Can anyone give me ideas for activities for a special education student?

Be careful with clay because I had one child who liked to eat it — this includes regular sculpting clay and play-doh. I think first you need to get an assessment of just where this child is developmentally. Find out what he can do. I had a 7 year old who was developmentally 24 months — non-verbal. We started with putting puzzles together — the wood puzzles in shapes, w/ large pieces. Then we had an alphabet puzzle we put together. By the end of 6 months the child could repeat every letter by name and could actually tell us the sound without asking. Let him draw on the board and model circles, do hand over hand, let him try himself. It’s really not an easy question to answer if you don’t know his developmental level. You can use your search engine and type in developmental milestones for children. Or activities for developmentally delayed teens. You should see if he can follow a picture schedule using PEC’s or real pictures, then set up centers where he can spend 15 minutes, then give a break, then another. His level would dictate the types of activities and in the centers. My child did the same alphabet and number center everyday for the entire school year. The others I changed out. Sorry I couldn’t be more help. Melanie

Use some naming activities to increase his verbal ability. Use food at first and then preferred acitivities. Show him the object to be named. Prompt the name and elicit any kind of response and hand it to him. Shape this into either a more intelligible sound or teach appropriate signs. Later you can move to having him ID pictures to obtain the object.

Children at this functioning level have limited attention spans for non-preferred activities. Chances are he will like to do more hands on types of activities such as putting things together, such as nuts and bolts and possibly simple puzzles. Try to give him age appropriate activities and that he can generalize to other situations, since he is in high school.

When he throws things at you, simply pick up the object and leave the area. Do not become angry or emotional. Simply go away. Then try handing something very preferred to him. If he holds it or eats it, give him lots of attention for the correct behavior.

Clay might be a good idea. Some kids who are nonverbal respond really well to tactile activities unless he is tactilely defensive. Other ideas can be blocks, finger paint or any painting. The best way is to start doing it yourself so you’re modeling for him rather than trying to hand him anything. Just have things nearby so he can join in if he wants. Collages can sometimes work well because some kids respond well to images of things they like. Get some old magazines or catalogs to rip up. It often takes a good deal of time to build a trusting relationship with kids like this so be extremely patient. Use radical acceptance to start and try not talking too much yourself. Some nonverbal kids feel assaulted by too much talking.

Were you involved in his IEP? What did the team decide he should be working on? You need to plan activities around the goals.

Also, FYI, the term low functioning is really frowned upon by a lot of people in the community.

if your in a High school level you cant make a child feel like hes a kid dont take toys to him that will only make the other kids tease him. Try to see what hes interested in make him help you out in class without making a special emphasis on him but let him know your interested in his well being.

There is a book called “The Out Of Sync Child Has Fun” it has all kind of games and activities. It also tells you what the activity works on, like fine motor skills, gross motor skills, etc…

If he likes to listen to music, teach him how to operate a radio/CD player. Lots of students on this level enjoy working with plants, too.

try educational games except be sure to keep it to a higher level than games for 2-5year olds

have a drinking countest