Beginning Coloring Worksheets for Kids with Autism

I remember when I first started teaching and I had a mentor tell me about setting up stations.   She said that one of the easiest stations to set up would be an art station where my students could just complete coloring pages or draw.  Um...had she met my students? When I gave them crayons, they got chewed on or tossed back in my face.  The thing was, I realized my students did love art projects, they just needed tons of structure to teach them what was expected.  One of my paraprofessionals did end up running the art station in my classroom and as long as the kids had a model of the end product and clear steps of the process, they did much better.

Does this sound familiar to you?  Are your students struggling to color or draw independently? Then this newest product...Beginning Coloring Worksheets for Kids with Autism could be great in your classroom. It provides a visual model of the finished picture, which allows your students to understand what is expected and increase their level of independence.  I also like that the model/sample of the completed picture is right on the activity itself which helps students who struggle with looking back and forth between the board and their work.  And you guys...check out how great my students did with these...I am so proud of their work!



 



Because I know how hard it can be to get to a colored printer in schools, I have included two versions of the coloring sheets (one version with colored pictures on a separate piece of paper-to save on color copies, and one version that has the colored pictures right on the worksheet)

Version 1:

 

Version 2:

Here are some ideas for how these could be used in your classroom:
-Art center/station led by teacher/paraprofessional/occupational therapist
-Independent work station
-Use to work on fine motor or coloring IEP goals
-Addresses matching at a more functional/advanced level
-Teaches students' beginning skills of copying from a model

I loved using these coloring sheets as an opportunity for a structured requesting activity as well.  I put the color pictures on a choice board/communication board and had students make sentences with pictures such as "I want red crayon" to request the color they wanted next.  These visuals are included in the product, but they are also offered here as a freebie for my blog readers.

If you are looking for more resources for beginning colorers/writers, check out this blog post on worksheets ideas for beginning writers that cover tracing basic lines/shapes.