Incredible 5 Point Scale
Developed to share information about the use of Cognitive Behavioral approaches and stress reduction in educational programming for students with autism and Asperger Syndrome.
Developed to share information about the use of Cognitive Behavioral approaches and stress reduction in educational programming for students with autism and Asperger Syndrome.
This much-awaited, second edition of the wildly popular Incredible 5-Point Scale is, as the title suggests, “significantly improved and expanded.” Using the same practical and user-friendly format as the first edition, Buron and Curtis let readers benefit from work done with the scales over the past 10 years, to result in refinements to the original scales, now considered “classics” in homes and classrooms across the country and abroad, as well as lots of new scales specifically designed for two groups of individuals: young children and those with more classic presentations of autism, including expanded use of the Anxiety Curve.
Starting Points is a handy guide designed to help anyone who is new to the diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome. Educators, therapists, and parents will learn strategies to work effectively with that individual. Constructed in an easy-to-follow format complete with icons, charts, and other visual supports, this book will lessen the feeling of being overwhelmed when assisting someone with Asperger Syndrome.
Over the years, my thoughts and opinions around social skills teaching have changed a great deal. Reading and listening to the viewpoints of autistic people has opened my eyes to the problems that social skills training can cause over time such as masking. When autistic thinking and neurology are not taken into account, social skills tend to be taught for…
The Elementary Edition of our popular Should I or Shouldn’t I? What Would Others Think?™ game encourages players ages 8-11 to think about their own behavior choices and then compare how their perceptions match (or don’t) those of the other players. The game makes thinking and talking about behavior fun, and allows players to explore their own thoughts, perspectives, and choices within a safe and consequences-free environment.
Parents of children with a recent diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often feel overwhelmed, scared and anxious. Early intervention is the key to aid in the development of these children and for providing support for families dealing with a child’s social, communication, and behavioral problems. Lengthy waiting lists for services or a lack of full services in rural areas can leave parents feeling helpless and unable to meet their child’s needs.
Visual supports are the cornerstone of communication. They provide structure, routine, consistency and predictability. When a person understands the expectations and knows what to do, they are more independent and confident. Visuals can give a non-speaking person a voice or provide another way to communicate when anxiety and stress take over and words fail. There was a study that found…
Social Context and Self-Management: A System for Clarifying Social Information for Adolescents and Adults uses scales as a way of explaining social and emotional concepts to someone who might struggle with such information, but have a relative strength in understanding systems.
Featuring Kari Dunn Buron
Highly rigid and restrictive routines are a part of the autism diagnosis. If we look at autism through the neurodiversity lens we might notice that repetitive routines are a learning strength for autistic individuals.
The Incredible 5-Point Scale was developed with this assumption in mind. The scale is a highly systemized method of teaching social and emotional information. What we have found over the recent 20 years is that focusing on rigidity and inflexibility as a learning strength, and placing value on that learning channel, can assist educators and parents in creating successful strategies.
I think the ‘Claire Buron Project’, as we have come to call it, began years ago when I read about the positive effects of dog ownership. I began thinking that if owning a dog could lower a person’s stress level, and if just petting the dog could release pleasurable hormones, then maybe a dog could help calm highly anxious students with autism in a school setting.
Kari Dunn Buron worked in K-12 with students with autism for 30+ years. Kari developed an Autism Spectrum Disorders Certificate program for educators at Hamline University and has done volunteer work specific to autism in Trinidad, Tobago, Barbados, Tanzania and Ghana. In 2003, Kari received a Self-designed Fellowship that allowed her to spend a year interviewing and working internationally with…
The Should I or Shouldn’t I? What Would Others Think? ™ game encourages players to think about their own behavior choices and then compare how their perceptions match (or don’t) those of the other players. It revolves around the idea of perspective taking – being able to think about others, their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and how this interrelationship plays out in social situations. The game is based on the Social Thinking concepts and vocabulary introduced by Michelle Garcia Winner and outlined in her many books and articles on the topic.
Many individuals with autism have deep interest in one or a variety of topics. Some interests are commonly seen across individuals with autism (e.g., trains, horses, light switches), others seem more unique to an individual person. For instance, Sean Barron, a man with autism once had a deep interest in the number 24. At another point in his life, he became fascinated by dead-end streets (Barron & Barron, 1992)
Some of the most important skills your child needs at school come from lessons that begin at home. A mother tells me how excited she is about her toddler’s “educational” computer game. Just click the mouse and presto: One, two, three oranges bound into a bucket. Isn’t that a fabulous way to learn counting? What is my opinion, as a preschool teacher?