Got Flickr?

Is everyone aware of Flickr?

Flickr is a photo/image hosting site where users upload and share their pictures. Our staff has also discovered that it is a great site to access pictures for GENERALIZATION!

Generalizing and responding to multiple stimuli is so important for children with autism. This site is a great place to get 1000's of images of places, animals, firefighters, etc.



No more searching for that perfect set of community helpers cards. You can make your own.



Location pictures ready when you need them! So much easier than going to take pictures at each location.



Flickr is a great tool for materials!

Creative Token Economy Systems

Often as our students get older the activities they are motivated by are not so easy as running to the backyard to jump on the trampoline or playing a video game. We need to be a bit more creative if we are going to have them earn a trip to the beach or Jamba Juice.

For one of our Kindergarten students (who loves snakes by the way!), his team developed an elaborate token system.


He earned pennies for completing and participating in certain activities appropriately. He could trade his pennies in for different activities, but the more exciting activities (e.g., a trip to Jamba Juice) cost more. There were also certain inappropriate behaviors that would "cost" him pennies (e.g., hitting a sibling would involve losing a certain number of pennies).

Less motivating activities required fewer pennies.

In addition to expanding his repertoire of reinforcers, this type of token economy also reinforces his ability to delay immediate reinforcement. Students gradually learn that in some situations it is worth it to pass up one activity for a more desirable activity.

There are lots of ways to be creative when setting up a token economy system. This is just one!

Generalizing Social Thinking Concepts

If you are familiar with Michelle Garcia Winner's Social Thinking Concepts, then you know that it is important to generalize these concepts across all environments. One of our student's teams came up with the idea to have a social thinking notebook for him so that whenever situations occurred they could write about them in the notebook.

For example, there is a page that reads, "I am a superflex kid when I....." that they continually add to as situations come up (e.g., when I let my sister play with the toys I am playing with, when I let my friends pretend to be who they want to be). There is also a page that has examples of when he is not a superflex kid.

Another example is a 5-point emotional scale page that they continually add to.

One aspect that has worked well is that as situations are repeated or occur again, the tutors or parents can encourage him to reference his notebook (e.g., in regards to a behavior mapping question to how will your friend feel if you do that, he can look at the previous answer and it serves as a visual reminder).

Phone Video Reinforcers

Most current cell phones allow you to record short videos, which make great quick reinforcers. Record yourself singing a song, falling down, playing a musical instrument, etc. Also, try clips of parents and old tutors doing any of the above. Some children are fascinated by video tours of tutors' homes, or meeting tutors' pets and family members. You'd be surprised how much kids enjoy a 40-second documentary on your trip to the grocery store last night (and you can also work in community location info).

Some children will like seeing the same clips over and over, while for others, the big appeal is getting to see new videos each time a tutor visits.

The video quality will not be great, but you can also record YouTube videos right off the computer screen.

Reinforce individual responses with short clips (3-5 seconds). Save longer clips as back-up reinforcers for whole sittings or programs that involve time-consuming responses (e.g., independent academic tasks like worksheets and art projects, advanced trips).

M.I.N.D. Institute Lectures Available Online

Many people in the Sacramento area are aware of the monthly Distinguished Lecturers series at the U.C. Davis M.I.N.D. Institute. However, fewer people know that full length video recordings of these presentations, going back to 2005, are available for free online:

http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/mindinstitute/events/dls_recorded_events.html

What do we play next?

When we first start playdates with our younger children, we often create a "schedule" for the children to follow. This schedule has many benefits (e.g., enables our child to be more independent, children pick out the games together, tutor can refer to the schedule when children are having "conflicts" over which games to play). However, we don't want it to "feel" like a schedule, so many of our senior tutors have created different playdate schedules that often reflect each child's individual preferences.

For example, Audrey, a Bay Area senior tutor, recently designed a Finding Nemo playdate schedule for her child.

Each fish has a space for a game.

When the children are done playing the game, they remove the picture and put it in an all done spot at the end of the schedule (see below).

The entire playdate schedule!

Great Job Audrey!!

Let's share what other ideas everyone is using for their playdate schedules. Email pictures to your directors and we will post them here to share!

Do you YouTube?

Looking for new stimuli to teach Superheroes? Want to teach Star Wars but you don't have the movies? Does your child love sea creatures?

Then YouTube may be the perfect place for you to find new reinforcers and stimuli. Tutors are using YouTube as a reinforcer by letting the children they are working with pick what they want to look up (e.g., Lego Star Wars, Sponge Bob, pufferfish, tornados). They are also using it for stimuli to introduce new concepts.

Hmmm...have we thought about using this for action videos? What a great way to generalize when children are first learning to expressively label actions!