Autism Tank: Adapted Book Resources

Gearing up to teach literacy skills to students across varying ability levels can be extremely difficult. Why not use a type of text that can be beneficial for students who have wide variety of literacy skills?....enter Adapted Books. There are lots of ways you can "adapt a book." You can do things to make the book physically easier to manipulate (like adding page fluffers), easier to read (modifying the text on each page, adding Braille, etc), or you can make them an interactive experience! This last point is typically what I mean when I say "adapted book." I have found adaptive books extremely helpful in keeping my students engaged and motivated to complete literacy activities! Depending on their level, students can work on concepts such as matching, identifying vocabulary, comprehension, as well as sight words and fluency. The goal of today's post is to give you some quick and easy ideas/resources for creating your own adapted books as well as where to find some great pre-made resources.

Adapt Pre-Made Books:
My first year of teaching, I found using adapted books a life saver! I started with books that were already in my classroom (i.e. "Brown Bear" by Eric Carle) and just found pictures (thank you google image and Boardmaker) of items on each page. I would pass out the pictures to a small group of students and when we got to "their page," they would velcro their picture into the book. Having pictures in their hands as we read kept their little hands occupied. In order to know when it was their turn to stick their picture in the book, students had to pay attention to each page which helped keep them engaged throughout the entire story. For more advanced readers, these books were also at our "quiet reading" station. Students could read the words with story as well as velcro in the pictures as they read. At one point, I also had a listening station with adapted books where students would listen to the books being read to them and velcro in the pictures as they went.

Create your own books starring your students:
Kids love seeing pictures of themselves, so one of the best ways I found to promote literacy was to create my own books starring my students! I would take pictures on field trips or around the school/classroom and then write simple books to go along with the pictures. Students either velcroed in names of themselves/peers to match to pictures or simple vocabulary words/pictures. These make a great addition to work station/independent work tasks as well.

In order to make these on the cheap, I often made half-page sized books to save paper/lamination. Also, if you don't have a binding machine, punching holes or using top-loading sheets with 3-ring binder clips can save some money.

Create your own books to teach social skills and academic concepts/vocabulary:
Often times a typical "social story" wasn't interactive enough for my students or was too much information for them to comprehend. I loved making adaptive books about social skills that incorporated comprehension questions. The emotions book is available in my TPT store and you can customize with pictures of your own students!

I also created an All About Me book for students to work on learning their personal information (name, address, phone number, etc.).

Many of the science units I create have adapted books to review key vocabulary and definitions. Students simply velcro a matching picture to each page. My summer unit has an adapted book where students work on identifying numbers, colors, and objects.

Other Resources for Adapted Books:
The NYC Department of Education has a bunch of free adapted books that are definitely worth taking a look at. For some, you may need Boardmaker to download.

File Folder Heaven has a few free adapted books to sample as well as a variety for purchase.

Many TPT Creators have adapted books available in their stores. If you go to www.teacherspayteachers.com and search "Adapted Books Autism" and filter the search by "price," you can find some Free adapted books. There is a free book created by me about a BBQ that is listed there.