Feature, Function, Class (FFC) - data sheet and target list

FFC stands for Feature, Function, Class and it is used to describe and understand objects further than just their label. For example, an apple is red (feature), is for eating (function), and is a fruit (class). Having a solid foundation of labels and FFC knowledge allows us to have conversations about things in our lives. We don't want our students to just be able to point to an apple and say "apple". We want our students to talk about how juicy an apple is, that their classmate is eating an apple for snack, that you can pick apples off of trees! I found a great article explaining the importance of FFC and encourage you guys to check it out. It is posted by a speech therapy group in North Carolina and although I do not know anything about their services, I agree with what they have posted about FFC. Here is the article. The article explains how to generalize FFC and that is essential to your students fully grasping what they are learning.

In the early stages of teaching FFC, I do work with them at the table and use an array of pictures. It is also VERY important to identify other meaningful things in their environment by FFC. I also make sure to vary my questions when probing. For example, I might ask "Which one do you eat?" or I might say, "What can you eat?". Varying your language helps them generalize -wh questions and removes the risk of them becoming dependent on the particular way a question was asked. Be sure you are also varying your pictures and the placement of your target picture. Identifying in the natural environment is the ultimate goal when probing. For example, having the student find something you can eat with and they independently search the room for a fork.

This data sheet template is from my school system and I have used it for many different types of skill testing. I change it dependent on the items I am targeting. The FFC target list that I have for download is not mine but I do not have the source. I downloaded it about 2 years ago somewhere online. If someone knows the source, please let me know and I can cite it! Remember you can use the picture cards I posted here and here!!

*VB-MAPP Level 2, LRFFC 8-M says to select the item from an array of 10 (or a book) with different verb-noun wh- questions.


Here is the download for the FFC Target List

Here is the download for the FFC data sheet



"Which one do you wear?" "Where is the animal?" "Find the one you see with"

What does the fox say!!?!?

 

Can we just talk about how a song with animal sounds is COOL right now? Too bad it would be a tad inappropriate to show that during our circle time (darn!). However - no need to stick to the classics! I have a book here with a song about farm animals and the sounds they make that ISN'T "Old McDonald"! I really do not know where I saw the idea for this song... I definitely didn't dream it up myself but I did spend some time making this fun book to share with you all :)

 

The song is to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus" and it is really a lot of fun to do with the kids. I have a student who has been working on intraverbal fill-ins (ex. "a pig says ____") and when we started using this book/song in circle, he started mastering several of them!

 

Hope you guys enjoy it! DOWNLOAD HERE!

 

5 Little Turkeys

Since this is the month of the turkey, I present you with another book produced by yours truly! It is an adapted book to go with the 5 little turkeys poem. Included are the instructions on how to put it together but it is pretty simple. I hope you all enjoy it! I am excited to show my students tomorrow.

Download here!!

My November Newsletter - includes tips for parents!

Hi Everyone!

I just finished up a newsletter to send out to my parents this Friday and thought I would share it! This week we had an open house and parents were asking about ways that they can implement strategies we use in the classroom at home. I am so excited that parents want to learn more about ABA! Having families involved in early intervention is one of the best ways to both increase and generalize the skills that we are teaching our students.

I always try to emphasize how important discrete trial teaching is when I give tips on how to use ABA in the home. This kind of approach to teaching skills works for all people, not just children with autism! However, when trying to research what discrete trial teaching is, it can be very overwhelming when you aren't familiar with ABA terminology. I crafted a simple chart and found a Google image to illustrate how ABC (antecedent, behavior, consequence) works. I am hoping that this is helpful for my parents and that it will be of use to my readers as well!

The download is a Word document so that you can edit it to meet your needs. Enjoy!

Here is the download!

My Halloween Book!

Happy Halloween! Today I have a treat (no tricks!) that I put together this week. I have a rather dismal collection of fall and halloween books so I figured instead of contributing my hard earned dollars to the Amazon empire, I would make my own! It took me hardly any time to come up with a quick little idea and do a Google search for images. My assistant was kind enough to finish the formatting to make the book look classroom worthy and WHOOMP, THERE IT IS. (no, not there. that's a link to a 90's classic).

But for real, HERE IS THE DOWNLOAD! Enjoy!

Embedding Targets During Meal Times

In my last post I shared how I embedded language/behavior targets for a back to school art activity. As educators, we are responsible for being intentional with our activities and knowing what our goals are for those activities. I don't write traditional lesson plans and instead use curriculum planning sheets to prepare how I want to execute a lesson. Today I am including a curriculum planning sheet for embedding targets during meal times. I keep this posted near the table where the students eat so that my staff and I have a constant reminder of what we can target during meals. It is not necessary to try and tackle every single target for every single meal (unless you are just super ambitious and have very willing students!). Pick the important ones for individual students and work from there. I have curriculum sheets for many other parts of our day but decided to share the meal time one first since I think it can often be a forgotten part of our day for useful language training. It is tempting to take a break and relax during meal times but time is everything in early intervention and we only have so much of it!

Meal Time Planning Sheet can be downloaded here!!!

 

Happy New School Year!

Hello!

I hope everyone is having a great "back to school" time of year! I know I am all over the place making newsletters and supply lists, getting to know new students, mourning over the ones who transitioned or moved, and all of that fun stuff! I put together a fun little "back to school" art project that is simple and fun and thought I would share! It is just a printable of a backpack that the students got to color and then add pictures of school supplies that they are familiar with and use! I made sure all of the school supply pictures were cut out beforehand and then as we did the activity, we targeted a lot of language/attending/fine motor goals. This activity makes it easy to use differentiated instruction and while doing it, I thought about each student's needs. One of my students is working on matching, so she was expected to match the school supplies before she glued them on. Another student is working on labeling so he was expected to label the item before gluing it. We also went over the function of the items as we did the activity (for example, we talked about how scissors are for cutting). I like to squeeze as much as I can out of an activity so below is a list of ways you can do this! (It is important to think of all of these targets for each activity that you plan and have goals in mind for each student so that your activity is meaningful and not just a cutesy art project that will impress the parents ;-)

Here is the download!!!
(FYI- in preview mode you cannot see the backpack template. Google Drive does this often - so no worries, when you download the full file it will all be there!)

Matching:
-Match the real school supply objects to the pictures.
-Match "picture to picture" of the school supply objects.

Motor Imitation:
-Imitating by saying "Do this" or "copy me" and modeling coloring/cutting/squeezing glue, etc

Requesting/Mands:
-Requesting colors of the crayons
-Requesting the glue/school supply pictures (only expect this if it is motivating)
-Work on requesting using carrier phrases/full sentences with the higher verbal kiddos
-Requesting actions/help ("Can I glue this?" "Can you open this?")
-Manding for information (ex. "What is that?")

Receptive Skills:
-Receptive ID for colors of the crayons (ex. "Show me the red crayon"
-Receptive ID for the school supply pictures (ex. "Touch the tissues")
-Receptive ID for function of items (ex. "Which one is for cutting?")
-Following instructions ("Glue the crayons on." "Give me the glue")

Labeling/Tacts:
-Labeling colors/items
-Labeling actions (gluing/cutting/coloring) <-- ask them about what their peers are doing
-Labeling their peers
-Labeling feature, function, class of items

Intraverbal:
-Fill in the blanks and reversals with feature/function/class ("you cut with ___" or "you color with ____")
-What questions ("what do you cut with?")
-Who questions ("who is using the green crayon?")
-Where questions ("where are the crayons?")
-When questions ("when do you need tissues?")
-Why questions ("why do you need the glue?")

Other Skills and Behavior:
-Staying in their seat for duration of activity
-Attending to directions
-Modeling and following directions correctly (including imitation for your more early learners)
-Counting the items
-Keeping hands to self during activity
-Fine motor (holding crayon correctly, squeezing the glue, picking up the small pieces of paper)

one of my very talented student's work!