[Post edited 11/6/2009 as the Handy Handouts site has undergone a major upgrade.]
While talking to the J-Man’s teacher about getting some picture communication gear, she told me about Super Duper Publications. They have an extensive catalog of useful products (haven’t ordered anything yet, but probably will), but our link for today is for their “Handy Handouts”.
They have a lot of useful material here about autism, speech, behavior, and more. A decent number of them are in Spanish too. There is some marketing tie-in for their Super Duper Publications site, but they are a business and they are providing good content for free here so don’t hold that against them.
You do have to register for a free account to access them, but it’s simple and painless. This also gets you access to the “Free Stuff” listed on the left side of their home page. About half of that is for therapists and other professionals, but there’s a lot of stuff for us too.
[ed. - If you previously created an account on Super Duper, it still works and still gives you access to certain materials. The materials on the Handy Handouts site do not appear to require registration anymore; all the ones I tried to access were freely available. Yay for them!
They also now have a Facebook page!]
I highly recommend watching some of the Product Demos. They’re pretty neat. Invariably when I look at some therapy toys and equipment I think, “What the heck is that for?” Now you can see some of these things in action. Always fascinating!
While we’re talking about Internet resources, don’t forget about Do2Learn. And feel free to post other similar resources in the comments!
by Tim on December 11, 2008
To preview what Goosie Cards are, visit their web site at GoosieCards.com.
As we’ve chronicled in recent posts (see “My God, He IS Reading!”, “Roy G. Biv”), our son is all about his flash cards lately. They’re not going to displace the Sacred Wooden Letter Blocks of Steadfast Security and Comfort anytime soon, but flash cards are a cornerstone of many of his most important learning activities.
We recently discovered that – at age 3! – he can read many sight word cards (see above posts and “The $64,000 Question…” – and note that he’s trying to read people’s t-shirts now), so Mary and I are all about finding as many different kinds of cards as we can to build on these wonderful skills he’s suddenly developed.
So, in what proved to be a timely e-mail, I was contacted by Tom Stein, COO of Goosie Cards, who asked if I would be interested in trying out some of their cards and reviewing them. This was right up our alley and a great opportunity to try something new with the J-Man, so of course I agreed.
I looked at their web site before the cards arrived and was immediately intrigued (go look now if you haven’t already) but you can’t really appreciate what you’re getting until you hold a Goosie Card in your hand. Once you do, you know immediately that these are light-years beyond the flash cards you get at the store.
Goosie Card (left) next to other flash cards of two other brands.
The cards are practically bomb-proof. The card stock and lamination are of a quality, thickness, and durability unparalleled by anything I’ve ever seen. I think the only way to make them more durable would be to manufacture them out of slate or paving stone. While nothing is technically indestructible in the hands of a toddler, I don’t know whether anyone – child or adult – could put even a nick on them without using scissors or a hacksaw.
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by Tim on November 18, 2008
Friday has turned into Make It/Take It day at preschool, which I was instantly excited about. That morning, parents can come in and take advantage of the class’s vast stores of creative goodness to make activities, picture schedules, and whatever else under the direction of our resident experts – our really cool teachers. We make them and take them home. Free stuff! However, nothing I’ve described would cost more in materials than the change you probably could find in your car.
I’m definitely going to do something on Friday that I’ve been meaning to do for a while now. For lack of knowing what the technical term is, I’ll call them shoebox and folder games. This is as dirt cheap as it gets for home learning activities, but it’s just as effective – if not more so – than most of the stuff out there you pay beaucoups of money for.
Not surprisingly, their names come from the primary materials involved in making each: shoeboxes and manila folders.
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by Tim on November 15, 2008
If you’re trying to figure out the ins and outs of picture schedules and picture boards, get some actual pictures to use, get a home learning area or classroom set up, find some ideas for home art projects, come up with cheap but good learning activities, or keep saying to yourself, “is there someplace I can download and print something like that?” (whatever ‘that’ is) there’s a good chance that Do2Learn is the place you want to go first.
Their web site is a gold mine. You can wander around it for hours and regularly find yourself saying, “Wow, they have that too!” I found all kinds of stuff we needed, but I also came across things I wouldn’t have ever thought of needing until I saw they had it. How cool is that?
Best thing – most of the resources on their site are free. There are some products for sale, too, that look both good and affordable if you decide you need them.
This site is geared toward serving a broad range of special needs, not just autism. What they provide is brilliant. Here are just a few of the resources I found:
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I totally geeked out on this site when we were trying to name J-Man back in the day. (2 1/2 years ago, ack!)
The Baby Name Wizard’s NameVoyager is something to behold. Just type in a name (at the blinking square next to the “>”) and the chart refreshes like crazy to show you the popularity of a given name – or part of a name – over time.
No, we’re not expecting another one. I was browsing through some old bookmarks and saw this. It’s a classic!
Frightening fact: Lemon and Orange were popular enough to be ranked around the 1900s.
