Hi!

I have an autistic daughter who is going to be entering Kindergarten in August.  Right now we are working on the Ready, Set, Preschool workbook that features Sesame Street characters.  She is really enjoying doing the activites and gets a real sense of pride when she completes them.  Does anyone have any recommendations for other workbooks that she may enjoy?  There are so many out there and I was hoping to narrow them down to a handful.  I want to keep her excited about academics so that the teachers can focus more on the socialization part in school. :)  Thank you in advance for any help you can give me!

Have a great day!

Personally, as a former kindergarten teacher (they earn every cent) I would rather you worked on socialization and left the academics to me (IF the choice was one or the other).  Teachers are required to cover a certain curriculum, even with special needs children - it is much easier for both parties if the child is excited about school, yet knows how to behave.  Teachers don't have tthe opportunity nowdays to devote as much time to socialization and non-curricular activities - kindergarten, in my opinion is what first grade used to be - so, as a parent, that would be my concentration.

I don't mean that you are doing anything wrong - quite the opposite!  It would be wonderful to have kids whose parents were thinking about their future and were already concerned, as you are.  My advice, continue to work with her if you both are enjoying it.  I'm sorry I don't know any activity books to recommend, but I imagine other Sesame Street books would be good.  It sounds like you would know by "thumbing through" which books she will enjoy.  In addition, have conversations with her, sing with her, encourage her to "write" and draw, count with her, read anything and everything,  dance with her, take her places and model behavior, have friends over, make sure she is playing with others with  supervision (you  or another parent is there, but not directing), let her have lots of free play time, let her go places with other family members or friends so she can be independent of you.

I hope you both have a great experience!

As a current special ed teacher, I have to agree wholeheartedly with everything Molly said.  The more you work on social skills, the easier your daughter's adjustment to school will be.  The only thing I would add is to contact your daughter's school as soon as possible, if you haven't already, and see if you can talk to her kindergarten teacher about your daughter's needs.  Any information you can give the teacher will make the beginning of the year easier for all of you.  Does your daughter have any fears or things that trigger a reaction the teacher might need to know about?  For example, I have an autistic student who had a complete meltdown the first time he heard the alarm sounding a fire drill.  This happened at his preschool as well, but no one passed this information along to the classroom teacher so she didn't have the ability to help the child prepare for the drill.  Now that she knows, a plan has been put into place and fire drills are no longer an ordeal. 

Hope this is a great school year for you both. :-)

ETA correct spelling and add missing words.

We as teachers are so glad that you are involved with your child and want to help her be successful, dont ever give that up. As to work sheets or work books at her age they are not developmentally appropriate. Read to her, read anything, everything and read to her some more. Help her make connections to things that she already knows. Have fun with words. Find numbers in funny places, play play play.... that is how she will learn the most during this time in her life.