huge accomplishments were taking place right before their very eyes….Brett introducing himself to a peer and shaking hands, waving to the crowd when he was introduced, attending to his coach’s instructions, accepting scores that were lower than what he deserved, and on goes the list.

Brett’s performance yesterday was more like a “coming out” ceremony…. or more appropriately phrased, a “coming together” of thousands of hours of social skill training.

The last nine years have led me down paths that were down right terrifying – but along the way, I met many supporters who encouraged me to follow my mother’s intuition which ultimately led us down a path of success. Today I can say to you that every single minute of our work has been worth it. There is truly nothing more priceless than seeing my son filled with self-esteem and excelling in a very demanding event.

Today I witnessed self esteem and true confidence in my son….. how lucky am I? It didn’t start out this way though…. it started by unrolling his tightly curled finger to teach him how to point… When he learned that, I taught him how to clap and just kept going.  Each and every accomplishment was treated with praise….  and the words “You DID IT!” were heard over and over.
Every single accomplishment from the first finger point to a reverse flip dive is one more accomplishment under his belt. There will be many more…. after all, Rome was not built in a day.

Follow your gut….and praise every little accomplishment no matter how small.  Small accomplishments and self esteem are the building blocks what lies ahead!

For diving videos – a great video modeling for Brett, click here to see Greg Louganis

http://www.divingtube.com/index.php/View-Video/184/Greg-Louganis-GREATEST-DIVER-EVER.html

For information on Video modeling and teaching social skills, click here

http://www.watchmelearn.com/video-based-teaching.shtml

Teaching ideas and activities – Gaining Attention

As the founder of Watch Me Learn, I am constantly asked for information on how to teach skills or to provide ideas on how to reinforce the video teaching.

While our new products have a curriculum available, when I made the first 4 videos, there were no requests for this.  Times have changed so I have decided to provide activity ideas on this Blog that will help generalize the lessons taught/modeled in the video.

The First topic is “Gaining Attention”

Yes – many books provide information, programming ideas on how to teach this skill, but I have found that many of them lack the friendly, every-day tactics that worked so well for my son.  In these activities, I will include as much of that silly stuff that I know works!

These lesson plans were written as a TOOL to accompany video.  Whether you use WML video or another video, that is entirely up to you – but if you have a visual learner, showing a demonstration of a skill is strongly suggested.  Children on the autism spectrum seem to be very strong visual learners and from what I have seen over the last 9 years, it is a tool that works VERY quickly.

1.       Gain Attention from Child.

Show video portion to child

 Call child by name or say “Mary, look…”   If child does not look, call again and if necessary, gently turn their fact to look at you.  Immediately reward them with something appropriate that he or she WANTS!

       TIP:  ALWAYS make the activity FUN! And to do at an appropriate time (e.g. when you want the child to look at you or have something of interest for them to attend to, you know the child needs something or needs your attention)

       When beginning to teach this skill, as the reward, use the MOST motivating reward you know of and most importantly make it FUN for the child.

   Reward:  be prepared to reward the child with one of their favorite items such as food, toy, stuffed animal, etc…)  Have that item in sight of child before attempting to gain their attention.

o   Be eating a favorite food of the child’s and have some available for child as a reward

o   Be playing with a child’s favorite toy and prepare to share or give toy to child as reward

o   Be prepared to go out to a place of interest to the child like the park, pool or playground

FUN:  Children love fun….  And fun is EASY…  ideas to make it fun and appealing – before attempting to gain child’s attention:

·         put on a funny hate, wear the wrong clothing (child’s hat or clothing item)

·         Get in the bathtub with your clothes on

·         Prepare to go outside in winter with a bathing suit on

·         Prepare to wash your hands with toothpaste

·         Comb your hair with a spoon

·         In general, do things that are obviously wrong and silly

On Wednesday, Look for the next steps to this program – and for regular additions to this series.