Georgia PBS Interventions - Florida's Positive Behavior Support ...

SpellingChildren with Autism can learn to spell words, even children with autism who are non-verbal. Start withsomething they recognize and put a picture of that and the matching magnetic plastic letters in abaggie. Have them pull the letters out and put them in the right order to match the picture. Example:ball- put a picture of their ball in a baggie and the letters b-a-l-l. At first you will have to teach thatball says ball and then you can shape the behavior from you doing it to them actually doing it all ontheir own. Teach it in this order:• Teacher models by saying “b-a-l-l” as she moves the letters in to place under the picture in thebaggie.• Teacher models by saying “b” and handing the “b” to the student, then “a” and handing theletter to the student.• Teacher models by telling the student to pick up the “b” and put it in the correct place and soon until the word is spelled.• Teacher models by showing the picture and handing the letters to the student in random order.• Teacher hands the baggie to the student and they take the letters out and spell the words.Positive Interventions and Effective Strategies Riffel -© 2005 - 90 -