Velcro, and Labels, and icons oh my

Creating a space for children with autism can be a daunting task.  Especially if you want to make everything look and appear seamless with all your visual prompts.  Sometimes you have to start from the beginning and label everything.  Every work space labeled, every icon to match, and the velcro that is used to interchange those pieces so that students can manipulate a schedule to make it through their classroom can be so long of a process that you feel like your brain will explode if you see another little colored piece of paper ready to have velcro put on it.  But some of the things that are done are for what all special education teachers goal should be...making the students as independent as possible.

Sometimes success is not measured in complete or incomplete.  In fact, for most of us teach children with disabilities, its more of a how much better can they or do they get with time and practice and prompting.  And with the increase of skill and the greater ability to manipulate a schedule comes a greater sense of independence.  This is what keeps pushing teachers to make the goal from 4 out of 10 right to 6 out of 10 right.  And although a 60% success rate may not look appealing to the outside world, the 20% increase is what makes you wake up the next day and try it all over again.

You may never stop making those labels, or cutting those icons, or putting little pieces of velcro on the back on both.  Because if you are constantly seeking to make them as independent as possible, you never stop trying to get that additional 20%.