Ex oo mm, eer eh the buh room?

With our ever increasing Lunch Crew program, I offered another "Lunch Crew Orientation" today.

 

All of the kids introduced themselves (lunch crew kids and my kids) and I asked for someone to try to name all of the students in the room. A few kids did it (one of mine did it!) After introductions, we did an icebreaker to give the kids an opportunity to learn more about autism.

 

I asked for a volunteer and ALL of the kids raised their hands to come up front. I picked on a cute little curly haired girl. I gave her an index card that said, "I would like to order a hamburger without pickles, please." I told her that she had to tell everyone what she wanted without using any words. She stomped her feet, she put her hands in the "please" sign on her chest. She tried to make a sign for hamburger, but none of the kids had any idea of what she was trying to say. Finally, I said, "Read the card to everyone to tell them what it said." She read it out loud and they all put their hands in the air and said, "Ohhhh! We never would have gotten that!"

 

I asked the little girl if it was frustrating that she couldn't use the words, even though she knew what she wanted to say. She said, "Yes, the sentence was right here, but I had no idea how to tell everyone!" I explained that this is what it could be like for a child with autism - to know what he wants but not know how to use words to get it. At this point, one of my students was used as a prime example as she used her PECS book to say, "I want tickles from Mrs. Smith." The kids were impressed - "She uses the pictures to talk?"

 

We did a second activity very similar to the first. This time, the index card had letters underlined that were not allowed to be said.

 

The card said, "Excuse me, where is the bathroom?" When the little girl tried to say it, it came out like this, "Ex oo mm, eer eh the buh room?" The kids all laughed. They said, "What did you say?" They didn't have any idea. She read the card out loud and they all laughed. I explained to them that this is also what it could be like for a child with autism, to be able to use words, but for the words to not sound the way they are supposed to sound. I showed them one of the communication devices we use in the classroom. They said, "Oh cool, he gets a computer?" One of the kids actually asked me how he could get one. We didn't go there.

 

The very last activity was a little "reflection" activity in which the students were asked to answer several questions (anonymously) on index cards.

 

One of the questions was, "What do you know about Mrs. Smith's class?"

 

One of the kids wrote, "Mrs. Smith helps kids with special differences feel like everyone else."

 

I couldn't have said it better. Here's to another amazing group of lunch crew kids! Achieving success daily - and feeling like everyone else while we do it.