adapted books for autism

I love using adapted books in alot of my classrooms, but especially in the Autism classroom. I like interactive books that you can pull off/put on velcro pieces, but this year I have been using adapted texts for non-fiction books. The speech therapist guru that was at my campus prior to me, introduced me to these texts and I couldn't love them more. Here is a sample of what one of my adapted books looks like: 

You can find these simple, non-fiction readers through scholastic and there are tons in the science bins at Half-Price Books for really cheap. I use Boardmaker to create an adapted text that includes pictures with the words and tape it over the actual words in the book. I can use them with my kids with severe autism as well as with my kids with high-functioning autism. 

For my kids with severe autism, sometimes I am just working on them sitting at the table and attending. I have them follow along with their finger as I read the text. It is their job to turn 1 page when I am done reading that page. I ask them to point to specific objects on the page while we are reading. I have also used Choice Board Creator to take pictures of the front of the books. I have the child choose a book they want to read. After they choose the book from the ipad, they have to select that book from a field of three books. 

It can take a while for the child to understand this routine, but practicing it consistently is key. I think these books provide a great foundation for literacy for even our lowest level learners. It is also a great way to practice tacting and receptive ID in another (more natural) format other than ITT. 

I don't know what it is about the real animal pictures that draws kids with autism in, but they all seem to love them. I think the concreteness of these books connects with them. Unless they have a favorite character, I feel like my kids with Autism don't get it when you read a book about a talking fish or a huge red dog......because those things don't happen in real life. They are too abstract and don't make sense. I think these factual books ground them enough to maintain their interest. 

For my kids that have higher-functioning Autism, I take turns with them attempting to read familiar words and helping them with un-familiar words. I work on answering leveled WH and comprehension questions during and after the story using these books. For my kids that are just starting to answer comprehension questions, I use Boardmaker to make questions using pictures that match the adapted text. For kids that are improving, I fade the cues. I feel like my kids have been more successful answering questions for these factual texts rather than fiction texts. Here is an example to my beginning questions: 

These books have been so useful to me this year. I hope this gives you some ideas for making your own books to use in the classroom or speech room. They take a bit of time to make, but the investment is so worth is and you will use them all the time!