Head Outline PowerPoint Picture Activity to Learn about Peer Interests

Quick and easy method to help children with autism to learn interests of other people

Children with autism spectrum disorders, or children whose knowledge of peers is affected by isolation, anxiety or intellectual disability, benefit from colorful and concrete learning materials when we are helping them learn about other people. Whether you are working with one child or a whole room full of kids, you really should try this social skills learning activity. It is quick to set up. I give you PowerPoint templates and you just copy and paste images onto them, add some text, and you are ready to go. This social skills activity is screen-based, and many children seem to never get tired of looking at screens. There are options to print out drawing worksheets as well.

Click on these RED links below for the downloads:

The Head Outline Other People’s Interests PowerPoint Download

Brain Outline Drawing Worksheet

Head Outline PowerPoint, German translation

I hope you enjoy enjoy this activity.

Joel Shaul, LCSW

Your comments on these resources are most welcome, and often helpful. Click HERE to send an email.

July 22, 2017June 27, 2026

Puzzle Piece Drawing Sheets: Cooperative Social Skills Activity for Children on the Autism Spectrum (and others)

Puzzle drawing sheets – a cooperative social skills activity for children with (and without) autism

In this blog post you can download puzzle piece drawing sheets that set up a variety of great activities for your group or class.

CLICK HERE – Puzzle Piece Drawing Activity Free Download (2)

In this engaging set of activities, children explore how they all “fit together” as a group or a class even though they are all different.

The download provides a variety of puzzle sheets. You can either cut them out, or not, depending on how much prep time you have.

The completed, cut-out puzzle pieces can be fitted together by the children on the floor or on the wall. It also makes an attractive and meaningful wall display.

You can introduce the activity using words something like this:

“When we are part of a group, we have to learn how we all fit together. Fitting together well means knowing how you are like the other people and how you are different from them.”

I hope you enjoy this social skills activity for children with (and without) autism.

Joel Shaul, LCSW

Autism Teaching Strategies

Your comments on these resources are most welcome, and often helpful. Click HERE to send an email.

Here are some other free activities to help two or more children to learn about each other and connect with each other.

Learning about Others with Google Street View

Paper Fortune Teller for Playing & Hanging Out Skills

Green Zone Venn Diagram Worksheet

June 16, 2017June 27, 2026

Jeu de Cartes à Emotions

Ce Jeu de Cartes à Emotions est conçu pour aider à enseigner une variété de compétences liées à la conscience des émotions et à la résolution de problèmes en lien avec les émotions. Les cartes sont destinées à être utilisées de manière flexible. Différentes suggestions d’utilisation sont fournies ci-dessous. Avant d’utiliser les cartes, retirez toutes les cartes qui ne semblent pas répondre aux besoins des enfants avec lesquels vous travaillez. Certaines cartes de questions apparaissent plus d’une fois dans ce paquet de cartes.

Cliquez ici pour télécharger le Jeu de Cartes à Emotions

Activité 1: En utilisant uniquement les cartes « Emotions », placez le paquet de cartes face cachée et, à tour de rôle, faites-les piochez une carte et lire l’émotion. Demandez-leur de parler d’un moment où ils ont ressenti cette émotion, ou demandez-leur de demander à quelqu’un d’autre un moment où il s’est senti ainsi. Suggestion: « arrangez le paquet de cartes » : arrangez l’ordre des cartes de façon à faire ressortir des émotions spécifiques.

Activité 2: Placez les paquet de cartes « Emotions » et « Questions » face cachée côte à côte. Chaque joueur tire une carte « Emotion » et une carte « Question ». La carte « Question » donne au joueur un problème à résoudre, une question à répondre ou une activité à faire, spécifiquement basée sur la carte émotion qu’il a tirée. (Voir les exemples aux pages 2 et 3)

Activité 3: En utilisant uniquement le jeu de cartes « Emotions », demandez aux joueurs de suivre les instructions de la carte 45. C’est une activité intéressante à elle seule, sans les cartes « Questions ». Faire cette activité avec un miroir ou une caméra vidéo peut être utile.

Activité 4: Récit d’émotion. Utilisez uniquement les cartes 21 à 28. Il s’agit d’une activité difficile, qui sollicite à la fois l’intelligence émotionnelle et les compétences coopératives, et peut facilement se faire comme une activité entièrement distincte. (Voir l’exemple à la page 4)

J’espère que vous apprécierez ces cartes.

Joel Shaul, LCSW

Traduit de l’Anglais au Français par Yorgo Hoebeke

July 18, 2015June 27, 2026

The Conversation Picture Practice Game: A complete conversation starter kit for children on the autism spectrum

DOWNLOAD THIS RESOURCE HERE: 100-Cool-Photos-for-Conversation-Practice-Download Download

In German: 100 Fotos, die Kindern mit Autismus helfen, Konversation zu üben

Hebrew translation of this resource

To download the PowerPoint, find the link at the top of this post.

A conversation starter photo kit to project, use on a laptop, use in your tablet in PDF, or print out

Children with autism spectrum disorders usually face enormous difficulties figuring out what to say in diverse social situations. When we are helping such children in counseling, speech sessions and in the classroom, we need to provide them with engaging activities to explore what other people are up to, what other people are thinking, and how to begin conversations based on other people’s interests and circumstances.

Over a period of years I put together a 100 diverse photos that work well for conversation practice. Children really love looking at the pictures and trying to think of something to say.

I put a lot of interesting animated features into this… anything to keep kids engaged in work that is very challenging for them.

Suggestions for using this kit:

1. It works well if you, the adult, act out the role of the person in each slide. The child then talks to you while you stay in character.

2. For children who read, print out the Question/Compliment/Comment Page (next slide) for each child to use as a reference for words and phrases.

3. It helps enormously if you give out any kind of tokens while you are going through the various scenarios. Here is some cool play money I made.

I hope that you enjoy this social skills activity for children on the autism spectrum. I enjoyed creating it.

Joel Shaul, LCSW

*Don’t miss these other free social skills games, worksheets, speech activities and teaching / therapy aids for helping kids with autism:

Free social skills games & activities, communication / conversation skills for kids with ASD

Free social skills games & activities, social interaction skills for kids with ASD

Free social skills games & activities, emotional regulation skills for kids with ASD

Your comments on these resources are most welcome, and often helpful. Click HERE to send an email.

Green Zone Book Cover Click to Learn More

March 15, 2015June 27, 2026

Using “Screens” in Counseling & Social Skills Teaching – Visual Tutorial and Free PowerPoints

Update – In addition to the resources shown on this page, I now have a large collection of teletherapy resources, all adaptable for office-based and classroom instruction. Click HERE to access teletherapy resources and Boom Cards.

November 26, 2014July 4, 2026

Green Zone Picture Card Activity – Free Social Skills Game for Children on the Autism Spectrum

Green Zone Picture Card Social Skills Game – a free download

Children on the autism spectrum often struggle to discern the interests of other people and to take these interests into account in conversation. This social skills game employs a picture-based strategy works well in a variety of ages and reading levels. I would then encourage you to go on to fully explore this fun, visual method in my illustrated children’s book, The Green Zone Conversation Book, published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

To download the activity, click on the red link below.

I wish you success in your social skills work with children on the autism spectrum.

Joel Shaul, LCSW

Green Zone Picture Card Activity Download

German language translation of this resource

Polish language translation of this resource – Karty obrazkowe

Spanish language translation of this resource – Tarjetas de la Zona Verde para practicar la conversación

Hebrew language translation of this resource

The download includes this page to help the two players talk with each other once they have found their shared interests.

Above are two pages from The Green Zone Conversation Book

In another post, I have directions for making and using this fun variation, the Green Zone Mat.

Your comments on these resources are most welcome, and often helpful. Click HERE to send an email.

To download the PDF and PowerPoint files to create this resource, click on the RED links right below here:

To find OTHER “Remote Control” resources specifically designed for social communication, click HERE.

I hope these resources are useful for you.

I would be grateful if you send you me your own ideas regarding applications for these materials. Thank you.

Joel Shaul, LCSW

To see OTHER REMOTE CONTROLS not specifically on social communication, click HERE.

I hope your kids like this project.

Wishing you the best in your work,

Joel Shaul

Here are other free social skills / conversation activities to increase awareness of conversation topics:

This method of teaching social and conversation skills to kids is children with ASD’s is unconventional. But you really should try it if you can – kids like it and it really helps them teach others about themselves and learn about others.

I hope it works out for you.

Joel Shaul

Quick and easy method to help children with autism to learn interests of other people

Click on these RED links below for the downloads:

I hope you enjoy enjoy this activity.

Joel Shaul, LCSW

Children with autism and the problem of interrupting

Download the free PowerPoint on Buffering and Interrupting by clicking on the red link right here. It’s a large file – give it a moment to download.

Below are some images selected from this PowerPoint.

I hope you find this a useful tool in your work.

Joel Shaul

Puzzle drawing sheets – a cooperative social skills activity for children with (and without) autism

Joel Shaul, LCSW

Autism Teaching Strategies

Traduit de l’Anglais au Français par Yorgo Hoebeke

A conversation starter photo kit to project, use on a laptop, use in your tablet in PDF, or print out

Suggestions for using this kit:

Joel Shaul, LCSW

*Don’t miss these other free social skills games, worksheets, speech activities and teaching / therapy aids for helping kids with autism:

Green Zone Picture Card Social Skills Game – a free download

Joel Shaul, LCSW

Polish language translation of this resource – Karty obrazkowe

Spanish language translation of this resource – Tarjetas de la Zona Verde para practicar la conversación