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MTT Hosts Some Awesome Conference Events

Last week at the Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence Conference in Columbus, Ohio MTT sponsored the Keynote address given by Larry Bissonnette and Tracy Thresher, the stars of the documentary film Wretches and Jabberers. Larry and Tracy later joined us at the VizZle booth to sign autographs, where they then stayed on playing VizZle games on the TAP-its.

The VizZle games on the TAP-its were also a big draw at the welcoming reception MTT hosted for the National Autism Leadership Summit, which also took place during OCALI. The summit gathered professionals from across the nation and engage them in discussions and activities with the overall goal of improving the quality of life for individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), their families, and caregivers.

For us, the best part about attending education and technology conferences to spread the word about visual learning and technology is getting to meet you and hear your stories. Come see us at one of the next conferences on our schedule! We’d love to hear your stories about how technology is changing your classroom and opening new doors for your kids. And, as always—we have tchotchkes!

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Larry Bissonnette and Tracy Thresher (front), the stars of Wretches and Jabberers, with (rear, l to r) VizZle Marketing Coordinator Brian Wiszniewski, CEO Terry Murphy, and Visual Learning Software Consultant June RIng at the VizZle booth at OCALI

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OCALI Conference-goers showing off their autographs from Larry and Tracy

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VizZle games on the TAP-it at the opening reception for the National Autism Leadership Summit in Columbus, Ohio

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Wendy Bonneau from DeKalb, IL stopped by at ATIA Chicago with her new iPad to download the just-announced VizZle App and share her excitement about technology and visual learning.

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Larry and Tracy signing autographs and giving out tchotchkes at the VizZle booth at OCALI

Most kids with autism have an obsessive interest in something. There are ways to make it work to your advantage instead of it driving you (and them) to distraction. Scroll down for more.

It usually doesn’t take long to identify a child with autism’s current obsession. And there is no question that there is a time and a place to help a child with autism learn to curb fixating on their obsessions. But working on it at the same time as you are trying to engage a child in learning (especially during non-preferred, repetitive or boring tasks) is a missed opportunity at best and detrimental at worst.

Ultimately, we all want children to be excited about learning. There is no better way to do that than to make it relevant to their interests. If you can’t find an angle to use to make it relevant, you can always use it as a motivator or a reward. But either way, take advantage of their obsessions to engage them in what you are teaching. It will make it more effective, more fulfilling and more fun for both of you!

Using Trademarked Characters

Examples I have used here don’t include trademarked media or characters. Copyrights and trademarks prohibit my sharing those kinds of lessons with you. But they do not prohibit your using a character in an educational lesson for the child you work with (it’s considered fair use). So if your child is obsessed with Spidey or Hannah, use it!

Making it Relevant

Some tasks lend themselves to using objects or themes. For instance, if you have a little train-lover, you can use trains to spice up lessons on counting (how many trains?), discrimination (match the trains), color id (find the red train), prepositions (which train is behind the station?), operations (trains as visuals for addition, subtraction etc), story problems (two trains leave the station at the same time…) and many other subjects. For example:

• Discriminate: Train (Matching Board), VizZle ID Number: 20689
  Image w/text label of example of train TO identical image w/text label, field of 3 choices, 5 pairs
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)
• Counting Potato Chips (Matching Board), VizZle ID Number: 33982
  Numeral TO number set of potato chips (for numbers 1 to 6), field of 2 choices, 6 pairs, with custom celebration
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)

Keep Them Glued to the Game

A game with tiles filled with a favorite image or character keeps the players’ attention on the game even if it isn’t their turn. Check out these examples of how creators used an obsession to add engagement:

• Emotions and Inference (Game), VizZle ID Number: 38421
  Each tile has an image of the Eiffel Tower and a popup quiz with an image and text question about emotions (e.g., “Why might this boy be happy?”) w/ sound effects (e.g., sound clip of a child laughing) TO image and text (e.g., “He’s playing with his friends”) from a field of 2 choices, 13 tiles, number spinner, custom celebration video clip of Eiffel Tower
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)
• Articulation “z” (Horses) (Game), VizZle ID Number: 43351
  Each tile has a horse-related image and a quiz where the answer has a /z/ in either the initial, medial or final position for articulation practice (e.g., text question “What ten things are on your feet?” TO image and text w/ audio “toes”), 14 tiles, color spinner, custom horse jumping celebration
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)

Rewarding Finishes

For some kids, the object or character they obsess on may be too exciting within the lesson itself, but knowing it will be in their end-of-activity celebration may be just the boost they need to get through the lesson. A custom celebration is an ideal way to deliver the reward—it doesn’t allow the child to replay the reward repeatedly, which helps them transition to the next lesson or topic. Check out these examples:

• Next Dollar At The Grocery Store (Book), VizZle ID Number: 43330
  Grocery store scenarios with next dollar quizzes. Images and text w/audio, popups and quizzes, 12 pages, with custom fighter jet celebration
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)
• Teaching Time (Hour) (Princess) (Matching Board), VizZle ID Number: 43355
  Digital time (e.g. “9:00”) TO analog clock face (hour only, with color differentiated hands) field of 3 choices, 5 pairs, with custom celebration of dancing princesses
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)

The Power of Characters’ Comments

If you are working on a specific behavior, a favorite character’s commenting can have a huge impact. You can use the character’s voice to promote the behavior within the story, or add popups to that have the favored character commenting. The character’s comments can reinforce the learning, up the “cool factor” of the behavior, and keep the learner interested in the story despite possibly unpalatable content. Check out these examples:

• Why Use Deodorant? (Book), VizZle ID Number: 8673
  Images and text sentences about the need for wearing deodorant and brushing teeth to stay clean and healthy, for young men, with favorite characters reinforcing the message, 15 pages
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)
• Why Cut Nails? (Book), VizZle ID Number: 4735
  Why it is important to trim and file nails, 8 pages w/pop-up reinforcers (edit w/your child’s name, picture and favorite characters)
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)

I see a perfect portrait of my devilish little dickens. She sees Snoopy and Lucy. To understand the visual stimulus overselectivity at work here and for tips on coping with it, scroll down.

What is Visual Stimulus Overselectivity?

When a child with visual stimulus overselectivity (which from here on out I will refer to as just overselectivity) looks at a photograph, she focuses on a detail in the picture to the exclusion of all else and loses the gestalt of the image. Overselectivity is often described as tunnel vision–the detail becomes the whole. For instance, this photo of a kid’s closet might be described as a picture of Arthur the aardvark (or a St. Bernard, or a firetruck–depending on the detail the child chooses).

How Can You Tell?

If the child you work with is verbal, you can show him a photo that is rich in detail and ask what he sees. If he is more interested in a background detail of the image than in the story the image tells, that is usually overselectivity at work. Figuring out what a non-verbal child focuses on is more of a challenge. You could ask them to point to the important part of the picture, or you could try a lesson like:

• What’s the Picture About? (Matching), VizZle ID Number: 42705
  Image and text w/audio question (i.e., “What is the picture about?) TO image with focus square and text w/audio sentence describing main theme, with set distractor for over selectivity, field of 2 choices, set distractor, 10 pairs
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)

But if you can’t pinpoint it one way or the other, your awareness that overselectivity could be an issue is your best defense.

Choosing the Right Images

Look critically at the images you are using. Is there any kind of a background? A cutout (where the background is removed) might work better. Look carefully at the details. Is the person pictured wearing a shirt with a logo or a character on it? Cropping so that detail doesn’t show might be necessary.

Even though a line drawing requires a higher level understanding of abstraction, it may be a better choice than a photo with a background or too much detail. Be willing to try different visual representations if the one you are using doesn’t seem to be working. There could be some distracting detail there kicking in the child’s overselectivity that you just aren’t seeing.

Lesson Examples

These lessons make excellent use of the images in the VizZle media database designed to meet the needs of kids with overselectivity issues.

• Actions (Book), VizZle ID Number: 42718
  Images of common action words (verbs) and short text w/ audio sentences (e.g., “She reads.”), with video models and popup quizzes for word discrimination (matching text to text), 9 pages
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)
• Functional Grocery Vocab 1.1 (Matching), VizZle ID Number: 4180
  Match image w/audio to text, field of 3 choices, 10 pairs. Comparable to Edmark Functional Grocery Vocab Lesson 1
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)
• Functional Grocery Vocab Review 1.1 to 1.5 (Game), VizZle ID Number: 2272
  Pop-up quizzes, match image to text, field of 3 choices, 14 tiles. Comparable to review of Edmark Grocery Words Book I
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)

Over the weekend we shined up the database (that there’s the technical term for it–shiny!) Scroll down for details…

Stacey and the support team implemented a new database management system that will allow easier sharing of Student Folders over the last weekend. Within your school group, you will now be able to see (and add to your folder tree) Student Folders created by all other users in your group. (Parents, who for privacy reasons should only be able to see their own child, will still need to be set up by sending a request to Support@monarchtt.com. But now school staff will have both access to and control over the student rosters.)

The only difference you should notice when you log in is a broader array of students to choose from under your “My Profile” if you are part of a school group. If you should notice anything amiss, please let us know! Email us at Support@monarchtt.comor call 1-800-705-1382.

Help us build a collection that gives our kids a window on the world. Earn a $10 Amazon gift certificate for telling a visual story about where in the world YOU live. Scroll down for more info…

The HomeTown VizZuals Project

For kids that can travel, a visual story about their destination gives them a feeling of familiarity that can help them relax and enjoy the trip, making it more fun for everyone involved. For kids that can’t travel, a visual story broadens their world and lets them experience places they might never be able to see for themselves.

This summer, we are encouraging VizZle creators to add to the growing collection of visual stories about world destinations by focusing on where in the world YOU live. Show your HomeTown pride and share your local knowledge with kids from across the country and around the world.

Focus on Your Neighborhood, Your State… or even your Country!

Make the focus as broad (or as narrow) as you like. Focus on favorite places, or on the type of land that surrounds you, or on famous local landmarks or even on maps. Any book that opens a window on where somebody lives and broadens our horizons will count!

There are already some great examples in the VizZle shared library to give you ideas or templates for your own. Use the Select Lesson Type drop down menu to select Build-a-Book, then add keyword “geography” for excellent browsing. Or take a look at a few we chose as examples below.

Examples to Get You on Your Way

• Where in the Universe Am I? (Book), VizZle ID Number: 16881
  Images and text w/audio about the school, city, county, state, country, continent, planet and solar system from the student in South Euclid, OH’s perspective, 16 pages
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)

• Springfield Township Geography, (Book) VizZle ID Number: 24706
  Images and text about the local geography around Springfield Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, with popup quizzes for comprehension and retention, 20 pages
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)

• New York City / La Ciudad de Nueva York, (Book) VizZle ID Number: 19510
  Images and text w/audio first in English, then repeated in Spanish, about the 5 boroughs of NYC, with fun sound effect popups, 15 pages
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)

• My City (Cleveland), (Book) VizZle ID Number: 35625
  Images and text w/ audio about the city of Cleveland, OH, with Magic Media on the 2nd page to automatically insert the student’s picture into the story, 13 pages
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)

• Washington – The Evergreen State, (Book) VizZle ID Number: 28445
  Image and text w/audio about the state of Washington, with popups and videos, 11 pages
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)

• Alaska – The Great State, (Book) VizZle ID Number: 27634
  Images and text with audio about the state of Alaska, with popups, quizzes and videos, 13 pages
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)

• Australia, (Book) VizZle ID Number: 19465
  Images and text about Australia, 21 pages
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)

• World Communities (Mali), (Book) VizZle ID Number: 16534
  Images and text w/ audio about the culture of Timbuktu, Mali, 9 pages
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)

The Fine Print

A HomeTown VizZual story must be submitted between Tuesday, June 14, 2011 and Sunday, July 30, 2011 to the VizZle shared library (by clicking Submit to Share). If accepted into Share, the VizZle Vets will send the creator a $10 Amazon gift certificate. Limit one gift certificate per person (multiple students on an account may submit for consideration). Creators will be contacted via the account email address.

Trying to get access to tools like Facebook for your classroom? I found an article from a respected IT magazine (and a bit of insight) that might help you sway your powers-that-be. Scroll down for more and a link…

I am pretty tech-hip for my generation (and no, you don’t get to know how old I am just because I said that. Take my word for it.) And I admit, I was a Facebook pooh-pooh-er. Especially when it came to Facebook as a classroom tool. Much of my initial trepidation was because I just didn’t understand it. When I initially tried to learn about it, the whole thing just made me feel like an out-of-it geezerette (and, of course, we all seek out and embrace things that make us feel that way (¬_¬) ).

The Conservative Tech Hip

Considering that a good number of IT people in charge of making the decisions about what is and isn’t allowed on our classrooms are the tech-hip of my generation (and tend to be a conservative lot), I have to wonder if the knee-jerk “not in my backyard” reaction from so many IT admins is partly a generational/understanding thing. Being technically adept doesn’t automatically make somebody able to immediately grasp and accept paradigm shifts like Facebook (especially when it doesn’t do a good job of explaining itself—or at least it didn’t when it first arrived on the scene).

A Trusted Source

If you are trying to convince the powers-that-be at your school or in your district to be more open to tools like Facebook, don’t take it for granted that they know what Facebook is all about. Consider sending them a link to an article with your plea like this one in Tech & Learning Magazine. It takes a bit of forever to load, but the information is worth the wait (although you might want to preface it with a note saying something along the lines of “The beginning is a bit preachy, but something like this could make my communications so much more efficient and save me so much time!” [Let’s face it—all admins love to hear about efficiency boosters…])

Good luck in your quest! I hope this helps.

To learn how to send home lessons for skill retention, find info on summer PD, access VizZle from home and more (including some summer-themed lesson favorites), scroll down…

Despite what the calendar (or the weather) may lead us to believe, summer has arrived–at least in the form of summer break or the start of summer session. While you may not be heading in to school (or may have a lighter load for extended school year [ESY]), you and your students can still access all VizZle has to offer this summer.

2 Ways to Send Lessons for Skill-Retention over Break

Whether your students have a long summer break or a shorter break before and/or after ESY, practicing skills while they are out of school is the only way to ensure that hard-won gains aren’t lost. VizZle lessons are easy to send home over the summer, and their interactive format makes them feel more like fun than “homework” (so they are more likely to get done).

Via VizZleGram

You can send VizZle lessons individually from SHARE, the VizZle library, by clicking on the VizZleGram button in the upper-left of any lesson’s Activity Summary. When you click the VIzZleGram button, you’ll be asked to provide the email address and be given a chance to add a message or directions. If you want to send more lessons at a time (or send the same lessons to more than one student) you can send yourself the VizZleGrams, and then copy and paste the lesson information and lesson links into an email to your students.

Via Student Player

An even better option (because it allows you to use customized lessons for each student, create playlists, and track play data for the student) is to send home information on installing and using the VizZle Student Player, and then put your assignments in the Student Player folder in each student’s Student Folder.

Not yet up to speed on how to use the VizZle Student Player? You can learn all you need to know in the Student Player course at VizZle U or go to Student Player Help to get answers to specific questions. For a printable Word document of instructions that you can send home to parents (which includes a spot for you to fill in the Username and Password as well as any extra instructions), click here.

Use VizZle At Home This Summer

Because VizZle is Web-based, you can log in from any computer and find all your media and folders—you don’t have to be physically at school. So you can log in any time you like this summer to prepare lessons or get organized for the upcoming year (or for ESY!). Just start up the computer you want to use, open its web-browser and go to www.GoVizZle.com for all you need to get VizZle up and running at home.

Summertime PD

Summer is a great time to catch up on your professional development hours too (and learn more about VizZle while you are at it!). VizZle U’s VizZle 101 and VizZle 201 courses keep track of your hours and provide you with a completion certificate. Check with your district administrator to find out how to get credit, then logon to the interactive courses whenever and wherever you want to via the web at www.Learn VizZle.com.

VTips for Summer

VizZle support is available year ‘round, and so are VTips. If you’d like Vtips sent to a different email address over the summer, no problem! Click here and sign up to have them sent to another email address. We’ll keep the tips and lesson links coming!

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Some Summer Favorite Lessons

And just ‘cuz I always like to end with lesson links… Here are a few of my summer lesson favorites. Here’s hoping you have an excellent summer, no matter what your plans!

• Animals at the Beach, (Book), VizZle ID Number: 13980
  Image of item commonly seen on the beach with text and recorded audio sung to the tune “The wheels on the Bus”, with popup “wh” question quizzes, 7 pages with custom celebration
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)

• Discriminate: Beach, (Matching) VizZle ID Number: 13713
  Photos with text labels TO identical photos w/ text labels of beach items and animals, field of 6 choices, 13 pairs
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)

• How Many (Beach)? (Matching) VizZle ID Number: 14205
  Image set of beach related items TO numeral (1 to 10), field of 3 choices, 10 pairs
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)

• Why Do I Need Sunscreen? (Book) VizZle ID Number: 3517
  Images and text w/ audio, a reminder to use sunscreen in the summer when playing outdoors, 11 pages, with custom celebration
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)

HP has announced a new initiative it calls Hacking Autism that aims to facilitate and accelerate technology-based ideas to help give those with autism a voice. VizZle is proud to be a part of it! Scroll down for more…

HP’s aim is ambitious yet elegant–to bring volunteer software developers from around the world together to create applications suggested by autism experts–parents, educators therapists and people with autism. You can watch the video they posted announcing the project here.

Warning: This video rates a Two Hankie
(parts will likely bring tears, so best viewed in private
to avoid sobbing in front of co-workers or peers)

Technology and Hope– Hacking Autism’s Mission

The Hacking Autism mission statement says:

When touch-enabled computing was introduced to the world, no one could have anticipated that this technology might help open up a new world of communication, learning and social possibilities for autistic children. Yet it has.

Hacking Autism is a story of technology and hope and the difference it’s making in the lives of some people who need it most.

Hacking Autism doesn’t seek to cure autism, but rather it aims to facilitate and accelerate technology-based ideas to help give those with autism a voice.

VizZle Already “Making a Difference”

VizZle is proud to have been named as an app that is already making a difference and be featured in the Hacking Autism App Gallery.

If you are looking for apps to use with your kids, have an idea for an app, or would like to participate in the Hackathon being planned, visit the Hacking Autism website for more information.

As well as tons of cool new images (examples below), Jeff and his Media Team have added awesome new tools that make your image editing easier, more fun and (best of all) more effective! Scroll down for more…

Focus the Focus!

A brilliant new series of images Jeff developed and just recently uploaded make it easy to focus a student’s attention on a specific part of an image. When you search for media, use keyword “focus” and you’ll see a series of circle and square outlines of various colors on clear backgrounds in the search return.

When you are creating, you can drag a focus shape onto any image to outline a specific part of the picture where you want the student to focus. Use them to spotlight a specific portion of a cluttered image, to highlight areas for comparison, or to group objects in the image (awesome for math visuals!). To use them:

• drag your image into the creation tile

• click on the image and click Edit in the gray box that appears above to enter Image Edit mode

• type the keyword “focus” into the search box at the top of the screen

• drag in the colored circle or square of your choice

• drag it and use the handles to position it to spotlight the desired area of the image

What Was He Thinking?

Jeff has also added a new group thought and speech bubbles that make it easy to give your creations POV. If you search for “thought bubble” you’ll find all the easy-to-use thought and speech callouts to choose from. Add them to your image just as described above. While you are still in Image Edit mode, you can add text to the bubbles by clicking on the little A square (one of the the controls lining the right side of the Image Edit screen). Then click the image where you want the text and drag open a text box.

From Soup to Nuts

Lots of cool new cooking series have been added—images that walk through the entire process of scrambling eggs, making pancakes and many other common recipes. A full series of pool and locker-room images are recent additions, as well as everything from more body part cutouts to bugs (I’m still scratching phantom bites from looking at the mosquito pics). Look for lots of new cutouts too (images with the background removed and placed on a transparent backgrounds for layering).

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Many thanks to Jeff Richards, MTT Media Meister, for supplying the visuals (today and everyday!).

It can be particularly challenging to engage and motivate a student with autism. For info on improving engagement, quick customization tips, and motivating ways to take advantage of VizZle’s safe authoring environment (including original templates you can use for student-authored projects for Mother’s Day) scroll down…

Engagement 101

If you have worked or lived with kids with autism, you probably already know a fact that has been proven in studies: given a choice, kids with autism choose to spend more time playing with electronic media (multimedia, computers and computer games etc.) than with all other forms of play combined (Shane & Albert, 2008). In fact, getting a kid with ASD to put down the DVD player or move away from the computer game can be a battle.

Instead of fighting it, use it! Whenever possible, use interactive media-rich lessons that cover the content you need to teach. In one study, kids with ASD were attentive to a computer-generated lesson 97% of the time (learning 74% of the targeted nouns) but attentive to a teacher-directed lesson on the same material only 62% of the time (learning 41% of the targeted nouns). (Moore & Calvert, 2000). Searching Share for interactive lessons on topic, or making your own lessons if you can’t find what you need, can pay huge dividends.

The Easiest Way to Further the Engagement

Adding a student’s name to a lesson is by far the quickest and easiest customization bang for your buck. As you move a lesson into a student’s folder for launch, take a minute to edit it with that student’s name in a couple of key places. If it is a book, change the title (“Jenny’s Triangles”) and the last page (“Jenny learned a lot about triangles! Good job Jenny!”). For a matching board or a game, see if it lends itself to using the student’s name (a prime example being math word problems—use Jenny and her friends as the stars!).

Up the Ante with Personalized Pictures

Using a picture of the student in the lesson adds even more impact. Import a student’s photo just once (by dragging it into any lesson in edit mode) and the picture will be there whenever you want to use it again (you can find it automatically saved in your “My Media” folder). Use it on a title page, last page, or wherever it makes sense within the lesson.

If you drag the student’s picture from your My Media folder into the Student Profile in that student’s folder, it can have even greater impact. Launch a lesson that uses Magic Media from the student’s folder, and the lesson will pick up that student’s picture, automatically personalizing for greater engagement. (You can use “Magic Media” as a search term in Share to find lessons that use the Magic Media placeholders, or you can customize any lesson with a Magic Media image yourself so it picks up all your students’ pictures with one edit—see the illustration below.)

Use an Obsession to Your Advantage

All children get fascinated in phases, but kids with autism take it to the nth degree. Instead of fighting it for attention, use it! Drag in a picture or a video clip of their current obsession as a custom celebration (click here to learn how). You only have to import it once—then you’ll find it in your My Media whenever you want to use it again.

Creation as Motivation

More and more we hear from teachers that students are motivated to do their lessons by the reward of being allowed to author their own VizZle creations. And since all VizZle database content is safe, students can explore and experiment with new authoring techniques independently. Students love to see their work published, and we love to see and publish their work in Share. (You can find student authored work in the shared library by searching for “student author” or scanning the “Fiction” subject.)

Try a student authoring project—you may be surprised by how inspired your students get and how much they want to do more (and you have to love it when the “reward” motivator is a great lesson in and of itself!). For lower level students, you can help them search and let them choose the images to drag into a story. Mid-level students can use sentence starters and search suggestions. Higher level students can be given a theme.

Here are a couple of lesson templates for student authored projects to get you started, just in time for Mother’s Day:

• MOTHER Template, VizZle ID Number: 34143
  Print this book and use as template for students to use to create their own book for Mother’s Day. Text of a Mother’s Day poem and prompts for the student to add their own pictures (with or without aid, depending on the level of the student). Set to print on individual pages so the student can make a book to take home to Mom, 9 pages
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)

• Mother’s Day – Sentence Starters, VizZle ID Number: 34145
  Print a copy to use as a template for making your Mother’s Day book. Text directions and prompts on each page of sentence-starters for a Mother’s Day story by the student. Pages give students prompts divided into “think about it”, “type it” and/or “picture it.” along with each sentence starter. Set to print on single pages for the student to print and take home for Mother’s Day. 7 pages
  (No access to VizZle? Click here for a browser version—remember to maximize your browser and click play at the bottom.)

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References

Shane, H.C., Albert, P.D. (2008). Electronic screen media for persons with autism spectrum disorders: results of a survey. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 38 (8) 1499-1508.

Moore, M., & Calvert, S. (2000). Brief report: vocabulary acquisition for children with autism: teacher or computer instruction. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 30, 359-362.