Incorporate their Interests
Whatever you’re teaching, your child will be more engaged if you incorporate their special interests. If your child loves vehicles, work vehicles into every lesson from how to play independently to learning stop and go. For independent play, the play schedules we used had step-by-step photo instructions for building a car (see above). For stop and go, we showed Mikey his toy trains responding to the verbal commands ‘stop’ and ‘go.’
You can grab their attention with the fun stuff and use it to teach them what they need to know.
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About the Author
Erica Mauro is a mom to two teenage boys, Will who is neurotypical and Michael with Autism and cognitive delays. She holds a BA in Psychology from Colgate University and a Masters of Psychology in Education from Columbia Teacher’s College. Before staying home with her children, she worked as an elementary school teacher. For five years, she served on the Board of Directors of the Molly Ann Tango Memorial Foundation, a charity dedicated to enriching the lives of children with special needs. In partnership with her husband Dave, she aspires to parent by using daily life as an opportunity for therapeutic intervention, seizing on real experiences as opportunities to build skills and strategies for Michael in a joyful, loving home environment. On the tougher early days, she just tried to get everyone safely to bedtime and start fresh in the morning. *wink* 
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