March 21st 2013

• Tonight we are listening to presentations on Aspergers, intellectual disabilities, sensory disorders, and executive functioning
• This site: http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/ is a site that students or teachers can use to make comics in class or for projects. What a great tool!
• Can use the comic strips for pragmatics, semantics, syntax etc. to check for understanding
• I can use the computer intervention for students with Asperger's 
• The visual phonics for sensory disabilities was very interesting! See the sound seemed like it would help these students
• Great iPhone app! American sign language alphabet only a dollar! This would be a great tool for someone that doesn't know sign language
• ILaugh was a great way to get the students involved! I would definitely use this in my future teaching career!

Teaching Time Project

For the teaching time presentation my group role was to do the interventions, accommodations/modifications, and to research the autism genome project.

Interventions: 1. PECS: I am going to have the class pair up into groups, one person will be the teacher and the other will be the student. The teacher will hold onto a picture and the student must grab the picture, which is of candy, to receive the candy. Then the candy picture will be on the PECS board. The student must then take the picture off the board and hand it to the teacher in order to get the candy.
2. Animated Social Story: the social story that the everyone in the class will watch is a demonstration on how someone with autism can start a conversation.

Accommodations/Modifications: 1.Place student near front of the classroom to limit distractions.

2.Have an area in the classroom with rocking chairs or bean bag chairs to support calming strategies.

3.Develop social stories/social scripts.

4.Allow student to have options while taking a test (ex: written, orally, time length, setting).

5.Evaluate and assess sensory needs/assess lighting, temperature, smells, sounds throughout the day, provide fidget toys, something for child to bite/chew on.

Autism Genome Project: 

›Purpose of phase 1: to gather DNA from families that have children who have been affected by Autism.›170 researchers from around the world gathered to analyze the DNA. Using cutting edge technology they tried to make a connection between the parents DNA and the child with autism.

›Purpose of phase 2: to identify susceptibility genes. This will hopefully lead to breakthroughs in new treatments. Researchers found that there are “rare variants” or genetic changes found in less than one percent of the population's DNA. They discovered that there are genetic mutations that can cause autism.

›www.autismspeaks.org