How to Play with MakeBeliefsComix.com

MAKEBELIEFSCOMIX FOR CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

Here are some examples shared by people who use MakeBeliefsComix to help children on the Autism Spectrum.

• "As the mom to a little boy with autism, I just wanted to thank you for your free MakeBeliefs Comix. I don't know whether you know much about autism, but in very general terms, lots of these kids are extremely visual learners and they are a bit blunted in their ability to recognize how others around them are feeling.

"I use PowerPoint to make little 'social stories' for my son... on a regular basis, as I've found that humor and visuals can really reach him.

"Sometimes my little stories are about not leaving the backyard...other times, they introduce new vocabulary words and are about cowboys whose horses get stolen so they are reduced to riding cows! Whatever is needed, I produce.

"At any rate, a friend just recommended your MakeBeliefsComix site and it's like Santa came early! The fact that the characters look charming, one can customize the conversations, AND that there are various emotions shown make this a site I'm going to recommend to all my fellow special needs parent friends.

"It is so excellent that you can choose the emotion/facial expression of each character. Cole's teacher starts every day with their Emotions Board, where students tell how they feel and move that icon to their 'In' box on the wall. When one of them gets frustrated, the teacher asks the child how he is feeling and may ask the other kids how they think he's feeling. Then he moves the 'frustrated' icon to his 'In' box. When he chills back out and feel happy awhile later, they comment on how happy he looks and he runs to move the 'happy' icon. They practice making various emotion faces every day, too, but make it fun. This has really helped Cole in looking at other people and reading their feelings. That comic strip is just the perfect tie-in! Thank you!" -- LeAnne Cantrell, Mandeville, Louisiana

(In a later interview, Ms. Cantrell spoke about how the different facial expressions and moods shown in the MakeBeliefsComix characters' faces led to a breakthrough with her son Cole: "I sat with Cole for several months in front of the computer showing him how the words 'angry', 'sad', 'worried' matched the characters' facial expressions. Today, Cole can express his feelings verbally without acting out. This is a huge breakthrough for me to have him talk about what he sees and feels.")

Ms. Cantrell's remarks reinforce the value of comics in supporting children with autism who learn visually, in building an understanding of emotions and in developing comic strip stories, or scripts, to help children learn and prepare for activities and engagement with others. For example, a parent sitting down at the computer with a child can create a three- or four-panel comic strip that shows two people greeting one another and then filling in talk balloons with text that suggests what a conversation might be like when two people first meet and interact. This could include such things as saying "hello" to each other or asking "how are you?", and introducing themselves to each other. You can build all kinds of stories to deal with other subjects, such as discussing the different emotions we have in different situations and how to express them, as well as interacting with people in the community or at school, even dealing with a bully. Creating comic-strip stories can help children better understand how to handle themselves in different situations, some of which can be distressing to them at first but which, in time, can be mastered through building visual stories that help explain the situations more clearly and the path for negotiating them.

• One psychiatrist who works with children with autism also suggested to us that for those children who are silent or do not speak, it would be helpful for parents or therapists to read aloud, with expression in their voices, the words that the youngsters write in the thought and talk balloons for their characters in the comic strips. Doing so helps reinforce the emotions expressed both in the characters' facial and bodily expressions and in the words they utter.

• Cyndi Smith, autism consultant, South Bend (Indiana) Community School Corporation, said, "I would like to use your wonderful program to show students with autism how social interactions work -- especially using thought bubbles to show the student with autism what others might be thinking in a given situation. So I might be using a talk bubble and a thought bubble in one square -- since people often say one thing but are thinking something else. I need to show the progression of an interaction, to help the student to see what is actually happening in that interaction. Sometimes I would probably develop two different sequences: one that showed what actually happened in an interaction with the student, and another that would show how the student could have acted differently which would have resulted in a better outcome. I have only used your site as I have described, to show thoughts versus speech in others -- to show intent in a given situation.
  
  "I do not know if hearing emotion in another's speech will necessarily teach a child with autism to understand emotions. I have found it to be more helpful to give a label to the emotions the child is displaying (to give him a name for the emotion, e.g., 'I can see you are mad/frustrated') and then showing him a better way to express that emotion (if there is a problem)... However, I would encourage whatever works!"

Another special education teacher, Bozena Syska, says with regard to children with autism, "My suggestion would be to print the comix out and have them hanging in the place the student is being taught, or maybe somewhere at home where it's their stuff. Also, in an education environment the educator or parent could make their own comix and hang them with the student's -- 'this is your emotion, but this is how I feel.' They can refer to any comix hanging on the wall when they're having a bad day and say, 'Remember when you said you were happy? etc.'"

From Dr. Barbara Calcagnie Glaeser, Professor, Department of Special Education, and Coordinator, Mild to Moderate Disabilities Credential, California State University, Fullerton, CA.:

"I am a teacher trainer. I have my students look at this site to be used for students with Autism to help them share their feelings, create Comic Strip Conversations (as suggested by Carol Gray in her book by that name), and for English learners for digital story telling. Many [student teachers] commented on how they use it with their students. I suggested the site because I think it works well with a strategy for students with Autism called Comic Strip Conversations. I have done some research with that and it was very helpful in allowing our case study student to control her behavior by drawing pictures of social situations and then creating dialog for what happened (in her mind) and what she could have done differently. Any child, really, could use that strategy to think through problems on the playground, or in class, etc. For children with Autism, the teacher at first will supply different outcomes because the child usually can't think of anything other than hitting or tantrums. After a while, the student will hopefully gain the skills to develop good outcomes on paper, then use them in social situations. I use it [MakeBeliefsComix.com] as a tool to teach teachers of the possibilities the site provides [for creating Comic Strip Conversations]."

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There is another Teacher Resources page on this site which offers 21 additional ideas on how to use MakeBeliefsComix in the classroom. Please give it a try, too.