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Our “Autism Through The Alphabet” ABC-style flashcards were created to:
- Support and promote positive awareness, understanding, representation, and inclusion
- Encourage neurodivergent and neurotypical children to find healthy ways to relate and connect with each other
- Address the importance of kindness, respect, and anti-bullying
- Facilitate healthier conversations and interactions
- Open the door for autistic children to build a positive self-identity which can lead to self-advocacy
- Incorporates social and emotional learning while providing an engaging learning experience
Follow Jaiden, along with some family and friends, through the alphabet and learn more about Autism along the way! Each flashcard showcases a colorful and engaging illustration, a corresponding term, and a relatable experience that facilitates better Autism understanding and deeper learning while also creatively demonstrating different scenarios for participants to examine and learn from. When placed side by side, these Flashcards provide an immersive learning experience about Autism.
Emphasis on representation (particularly highlighting minorities and black autistic youth and their families): We recognize the importance of diverse representation and aim to address the underrepresentation of these communities within the autism awareness space. By showcasing diverse characters and families, our Flashcards promote inclusivity, foster a sense of belonging, and amplify the voices of underrepresented groups.
Designed with the intention of humanizing Autism: By depicting individuals on the Autism spectrum with a range of emotions, thoughts, and interests, we aim to break stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding Autism. We understand that behind every autism diagnosis lies a person with unique qualities and aspirations deserving of respect, kindness, and acceptance. Through our Flashcards, we strive to showcase the multifaceted nature of autistic youth and encourage a shift in societal perceptions toward greater understanding and empathy.
Who Can Use Our Flashcards
Neurodivergent and neurotypical youth, parents, caregivers, educators, special education therapists, and anyone who wants to better understand some general and common Autism experiences or learn better ways to support autistic children can use these Flashcards. If an autistic child can find at least one Flashcard with an experience that they can personally connect to, that reminds them of themselves or someone else that they love with Autism, or that can teach them something new about Autism, then they can feel seen and supported in a world that often makes those in the Autism Community feel overlooked or underrepresented.
They also help provide a foundation for autistic children to learn more about themselves and encourage them to build a positive self-identity, which opens the door for them to become self-advocates, which comes from self-understanding, self-awareness, and self-confidence.
Siblings and classmates of autistic children can use these Flashcards to learn more about their autistic sibling or classmate and better understand why they do some of the things that they do. Our Flashcards can help answer questions for them like:
- “Why does a parent have to stick to a certain routine for that sibling?”
- “Why is this classmate only repeating certain words or phrases they hear?”
- “Why doesn’t my sibling/classmate speak?”
- “Why do they always seem to line up their toys?”
- “Why do they flap their hands or make that sound randomly?
They may have heard the answer before, but now they have a better understanding of what it is through a visual aid and a written example spoken mostly from the perspective of another child who has Autism. This encourages neurotypical children to step into the shoes of neurodivergent children by exploring their experiences and emotions, which emphasizes the importance of social and emotional learning (SEL). We want them to know that these actions aren’t bad and shouldn’t be judged, they’re just different.
How To Use Our Flashcards
Here are a few different ways you can use these Flashcards!
1. Some Flashcards come with prompts that invite and allow users to participate in order to better understand the term. For example, the Letter F, which is for Focus, teaches you how to do a belly breath which is a helpful way to regain focus.
2. You can use these Flashcards to create a fun memory game! You can either do it as a “words of the day” style where you read over a select number of Flashcards at a time so as to not overwhelm participants, or you can do this activity using all 27 flashcards in one game- while the Flashcards are flipped to the back with just the letters facing up, you can give a description/quote from a specific flashcard as participants try to remember the correct term on the front of the flashcard.
For example, let’s try the Letter C Flashcard, which is Communication. I would have the Flashcard with just the letter facing up on a flat surface and I would say, “This can be different for everyone. Some people can speak, some can't, and both are okay” as the description for the term that is on the front of the Flashcard, without saying what the actual term is. This is a great way to ensure genuine comprehension and connection to the content of the Flashcards.
3. You can simply have them on hand for easy access in real-life scenarios that they can be helpful in, such as when there’s an autistic sibling in a home, an autistic classmate at a school, or even during traveling.
Say there’s a situation where an autistic child stims often, and there are other children who aren’t used to it and don’t understand what’s happening. If one of those children were to come up to you and ask questions about what they are witnessing (what stimming is), or even if you observe that it would be a good learning opportunity, you can pull out that specific flashcard for that scenario, which in this case, would be the Letter S for Stimming, and read it to them to help them better understand why it’s an important part of that autistic child's daily life.
Product Details:
- 28 Flashcard Deck (including a "How-To Use" Flashcard)
- Dimensions: 3.5 x 5 x 0.5 inches
- Custom two-piece box to store flashcards
- Created by Jai At Play
- Illustrated by Afif Amrullah & Jai At Play
Bonus card: In case you were wondering why there are 27 letter Flashcards instead of 26, there are two Flashcards for the letter S in this deck! Both words are equally important to the Autism experience and journey, so we’ve created au-some illustrations for both of them.