Autism Classroom Resources Podcast: A Podcast for Special Educators

You know what gets a bad rap with special ed teachers? Lesson planning! Whenever I ask around, I always discover there’s a mixture of opinions, and some teachers incorporate lesson plans while others don’t. In the last episode, when I discussed some common routines for setting up classroom systems, I touched on lesson planning for a bit. You might think it’s unnecessary. But if you truly want your...

Do you pressure yourself to do everything alone? Then listen up! Running a special education classroom isn’t something you can do by yourself, and having a system of routines just makes things easier. So in this episode, I want to talk about organizing strategies and routines to assist you in the daily running of your classroom. You’ll start the new school year off well and keep your classroom str...

Graphics are good! Despite those who say otherwise, you can never have too many visuals. When you start putting a classroom together, it can feel a little overwhelming. How do you make decisions about where to start prepping without stressing yourself out? In this episode, I talk all about visuals and specifically focus on prioritizing the ones you need to include for a smoother teaching experienc...

We’re building the center of the classroom to support instruction so that the day-to-day running of the classroom works on its own. But in order to do that, we need systems. Systems get set up so that the people in the classroom know what needs to be done and can do it on their own without the teacher’s attention being pulled away to direct something. A system like a zoning plan takes some time up...

Last week, I talked about creating a schedule for implementing the IEP in your classroom. With your schedule in hand, now you’re ready to start putting together the actual physical design of your classroom. In other words, it’s now time to move the furniture. So in this episode, I’m all about the goals of what we need to consider in moving that furniture and setting up your classroom. 3:02​ - How...

Today, I’m focusing on setting up the classroom schedule for the IEP. To me, the schedule is the most important and pivotal element of classroom design. It drives the other pieces of the classroom, tells me what the physical space will look like, and it’s based on the teaching implementation plan. Once the TIP is completed, it’s easier to see what activities are going into the schedule, and once t...

So far, I’ve spent the last few episodes talking about creating a collaborative IEP. So now that that’s done, you have to then actually implement the IEP. Start thinking about how to organize your learning environment and incorporate the IEPs for all of your students to meet their individual needs. It takes a well-structured, well-organized classroom design. Today, I discuss your teaching implemen...

I’m excited to share with you an episode from a Special Educator Academy podcast I’ve pulled specifically for this IEP series. One of the things I think is extremely important but sometimes difficult to do is advocating for your students as an educator. Many times we’re their voice and know them in the classroom environment at a level that neither the administration nor their families do. But advo...

I’m continuing my series on IEPs (and how much we love or don’t love them). Today, I focus on collaborating and want to talk a bit about perspectives. To start off the episode, I read a social narrative written for the IEP team, then cover what to avoid from the family’s point of view and how to make them feel comfortable during the meeting. 1:03 - The perspective everyone is meant to bring into t...

Have you ever wondered about the role of a general educator in IEP meetings, especially when the students involved have significant disabilities? General staff is required to be part of the IEP team, including the general education teacher. Sometimes that teacher fits into the team seamlessly. Other times they struggle with their role, and others may feel they’re not really needed and will just ha...

IEPs can be intimidating, some more than others. I like to often use the Mary Poppins phrase, “Well begun is half done.” It’s true of almost everything, but it’s definitely true of IEPs where the meetings can go off the rails before they’ve even begun. The better prepared you are, the smoother these meetings go. And the smoother the IEP, the smoother the school year, generally speaking. Over the y...

If you’re a special educator, then IEPs are probably not your favorite topic, but I’ll let you in on a secret. I kind of like them. I don’t like the marathons or the arguments, or even writing them. But I can’t imagine trying to work with our students without them and that’s one reason it’s so important we devote time to developing IEPs with your team. When I talk about them in this context, I’m r...

If you are a special education teacher working with students with autism, then you know about visuals.  But you might be surprised about some of the myths about them.  You even might believe some of them. I'm busting 5 of the most common I hear and have tons of resources and free leisure schedule visuals. Whether you are an experienced special educator, you don't think visuals are for yo...

Many of you may not know this, but I have a sister with autism.  But that makes April pretty personal to me.  In this episode I'm going to talk about her experiences and why I think we need to move beyond awareness and on to appreciation as a society to #celebratedifferences. In this episode I am talking about my sister but I'm mostly focusing on how you can build appreciation for autism...

In today's episode I want to share a strategy that has become a huge tool for students to learn how to problem solve social situations.  I've talked about it in the past and describe it in more detail in this post.  Traditionally, in the literature we have about it, it's called a social autopsy.  However, I have found that many students (and sometimes teachers) hate this name. &nbsp...

In this episode, Dr. Susan Kabot is sharing her biggest takeaway messages on how to teach pragmatics to students with autism and why it's so important.  This is the continuation of the interview from our last episode.  In episode 70 ,  she explained what pragmatics is and how it impacts these students so significantly.  We also talked a good bit in that previous episode, and ag...

Before I started working with Dr. Susan Kabot, I had never heard of pragmatics. And I certainly didn’t realize what a big impact they could have on the behavior of an individual with autism. So, when I started to think about episodes on how social skills impacts behavior, Sue was my first call. Because trust me, she can explain the intricacies of pragmatics in language than I can. We had such a gr...

In this episode, I'm talking about how deficits in social problem solving puts our students at risk for negative behavior. I will also talk about why we need to look at social skills and social problem solving as part of our functional behavior assessment. And why we need to incorporate social problem solving instruction into our students' curriculum to prevent challenging behavioral issues. Final...

In this episode I focus on specifically how the hidden curriculum impacts students' behavior.  This relationship is particularly an issue for those who have the invisible disability that we've been talking about in this series that places them in situations with limited adult supervision.  That's primarily because their lack of understanding of the unspoken social context is often the re...

While I can't detail all the ins and outs of teaching emotional regulation within an episode of a podcast, I can give you pointers toward 3 strategies that you can integrate together that can get you started.  So, in today's episode I have 3 tools I want to share to help you teach your students how to self-regulate along those same 3 steps. And I have a free download for you in the Resource L...

In last week's episode (episode 65) I talked about students with ASD who overreact to the smallest of events, often involving change or small problems. I typically call it catastrophic reactions to trivial events.  Often these students melt down, but sometimes they also shutdown or give up.  The significance is that they overreact to events that are not in line with their reaction. In ot...

In today’s episode, I’m going to talk about 3 behavioral complexities that these students with high functioning ASD present.  I’m going to focus on the why of these behavioral challenges. Because when you understand the challenges that face students with autism, sometimes it becomes a little clearer. After all, behaviors that look like one thing (e.g., defiance or noncompliance) may really ha...

Today, I’m starting out with a 9-episode theme of individuals with high functioning autism spectrum disorder.  These are students with ASD who are working on grade level standards in general education.  And that is where we are going to start today. Over the years I’ve worked with many of these students. And I can tell you one thing for sure as an educator. Being “high functioning” does...

The pandemic has been a really tough time to teach.  And you all have been amazing.  But it's been rough.   This episode is from the heart about lessons I learned about compassion fatigue and having to adjust expectations to manage to get through. These are specific lessons that I've adapted to our current situation.  I hope they can help you find ways to help yourself prevent...

I Spy games have always been one of my go-to strategies to fill in time and engage students to build vocabulary and facilitate language skills.  I pull it out while we are waiting for the previous specials class to finish up.  Or when we have some extra time at the end of a center before rotating that I was expecting.  Over the years I've used them with all different types of studen...