Don Peek - Gift Giving and Special Needs Children

Special Needs Topics with Don Peek

This post is authored by Don Peek, a former educator and past president of the training division of Renaissance Learning. He now runs The School Funding Center, a company that provides grant information and grant-writing services to schools. To learn more, or to subscribe to the School Funding Center Grant Database, go to schoolfundingcenter.

Gift Giving and Special Needs Children

While it’s true that many people who have a mild disability come much closer to being hindered rather than incapacitated, I can assure you that for most disabled people, their disability is much more than a hindrance.  Many live lives that revolve around their disabilities, and whether they are limited either physically or mentally, they are ashamed of their limitations.  I didn’t say they should be.  They will seldom admit that they are, but trust me on this one, they are.

It doesn’t matter if you are the last to be chosen in a pick-up basketball game or the worst oral reader in your class, being below normal hurts, and it typically hurts deeply.  

I mention all of this to give you a word of caution when you purchase or make gifts during this holiday season.  Giving gifts to people with disabilities that draws attention to those disabilities can be extremely hurtful.

I guess the best example of this would be buying board games, toys, or video games for a mentally challenged middle school student when it clearly states that it for ages 3 and up.  True, that student might not be able to handle Monopoly or Risk (at least without hours and hours of help and explanation), but he can certainly read that small signal for age-appropriateness on the box and be highly offended by it.  To him it is a “baby’s game” and far beneath his dignity, especially when opened in front of others.

You can certainly make a mistake on the other side by buying gifts that are obviously too advanced for a mentally challenged person.  When you buy a really neat magic set for a young girl who likes Harry Potter, but she can’t read the directions well enough to even get started or doesn’t have the eye-hand coordination to begin to do the simplest sleight of hand, your gift will be a real ego crusher.

Living every single day of your life with a disability is tough.  Don’t make it tougher on the person by giving gifts that draw attention to that disability or make them feel worse than they would had you given them no gift.

What would be my gift suggestions?  I’d try to concentrate on gifts that are popular within the person’s age group and yet totally appropriate for the disabled person.  You might give the girl who likes Harry Potter the complete set of Harry Potter DVD’s, or at least her favorite ones.  You could give the boy who doesn’t want Candy Land either Jenga or Electronic Battleship.  Be sure to let him know that these are some of your favorite games, and you want to play them with him as soon as he likes.  I can assure you that the time you spend will be worth far more to him than the gift itself.

It’s always nice to give people gifts during the holidays.  For the most part, they are appreciated for the effort if not the content.  Just be especially careful when giving to children with disabilities that you don’t draw attention to their disabilities or embarrass them in any way with your gift.

Grant Notice:

Grant Name:  USGA Alliance Grants

Funded By:  National Alliance for Accessible Golf

Description:  Grants support organizations which provide opportunities for individuals with disabilities to learn and enjoy the game of golf and its inherent values. The Alliance and the USGAshare the belief that the game of golf is exceptionally well-suited to allow individuals with disabilities to participate in a recreational or competitive activity with participants who have various types of disabilities as well as those who do not have disabilities. We encourage inclusive programming - opportunities that allow participants with disabilities and participants without disabilities to learn and play the game side by side.

Program Areas:  Disabilities

Recipients:  Public School, Other

Proposal Deadline:  None

Average Amount:  Up to $20,000.00

Telephone:  812-320-1126

Email:  [email protected]

Website:  http://www.accessgolf.org/grants/alliance_grants.cfm

Availability:  All States

Personalized Placemats

This post is authored by Anna Reyner, a registered art therapist and licensed marriage and family therapist. Anna is a nationally recognized arts advocate that has conducted over 500 hands-on art workshops for learners of all abilities. Follow Anna’s blog at Art and Creativity in Early Childhood Education.

Special Needs Application:

In addition to fostering imaginative and symbolic thinking, enhancing motor skills, and providing an opportunity to manage sensory issues, art activities support a full range of social emotional benefits particularly as they build self esteem. And what better way to build self esteem than “framing” a child’s work of art!

I stopped in my tracks when I saw these super adorable placemats at the Hollywood Los Feliz JCC. They gave me such a smile! What is it about these clever placemats that draws you in to take a closer look? Is it the playful expression on the children's faces? Or the colorful freestyle painting behind each photo? Or is it the solid construction paper background that frames it all and makes it pop out from the page? I think it's "all of the above"! By using a laminator or clear contact paper to cover each picture, you can use your placemats for the whole year.

Try this sometime and you'll discover a clever new way to identify each child's place setting for lunchtime or snacks. A big thank you to the creative preschool staff of Hollywood Los Feliz Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles.

Don Peek - How Good are IEP's?

Special Needs Topics with Don Peek

This post is authored by Don Peek, a former educator and past president of the training division of Renaissance Learning. He now runs The School Funding Center, a company that provides grant information and grant-writing services to schools. To learn more, or to subscribe to the School Funding Center Grant Database, go to schoolfundingcenter.com

How Good Are IEP’s?

IEP, as most of the readers of this blog will know, stands for Individualized Education Program.  IEP’s were mandated by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).  Educators and parents who are involved with students in special education know that every single child must have an IEP on file and that each child must be evaluated and the file updated at least once each year. 

IEP’s have been in place long before the latest IDEA legislation in 2004.  I don’t think anyone could question the need or the benefits of having an Individualized Education Program for each student found to have a disability.  In fact, the idea is so good, schools probably need to develop IEP’s for every single student in attendance.  That, however, is not likely to happen for a couple of reasons.  The first is that schools don’t have the money to put such a process in place.  The second is that IEP’s in and of themselves don’t guarantee any improvement in the teaching and learning process.

It is true that a good IEP describes how a student learns best, how the student best demonstrates that learning, and what educators can do to help the student learn more effectively.  Unfortunately, some IEP’s are drafted, agreed upon, and then placed in a drawer where they are seldom viewed until it is time for a yearly evaluation.  I know this may seem strange to the teachers and administrators who use IEP’s properly, but believe me when I say that it’s true.

An IEP should be a well-worn document by the end of the school year.  Teachers should review them often and should prepare lesson plans based on the IEP’s of students in their classrooms. Although special education classes tend to be smaller than mainstream classes, special education teachers still must have a separate IEP for every single student.  Some lessons can cover multiple IEP’s.  Others do not.  Individualized instruction is difficult.  It has been tried time and again in mainstream classes and often proves to be overwhelming to the teachers.

That’s why special education classes are smaller, tend to have more help in the form of aides, and often have more equipment to deal with various disabilities.  All are in place so that teachers can individualize and meet IEP requirements.

If you are a teacher who reviews IEP’s regularly, uses them to develop daily lesson plans, and makes sure you are doing everything necessary for your students to meet their IEP goals, I applaud you.

If you are a teacher who is not using your IEP’s properly, I suggest you begin to do so immediately.  If you are a principal, it is your responsibility to make sure IEP’s are developed and used properly.  If you are a parent, I suggest that you be familiar with your child’s IEP.  Look for progress reports that reference the IEP and monitor the papers and information coming home to you to make sure the IEP that was filed is being followed.

An Individualized Education Program may be one of the greatest rights of the disabled child.  Unfortunately, it is no more valuable than the paper on which it is written unless it leads both teacher and students to the accomplishment of the goals it contains.

Grant Notice:

Grant Name:  Walmart Foundation Grants

Funded By:  Walmart Foundation

Description:  Giving to K-12 Public Schools/Districts, Charter Schools, Community/Junior Colleges, State Colleges and Universities; Private schools and colleges with current tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code; and Churches and other faith based organizations with propose projects that address and benefit the needs of the community at large. See the website for eligibility requirements and additional information. The grant maximum depends on the facility to which you are applying. The Community Involvement Coordinator or manager at the facility nearest you will be able to advise you as to the grant maximum for their location.

Program Areas:  Adult Literacy, After-School, Arts, At-Risk/Character, Community Involvement/Volunteerism, Disabilities, General Education, Health/PE, Homeless, Reading, Safe/Drug Free Schools, Science/Environmental, Social Studies, Special Education, TAG, Technology, Vocational

Recipients:  Public School, Private school, Higher Ed, Faith-Based, Other

Proposal Deadline:  12/31/11

Average Amount:  $250.00 (depends on individual store)

Telephone:  800-530-9925

Website:  http://walmartstores.com/CommunityGiving/9628.aspx

Availability:  All States

Paper Towel Quilt

This post is authored by Anna Reyner, a registered art therapist and licensed marriage and family therapist. Anna is a nationally recognized arts advocate that has conducted over 500 hands-on art workshops for learners of all abilities. Follow Anna’s blog at Art and Creativity in Early Childhood Eduation.

Special Needs Application:

Enhances social emotional interaction and cooperation

In the paper quilt shown here we also created circular coffee filter art using the same materials and techniques. Find directions for these in the Smart Art Lesson for Coffee Filter Art shown here. Finished paper squares and circles were laid out onto a piece of white mural paper, ready to be mounted with simple white glue. This simple paper craft shows off the beautiful brilliance of color. Isn't it wonderful eye candy?

I love watching simple paper towels come to life with Colorations® Liquid Watercolor. To create this "eye popping" paper quilt, we filled bingo bottles with Colorations® Liquid Watercolor and dabbed the color onto folded paper towel squares. These detailed patterns were created by school aged children, but younger children will create more free-form patterns with equally beautifully results. For best results use "2-ply" paper towels (better quality versions) since they soak up more color than "1-ply" paper towels and give your artwork a richer result.

Special Needs Topics with Don Peek

This post is authored by Don Peek, a former educator and past president of the training division of Renaissance Learning. He now runs The School Funding Center, a company that provides grant information and grant-writing services to schools.  To learn more, or to subscribe to the School Fnding Center Grant Database, go to schoolfundingcenter.com

Don Peek - An Introduction

For at least the next few months I will have the rare pleasure of writing some of the special needs blogs for Achievement-Products.com.  In this posting I’d like to introduce myself and explore some of the topics we will be discussing in the months ahead.  I hope you’ll join me often as we explore the world of the special needs students, teachers, and parents and how those students learn and grow.

WHO:  Hi, my name is Don Peek.  I served in Texas public schools for 20 years as a teacher, counselor, assistant principal, principal, and assistant superintendent.  While I was principal of Pittsburg Middle School in Pittsburg, Texas, our school received one of only two awards given by the state of Texas that year for not only mainstreaming all of our special education students but also making them successful.  As a teacher and administrator I attended literally hundreds of ARD meeting and was always considered a strong advocate for special needs children.

After leaving the public schools, I became president of the training division of Renaissance Learning (creator of Accelerated Reader).  Whenever I did district and regional training, I always emphasized the use of Accelerated Reader with special needs children.  The ability to read is a great equalizer.

Currently I am President and CEO of The School Funding Center.  We provide grant information to schools throughout the United States.  Of our 30 grant categories, you can rest assured that grants for special education and students with disabilities are always included in our listings.

And finally, I have a grandson who is autistic.  He just turned 17 a few weeks ago.  Unless we get some drastic breakthrough in the near future to help autistic children, he will probably never hold a regular job, never drive a car, or never be able to live alone. 

Yes, I am very much dedicated to helping those with disabilities.

What:  I will be posting to the Achivement-Products.com blog twice each month.  I will cover a full range of topics dealing with special needs students.  I will also discuss the interaction between teachers and special needs students and the relationship of the parents with their special needs children and parents and the school system.  Special needs students are indeed special, and it is not always easy for either the school or the parents to know exactly what each child needs.  Often these needs change as the child grows and matures.  Most of the decisions made concerning special needs children are best made cooperatively between parents and the school.

Almost any blog is a mixture of fact and opinion.  This one will be no exception.  There are facts available about the various disabilities.  I will include that.  I will also include research information about what works best and what doesn’t, but I will also inject some of my opinions about dealing with students who have disabilities.  My greatest fear is that too often we do what is easiest, but not necessarily best, for these students.

I will also occasionally include notices about grants that are available to schools and non-profit organizations that support special needs children.  Look at the sample below.

When:  My posts will normally be published around the 1^st and 15^th of each month.  I want you to look for these posts, read them carefully, and respond whenever you get the urge.  You can agree or disagree with me.  You won’t hurt my feelings.   Your opinions are valuable, too.  The research you find may contradict something I post.  I’d like to know that, too.  You can reach me at:  [email protected]

Where:   My blog is original material provided only to Achievement-Products.com.  You will find it only on this site.  Obviously, if you are reading this now, you found my blog at least once.  You may want to bookmark this site so you can return easily.  If you are starting from the home page of Achievement-Products.com, you should first click on Visit Now on the Check Out Our Free Resources! header.  Then on the left of the page find Online Community.  Go down until you come to Special Needs Blog.  Click it, and you’re back here.
That’s it.  I’ll expect to see you back here around the 1^st of December.

See you then,
Don                                                                                                                                  
[email protected]

Grant Notice

Grant Name:  Tommy Wilson Memorial Grant

Funded By:  American Association for Physical Activity and Recreation

Description:  The Tommy Wilson Memorial Grant supports recreational programs for individuals with disabilities

Program Areas:  Disabilities, Special Education

Recipients:  Public School, Private school, High Ed, Other

Proposal Deadline:  December 1^st each year

Average Amount:  $500.00 - $1,500.00

Email:  [email protected]/aapar/

Website:  http://www.aahperd.org/aapar/

Availability:  All States

Art Share: Paper Plate Faces

This post is authored by Anna Reyner, a registered art therapist and licensed marriage and family therapist. Anna is a nationally recognized arts advocate that has conducted over 500 hands-on art workshops for learners of all abilities. Follow Anna’s blog at Art and Creativity in Early Childhood Education.

Special Needs Application:

A good way to reinforce facial expression cues.

Try this whimsical paper plate mask:

1) Cut face holes in plate.

2) Paint with BioColor® or another bright paint.
3) Collage with tissue paper on top .

Guest Blog: Children with Food Allergies – Play Dates Encouraged, with Precautions

Guest Blog Post: from our friends at FAAN

Children with Food Allergies – Play Dates Encouraged, with Precautions

There’s no question about it -- children love to get together with friends, whether at the playground or at home. For the parents of children with food allergies, playgroups and play dates can be a source of concern, and that’s understandable. But these rites of passage are manageable – with some extra precautions.

Lessons learned from being around other children are important to a child’s social development. Balancing food allergy safety and social skills in a playgroup or play date environment takes planning.

Concerns that a child with a food allergy could have a reaction under the care of a classmate’s parents are valid. You don’t know whether they know how to recognize symptoms of an allergic reaction, whether they understand the seriousness of food allergies, how to read labels, or how to administer life-saving medication.

With advance planning, however, you can address each of these concerns and have successful play dates.

·        For younger children, consider hosting the play date at your house, so that you are better able to control the environment.

·        Plan for play dates to occur outside of mealtimes, or work with the play date host to plan “food free” playtime.

·        Teach a play date host about food allergies prior to a scheduled play date. Regardless if food is being served or not, the host should understand the symptoms of a food allergy reaction, how a reaction could occur (accidents happen!), and how to help your child if he or she has a reaction.

·        Pack a safe snack for your child so that you are not relying on the play date host to read food labels and determine what is safe to feed your child. Teach your child not to accept any foods that you have not approved.

·        Pack your child’s medication, including epinephrine auto-injectors, in a bag that also contains emergency information. Include a copy of your child’s Food Allergy Action Plan (see FAAN’s website for a free copy). Be sure the adult supervising the play date understands how to use all medication and the steps to follow should a reaction occur.

While it may seem easier to keep our children close to home, we have to remember the importance of balancing our child’s social needs with their emotional and physical development. 

The efforts on the part of parents of children without food allergies to keep our children safe are much appreciated.

FAAN staff member Nancy Gregory, whose 8-year-old son has a peanut allergy, says she has been lucky that parents have been so accommodating when it comes to hosting play dates.

“One mom went to the grocery store before my son’s play date to make sure she had safe snacks for him, even though I would have sent him something safe to eat,” Gregory said. “I was grateful that she took such genuine care to make sure he was safe.”

This post was contributed by the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN). FAAN is a nonprofit organization, supported in part by membership dues. For more information about food allergies, as well membership, contact FAAN at www.foodallergy.org, or call (800) 929-4040.

Did you know that Achievement Products for Special Needs has a wide selection of allergen-free items? Check out the full list by clicking here.

Paint Outside - Jackson Pollock Style!

This post is authored by Anna Reyner, a registered art therapist and licensed marriage and family therapist. Anna is a nationally recognized arts advocate that has conducted over 500 hands-on art workshops for learners of all abilities. Follow Anna’s blog at Art and Creativity in Early Childhood Education.

Special Needs Application:
Jackson Pollock inspires visual and gross motor self expression!

Can't find a place to paint inside? Afraid of staining your carpets and floors? Go outside, and leave your worries behind.! Most parents are afraid to bring paint, clay, and fluid art materials into their homes for fear of creating a mess. But paints and other fluid art materials provide tremendous growth and learning opportunities, beside being lots of fun. Let's face it, there's nothing more enchanting to a child than fresh paint, and lots of it. Paints are wet and colorful, they move, mix and blend together quickly, and they plunge you into a sensory experience. No wonder they're so much fun!

Check out this handy art area I created for my own children along the side of my home. They spent hours here, and while it must have felt like a "real art studio," it was really just the fenced in driveway outside our kitchen. Often I would spread out rolls of fabric or paper and give them BioColor® to squirt on "Jackson Pollock" style. The colors were always brilliant. Sometimes we would drag small tree branches through the BioColor® or sprinkle on glitter and various odds and ends before the paint dried. There was nothing they liked more, and I could see the freedom and joy they felt with this "free-style" painting. By putting the BioColor® in squeeze bottles, I was able to provide some small control over the quantities of paint they used, which gave me a wee bit of comfort. Living in the city of Los Angeles, we have a small yard and not much space. But take my word for it...if anyone can create a home art area while living in LA, you can do it anywhere! Be inspired.

Ocean in a Bottle

This post is authored by Anna Reyner, a registered art therapist and licensed marriage and family therapist. Anna is a nationally recognized arts advocate that has conducted over 500 hands-on art workshops for learners of all abilities. Follow Anna’s blog at Art and Creativity in Early Childhood Eduation.

Special Needs Application:

Visual stimulation encourages scientific thinking.

It's summer again and the perfect time for outdoor activities. Ocean in a Bottle captivates children and leads the way to science discoveries. Simply add Colorations® Liquid Watercolor and BioColor® Shimmer Powder to plain water in any clear plastic bottle. Cap tightly and shake it up vigorously. You'll immediately discover your bottle is full of swirling "oceans" of shimmery colored waves that stay in motion long after you've stopped shaking your bottle.

What's happening here? What principle of science does this exciting project illustrate? Water molecules, or H20, are invisible to the eye. If you shake up a water bottle, the water molecules begin swirling around quickly but you can't see them move because they're invisible to the eye. In this project you are "tagging" the water molecules with color and shimmer powder (a non-toxic micro glitter) which enables you to see the water and how it is set in motion as you shake it up. There is so much to the world around us that we cannot see without a microscope. Welcome to the fascinating world of earth science!

Name Doodles

This post is authored by Anna Reyner, a registered art therapist and licensed marriage and family therapist. Anna is a nationally recognized arts advocate that has conducted over 500 hands-on art workshops for learners of all abilities. Follow Anna’s blog at Art and Creativity in Early Childhood Education.

Special Needs Application:

There are so many reasons a child may be shy in the early days of a new class or surrounding. The wonderfully inclusive idea below may help ease the anxiety of being in a new surrounding with new faces.

The staff from Stone Soup Afterschool Program in Los Angeles learned new painting techniques as they geared up for a new school year this week. Try this "Name Doodle" idea as a warm-up introduction during the first few days of your program. Using plain white construction paper, each person draws their name in block letters and doodles symbols about themselves onto the remaining paper. Cover your entire paper with Colorations® Foam Paint and wipe off the excess paint with a clean paper towel. Easy, colorful and it's dry right away!

Hand Stencils

This post is authored by Anna Reyner, a registered art therapist and licensed marriage and family therapist. Anna is a nationally recognized arts advocate that has conducted over 500 hands-on art workshops for learners of all abilities. Follow Anna’s blog at Art and Creativity in Early Childhood Education.

Special Needs Application:

Ease the concern of children who may be tactile defensive, or who do not want to get messy, by protecting their hands with latex free gloves when spraying the paint.

Do you like to spray paint? Debbie Glicksman of Los Angeles created a beautiful challah cover (shown below). Isn't it lovely? The cover began with me spraying her hands with watercolor as she held them over her fabric. You can adapt the same process easily with children.

First, gather white fabric scraps or yardage, stretch over rolled up newpapers and secure with pushpins to create a smooth working surface, then get out Colorations® Liquid Watercolor in spray bottles and begin to play. Use your hands as stencils and add other stencils you make yourself by cutting shapes out of file folders. Finish by adding details with puffy paint or permanent markers. When you paint with Colorations® Liquid Watercolor remember that it's a completely washable paint, so think fabric wall hangings and process oriented art. This is a great project for outdoor art while the weather is warm.

Foam Paint Fun!

This post is authored by Anna Reyner, a registered art therapist and licensed marriage and family therapist. Anna is a nationally recognized arts advocate that has conducted over 500 hands-on art workshops for learners of all abilities. Follow Anna’s blog at Art and Creativity in Early Childhood Education.

Special Needs Application:

Enhances visual motor skills; encourages

non-verbal expression; offers a unique sensory experience when used as a finger paint.

When was the last time you used Colorations® Foam Paint in your classroom? This paint is so much fun, children never get tired of it no matter how many times you bring it out. Here's the way I set it up for a group of 4 year olds.

Foam paint is so inviting, children are always eager to get started. Of all the paints I use with children, foam paint is one I can bring out again and again with any age child and they never get tired of it. There's something magical about watching brightly colored foam spritz out of a can and pile up high on a plate! It even makes noise as you spritz in out onto a paper palette, it is the ultimate sensory experience!

Sometimes I pass out large bristle brushes and sometimes we use paper towel rags to apply the paint. Here you see four year olds applying foam paint with large chubby brushes. You can see there are white crayon scribbles underneath the paint, if you look at the finished book on the tabletop.

And here you see a 3 year old boy applying foam paint with a paper towel. He is using the paper towel as a "painting rag" instead of using a brush. Either paper towel rags or large chubby brushes works fine, and I suggest you try both ways at different times. After all, when you vary how you apply paint, you stimulate new problem solving and a variety of different fine motor skills.

Here's the finished result from the 3 year old class. In this particular application, the children were working on "Rainforest Paintings." They used large white crayons to first put down lines that represented rain (scribbles, dots and stripes) then patted foam paint on top with their paper towel rags. We used foam paint that represented the colors of the rainforest. Then, for the final layer, we used Colorations® Liquid Watercolor in bingo bottles to create rain "splashes" on top. The foam paint gives these paintings wonderful color and texture.

For an introduction on how to use foam paint, view the video clip below. Thanks for checking in!

Art Share: How Do You Get Paint Out of Clothing?

This post is authored by Anna Reyner, a registered art therapist and licensed marriage and family therapist. Anna is a nationally recognized arts advocate that has conducted over 500 hands-on art workshops for learners of all abilities. Follow Anna’s blog at Art and Creativity in Early Childhood Education.

One of the questions I most often get about paint is, "Is it washable?"

Parents often get annoyed when children come home with paint on their clothes, so teachers have to concern themselves with this. Sometimes the most beautiful paints are "mostly washable" but not completely. And even with "washable" paints, the reds and other colors don’t always come out completely. I find that Zout brand laundry stain remover works best in getting out paint stains.

IncredibleFoam® Dough: Delightful, No Mess Art

This post is authored by Anna Reyner, a registered art therapist and licensed marriage and family therapist. Anna is a nationally recognized arts advocate that has conducted over 500 hands-on art workshops for learners of all abilities. Follow Anna’s blog at Art and Creativity in Early Childhood Education.

Special Needs Application:

IncredibleFoam® Dough is a wonderfully tactile product for sensory seekers.

IncredibleFoam® Dough is a light modeling compound (think substitute for clay) that’s wonderful to touch, squish, and sculpt into 3-Dimensional Art. It comes in dozens of colors and it’s an inspiration for creative young minds, like 4 year old Jordan pictured here. Does he look proud of himself or what? Jordan came up with this idea on his own, by pressing several colors of Foam Dough onto an 11" x 17” piece of construction paper, then later gluing down the pieces with white glue so they’d stick.

Foam Dough also makes a great Small Group Activity, as illustrated by this collaborative artwork. A small cluster of school age students created a picture by working together and Foam Dough to start, and they were asked to work cooperatively to decide on a theme and create one unified picture. I loved the result, as well as the teamwork it inspired.

Other 3-D figures and sculptures can be created in simple or more complex fashion, depending on a child’s age and interests. We’ve created them here on paper plates so they’re easier to carry around, and they can later be glued down onto the paper if desired.

Whether you apply Foam Dough to paper, or shape it into a freestanding 3-D sculpture, it looks great and is always easy and fun to work with. And did I mention it doesn’t make a mess? Foam Dough is soft to touch, and makes a great substitute for traditional play dough and clay. Unlike other clays and dough, it’s virtually mess-free and can be re-used again and again. it never dries out, trust me it’s true, you can even leave it out on the counter for a days and days and its consistency will not alter one little bit. Moreover, foam dough is the perfect sensory play material and exercises important cognitive skills as well as eye-hand-brain coordination. Sensory stimulation is so important in early childhood education, and this is one new sensory play product that you’re sure to love.
Foam Dough is also completely open ended so it brings out children’s natural creativity. IncredibleFoam® Dough holds lots of discoveries. It even floats! Imagine making little boats for your sand and water table.

The IncredibleFoam® Dough Classroom Pack is my favorite, since the color cubes are a delight to look at and easy to distribute. But, you can also purchase IncredibleFoam® Dough in a larger Set of 7 Basic Colors or a smaller Sampler Pack. However you try it, you’re guaranteed a lot of active learning and pure sensory delight!

Autism Society of America Conference Recap!

Thank you to everyone who came to our Achievement Products booth at the recent Autism Society of America conference! We loved meeting all of you and continue to reflect on your stories, input and interaction with our products, especially the sensory sensations of Bubber™ (APDBUBGR), Sensory Snow (AP7251), IncredibleFoam® Dough (APDFOAMSAM), Moon Sand® (APDMOON), and Slippery Spheres (AP23334) we had on display!

We were delighted to hear that many of the items we feature in Achievement Products are already helpful to the children in your programs and care, and we want to remind you all to take a look at the over 40 new items in our newest catalog and to take advantage of the special 15% off Sensory Stimulation products offer.

We were particularly excited to learn that, while the age focus for most of the items we offer is in the 1-5 years range, many programs find the items in Achievement Products are helpful for older children with autism as well, beginning with the five sensory sensations items we list above. Other products appropriate for older children on the autism spectrum include:

Items for social emotional and communication issues:
Talk About How We Feel (AP3577) - A photo card activity featuring images of youngsters in the early teens age range.

Trading Faces (AP72200) - An illustrated game focusing on emotional intelligence that features the likenesses of 10-12 year olds.

Talk Blocks (AP4412) - A set of five, 3”x3” blocks that record messages up to 30 seconds in length each.

Sensory calming and stimulation items:
Classroom Light Filters (AP92301)
Vibro Tactile Mit (AP91044)
Natural Sound Machine (AP6953)
Room Effects Projectors and Wheels, Range from AP5610 - AP5620

Fidgets:
Fuzzy Tangle – Set of 2 (AP2900)
Therapy Tangle (AP3300)
Hairy Tangle (AP1290)
Mini Massage Fidget – Set of 12 (AP3311)
Squeeze Rings – Progressive Resistances Set of 3 (AP302)

Arts & Crafts items:
Colossal Barrel of Crafts (AP723)
Scented Markers (APDSNIFF)

It was clear that parents and educators of teens on the autism spectrum are creative in their approach to reaching, and succeeding with, the teenagers in their care. We invite you to share your success stories with teens you know and provide for who are on the spectrum.