So many, many flashcards and pictures around our classroom (what the unitiated refer to as our “playroom”) fill bins and bins, sorted into ziplock bags. This Lifehacker article suggests that using a slightly more unusual font, such as Comic Sans MS or Bodoni MT, had 14% greater retention, even at different font sizes. One group…
Read MoreI just saw this quote in a recent article: “We don’t want to identify kids as disabled,” Charla MacKenzie, director of pupil personnel services for Southwest Licking Local Schools, said “To us, that’s a very big thing.” “It’s only when we’ve exhausted all those suggestions, all those interventions, and we still don’t see progress that…
Read MoreLet’s be clear. Autism sucks; it certainly sucks for my son. (And I don’t lump the Asperger’s group into this: I have met Aspies who are cogent, gainfully employed, capable, present in the world, and able to self-advocate; Dylan wasn’t at all like that before getting high-quality ABA and has a long way to go,…
Read MoreThis Slate article talks about the Hawthorne effect, which basically says that positive interactions with people creates positive outcomes, at least for a while. It’s sort of like a placebo effect for behavior. Using facilitated communication as an example, the author details one reason why researchers in the softer sciences (as opposed to hard sciences…
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