Group items tagged

"The Social Express™ is engaging, educational software for children and young adults with social learning challenges. The software is designed to teach users how to think about and manage social situations, helping them to develop meaningful social relationships and succeed in life. The Social Express is based on best practices and programs that feature cognitive behavioral techniques and visual strategies including Social Stories (Gray, 2002), Comic Strip Conversations (Gray ,1994), the Alert Program(r) (Williams & Shellenberger, 1996), The Incredible 5 Point Scale (Buron & Curtis, 2003), and The Hidden Curriculum (Myles, Trautman and Schelvan, 2004).  The activities presented in the software adhere to  the ELA (English, Language, Arts) Common Core Standards. Some of the core concepts presented are based on the work of Michelle Garcia Winner and her Social Thinking® curriculum"

"Social stories or visual scripts are stories that describe with words and pictures different activities or events that happen in life in a step by step detailed way. The social stories or visual scripts listed are mostly in PDF format (unless otherwise noted). If you do not have a PDF reader, you can download Adobe PDF Reader."

Social skills development can be a rocky road for many children…we like to call it a "Social Adventure." When given concrete and creative means to learn about and practice social communication and friendship, the journey can be fun rather than confusing and frightening. One passion we all share is leading groups to facilitate and enhance social cognition. Another is introducing technology as a motivational learning medium wherever and whenever we can. As many of you know, the introduction of the iPad has led to an absolute explosion of creativity for new therapy activities! We have found technology to be a wonderful means to collaborate and learn from and with each other, regardless of background, education, or training. Technology has become a common and accessible connection for parents, teachers, and therapists in helping children learn. For some time now, we have been incorporating the use of apps in our individual and group therapy. We are now ready to jump into development ourselves.

The MacArthur Foundation launched its five-year, $50 million digital media and learning initiative in 2006 to help determine how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life. Answers are critical to developing educational and other social institutions that can meet the needs of this and future generations. The initiative is both marshaling what is already known about the field and seeding innovation for continued growth.

The MacArthur Foundation launched its five-year, $50 million digital media and learning initiative in 2006 to help determine how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life. Answers are critical to developing educational and other social institutions that can meet the needs of this and future generations. The initiative is both marshaling what is already known about the field and seeding innovation for continued growth.

"What are social bookmarking sites? Basically, these are sites that allow users to post their favorite sites, using tags (or keywords) to categorize and organize them; then other users can take these bookmarks and add them to their own collection or share them with even more users. Here are my picks for the top ten social bookkmarking sites on the Web - the sites that consistently deliver some of the best content you'll want to share, discover, and store."

"JASPER (Joint Attention Symbolic Play Engagement Regulation) is a treatment approach based on a combination of developmental and behavioral principles developed by Dr. Connie Kasari at the Center for Autism Research and Treatment, at University of California, Los Angeles. This intervention model targets the foundations of social-communication (joint attention, imitation, play), uses naturalistic strategies to increase the rate and complexity of social-communication, and includes parents and teachers as implementers of the intervention to promote generalization across settings and activities and to ensure maintenance over time. Dr. Kasari and her colleagues have tested this approach in a series of target and modularized research studies. In the first randomized controlled trial, 58 preschool children with autism were recruited from an early intervention program based on applied behavior analysis, and were taught joint attention and play skills. This study showed promising evidence that a child-centered treatment focused on early social-communication deficits of joint attention and play could lead to improvements in these core deficits while also increasing the child's use of language (Kasari et al, 2006, 2008, 2012) over a 5 year span. Researchers are continuing to test the use of JASPER with children of various ages (infants to school-aged) and across various settings (clinic, home and schools)."

"The apps in this list represent ten of the best Apple iPod Touch apps for Science and Social Studies teachers. They are detailed, feature packed, and, best of all, free! Some of them are versatile enough that they could even be used in both Science and Social Studies."

Social Stories from Inclusive Learning Technology

Social Emotional Needs Entwined with Students' Learning, Security

Free materials: social stories, etc.

"ere are dozens of free autism social skills teaching resources, most with free pdf downloads.  They are organized by color-coded categories below:  1. Communication/Relationships 2.  Emotions 3. Communication/Relationships/Emotions"

20+ Tips anad Strategies for Volunteer & Group Leaders: Supporting Individuals with Social Learning Challenges in your Group

"Teaching children with autism the social skill of discerning silly from serious"

"Individuals who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and their families have new expectations for life after high school, including attending college, becoming employed, managing personal assistance services and transportation, and having intimate relations. However, the vocabulary needed to support these socially-valued adult roles is frequently not be available in pre-programmed devices nor in commonly used visual symbol systems. This website contains vocabulary needed to participate in 8 socially-valued adult roles: * College Life * Emergency Preparedness * Employment * Sexuality, Intimacy, and Sex * Reporting Crime and Abuse * Managing Personal Assistance Services * Managing Health Care, and * Using Transportation "

"There is a lot of research and evidence to prove that social stories are an effective way to work with children diagnosed with Autistic spectrum disabilities. We want to use these methods and ideas to develop a website for all children with behavioral difficulties. We want to include stories based on the social story format, but geared towards specific behavioral issues that parents and teachers may be having with students. We would like to provide supports through suggested websites, links, tools for creating your own behavioral stories, and examples of stories we have used and found effective."

"WackWall is a free tool for creating custom social networks with easy setup and complete feature set. "

"Created by the parent of a child with special needs, the MyTalk iPhone/iPod touch application is a practical, portable and affordable companion to traditional AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) devices. With MyTalk, you can easily create personal communication boards for both education and everyday use. From "My name is Michael" to "I would like to order a Big Mac," MyTalk enables those with expressive language challenges to share their likes, dislikes, desires and needs in common social settings via commonly accepted devices. While traditional AAC aids can enhance rather than reduce social stigma, children, teens and adults alike will be eager to engage with others via their iPhone and iPod touch devices. "

This paper explores the pedagogical and social potential of emerging technologies, in particular the iPod, in facilitating the learning of young Australians with severe intellectual and social disabilities. The study, which was carried out in a segregated educational setting in Victoria, Australia, sought to establish whether the intrinsic portable, multi-media capabilities of the iPod particularly lent themselves to a practical application for students with severe disabilities. It was concluded that such new technology has considerable power and potential as an emerging pedagogy with students with severe intellectual and physical disabilities.

"I made my comparison chart with one qualification in mind- it HAD to have the ability to add text to the pages.  The comparison chart below does not include every app that can be used to create social stories; it does include apps that I have used and think are worth taking a look at. Their features vary, their sharing options vary, their costs vary. "

"Institutions of higher education are experiencing major shifts in pedagogy with teaching approaches that focus on student centered learning and increased access for learners who face challenges due to social, economic and cultural pressures. The traditional lecture based, face-to-face classroom is not as viable in light of information technology and learning tools offered by online instruction. More learners are participating in expanded learning communities unrestricted by geographical location and time restraints with more flexible access to content anytime and anywhere. The demographic composition of the college student population is shifting in response to economic, social, educational, health and political changes in the United States. In addition to students with disabilities, English language learners, and ethnic and racial minorities, other forms of diversity need to be considered in the classroom including gender, class, age, employment status, race and culture and family and work related responsibilities. Meeting the needs of these students is critical to insuring they have equitable access and opportunities to participate in higher education"