Have a giggle – and raise awareness! – with this activity from Bonnie Thomas‘ new book, Creative Expression Activities For Teens! This book is bursting with art and journal…
By Gill D. Ansell, author of Working with Asperger Syndrome in the Classroom: An Insider’s Guide. Often, a child with Asperger Syndrome (AS) will seem…
“One small boy in my class was having great trouble going on school outings because he would not wear a seat belt. The bus driver came to tell me that he would not be allowed to go on any more trips. I thought this was rather harsh and so the very next day I told my class a story about Tedrick the teddy who would not wear a seat belt…We role-played the parts of the driver, the teachers and the other children on the bus. I emphasised how happy the driver was when all the children wore their seat belts and I asked the boy in question if he would mind taking Tedrick on the next trip. Guess what, that boy was the first one on the bus doing up his own and Tedrick’s seat belt!”
“As a parent of children who had speech delay, I would have found this book an invaluable resource and many parents I’ve spoken to have said the same. The real appeal is that it is a fun book that children will enjoy, making these exercises an exciting thing to do every day which I think is important.”
“As a Teaching Assistant I felt able to work closely with the students with AS; to get to know them as a person; to get to see the world the way they see it and from there develop strategies to help individuals. Sometimes, I tried new strategies which in reality were just ideas I had which I thought could work with a particular individual – that’s why it is important to know the student as an individual.”
School is back in full swing this week, and with it come new challenges for students – especially those who have difficulty coping with change, stress…
“Whilst the books are driven by a vision of what the educational experience of students should be, they are also driven by an evidence based analysis of what we actually know about the actual day to day experience of students and their educators.”
“The history of educational policy ‘innovation’ tells us that the most vulnerable and at risk pupils are often ignored or, at best dealt with as an afterthought.”
“It is probably wise to recognise the possibility that SEBD are not only encountered in the classroom – staffrooms have their fair share…”
“It is easy to be fooled by the apparently dismissive attitude that some young people show towards to school. It may be the case that for many students school is, indeed, ‘boring’ but this does not mean that it is unimportant to them. On the contrary, the school is the main site where young people establish their independent identities outside the family unit. From their earliest experiences of schooling, children are engaging with a key social institution as individuals in their own right. Whether they see themselves as succeeding or failing, socially and academically, they cannot escape the impact of these experiences on their developing identities. Relationships with teachers are central to this identity formation process.”