About 4 years ago the preschools in my school district started using a free pre-reading curriculum entitled Read it Again.  Laura M. Justice and Anita S. McGinty created it as part of their work at The Ohio State University.  The curriculum is great because it uses common books that preschool teachers use in the classroom already. Each lesson also has adaptations for students who need a little bit more from the lessons and for students who need a little more help from the lessons.  I have gotten used to the lessons and find them very useful in introducing pre-reading skills.

My classroom serves nonverbal students with a functioning level of 12 months to 3/4 years of age.  So, I have adapted the lessons even farther to include a vocabulary element and visuals each time I teach the lessons.  I have done this by adapting the book pages with pictures of vocabulary words from the story line.  The students need to find the pictures From a group of pictures and then match the pictures to ones on the page.  See a picture below of what this looks like for the book Rumble in the Jungle By: Giles Andreae and David Wojtowycz:

I also use visuals to help with story retelling and comprehensions with some visuals created by Speech Language Pathologist for the Read it Again lessons. The visuals help them answer the questions about the book and help them to retell as well.  They have been very useful to help gain comprehension skills.  Some students can use them independently and some need adult assistance.  Either way they are a good introduction to comprehension skills. You can see a picture of what these look for the book Rumble in the Jungle below:

You can download the entire curriculum for free at:

http://ccec.ehe.osu.edu/practice/ccec-curricula/read-it-again-pre-k/materials/

Visuals in the Early Childhood Special Education Classroom

When I started teaching I knew the value of using visuals in the preschool setting. but I never new how impactful they would be for my students in special education.  I use visuals in every part of my day and It is a huge part of my classroom management and it is also how I adapt a lot of my lessons in my room.  I would like to cover adaption in a different post though.  In this post I would like to talk about how visuals have helped my nonverbal preschooler students become more independent, how they help them attend to circle time and skills group time and how they help them follow simple routines without prompts.

The visuals that I have found to be the most powerful are the visual picture schedule.  Each of my students has one to help them transition independently throughout the day.  I also have them at group times (circle time and skills group time) to help students what we will do at these times.  Typically students with communication delays also have trouble understanding verbal language, so, the visuals help the students see what will happen next.  This allows them to not be anxious or unaware of the next activity.  It helps them be independent, as well, because you are not constantly prompting them with directions and gestures.  The picture allows them to understand the direction in a way that it meaningful.  Visuals also help students to be independent with routines as well.  It is similar to how they help students with the other areas I mentioned.  The visual allows the students to know what to do without prompts and they can do the task with independence. 

I first learned of visual schedules and using multiple visuals throughout the day from a TEACCH training that I attending in my first year of teaching.  I have used many of the TEACCH strategies throughout my teaching career.  

You can learn more about TEACCH at: www.teacch.com/about-us/what-is-teacch

Below I have added some pictures of the visuals I use every day: 

Visual Picture Schedules (6 Students)

Independence in the Bathroom Visuals 

Classroom Rules Visuals with Mr. Potato Head

Circle Time schedule and Group Rules 

Hello!  My name is Erica Male and I have been teaching for 10 years, in the same classroom, at the Cedar Rapids Community School District.  I graduated from Iowa State University with and Early Childhood Special Education Degree. I am also working on a Special Education Consulting Degree through Morningside College.  I hope to use it someday to help other teachers learn the strategies I use that I know are effective!

I have enjoyed developing my skills to help students with special needs learn to communicate effectively, interact socially, and learn the academic skills they need to succeed in school!  

Details About My Classroom:

My classroom is an Early Childhood Special Education Room at Jackson Elementary School in the Cedar Rapids Community School District.  The room is dedicated to students with Autism and/or students with large delays in communication.  This means we focus on Communication and Social Skills first and foremost.  We work on communication all day long with the use of Picture Exchange Communication and Pivotal Response Training.  We work on Social Skills through play and also our formal curriculum: The Incredible Flexible You.  We also work with positive peer role models during inclusive opportunities during center time and recess time to work on social skills. My two paraprofessionals and I are dedicated to helping our students succeed and learn.  We love to see the students learn new skills and except all the challenges that comes along with that. 

We also cover the typical preschool academics in the classroom during our circle time and skills groups.  These topics include: letter recognition, letter sounds, number recognition, counting, shape recognition, pre-reading skill development, basic math skills. 

The Teaching Tools I use in my room:

Assessment: Teaching Strategies Gold

Literacy Curriculum: Read it Again

Math Curriculum: Preschool Everyday Math

Social Emotional Curriculum: Incredible Flexible You

Language and Academic Curriculum: The STAR program

Hand Writing Curriculum: Hand Writing Without Tears

Room Organization: Creative Curriculum and TEACCH Strategies