Many children, especially children with autism spectrum disorders, have difficulty answering these questions from their parents at the end of the day. Children might be tired or distracted. They might not grasp the importance of exchanging information about the school day. They may have an impaired sense of what the parent knows or does not know.
I designed these sheets so that:
*Parents can use them as written prompts
*Mental health therapists and speech therapists working with children with autism can use them for guidance and practice for this important aspect of the parent-child relationship.
This first sheet offers examples, in thematic categories, of useful statements and phrases to use when answering “How was your day” kinds of questions.
This second page offers a variety of helpful suggestions.
The third sheet offers examples of how to use the phrase prompts from page 1.
In my own work with the parents of children on the spectrum, I have gotten a lot of good feedback about the design and utility of these conversation prompts. I hope that you also find them useful.
Joel Shaul, LCSW
For more materials to facilitate conversation between the child and family members, here is another set of free materials: Talk to Family Picture Sheets.
For more practice on asking and responding to “How are you?” questions, here is a cool and fun paper fortune teller on that topic.
Many of us in education, mental health and speech spent hundreds of hours providing services remotely through our computers in 2000 and 2021.
At times, it certainly made us feel burnt out. Not to mention how it may have affected our students and clients.
Maybe you, like me, have also learned from working remotely and grown professionally because of it. Although I went through lots of frustration, I have to say it really had some very positive effects on my work. I started out with limited skills in teletherapy but then I got much better at it, to the point that a majority of the families I work with would have preferred continuing in remote services with me if insurance providers and regulatory agencies would have allowed it.
While doing all that therapy remotely through computer screens, I did a few things which have affected the way I now do my in-person mental health therapy and social skills training for young people with autism.
Some Ways Teletherapy Experience Can Make Us Better In-Person Therapists
Doing teletherapy, in a shared, virtual space instead of our own offices, can have the effect of breaking down some power dynamics that might not be beneficial to the needs of the child and the family. We – the professional, the child, the parent – work together in teletherapy in a space we jointly nurture and develop. It sometimes does not work so terrific, but when it does, it’s great.
Now that we are back in in-person sessions, providing services in our professional space, there are many things I can do to continue to work together with families in an egalitarian and collaborative manner. I can get out a drawing the child made in the past and stick it on the wall during the session. I can work more diligently with the parent as a therapeutic ally and perhaps have them in the therapy room for more of the session.
Engaging Visuals Are Just As Important with In-Person Therapy as in Teletherapy
The experience of doing teletherapy made it more clear than ever how important it is to use the clearest and most engaging visuals I can find. I noticed, in teletherapy with young people on the autism spectrum, that I needed to use colorful, engaging and strategic visuals on the shared screen as much as possible to supplement the verbal exchange and engage distractible eyes. Now that I am back to seeing children in person, I find I am using visuals – social skills games, picture cards, very simple worksheets – more than ever, since for so many months I had no other choice while carrying out teletherapy sessions with children on the autism spectrum.
In your own in-person teaching and therapy, you are invited to supplement your own repertoire of engaging visuals with whatever you might find on my website. My website’s download section has dozens of free printable games, pictures, coloring sheets and simple worksheets.
Screen-based Therapy Tools Can Work Great with In-Person Therapy Too
Many kids with ASD will lose focus and feel uncomfortable if obligate them to face us directly for too long. In teletherapy, I often spent more than half the session working with them while we looked together at a game, online worksheet or video. Although I used to use screen-based therapy tools often before the pandemic, I find I am employing them even more now after 18 months of teletherapy experience.
Some of these screen-based teletherapy resources I developed work even better than the printable resources I based them on. See this example below.
You are welcome to try, in your own office-based counseling and therapy, my own free teletherapy resources (various formats including Boom Card).
I hope you also have a successful resumption of your in-person work with children.
I have dozens of free resources to help children with ASD to practice conversation, nonverbal communication and diverse aspects of social communication. To access free resources on communication skills, click here. Communication .
There are a number of free social skills resources to help children with autism learn about and troubleshoot many different issues pertaining to social interaction. To access free downloadable resources on social interaction skills, click here: Interaction .
I have created a large number of appealing, user-friendly worksheets, games and videos to help children on the autism spectrum with emotional regulation. To access free materials on emotional regulation, click here: Emotions
All of the free resources that don’t fit into the categories of Communication, Interaction and Emotions are grouped into a fourth category, “Other.” This includes therapy/teaching methods, demonstration videos and other resources.
Whether you are coming to this website as a professional working with children on the spectrum, or as a family member caring for a child or young adult with autism, I hope some of these things I have created are useful for you.
Click on Communication, Interaction, Emotions or Other below to be directed to the respective categories.
I am a psychotherapist working with children who have autism, anxiety and depression. I needed good resources to help my clients suffering from screen addiction.
I feel strongly about the issue of screen device dependence in children. So, after creating this book, I decided to make it available as a free download for anyone who wants to use it.
In the first part of the book, readers share about their favorite screen activities through reading and various worksheets.
The book helps kids track their use of phones, TV, computer and games.
Later chapters guide the reader and the adult into discussions of what life can be like with less – and higher quality – screen time.
Challenging patterns of screen dependence is hard. But many kids do get so much better, and that’s great to see.
I hope you find the book, and the facilitator’s guide, useful in your work as a parent, mental health professional or teacher.
In my own work with children on the spectrum, I frequently almost always found that merely talking about a problem wasn’t good enough alone. Kids get tired of being scrutinized and criticized. Kids with autism in particular can get fidgety and impatient during sessions.
Many years ago, I found other therapists employing handmade cardboard meters they had put together to help children focus on issues such as voice volume. After much experimentation, I found that these meters have many applications on a wide variety of problems that are the focus of therapy interventions.
This kit enables you to use my template to quickly create nice-looking meters for whatever problem area you are working on. The advantage of putting the meter on a computer screen is that you and the child can easily look at the screen together and collaborate on its design.
Most kids also really like to take part in cutting it out and laminating it. This can afford them a sense of agency in the therapeutic process.
The pictures below provide some examples of what the behavior meters look like and some tips on creating them and using them.
Elsewhere on my website, you will find links to some meters that are pre-made on topics such as voice volume and fantasy enthrallment.
There are other free, downloadable “meters” on the website.
Autistic children are very often uniquely creative when they draw or create other kinds of art. But cooperating with others in creative endeavors can make them confused and unless they have adequate adult guidance and clear cooperation rules to follow.
This printable activity sets up a one-page drawing and writing activity that two children are assigned to complete jointly. Each pair, in either a social skills group or a classroom setting, is instructed to invent, name, describe and jointly draw a cookie together. It’s not easy, but it can be very fun. On the many occasions I have used it, it usually works out well.
It’s essential to go over the cooperation rules (shown below) carefully ahead of time. Practice aloud the specific phrases of “cooperation language.”
I have found I need to be vigilant to help mediate disagreements, and to help the participants to actually work together instead of each one just drawing “my half of the cookie.”
To find a similar worksheet on jointly drawing a pizza instead of a cookie, click here.
More collaborative drawing projects for children on the spectrum –
There are lots more great ways to help pairs and groups of kids with ASD to practice cooperation and creating things together. I have a whole section on this for you to explore: See “Collaborative drawing tasks for social learning” for information and ideas, like the one shown above.
Over the years, I have had a few young clients that can fold these as well as me, but nearly all children will need you to fold the paper fortune tellers ahead of time!
I have created many paper fortune tellers and over some years I have often found good uses for them in small groups, classrooms and individual therapy.
Paper fortune tellers can be used in a variety of ways to add interest, skill practice and an interactive element to your social and emotional skills work.
Two children can use one together. An adult and a child can use one together.
Here is one method for using these. You will certainly think of some other ways, too.
Step one: Player 1 asks player 2 a question whose answer is either a number or a single word. Examples: “What is your age?” “How do you spell your name?”
Then, manipulate the paper fortune teller while spelling or counting.
Say, “Which question do you pick: ‘Where do you…’ or ‘What is your favorite…?”
Always have two children use one paper fortune teller. If each child has their own, it enables solitary play instead of an interactive activity.
Children with autism may have a difficult time exploring other people’s opinions. Children on the spectrum might be preoccupied with their own established viewpoints, and in the rapid exchange of typical conversation, the contrasting point of view might catch them off guard. In my own work with kids on the spectrum, I have found it very useful to provide specific question language to employ when asking other people their opinions. And providing practice is essential. That’s why I developed this paper fortune teller. It’s useful for having two children, or the child and the helping adult, to take turns inquiring about the other person’s point of view. I used it fairly often in my work, and found it useful for children capable of reading the text on the paper fortune teller.
The following images walk you through how to introduce the paper fortune teller and use it with a child.
