Today's Schedule.

Buckethead.

Autistic children rely on schedules and consistency, as well as visual cues and forms of communication. Each child in my classroom has one of these schedules: strips of Velcro on construction paper that allow various squares with opposing Velcro sides to be stuck and arranged in order of daily activities. The kids are great at recognizing pictures and words on these squares and could communicate entirely using these squares if needed (there are also squares for words like "I', "want," "pretzel," etc.). They also use sign language for basic words such as "hurt" and "more." It's amazing to learn how intelligent each child is and all the ways they communicate.

(Some children speak perfectly well, as is the case with a few in the room. One of the boys is obsessed with the Chicago Blackhawks and can carry on a conversation about them endlessly. Another boy makes me giggle when he does his reading lesson and says "pepperonnnnni pizza!" or assumes the role of teacher.)
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a year ago: matches.