Strategy # 1: Power Cards to target social skills What: Strategy- Power Cards Skill / Behavior: social skills and social thinking challenges (teaches children what to do in targeted social situations) Why / Rationale: Power cards act as motivators and are good ways to teach social skills because it uses the child's unique interests.
A Power Card is a visual aid that has an image of a character / person that the child particularly likes.
There is also a written scenario on the card with a few steps describing how the person/character would react in that social situation.
Solutions to the problem situation are usually written in 3 to 5 steps.
Children with Autism are more likely to follow this card with steps rather than commands of what to do.
Also, the child will see the image of the hero and want to be like that and will most likely do what the hero suggests.
I believe it's a good tool to use because Power Cards are fun, encouraging, and positive.
Power cards are a way for child to see a picture of something they like, encourage them to want to act like that person.
The child can also make a positive association between the two (hero & appropriate social interaction).
Powers Cards are also easy to make and inexpensive.
With whom: In order to make an effective Power Card, the person making the card has to know what the child's particular/favorite interests are.
That person also has to know specific situations where the child has difficulty.
For example, if a certain child loves the Flintstones cartoon and has difficulty transitioning, then they may want to take a character from the show, like Fred, put a picture of him on the card and write a short scenario of how Fred moves through his day and doesn't mind change.
Find a hero/character that the child likes and set up a scenario where that "hero" acts appropriately in a social situation.
Power Cards act as motivators so hopefully, the child will repeat the same steps when they are in that situation.
They always have the card to look at, read and remind them of the steps to take.
When: Power cards can be used through out the day when the child is in a social situation that they need help dealing with.
It may be at a doctor's office, school lunchroom or restaurant.
Power cards can be used for situations when the child lacks understanding of what it is he/she should do, such as routines and hidden curriculum.
They can also be used when does not understand that he has choices.
How: To use Power Cards, provide the child with the card if the will be entering a situation that they have difficulty with.
The first step would be to talk to the child's parents, therapists, and teachers and find out situations where the child has difficulty.
The second step would be to watch the child and see where his/her special interests are.
It may a specific toy, TV show, or game.
The next step is to write or draw a short scenario about what that character/hero would do in a situation.
For example, use a picture of Hello Kitty and what she does at the doctor's office.
Present the card to the child in a positive way and tell them that this is how Hello Kitty handles this situation.
Having visual schedules also provides children with a comprehensive environment.
Whereas language is usually delayed, they can see an image of the activity and understand what they will be doing that day.
Risks: A possible risk could be that the power cards loses efficacy for the child.
Another may be that the child loses interest in that character and the card may not motivate the child anymore.
Research supporting strategy: The purpose of this study was "to evaluate the Power Card strategy in teaching direction following".
This article did a study on three first grades students with ASD.
They used the children's "obsessive interests" to teach social interactions during age-appropriate games.
The study found that interventions with rules, like the Power Card, "are potentially useful as they bypass ineffective social consequences and evoke appropriate social responses.
" (p.
241) Three children with Autism were used in this study.
All of them were in first grade in a self-contained special education classroom.
They were each given power cards with images of special interests on them.
One child had a picture of a staff member she liked, another child had an image of trains, and the last child had two images of characters from a move that he liked.
Teachers gave the children 5-10 directions during a 20-minute playtime.
The first time the teacher gave the directions; they did not have the cards.
The children were given the card, which were read to them by teachers and then they were to play in free playtime again.
The results showed that the children's' percentage of following directions increased when they had the Power Cards.
Campbell, A.
, & Tincani, M.
(2011).
The Power Card Strategy: Strength-Based Intervention to Increase Direction Following of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions.
13 (40), 240-249.
Visual-Supports Schedules What: Strategy - Visual-supports schedule Skill / Behavior: Transitions Why: Visual-supports schedules are effective strategies to help children go through transitions in activities, settings, or routines throughout the day.
It may be difficult for children to shift focus from one activity to the next or change their routine.
Therefore, having a visual for them to see, whether it's a large visual of the daily schedule hung on the wall or a small pocket size visual that is made specifically for them could help with this because it allows them to see what's coming next.
Visual schedules usually have the word written next to the picture and a teacher will verbally say what is happening next as well.
Visual schedules can help in decreasing transition time and interfering behaviors during transitions.
Visual schedules provide a visual framework for their lives.
With whom: In order to put this tool into context, the parent of teacher must know about the difficulties, behaviors or transition time that a child displays during transitions.
The person figuring out which type of visual support would be most effective will have to know which schedule would work best for the child.
They should assess the child's comprehension level, attention span, and sequencing abilities.
When: Visual - supports schedules can be used to cue transitions and prior to changes in routine.
Visual-supports schedules can be used at school or at home.
Visual schedules have to be used daily and consistently so that the child becomes familiar with it and it is useful for them.
How / Procedure: There are different ways in which a visual schedule can be used.
It differs with every child.
For example, in a classroom, when a transition is going to occur, the teacher may cue the child by giving a verbal cue such as "Time for lunch now.
" Or the teacher can go over to the daily schedule and point out that they are done with puzzles (flip over the image) and then say lunch is next.
Another example of using a visual schedule may be having a small visual schedule with Velcro images on it that is portable and moves with the child when the transition.
It can be a First, Then schedule, for instance.
Two images will be on the visual of what the child is doing and what they will be doing after that activity.
When one activity is ending, the teacher or child will remove the activity that is done and place the other activity picture in the appropriate place.
Another image will then go in the "then" place.
Transitions cards are effective for children who need longer sequence for reducing difficulties during transitions.
A transition cards station is placed in one spot in the home or in school.
Children will got the station and get the information of what is coming next and they need a cue to know when to go to that schedule.
Risks: One risk that may occur from visual schedules is that it may make the child more rigid in their routine.
Visual supports also only offer an image in a moment in time as opposed to seeing how to actually see the actions needed to perform a task in a video modeling visual.
Research supporting strategy: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the different effects of two visual schedule strategies; picture schedules and video based activities.
The researchers took pictures of students doing different activities during the day and placed them on a sequential visual.
They transitioned ten times in one day and the teacher cued the student to go to the next task.
Five activities were shown through visual supports and the other five were shown through videos.
The teacher cued the child to go check their visual schedule and they got marked correct if they went to the schedule, saw what they had to do next and went to that location and performed the next activity.
If the child did not go the visual schedule after 5 prompts by the teacher, the teacher would assist the child to the schedule and go over it with them.
The results showed that the participants performed more individual transitions with the help of both visual strategies.
One person performed better with the use of visual supports picture, whereas two other participants performed better using videos and the one person performed the same using both visual strategies.
Cihak, David F.
(2011).
Comparing pictorial and video modeling activity schedules during transitions for students with autism spectrum disorder.
Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders.
5 (1), 433-441.