Encourage Game Play with Special Interests

A fun way to motivate your child or students to try playing a new board game with friends or siblings is to allow them to use an object representing their special interest as a game piece. For the game in the picture, the child used a figure of "Darth Vader" to play a Mega Blocks game (linked below).

 

 

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Make a Token Economy More Fun with Special Interests

A token economy is frequently used to reinforce positive behaviors and academic responses in students with autism. An example is shown in the video.



A token economy can be more fun and motivating if special interests are incorporated into the token economy. Pictures of a student's favorite characters, themes, or toys can be used as "tokens." Some examples are below.

Treasure Chest Token Economy

 

Train Token Economy

 



Airplane Token Economy

 

Car Token Economy

 

Police Car Token Economy

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Train-Theme App to Teach Emotion Recognition

We featured this app before, but I'm also putting it in this issue. It might be both fun and educational for a student with autism who loves trains!

"With Training Faces, Therese Wantuch said she wanted to create a learning tool that was fun and functional for children with autism. Focused on a passenger train traveling to destinations around the world, the game requires players to match a specified emotion with the correct picture of the passenger’s facial expression. Each session includes four rounds, and each round has a time limit. At the completion of each session, the player will get to see the train complete the route on the map."

Read About it Here:
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20121209/BIZ/312090105/A-mom-her-app-Technology-affecting-autism

Find the App at Amazon.com here.

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From Tarantulas to Toilet Brushes: Understanding the Special Interest Areas of Children and Youth With Asperger Syndrome

Title: From Tarantulas to Toilet Brushes: Understanding the Special Interest Areas of Children and Youth With Asperger Syndrome

Author: Mary Ann Winter-Messiers

Journal: Remedial and Special Education

Issue: Volume 28, Number 3, May/June 2007

Why Read This Article? "Strong positive relationships were found between special interests and improvements in students’ social, communication, emotional, sensory, and fine motor skills. Based on these findings, the researcher created a strength-based model of AS and special interests that emphasizes the critical need for teachers to understand and value the special interests of these students and the impact on their families."

Link: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.121.1178&rep=rep1&type=pdf

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Promote a Social/Leisure Skill with Special Interests

A fun way to increase interest in playing card games with family or friends is by using a deck of cards that features pictures of favorite characters. I've used a deck of cards featuring the characters from Angry Birds: Star Wars to play a variety of "classic" card games, such as War or Slapjack. We also worked on adding and subtracting using the cards as manipulatives to demonstrate the math problems. There are many ways that a set of cards could be used for teaching activities.

Angry Birds Star Wars Playing Cards - Bundle of 4 Decks in 4 Colorful Tins

Star Wars Heros & Villains Illustrated Double Deck Playing Cards in Tin

Vintage Railroad Playing Cards

Harry Potter Playing Cards

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Special Interests: An Evidence-Based Practice?

This was also published in our newsletter last month, but I think it's worth repeating.


As professionals or parents teaching children with autism, it is critical that the strategies we use are supported by research. This is important so that we don't waste money or the child's time on interventions that may not be effective. If an intervention method has sufficient research support, it is called an evidence-based practice (EBP).

The National Standards Report is a report published in 2009 that lists how much research support different autism intervention methods have. This report lists "incorporating...special interests...or ritualistic/obsessional activities into tasks" as an "Established" intervention*. This means that there is research to support the strategy.

I hope knowing that there is research support to incorporating student interests into learning activities will encourage more teachers to use this valuable strategy with confidence.

This month, Positively Autism will provide you with information and tools to use student interests to teach in the classroom and home.


*As part of the "Antecedent Package" - NAC Report, page 44.

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Feb. Newsletter Topic: More Teaching with Special Interest Areas!

Children and adults with autism may have strong interests in a certain area, such as computers, weather, trains, etc. These interests can often be used as powerful teaching tools to increase academic skills, improve behaviors, and facilitate social skills.

In this month's newsletter, we will continue this topic and provide information and resources about how to use special interests to make learning more fun, motivating, and effective.

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