I have spent a good bit of time on this blog talking about autism classroom setup and organizing special education environments as well as the use of visual supports. After Sue Kabot and I wrote our book on Setting Up Classroom Spaces, we started thinking about how we could use video to really show all the different components of the classroom and why we think they are important. I have shared some of them on Facebook but I never know who gets to see them there and I don’t have a lot of opportunity to explain and give them context, so I thought I would share them here.
The videos come from the Baudhuin Preschool at the Mailman Segal Center for Human Development. The program is on the campus of Nova Southeastern University. Nova is a private, not-for-profit university. I worked at the Mailman Center for almost 15 years and Sue is the Executive Director of the Autism Institute there. The preschool is part of the institute but it is a little unusual in that it is a private program that is run under a collaborative contract with Broward County Schools, our local school district. The program is funded through that contract and is required to follow the same requirements as a public school program. Baudhuin is a special place to work because it’s a large school dedicated to educating preschoolers with autism and you are surrounded by professionals who all understand autism. There are a variety of other programs for individuals with autism as part of the institute now as well and you can learn more about it here. I was the Director of Academics for the center when I worked there and I still teach ABA courses online through them.
Resources You’ll See
When you watch the videos you may feel like they have so many resources that are not available to you. Those are resources that are accumulated over years. The furniture is pretty but much of it has been there for years. The building is gorgeous and the school has been housed there since 2005. Over the years Sue and I and our colleagues have worked with school districts across the country setting up classrooms in public school settings that had almost nothing in them but a table. We have adapted the strategies you will see for classrooms across the age range as well as in well-to-do and financially struggling schools. In the future I will put together some videos from some of those classrooms to share with you so you can see how we might adapt the mechanisms to different situations.
So, I wanted to give you a chance to see the different parts of these classrooms along with Sue’s guided tour explaining the different elements that are in the classroom and how they are used. Have questions or comments? I would love to hear them in the comments. If there are elements in the classrooms you would like to know how to locate, let me know. For instance, the data sheets can be found in our Taming the Data Monster book and a copy of the homenotes without the pictures can be found on their Facebook page. If you are looking for them with the pictures, I have similar sets for different ages in my store.
Autism Classroom Tour 1
Autism Classroom Tour 2
Autism Classroom Tour 3
I hope you have enjoyed these! I am so glad that the center posted them on their Facebook page so I could share them with you. Again, if you have questions about where to find things or anything covered, please share and I’m happy to help. I was extremely fortunate to be part of this school and to continue to work with Sue.
Until next time,
