Workboxes With Autism

We have two boys with autism.  Our son Tyler is high-functioning and absolutely loves his workbox system.  I have no problem coming up with things to put into his boxes.  Our son Christian is nonverbal and severely autistic.  I am just starting to do workboxes with him and it can be a real challege to come up with things that aren't way over his head or too time consuming for his attention span.  I have come up with some things though so I thought I would share in case there is someone else in a similiar situation.  There are several books that I have been gleaning a lot of ideas from.  

The first one is How Do I Teach This Kid? by Kimberly A Henry

It has a lot of easy to make tasks and they are nicely broken down by skill.  It also has some nice data sheets to track your progress.

The second book is probably my favorite.  It is Let's Get Started by Susan Boswell.

It is organized with the easier tasks first and progressing to the more challenging.  The activities are easy to make and can be easily modified to a childs interests and/or sensory needs.

The third book is Clever Creations by Dottie Zimmermann.  I haven't used a lot of the ideas in this book but they look very interesting.

The next book is not for autism but a lot of the activities work well for us anyway.  It is Fine Motor Skills for Children with Down Syndrome by Maryanne Bruni.  I can't say enough great things about this book.  I really love how each section has a grandma and grandpa list at the end of ideas for gifts.  I know my son can be very hard to shop for.

The book I am currently reading is Tray Tasking by Victoria Folds and I am liking it a lot.  It has more life skills tasks than some of the other books. 

If you are interested in making your own printable activities a really great book is Teaching by Design by Kimberly S. Voss.  It even comes with a cd with templates on it to help.  The author is the mother of a child with Downs Syndrome and used the ideas with her daughter.

I have also found a lot of ideas from Mailbox magazine and books.

One thing that has been an invaluable resource for us has been Smart Pals from EAI Education.  They are plastic sleeves that you can put worksheets in and use dry erase markers with.  My son is not good with paper. (He eats it!)  He also needs to do the same activity many many times.  I tried document protectors but they were not as sturdy as these. Trust me we need sturdy.  They are a little expensive but they hold up well.

If you are interested the link is: http://www.eaieducation.com/532371.html

I find a lot of great hands on activities at www.lakeshorelearning.com too.  They are pretty pricey but they do have some good sales.  I love www.learningresources.com also for both of my boys.  I very fond of www.superduperinc.com too. 

I hope that helps someone.  I am not an overly creative person so I try to find as much as I can from those that are gifted in that area.  I would love to hear from anyone who has a low functioning child that they are using workboxes with also.