Because 99% of the stuff in a toy store isn’t really made with the learning needs of autistic children in mind (not likely gonna see “For reading levels 6 and up and speech levels 1 and up!” on a toy) and because there’s no telling what the J-Man will play with and what he won’t, I’ve started making ‘folder games’.
These are just very cheap learning games made from manila folders, velcro dots, and other stuff that you can for the most part find around the house, or for almost no cost at the store. And when you’re done with them, you can just fold them up and slide them on a shelf.
The ones I’ve made lately center on matching words with objects (e.g. a square of one color, then he puts the word under it – or vice-versa) with some number and letter matching thrown in too. This seems like a big leap in mental effort for him, so his attention span is lower. But that’s just how he normally is with newer challenges, so it’s nothing unusual. He perseveres and soon amazes us with the things he can learn.
So I’d like to show you three examples of these folder games. I think the entire cost for these three activities took less than $2 out of the supply budget plus the time it took us to make them. And as a bonus, the folders themselves are reusable for countless other activities I haven’t finished yet.
This is just a manila folder with eight velcro dots stuck in it – four for the color squares, which are made from construction paper – and four for the label strips, which I printed off my computer as sheets of about 20 words each and then cut them out. All of these things are laminated with matching velcro dots on the back so they’ll stick to the folder.
The good thing about doing it this way is that you can swap out as many colors as you want and rearrange them in any order you want to avoid your kid memorizing it rather than learning it. You can reuse the folder for other labeling activities as well, like pictures of farm animals or people or whatever.
I’ve also been working on helping him identify numbers better, or at least communicating better what the number is because the starting sounds of most numbers are hard for him. Since he’s trying to read everything in the house, we’re trying out matching the word of the number with the numeral, though we’re still in the early stages with this.
This is a manila folder with library card pockets stuck in it. It’s just those pockets they put in the back of library books to slide the due date card in. These are kind of hard to find now, but I got them at a teacher supply store. They’re about 10-20 cents each if you buy a bunch. I got 8 pockets to fit in the folder (using their handy self-adhesive) and put velcro dots on each of them. You can use fewer pockets of course. I figured if I only wanted to do an activity with 3-4 choices, I just wouldn’t use the other pockets for that round.
I printed squares with the number words, laminated them, and put the matching velcro dots on them. Note the theme – buy lots of velcro dots! I just wrote the numerals on index cards, which he can then take, match with the word, and slide the card into the pocket. That sliding the card in gets him a little motor planning/OT work in there too! This whole activity is still hard for him, but we got as far as him placing a couple of the numerals on top of the correct pockets, so that’s a good start.
Because everything is removable, I can mix, match, and move around whatever I put in there, again so he can’t just memorize the game.
Letters are his stronger suit, so we’ve been doing some work on helping him recognize lowercase letters. He does this pretty well considering we’ve only started working on this, but there are some that stump him. A lowercase ‘L’ (usually just written as a vertical line) has him totally baffled, but that’s understandable of course. We figured, he’s got capitals down, let’s push him!
Note – this is the exact same manila folder used with the numbers activity above. If you plan out your activities, you can get multiple uses out of one folder.
Here I made the capital letter squares just like I did the number words above. Similarly, I wrote the lowercase letters on the index cards. The idea is to match lowercase with uppercase and slide the card in the pocket. As before, because everything is removable, I can mix and match letters and the order I put them in.
As I think about it, I wonder whether doing it the other way around would be better. In other words, print lowercase letters to put on the front of the pockets and use capital letters on the index cards. Hmmm. Might have to play around with that.
We also learned from his sight word cards that certain letter combinations when printed (like ‘tr’) show up really close together, and it seems like he’s thinking about them together as one letter, which really confuses him since it obviously isn’t. He takes a stab at it though, which is always nice to see. BTW – it sounds like he thinks ‘tr’ is ‘f’. If you look at them, that’s a really good guess on his part!
The tedious thing about making your own activities like this is laminating everything. Technically you don’t have to, but if you don’t, you’ll be remaking the pieces of the activity frequently, especially if your child is rough on paper. If they’re not, using heavy card stock paper might suffice.
You can get a fairly inexpensive laminator at Target for $25 and the sheets are about $7 for 25. One sheet is about 8.5″ x 11″ so you can laminate about five cards or countless word strips with just one. The laminator is effective but slow. I tend to keep a cup of coffee nearby for while I wait.
Pretty quickly, you’ll realize this is way cheaper than buying flash cards over and over or finding little bits of paper scattered all over your house. But then you have to cut out everything that’s laminated, which is even more tedious to me, though Mary doesn’t seem to mind.
If you’re willing to put forth some of this tedious effort, you can make all sorts of stuff for practically no money. We have plans in the works to produce a series to show you how to do this in more detail, give you some ideas for what else to make, and explain the reasoning behind the activities. I’ll probably need to break out the video camera. Yikes!
Happy folder making!
Posts that hopefully are similar:
- Shoebox and Folder Games
- Climbing Up the IEP Goals Ladder – “What a Great Quarter!” Edition
- And colors too?!
- Think All Flash Cards Are Alike? Think Again! – A Review of Goosie Cards
- Shining More and More! Quarterly IEP Report
- Building Blocks, Sequences, Memory, and Thoughts on Thinking
- Revisiting Milestones – Speech, Language, and Reading
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
gr8 ideas, just last week i bought flash cards(after seeing one of ur posts ) for her because she seems to like numbers/alphabets..thanx to elmo, she already knows quite a bit:))
now if elmo could teach her to communicate her needs than …also headphone is so useful ..we bought it.
once again gr8 post
Very nice. I should probably consider getting a laminator, though so far therapists out of various offices have been willing to do the laminating for me — I’ve been doing photos in a binder, with pages made out of manila folders for the velcro-ed photos to live on.
Two additional notes to your excellent description –
1) I endorse the velcro dots. As opposed to, say, getting velcro tape and trying to cut it into little squares, thereby testing one’s patience and gunking up one’s scissors.
2) It’s a good idea to put the soft-side velcro on the removable cards and the prickly-side velcro onto the folder. That way you don’t get the removable cards stuck onto things like carpet or clothing or whatever. You probably know that, but in case any of your faithful readers don’t…
JoyMama,
Totally agree on velcro tape. A complete pain in the behind.
Good call on where to put the soft-side vs. the prickly-side. I’ve sort of been doing that by instinct it seems without really paying any attention to why. Sometimes it’s good to be doing something right even if you aren’t doing so intentionally.
@asha – I think you’re on to something there. The ability to understand letters and numbers is very common for kids with autism – I think because they are very concrete and consistent. With flash cards, I recommend people buy ones with letters or numbers that are big and bold and black on a white background. We have ones that have nothing on them except the letter or number, and we also have ones that have the letter with a picture and word under them. I think both are useful, but for starting out, as plain as they can be would be my recommendation.
Also – and this is usually the case anyway – I’d recommend that all flash cards you get have letters that are both sans-serif (no little squiggly lines on the letters – the regular paragraph text on this site is sans-serif; Times New Roman is a serif font) and the various parts of the letter should have the same width throughout. I think these are much easier to read for kids. If you look at fonts on your computer, you’ll notice that many have letters where the widths vary within the letter. And definitely no cursive, handwriting, etc. letters!
Example: All of these are about right in my opinion.
thank you Tim , the flash cards I bought are just like the ones you have but I am interested in the one u hv printed Hand..how did you do it?i cant use goosie 2 expensive i want to print for her having toes , feet, legs ears.rest of it she knows.also she knows about 20-35 songs and their respective tunes she will put her own words sometimes just gibberish , 10 -15 animals and sounds they make,.she will associate a particular shop with particular thing ..like the shop where we buy fish , she will say fish as soon as we enter w/o prompting.it seems sensory is the only issue we have ..her play is appropriate…she loves elmo and she does OT for him with the ball often
) and even sings to it like her OT does for her .her 2nd shd hv been b’day is approaching and we are so happy..your website is an inspiration for parents like me who are clueless
My husband Kevin and I think Velcro should somehow be incorporated into the symbol for autism along with the puzzle piece.:) One of the kids’ teachers showed me that you can also seal a letter sized envelope and then cut it in half to make pockets for things if you can’t find the library card holders anymore.
Asha – The ‘Hand’ card is from Goosie, but there are alternatives for making your own. One thing that many people use is Google Images. For pictures like body parts, you could even take pictures of your daughter’s hand, for example. Harder pictures to get like cows and sheep, are plentiful through Google.
If she’s doing a lot of associating of places and things, try taking pictures of those shops and using them at home to teach new words. Using her interests to make learning more fun and engaging for her makes a big difference as you’ve already discovered with Elmo!
The best idea for that I’ve heard so far is to get the pictures from Google Images, paste them into a Word document, type the word for the picture under it, then size all that so it will print roughly at the size of a flash card. I’d get some white card stock to print these on. If you’re good with Word, you can set up tables and print several to a page. I should put together a template one of these days for doing that. It makes more sense when you see it perhaps.
I think Goosie Cards are most helpful if you plan to need them over the long haul and buy ones that focus on specific learning goals. They have been great for us. If she’s progressing quickly through speech and identifying things, do-it-yourself cards may be more appropriate since you’ll be frequently adapting to her evolving needs. Goosie does offer discounts for kids with special needs (See the application letter I posted.), which I believe they said were becoming more generous this month.
Another option is to get packs of flash cards from someplace like Target or a bookstore. I’d highly recommend getting ones with real photos rather than the ones that just having drawings.
I personally think gibberish is great. To me, it’s still a form of communication and engagement with the music. You’ll obviously be working to refine that into clearer and clearer speech over time, but we’ve learned to celebrate every kind of communication and build from there.
It sounds like your daughter is really progressing well! Good for her, and good for you too! And thanks for all your great questions and contributions here. Keep them coming!
Elysa – You’re so right about the velcro. I may ask someone to work on a velcro-themed design.
Good thinking about the envelopes! That one hadn’t dawned on me because the flimsy envelopes we use here seemed like they wouldn’t last long in our house. You can certainly get higher quality ones, though. I found some old ones I used for mailing resumes a long time ago that would work much better.
I also thought about cutting up manila folders and sealing the edges, but that seemed pretty clunky when I tried it.
I think in the time-rationing we do around here that just buying the pockets was the path of least resistance. Plus my crafty creativity still isn’t anywhere near at the same level as our teachers!
Hi Mary & Tim,
Your Blog is the reason I even play-teach my girl .Every time I get frustruated with her..which is pretty often..mostly when she does senseless things like crashing on sofa, bed ..sensory seeking..my husband tells me ,that I shd follow your example i.e be a good parent , he knows I follow your blog regularly .
Keep on blogging I have great expectations from JMan..
2day we went 2 ikea ,and when we entered the bedroom section ,she started saying sleep ….I was sooo thrilled ..pointing to the bed
Asha – You’re a good parent regardless.
We all know about being frustrated and tired and confused and every other emotion. What we do really isn’t any different than what you’re doing. It’s trial-and-error and it’s hanging in there as best you can until it works.
I know we sometimes make it sound like roses and sunshine around here, but there are plenty of times it’s not. I’m not even sure what makes a ‘good parent’, but there are plenty of times we don’t feel like we are. But I think if we can take the frustrations and doubts along with the work and the achievements, do the best we can, and keep our feet moving forward, that sounds like enough to me. I’ll let other people figure out what being a good parent actually is. “People who are doing the best they can” feels like a good definition to me.
It sounds like your daughter is really starting to shine now! It’s those victories – no matter how big or small – that make all the difference. Yay! And it sounds like you got to go to a store and she did something really great while you were there. Sounds like improvement there too!