Program Flash Cards

I have made the first 13 available now and you may like the “tips and tricks” on the back of the cards. I hope to progressively add as time goes by. Here are some cards I use that had professionally drawn:

These program /activity cards are helpful because:

• Some neurodiverse children need to know in advance what is coming up and have trouble transitioning from one exercise to the next (eg. kicking with board to without board) and can otherwise become highly agitated and difficult to manage.
• Many kids with special needs require precise instructions. The stuff that you can generally download are cartoonish and do not have the eyes looking to the bottom of the pool or other things correct so set out to fill this gap with an artist to make the drawings I needed. I found I can refer to the appropriate card and say “see how she is looking straight down, ears in water…” and those that respond better to visuals rather than verbal suddenly do it correctly!

How I use these program / activity cards is:

• Laminate each program / activity card individually (hopefully you have access to colour printer and laminator)
• Store in a plastic document box (my one is around 2cm thick that got from office supplier)
• Purchased some “velcro dots” (or strips) from the craft shop and put the hooked dots on the back of the flash cards and four of the soft strips on the outside of the box so that the box doubles as a display board
• Then stick the activity cards that you (or sometimes the student) select for that lesson onto the plastic box in order (fun activity last before lesson over card) per picture below. HINT: You may find that 4-6 activities are optimal for learning so put them on the left hand side and one or two cards as a treat / prize for completing each activity or the whole lesson on the right hand side (depending upon the students concentration span). You need to work out what works best for each student!
• One of my colleagues using the cards teaching a high level ADHD with high functioning L3 Autism showed a card to a client whom flipped over the card and read the “Cues and Tips” designed for instructors on the back. His reading and comprehension abilities became clear as followed the picture and written hints even though he could not put a full sentence together and had a concentration span of only seconds. My problem now is to accelerate the production of the cards to keep up with his skill levels as currently production schedule is focussed on lower levels.

Will you help yourself an others:

• Bookmark this page and check up on it regularly if you like the downloads. I decided not to have you register and use “mailchimp” or similar and simply monitor the number of downloads.
• More Program Flash Cards – You can see I have specified many cards that are coming. Once most of them are done, I would like to hear from you for more suggestions especially if you sponsor the production of stuff you need! I can then maybe get it done and add it to the collection for free downloads to instructors everywhere.
• Maybe you can help – If you are a graphic arts student and swimming teacher I would love to hear from you to try to accelerate this project.

Note: I have covered the costs for what I initially need but cannot do this for everyone else’s needs so sponsoring a card is a way to help yourself and others (note: I will maintain the copy-write of any drawing produced but doubt I will ever make money when it is being given away).