The Incredible 5-Point Scale: Assisting Students in Understanding Social Interactions and Controlling Their Emotional Responses

This much-awaited, second edition of the wildly popular Incredible 5-Point Scale is, as the title suggests, "significantly improved and expanded." Using the same practical and user-friendly format as the first edition, Buron and Curtis let readers benefit from work done with the scales over the past 10 years, to result in refinements to the original scales, now considered "classics" in homes and classrooms across the country and abroad, as well as lots of new scales specifically designed for two groups of individuals: young children and those with more classic presentations of autism, including expanded use of the Anxiety Curve. Another welcome addition is a list of goals and objectives related to incorporating scales in students' IEPs. Also, a free online downloadable content, which includes blank scales, small portable scales and worksheets for easy duplication is available. As in their other writings, the authors emphasize the importance of self-management and self-regulation, two evidence-based practices.

Kari Dunn Buron, MS, taught students on the autism spectrum for more than 30 years in K-12. She developed an autism spectrum disorders certificate program for educators at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota and has done volunteer work specific to autism in Trinidad, Barbados, Tanzania and Ghana. In 2003, Buron received a self-designed Bush Leadership Fellowship that allowed her to spend a year interviewing and working internationally with scientists and researchers in the areas of social cognition, education and autism with a focus on challenging behaviors.Mitzi Beth Curtis, MsEd, is an autism resource specialist currently working for Intermediate School District 287 in Minnesota, and consulting with Minnesota Life College. She has worked in special education, supported employment and residential programs for individuals with disabilities since 1978. Her youngest sister, Maria, sent her on this journey with her birth in 1963.