Here is a tiny excerpt from my book "How to Set Up a Work Area at Home for a Child with Autism." (www.autismclasssroom.com)Sorry, it is not yet available in paperback until late June. I will post it when it is available. The idea behind the book is to give parents tools and strategies for teaching basic skills. It is very much a book to use at the beginning stages. I tried to include many of the teaching techniques that I learned and incorporated in the classroom 1:1 time, when I was in the classroom. Let me know what you think.

TEACHING WRITING SKILLS
1. Remember that this task can be difficult at times due to sensory challenges
which can make holding a writing instrument difficult.

2. Try your best to use the proper development sequence for writing skills.

3. Use most to least prompts (ex. Hand over hand assistance to help to always get
it correct, then gradually reduce the assistance, as your child writes better.)

4. Make it fun. (Ex. Use toy animals as pencils, have the child draw a line to their
favorite candy or cereal.)

5. Make multi-sensory writing opportunities (Ex. Writing in shaving cream,
pudding, whipped cream or using sand paper letters.)

6. Consult an Occupational Therapist for direction in this area.

TEACHING SCISSOR SKILLS
1. Start with making snips in paper.

2. Move to small pieces of heavy cardstock or index card paper about 1/2 inch or
1 inch.

3. Increase the paper size gradually.

4. Encourage “cutting on the line.”

5. Move to shapes in a sequenced order (Ex. When first teaching to cut a square,
have all parts of the square pre-cut except one side. Then move to having all
parts of the square pre-cut except for 2 sides, etc.