Duck Duck Goose

I found this video clip on You Tube and it works great as a video model to show a child with ASD how to play this game. Duck, Duck, Goose is so often an early group game that works well for children with ASD. The structure is clear and the language is not demanding--in fact it makes no sense at all. The language is a form of language play--but knowing about language play is good. It is a form of recreation that people enjoy all their life.

The other thing I like about this game is it helps children learn to regulate excitement. In this game everyone is calm, calm, calm, calm and then suddenly excitement breaks out. Everyone calms down again and it start over with the the bursts of excitement both predictable and unpredictable at the same time. For children with Autism or Asperger Syndrome, learning to regulate excitement is challenging but games like this really do help.

In our clinic, a version was played recently where the words were Smoke, Smoke, Fire! with this game being one of the activities during a Fire Station Theme Week. There are probably endless words that one could substitute and by changing up the words, children with ASD can learn a bit about playing with language while learning about playing with groups.

Sleep, Sleep, Sleep, Wake Up!

Rain, Rain, Rain, Snow!

Rake, Rake, Rake, Shovel!

Pink, Pink, Pink, Red!

Can you think of some more words to use with this game?