February 2015 Newsletter

Why is reading comprehension critical?
By Stephanie Durfee 

What does it mean to read? In a teacher's world of education and autism I will often hear people say, "so and so is able to read," "reading is a strength for them!", "they are such a good reader!" or even, "I always have them read out loud in class!"

 

It makes me pause for a minute and think: what do they mean when they say their student is reading?

 

Does the child understand the words they are seeing or are they just saying each work out loud?Reading is not just being able to memorize and recognize words and read them out loud. Reading is so much more.

 
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UPCOMING EVENTS  
 
March 13  
Father's Day Visit    
Location: The Shafer Center 
 
March 26  
Breakfast & Books
The Autism Trail Guide: Postcards from the Road Less Traveled Paperback  By:Ellen Notbohm
Location: The Shafer Center 

April 23 
Breakfast & Books
Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism
By: Temple Grandin
Location: The Shafer Center 

 
The OT asked a TSC student what zone he thought his body was in. She said "you are leaning back a lot and looking down. I think you might be tired or in the low zone." He goes "Oh no! I'm just farting...I'm not in the low zone." He did this without skipping a beat!
 

A Bridge Building student was packing his lunch for the following day, the teddy grams he was putting into his lunch bag spilt on the floor and he said, "Oh you crazy bears" .     

 

A Bridge Therapist accidentally knocked a students binder off his desk and apologized. The student said, " Oh Caroline, that's alright, I still love you like a friend, which is a just a little, not the same as you love the people at home".   

 

Shafer Stars 
 

With a twinkle in his eye and the biggest smile we've ever seen, Zachary joined our Imagine classroom in June 2014. He enjoys playing with his classmates and our staff but his favorite thing to do is The Jumping Game. This game was created for Zachary and he loves it! When Zachary started at TSC, we performed a behavior assessment to better develop an individualized behavior intervention plan to increase his participation in the classroom and functional activities. Zachary spends part of his day with peers in the classroom and the other portion working on his individualized ABA programs.  We love watching Zachary grow!

 

 
Shafer Staff Heroes
    

"The moment I knew I was working with the right population was when a child that I had been seeing mastered a skill, not only was I incredibly proud of him, but the look of accomplishment on his face was worth a thousand words!  Every single day my job is exciting, challenging and rewarding!"

 

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Shafer Spotlight of the Month

This month, the classrooms focused on themes for Community Helpers and Presidents. Each classroom creatively integrated the themes and core curriculum into their lessons and activities. 


Dream 1 addressed the presidents through activities that focused on learning about who is president, presidential responsibilities, what a law is and the voting process.

Dream 2 learned facts about Abraham Lincoln, and incorporated his height into measurement for math; they measured their own heights and compared it to Abe.

Believe 1 & 2 read stories about community helpers and answered -WH questions, classified community helper tools, sang "5 Little Firemen", introduced subtraction using firefighter manipulatives.

 

Imagine practiced dialing 911 on an IPAD application. They read a book about Abe Lincoln and made log cabins using popsicle sticks.

 
Stay Connected
11500 Cronridge Drive | Suite 130 | Owings Mills, MD 21117
P: 410.517.1113 | F: 410.517.2113  info@shafercenter.com