Communication in the classroom....that can be used at home

As many of you are aware we use a lot of pictures in our classroom. Many of which are for the use of Picture Exchange Communication, four out of our seven students have a 'PECS' book and use it every day in the classroom.They are able to use it to tell us what they want and need, as well as what pieces they would like for a project, to respond to simple questions, the opportunities are endless. The students are at various phases of the program. Some are able to create long sentences using articles and adjectives, such as 'I see 2 green frogs', or 'I need 2 blue squares please'. Where others are giving just one picture to communicate. But, all are initiating to pull off the picture and give it to a facilitator without prompts.

Recently, myself and three other colleagues wrote a grant to receive communication equipment. We were able to get two communication devices for my room and three official PECS books, a lesson plan book, a picture for pecs cd, and a instructional DVD for the PECS program.

THANK YOU MARTHA HOLDING JENNINGS FOUNDATION!

If your student is using PECS and you would be interested in transitioning this to your home, please let me know and you may borrow our dvd to watch to get you started. We are willing and excited to help create the home books with pictures and all. The start up cost is around $30, for all materials. It is a very powerful program that has helped the students make tremendous progress.

The Holidays are upon us!

Can you believe it is already December! This year has been a whirlwind trying to get adjusted to the new building and for me a lot of new paperwork (new IEP forms, progress notes every 5 weeks, etc).

Here we are in December and I'm proud of all of my students so far this year. They have each made a lot of progress already this year!

December 1st we were busy decorating our room for the holidays. We put up our Christmas tree, made elves and started our countdown to the break!