Teachers can always use free printables and resources for their students with autism. Materials and ideas for planning special education lessons for autistic students can be found online at various websites. Educational activities and printables can teach basic skills such as how to tell time or brush teeth. They can also help teach academic concepts such as fractions, opposites and basic grammar to young children as well as older kids.
Free Autism Resources – Associations, Emotions, Free Task Graphics
With over 100 pages of free autism printables for kids, Practical Autism Resources is a great place for teachers looking for free special needs resources. At this site there are many great activities pages as well as materials that provide the building blocks for teaching basic associations between items (baseball/glove/bat, doghouse/dog/leash) and emotions (happy, sad, mad). There are also more advanced pages for those learning about nouns, fractions and money.
At Practical Autism Resources, teachers can also find a multitude of free pictures, symbols and task graphics for folders and games, bingo graphics and even sentences that can be pasted to journals. In addition, there are also downloads in other languages such as Spanish and Italian for kids with autism. These free resources for students with autism can be used in the classroom and are perfect for home-schooled children.
Free Teaching Materials for Autism – Social Skills Printables
Kids with autism will most likely need help with their social skills. There are many websites that offer teachers free social skills printables and resources. One of these is Autism4Teachers. Here, you will find interactive lessons on social skills and emotions, downloadable items such as a temper thermometer, and several free social stories that can be downloaded and used in the classroom.
This website was put together and maintained by four highly motivated and experienced special education teachers from Florida. In addition to its extensive social skills materials, useful resources to facilitate learning for students with autism – actual examples of sensory activity rooms, TEACH workstations and effective classroom structure – can be found at Autism4Teachers.
Free Autism Conversation Starters to Print
Teachers who are interested in getting the conversation started with their autistic students can find hundreds of free conversation starters and printables at the Internet TESL Journal. This website offers a useful teacher’s guide on how to employ the questions and conversation starters that are available here in their classrooms.
Although intended for teachers of ESL (English as a second language) students, special education teachers can also use the conversation starters, questions and information at this website to teach their children with Asperger syndrome and autism how to talk about feelings, habits, gestures, annoying things, behavior and so much more. There are many advanced conversation questions too, such as those relating to science and technology, social networking and stereotypes.
Teachers who need ideas for their students with autism can check out the websites above for many free special needs printables and resources. Using materials that teach life skills and basic academics in reading and math, and also getting instructions and examples on how to structure an effective special needs classroom will help teachers and autistic students meet their IEP goals.
Karen Plumley - Karen Plumley is a writer specializing in parenting and education. She works for Parenting NH and the Hippo, NH's most widely read ...
