Pre-K Autism, 3-4 yr olds, Las Vegas, NV September 2025
- stephaniehayden
- Nov 9
- 2 min read
The kids in this class were so full of personality and specific interests I was amazed at all the ways they decided to communicate with me during my time visiting as their substitute teacher. The Special Education Teacher's Assistant ran the class like a well oiled machine and the kids love her.
One student, who did not speak, was particularly fond of drawing and sat for most of the day coloring and drawing all sorts of ideas throughout the day. I offered him one of my Atlas Moth images behind the plastic 3-hole cover as I've seen a lot of teachers use that approach and he colored on it right away
Later, he brought me a Sesame Street book, flipped through all the pages and pointed to various characters to make sure I looked at each one closely and said their names. He then went to the back of the book where there are profile pictures of the cast of characters including Big Bird, Ms. Piggy, Oscar the Grouch, and the Cookie Monster, among others. He would point and wait for me to say the correct name, then point again, and faster, moving from character to character, then slow down, and I realized he was using me like a beat box, making a song with me saying the character names to a rhythm he was controlling as I focused on what he was instructing me to do.
When I asked him if he was being a DJ for the class he looked around sort of nonchalantly and nodded his head.
Then, he kept pointing at Cookie Monster, and when I said that's not a song any more because you're just telling me Cookie Monster. He pointed at my watch and then the book until I realized he was asking for cookies because it was almost lunch time.
He was totally controlling everything I did throughout the day.
I wondered if any other Pre-K kids might enjoy coloring the Atlas Moth under the plastic cover and so tried it the next time I taught Autism.
September 2025
