Teaching With Visual Work Tasks

Well, what can I say about this subject?  Lots.  Too much.  Too many things to address.  I could go on and on.  But...  The kids who seem to have difficulty grasping the regular (or even special ed) curriculum are baffling to those that teach them.  These are often visual learners, the ones that don't easily grasp the auditory format that is in most classrooms.  I have had several kids on my caseload that just didn't seem to be learning much, but that attended school every day.  The paras that worked with them were really at a loss, they didn't know what they could be doing with their student while the rest of the class learned the regular curriculum.  (Certainly the paras rely on curriculum assistance from teachers and special educators, but sometimes educators aren't familiar with structured tasks or how to make a task more visual.)  Now, of course there are kids who are in the regular classroom who are learning through their own adapted curriculum.  But the students that I am referring to are those kids who need emphasis on the visual aspect of being taught, and that need to master work completion and independence.  Structured work tasks are a very good place to start.  Work tasks should have a clear beginning and ending.  They should be clearly laid out and visually organized. This type of format emphasizes the visual learning style of the student, and alleviates the need for auditory processing.   Certainly these work tasks are great for kids with autism, but I also use them with kids with developmental delays because the steps to the tasks are predictable and concrete. Below are a couple of structured work tasks that I have recently used with some students that I am working with.

This is a sorting task that is also functional-  putting silverware away is a task that everyone does at home.  The student sorts by utensil, obviously; sorting is a task that speech therapists use often.  I bought the baskets at the dollar store, and the "silverware" is plastic, which can also be bought at the dollar store.  You can also buy an inexpensive utensil tray to sort into.  This is also a good task for perceptual skills and reaching and placing- one of my students has difficulty rotating items to fit into a space.

This is a sorting task by size- big and small.  These activities can be simple, or you can add other elements, such as choice making using PECS cards, adding a math component, using 1:1 correspondence, etc.

Below is an excellent resource for visual work tasks, "How Do I Teach This Kid? Visual Work Tasks for Beginning Learners on the Autism Spectrum," by Kimberly A. Henry.   It contains information on how to make task boxes and activities.  It also includes category content such as motor tasks, matching tasks, sorting tasks, reading tasks, writing tasks and math tasks.  I am currently working jointly with a speech therapist and co treating a student using these types of tasks and this book for guidance.  It has been working out great, I highly recommend this book as a resource.