Independent Work Activities for Students With Autism

These tasks were originally designed as Independent work activities for children with autism in an Australian Early Intervention setting; however, they may also be used in special education and early childhood classrooms (Pre-K, Kindergarten and Pre-Primary).

Independent work is important for students because it
• Develops confidence to work independently.
• Helps students to work on their own for a sustained amount of time.
• Reinforces skills and prior knowledge.
• Can provide you with more time to work with small groups of students.

It is important that students have mastered the concepts required for these tasks before completing them as independent work.

These tasks all have a clear beginning and ending (students can tell when the task is complete) and are visually engaging without being overly complicated or confusing for students. Tasks can easily be placed in binders, workboxes, drawers or trays depending on how you store and display your independent work activities (largest size document is A4).

This listing includes 84 pages:
• Stick and match Activities x5
• Prewriting Activities (3 to a page) x2 sets including
-Lines
-Zigzags
-Wavy
• Prewriting single strips x20
• Find the match x 8
• Peg the matching colour x18
• Peg the matching pencils x4 (patterns)
• Ocean animal puzzles x3
• Colour puzzles x7
• Arranging small, medium, large cupcakes x4
• Arranging small, medium, large shapes x4
• Matching shape names to images x 8
• Count (numbers 1-12) and peg cards x2 sets of 12
• Schedule strips x6
• Schedule images x15

Specific skills targeted include: Prewriting, colours, counting 1-12, ordering small to big and shapes.