Downtime activity help needed | Autism PDD
Make note of their specific stimming behaviors -- they tell you a lot about the children's sensory needs, and then you can prepare sensory downtime activities that meet those needs. This article about stimming includes a chart that shows examples of stims under the various senses.
http://www.tsbvi.edu/Outreach/seehear/archive/mannerism.html #Chart
At a recent seminar, I heard about a kid who was always knocking chairs down. His teachers finally understood that he was fascinated by gravity, and finding toys that involved gravity (like a ball tower) not only helped his behavior but provided a bridge to social activity, because mainstream classmates wanted to try his toys, too.
Good luck with everything!
Even bigger WOW's.. thank you! I am so glad there is help out there...I have been out of the loop since autism was just an emerging thing... and getting back into it is a steep learning curve. I am truely grateful for any and all responses... it is about the kids... and being a teacher, I can only do so muhc.. but what I can do will hopefully make a difference!
Thanks y'all!
Also, we ar doing the zipping and
brooming thing.. just trying to find something positive for the kids to do
when we don't have a 1:1.... 
Wow! Thank you so much you all!!! I am so excited to get some help here.... I will use all of your ideas... I have kids that are not too significant and those that are at the furtheest reaches... I can augment any of these ideas to fit and I soooo appreciate the help... it has been a long time since I have been working with kids with autisum... things have changed a lot in how we teach and so forth. And i don't feel so alone in all the figuring altho I did just go to an inservice about social stories and such; that was helpful.. It is just finding the time to get anything done... I am very grateful.. thank youall for helping me out!
It's good to see another teacher here on the board!
I'm not sure if you're wanted more "fun" time activities, or more "educational" type ones, but I have a few ideas of some tasks that my students have been able to do independently for extended periods of time without a lot of help. Here's a link to a few that I have on my website: http://www.positivelyautism.com/downloads_tasks.html and http://www.positivelyautism.com/downloads_foldergames.html
The website http://www.tasksgalore.com/ also has some good ideas (look under the tab that says "Task of the Month."
Shelley also had some great ideas. Another might be a "listening center," where the students can listen to a book on tape or CD while looking at the same book.
Nicole
Free Autism Resources and Printable Activities for Parents and Teachers! ~ http://www.PositivelyAutism.com/
Erin
finger painting, playdough, water table, sand table, rice and beans table(Large bins) cardboard blocks to stack and build, legos, trains, squishey toys, books, puppets, bubbles, puzzles, balls, farm animals, dancing with scarves to music...musical instruments;drums, tamborine, maracas, xylophone..ect...to kids songs cd:)
Fine motor~lacing boards or stringing beads
Education videos like baby bumble bee, Barney, Sesame Street or whatever videos that model good social skills like preschool power..modelmekids..ect..
How old are the kids?Hi! I am just new to this forum today. I have looked absolutely everywhere and cannot find what I am looking for. I am a teacher working in a special needs class with about 3 kids with autism. I am desparatly trying to find information on down-time activities... when we are not working one on one with our students. We have picture schedules we use and are very aware of tranision time issues. For the most part we are doing fine. But there are just times there are either not enough of us there to work one on one with a student. The kids with autism wind up involved in stemming and I would rather they are doing something better with thier time. Any resources out there anyone knows about??? Thank you so much!
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