It’s that time of year when parents are elbowing their way to the bins of marked down school supplies so they can prepare to send the kids back to school. The anticipation around our house starts a couple weeks before the actual day. My son, who is high-functioning autistic, gets a little anxious, so this time, we’ve tried a couple of things that have helped him ease his anxieties and look forward to his first big day back to second grade.
Social Stories
I know I have mentioned this app before, but we use the My Stories app by SimplifiedTouch for $1.99, to create our own social stories for everything. Social stories are short narratives with graphics that tell a story about a specific situation, such as Going to the Pool, Getting Ready for School to Start, or Going to the Dentist. Because most autistic children learn visually, these stories are great for preparing them for anxious situations.
We created a Getting Ready for School story and have been reading it for about a week now. Since my son has anxieties about school, we made it funny and used pictures of himself and his school, which he got a kick out of. He also recorded his own voice to narrate, which he found quite funny, too. We had our Meet the Teacher day this week and he had a smile on his face the whole time because he knew what to expect after reading our story.
Other Helpful Apps
I found a few more apps that might be helpful in encouraging little ones on their first days of school.
- Nugget’s First Day of School by Hallmark, free – This is an interactive story about a dog, Nugget’s, first day of school. It’s encouraging as the narrator tells about the pup’s first day.
- First Day of School by Appracadabra, $.99 – This app lets kids count down the days til school starts. It starts by counting down from day 7.
- Owen’s First Day of School by Hoa Ton-that, $.99 – Go with Owen the owlet on his first day of school to see what adventures he has.
I hope these help ease your special little kiddos into the transition from home to school. I admit, it’s hard on us, but we’ve really put to use social story apps, interactive storybook apps, math, spelling and other apps that make learning fun and prepare my son for school. We are hoping for an excellent year and a little man who loves to learn! Good luck!
Photo courtesy of: Editor B
