How to Use Printables to Help Autistic Children Learn

Every child should be afforded an education, and autistic children are no different. It is essential to equip them with skills and confidence to help them cope with their lives. Teaching autistic children can be challenging as they take time to understand things. That’s why there are specialized teachers.

To help teachers and parents of autistic children, other parents and professionals have created printables to help them learn fast.

Printables to Help Autistic Kids Learn Fast

When using printables to teach autistic children, you can separate them into sections. For instance, if you want to teach them about family, create a flashcard printable with pictures and names of family members. Other printables include.

Teach Social Skills

Autistic children have challenges communicating and making friends with their classmates. Teaching them how to recognize common social cues and develop empathy is essential.

Emotion Cards

Using feeling printables is vital to teaching them how to recognize different facial expressions of their classmates. You can create printable cards that use emoticons to express different feelings, from happiness, sadness, crying, laughing, and tiredness.

While in class, you can teach them to use these printables by playing a game.

For instance, you can lift a printable and say, (This morning I woke to feel..) and let them answer depending on the card you’ve raised. Repeat this process using different sentences and cards. This will help the kids identify different moods.

Manners printables

Another essential social skill to teach your autistic kid is manners. Having the proper morals and values will help them get far in life, as every aspect of co-existing with others requires people to express appropriate manners. You can also create or download this printable pack online when teaching your child.

These printables can have images of girls and boys expressing themselves, for instance, saying thank you, sharing things in class, playing together, listening, and requesting items politely by saying please.

For instance, if your child wants a toy, you can always remind them to say please before you hand it to them. As it’s pretty easy to confuse the child, everyone spending lots of time with the child must use the same method, from the parents, nannies, and teachers.

Kids are highly impressionable, so you can also teach by showing them that you also have good manners, and within no time, they will start copying what you do.

They will not understand from the get-go, so remind them gently without shouting when they make a mistake. Repeatedly remind them to say thank you when someone does something for them or say please when they want something.

Calming Strategies Printables

Autistic children usually have emotional and sensory meltdowns, and you must learn strategies and techniques for calming them down.

You can teach them self-calming strategies and sensory calming strategies.

Self-Calming Strategies

Teaching your autistic child how to handle their meltdowns is crucial to adapting to everyday life.

Depending on their feelings, you can print cards showing them what to do. For instance, they can sit on a bouncing ball if frustrated.

You can also have a printable showing various activities they can do to calm down. These include sitting on a rocking chair, holding their rice bean bag, practicing breathing in and out, playing with playdough, and playing with legos or a fidget spinner.

Sensory Calming Strategies

Autistic children usually experience sensory meltdowns if there is too much light, noise, someone touches them, high-pitched frequency, or smell. It would be best to identify what works for your child as each is different when experiencing sensory meltdowns; it is best to consult your child’s therapist.

Some of the things that can help calm your child include:

• Puzzles

Puzzles will help slow down their brain overload. You can use numbers or word puzzles and ask them to find specific numbers or words. The best part is that you can find many puzzles on the internet, and word search printables have a load, which you can download and print.

• Coloring

Coloring is another way to help them calm down. You can buy books with pictures of fruits, animals, and other things in their environment. And when they are having sensory meltdowns, pull out the colors and coloring book and have them do coloring. This will take their mind off things and slow down their brain overload.

• Complete a maze

Completing a maze is another calming strategy for children and adults experiencing anxiety and stress. There are different levels of mazes: easy, medium, and challenging. The mazes also have different shapes, making them all the more fun. You can start with the easy level and upgrade as they advance.

You can create your own, download it from the internet, or buy it from Amazon and other stores.

• Draw

Drawing will also help your child calm down. You can create cards with items you want your child to learn, such as fruits, vegetables, and animals. And when they have a meltdown, pull out the cards and ask them to draw one item from there.

Another sensory calming activity you can have your child do is visual calming down cards, where the card has different pictures of activities your child can do. These include kids blowing bubbles, doing yoga, holding their sensory bins, or playing with their pets.

Educational Printables

In a classroom setting, autistic children can also be taught using printables. And since some do not speak, you can teach the alphabet and numbers by printing the ASL signs on cards.

Printables for After-School Activities

These printables are ideal for parents to teach basic things to do at home. For instance, they can create printables showing different activities, from brushing their teeth, making the bed, brushing their hair, and eating breakfast. They can also have pictures showcasing different clothing items and how and where they are worn to make dressing easy.

Help Autistic Children Learn Fast

Autistic kids take longer to grasp concepts than normal kids; teachers, parents, and other carers must use specialized teaching methods to help them learn faster. Printables are a pretty effective form of teaching as autistics understand better from a visual point of view. Use the above techniques to help your autistic child learn faster.