Site Contents
I've attempted to arrange the contents of this site to approximate the process a parent or teacher might go through when designing an educational program for a child with autism and the questions he might ask he does so. The topics listed below will also be available to the right of each of the pages in this site.
Polyxo.com
- Home
- The front page for Polyxo.com.
- Site Contents
- This page.
- Printable Documents
- Items available for printing and use in your home or school-based programs, including data sheets, teaching materials, and other resources.
- Contributing Authors
- A list of those who have contributed content to Polyxo.com
- Join the Discussion List
- Sign up for autism-teaching-L, an e-mail discussion list for anything dealing with teaching children with autism.
- Contact Polyxo.com
- Various means for contributing content to this site, or for asking questions, voicing concerns, posting comments, etc.
What do we teach?
How do we decide what behaviors or skills we need to teach? What do we do when a child is already exhibiting a behavior that may be inappropriate or inadequate?
- Curricula
- A collection of available curricula specifically target for teaching children with autism.
- Functional Behavior Analysis
- Often, our goal isn't only to teach a new behavior, but rather to replace a behavior that a child is already exhibiting, a behavior that is either inappropriate or inadequate in meeting the child's needs. To do that, though, we need to analyze the current behavior to determine why the child is using that behavior. We do this through a functional behavior analysis.
How do we teach it?
What are the more commonly used tools and techniques for teaching children with autism?
- Applied Behavior Analysis
- Applied Behavior Analysis, or ABA, is possibly the most common, and arguably the most effective, foundation for teaching children with autism. ABA-based interventions are typically structured, systematic, and intensive approaches based on the principles of behavioral science.
- The Discrete Trial
- The discrete trial is the primary teaching method in a number of behaviorally-based interventions for children with autism. A discrete trail applies the principles of behavioral science to the teaching of specific skills and behaviors. In addition, included in this section are some pointers on using ABA-based techniques for teaching complex behaviors and for dealing with "problem" behaviors.
- Floortime
- Floortime is a child-directed, relationship-based approach to play, designed to elicit and encourage important, developmental skills: affect, emotion, engagement, communication, rapport, etc.
- Instructional Programs
- The phrase "instructional program" is encountered most often when working with ABA-based teaching. Essentially, an instructional program describes exactly how a specific skill is to be taught to a particular child. You will find here a collection of some of the instructional programs that I have used and which have been sent to me by my readers. Also included in this section is a paper on how to write instructional programs, and general tips and tricks for teaching particular concepts. Included here, too, are the materials that were previously found in the Workboxes section, so that everything that pertains to the teaching of a particular skill can be found in this one area.
- Social Stories
- Social skills are often one of the more significant deficits we see in children with autism. Social stories are one of the more commonly used methods to address those deficits. Included in this section is both a introduction to writing social stories and a collection of stories that myself and others have written.
- Visual Supports
- There are certain environmental concerns that one should take into account when setting up workspaces for children with autism. Visual cues play a big part in helping a child better understand, communicate, and work within his environment.
Is it working?
How can we determine the efficacy of a program? How can we use collected information to refine our program? What do we do if our interventions are not working?
- Data Collection
- A brief discussion on the various types of data and the methods that one can use to collect it. Soon to be included are some sample data sheets that you may find useful.
Where else can we look?
- Suggested Reading and Resources
- Pointers to on-line and printed resources to which you can turn for further information.
