News & Teaching Tips

Angela Nelson received her BA and JD from UCLA where she studied and practiced behavior psychology under Dr. Ivar Lovaas. As Founder and CEO of Stages Learning Materials, Angela has created autism and special needs curriculum products since 1997.

Puzzles: Playing or Learning??

Puzzles are classic toys that come in many forms: jigsaw puzzles, peg puzzles, framed board puzzles, block puzzles, and more! When a child starts to put together puzzles they are learning about shapes and space.

Ring Stack Puzzle

The most basic puzzles we see babies play with are simple stacking toys that can be clumsily manipulated with one hand. Putting together a basic stack of rings like this helps build reasoning skills as well as fine motor skills, but when you first watch a child try to stack the rings on the peg, it may seem that luck plays more of a roll than skill!

New Language Builder Software

I am happy to report that Stages Learning Materials has finally taken the leap into the 21st century!

The Language Builder cards have become a staple in autism and speech therapy programs across the country, and even abroad. I regularly attend conferences where parents and therapists alike tell me that they use the cards every day at home or in their practice. The other thing I hear at every conference I attend ... "When will the Language Builder Cards be available in a software program I can use on the computer?" That day has finally come!

Building Language for your Autistic Child

Emerging Language and Building Vocabulary

Language development varies from child to child, and there are wide ranges of expected “normal” language development in young children. If you have specific concerns about the pace of your child’s language development, you should definitely discuss this with your health care professional. However, for reference sake, by the age of two a child is expected to be able to:

Back to School Success for Students with Autism

New routine, new teachers, new classrooms…. New, New, New! This can be stressful for all children, but even more so for children with autism and related special needs. What can you do to minimize stress and maximize success in the new school year? Here are some ABC’s to help you and your child.

Activities:

What will your child do on a day to day basis at their new school? Which activities will they be doing with a mainstream class? Which activities will they be working on in a one-on one setting?

Language Milestones

How many professionals have been asked: “How do I know if my child is behind in language development?” How many parents have asked the question, or at least wondered to themselves?

Language development varies from child to child, and there are wide ranges of expected “normal” language development in young children. If you are using Stages Learning Materials products with your own child, and you are concerned about language development, you should definitely discuss this with your health care professional. However, for reference sake, in general:

Building Full Sentences

The most popular use of the Language Builder Picture Card Series is to build vocabulary. The realistic and current photos help students to learn the name of various nouns, occupations, and emotions. In the beginning, this task can be very repetitive and basic, focusing only on learning single-word responses. When a child with autism begins to gain expressive language skills, parents and educators are thrilled to watch these new words emerge.

Why Real Photo Games for Early Childhood Education?

A growing trend in Early Childhood Education is the focus on using materials with real photo images rather than illustrations.

Teaching ideologies such as Montessori have long understood the importance of focusing on fact rather than fiction in the materials used for teaching young children. The closer the educational experiences are to real life, the easier it is for children to make the links and connections to their real world experiences, and to recognize and transfer the learning value when they later encounter the real thing in nature.

Classroom Bingo

Classroom bingo is a fun teaching tool for use at home or in the classroom. With Stages’ Picture Recognition Bingo kids won’t even know that they’re learning while they listen intently to match the beautiful photographs on their player’s card with the corresponding words spoken by the instructor!

Directions for Play:
There are 7 potential ways to win! Decide in advance which of the listed win-methods you are playing. You can change win-methods from one round to the next, but you cannot change win-methods mid-round.

Lang-O-Learn Cards Labeled in 17 Languages for ESL and Language Learners

Stages Learning Materials produces 13 flash card sets that are labeled on the reverse in 17 common languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese simplified, Chinese traditional, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Polish, Filipino, Portuguese, Greek, Thai, Arabic).

Lang-O-Learn Cards Labeled in 17 Languages -- Including Spanish

The cards are great for teaching basic language skills to preschool age children, children and adults with autism, developmental delay, or speech & language delay, or to anyone first learning or re-learning basic language skills. Very popular in ESL and ELL programs.


	Puzzles: Playing or Learning?? Puzzles are classic toys that come in many forms... Read More
	New Language Builder Software I am happy to report that Stages Learning... Read More
	Building Language for your Autistic Child Emerging Language and Building Vocabulary... Read More
	Back to School Success for Students with Autism New routine, new teachers, new classrooms... Read More
	Language Milestones How many professionals have been asked: “... Read More