This video will demonstrate how to provide choices for students with ASD.

Making choices is a part of every person's life.  Imagine the number of choices you make in a 
single day.  It often starts with getting dressed in the morning as you choose what clothes you 
wear and continues as you make choices for breakfast, how you'll drive to work, what tasks you 
will complete first, who you'll eat lunch with, and even choices like what you want to do with 
your life, how you'll spend your money, or where you'll go on vacation.  We often forget just 
how many choices we make in our everyday lives!  We also forget that making our own choices 
is a basic human right.  Can you imagine what life would be life if you have no control over what 
you ate, where you went, or what you did?      

Providing opportunities to make choices allows individuals with ASD to develop a sense of self, 
build self-esteem, improves problem solving skills, assists with learning the responsibilities of 
making choices, and reduces conflicts.  Much like anyone else, a student with ASD needs 
opportunities to make choices throughout the day.  Providing opportunities to communicate and 
make choices will help reduce the chance of interfering behavior throughout the day and allows 
individuals some control over aspects of their day.

Due to communication challenges, understanding preferences and making choices known can be 
difficult for some students with ASD.  Many individuals with ASD can benefit from a concrete 
way to visually understand what their options are and how to communicate that choice to others.  
One example of this is a choice board.  

Some examples of when a choice board might be useful include choosing:

Activities during free or play time
Between food items during snack
Between two books at library
Between sensory activities 
Deciding which academic tasks to work on first, if possible
Deciding which reinforcer student prefers when a task is completed

Choice boards can be individualized to the needs of the student as well.  Some students with 
ASD may need to start with choosing between two items while others may be able to choose 
from a wide range of activities or items.  It's important to understand that we must respect the 
choices a student makes, especially if one of their choices is saying NO.  

Now that you understand more about why providing choices is important, let's look at a few 
photographs of different types of choice boards.  

In this first photo, you'll notice a student using a choice board with only two choices to tell the 
teacher what he would like for snack.  In this next photograph, you'll notice a choice board used 
for lunch time that has many more choices on it.  In this last photograph, you'll notice a choice 
board being used for sensory time.  Notice how many options this student has to choose from.    

Now that you know what different choice boards can look like, let's watch a few video examples 
of teachers providing opportunities for students to make choices in the classroom.

"Whoops!  

Teacher hands a choice board with two items on it to a student.  Then she points to each item and 
says, "Starbursts or Spree?"  Teacher holds hand out to wait for student to pick a photograph and 
hand it to her.  

"Spree."

"Spree, ok!"  

Student hands the teacher the Spree card.

"Good boy!  Sprees!  Thank you!"

Teacher uses sign language and says to student:  "What do you want?  Look."  Teacher points to 
a choice board then holds it out in front of the student.  "What do you want."  Table, work, 
choices.  Which one?"  Teacher waits.  

 "ABC."

"You want ABC book?  Ok.  Let's get them.  Good talking!"

Teacher is writing out a list of the student's activities.  She writes out Tom's Choice.  
 
"Ok, we're going to work and then we're going to do Tom's Choice.  Ok?  Let's get started, 
bud!"

As you can see, there are many different ways to provide choices to our students.  In all the 
videos, you should have noticed that the teacher provided the student with an opportunity to 
make a choice and that this is helping the student build many vital skills including 
communication, self-esteem, and independence.  

Now that you understand more about providing choices, remember, making choices is a basic 
human right.  EVERY individual deserves the right to make their own choices.  Making choices 
isn't always something that comes easy for our students with ASD.  Some individuals may not 
understand what their choices are while others may not be able to communicate those choices to 
others.  Providing opportunities to make choices allows individuals with ASD to develop a sense 
of self, build self-esteem, improves problem solving skills, assists with learning the 
responsibilities of making choices, improves positive behaviors, and reduces conflicts.