I have just finished adding a new page to the Web Site Autism Games:
Families At Play
On this page you will find tips and clips on the topic of including all family members and other willing play partners in communication therapy sessions so that your child has more communication and play partners.
Check it out! (And let me know if you find any typos)
Showing posts with label Extended Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Extended Family. Show all posts
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Serious Play
Tonight, I watched a TED Video from a conference called Serious Play where a designer, Tim Brown talked about how his design firm used play to enhance creativity in design projects. While I often read about and study the work of others who do what I do, namely teach young children who have autism, I also find it useful to hear or read about the work of other who do parts of what I do for altogether different purposes. Mr. Brown provided many ideas that I found useful. Here are two ideas from the talk:
Thinking with our hands
Mr. Brown said that first-grade kids spend up to 50% of their play time in constructive play, which is play where they are building or creating with materials. He talked about how we tend to remove the creative materials (like clay and crayons) from the learning and working environments as people get older. I do this. I tend to try to move kids out of constructive play and into pretend play (role play) as they get older because pretend play is more closely associated with language development in all the literature that I read. But many children with autism love constructive play and are great artists or builders. It would be possible for me to teach many of the same language and social interaction skills using constructive play.
Some children with autism are creative with constructive play and some are not. Some children build or make the same thing over and over like the year my daughter drew the same rainbow over a tulip picture ten times a day for, I don't know, I think at least a year. I just bought cheaper paper after a while but if I had wanted to use this as a teachable experience, I could have helped her learn to be more creative. Helping a child explore new ideas and become more open to change might be one important constructive play goal for a child who is not already creative.
It was because Mr. Brown called it thinking with our hands that I found myself thinking about constructive play a little differently. Constructive play is a form of thinking. I knew this from my own experience because I think with my hands while gardening and cooking. I notice that both of these activities are emotionally regulating for me. I feel a yoga like calm while gardening and sometimes while cooking--although social pressure can interrupt that calm creative feeling. Mr. Brown discussed the issue of trusting relationships when he talked about the most creative workplace being one where you work with your best friends. I notice that if I do the cooking with friends (instead of for friends), the creativity is magnified and the social pressure is gone and the social interaction is wonderful. There is no reason why this kind of meaningful, enjoyable social interaction could not be created around constructive play for children with autism.
The Importance of Trust
I was struck by the way that Mr. Brown highlighted the importance of trust in his discussion of creative play. I choose the framework of play over drill work to teach communication and language for many reasons but Mr. Brown's talk reminded me that one advantage of play is that playful interaction is more apt to create trusting relationships in which the people who play together will take risks and try new things and learn. This is true for the adults and children. I know this is important but his talk got me to thinking about how hard it is to accomplish.
In the model of therapy that I use, which if very parent involved--building trust is a major issue. It is hard enough to do with a child who has autism but I can usually manage it because I adhere to a set of "rules" that I have learned over the years in the hard knocks school of terrible therapy sessions. I have learned how to be playful but constrained in some ways so that the child with autism does not become confused, frustrated, anxious, or resistant. The point though, in my sessions, is that I aim to teach parents these "rules of play" at the same time as the session with a child is going on. From the parents perspective, learning while doing does not always feel playful. The parent becomes self-conscious (an issue demonstrated in Mr. Brown's talk very clearly) because they feel judged when I explicitly tell them play rules like Use less language. Talk about what your child is looking at. Don't ask performance questions. Let your child direct some of the play. And so on. All these "rules" are inhibiting for parents. Trying hard to follow the rules, parents may become less playful rather than more. This is totally understandable but frustrating for me because I can't always think of how to work around this. I want parents to trust me to see them with positive regard because I do, but how to convey this while telling them to behave differently with their child is not always clear to me.
There are things that seem to help parents relax and learn and enjoy themselves while learning. I just need to identify them better in my own mind. For example, strangely enough, some of my best sessions (on the scale of fun, relaxed, playful and learning rich for both parents and child) are sessions where the whole family is there and sometimes even the dog takes part. Perhaps learning the autism "play rules" in a family group is less intimidating. No one feels so much on the spot. It feels like a three ring circus to me but there is more shared laughter, more silliness and the family members often start to tell each other the "rules" so I don't have to do it so often. I don't know all the answers to the question of how to create a relaxed, playful but ultimately effective learning environment for parents and kids alike but it is interesting to think about this in this way.
Here is a nice link from Mr. Brown's company that may inspire more play ideas in your family:
http://www.ideo.com/thinking/focus/kid-play/
Thinking with our hands
Mr. Brown said that first-grade kids spend up to 50% of their play time in constructive play, which is play where they are building or creating with materials. He talked about how we tend to remove the creative materials (like clay and crayons) from the learning and working environments as people get older. I do this. I tend to try to move kids out of constructive play and into pretend play (role play) as they get older because pretend play is more closely associated with language development in all the literature that I read. But many children with autism love constructive play and are great artists or builders. It would be possible for me to teach many of the same language and social interaction skills using constructive play.
Some children with autism are creative with constructive play and some are not. Some children build or make the same thing over and over like the year my daughter drew the same rainbow over a tulip picture ten times a day for, I don't know, I think at least a year. I just bought cheaper paper after a while but if I had wanted to use this as a teachable experience, I could have helped her learn to be more creative. Helping a child explore new ideas and become more open to change might be one important constructive play goal for a child who is not already creative.
It was because Mr. Brown called it thinking with our hands that I found myself thinking about constructive play a little differently. Constructive play is a form of thinking. I knew this from my own experience because I think with my hands while gardening and cooking. I notice that both of these activities are emotionally regulating for me. I feel a yoga like calm while gardening and sometimes while cooking--although social pressure can interrupt that calm creative feeling. Mr. Brown discussed the issue of trusting relationships when he talked about the most creative workplace being one where you work with your best friends. I notice that if I do the cooking with friends (instead of for friends), the creativity is magnified and the social pressure is gone and the social interaction is wonderful. There is no reason why this kind of meaningful, enjoyable social interaction could not be created around constructive play for children with autism.
The Importance of Trust
I was struck by the way that Mr. Brown highlighted the importance of trust in his discussion of creative play. I choose the framework of play over drill work to teach communication and language for many reasons but Mr. Brown's talk reminded me that one advantage of play is that playful interaction is more apt to create trusting relationships in which the people who play together will take risks and try new things and learn. This is true for the adults and children. I know this is important but his talk got me to thinking about how hard it is to accomplish.
In the model of therapy that I use, which if very parent involved--building trust is a major issue. It is hard enough to do with a child who has autism but I can usually manage it because I adhere to a set of "rules" that I have learned over the years in the hard knocks school of terrible therapy sessions. I have learned how to be playful but constrained in some ways so that the child with autism does not become confused, frustrated, anxious, or resistant. The point though, in my sessions, is that I aim to teach parents these "rules of play" at the same time as the session with a child is going on. From the parents perspective, learning while doing does not always feel playful. The parent becomes self-conscious (an issue demonstrated in Mr. Brown's talk very clearly) because they feel judged when I explicitly tell them play rules like Use less language. Talk about what your child is looking at. Don't ask performance questions. Let your child direct some of the play. And so on. All these "rules" are inhibiting for parents. Trying hard to follow the rules, parents may become less playful rather than more. This is totally understandable but frustrating for me because I can't always think of how to work around this. I want parents to trust me to see them with positive regard because I do, but how to convey this while telling them to behave differently with their child is not always clear to me.
There are things that seem to help parents relax and learn and enjoy themselves while learning. I just need to identify them better in my own mind. For example, strangely enough, some of my best sessions (on the scale of fun, relaxed, playful and learning rich for both parents and child) are sessions where the whole family is there and sometimes even the dog takes part. Perhaps learning the autism "play rules" in a family group is less intimidating. No one feels so much on the spot. It feels like a three ring circus to me but there is more shared laughter, more silliness and the family members often start to tell each other the "rules" so I don't have to do it so often. I don't know all the answers to the question of how to create a relaxed, playful but ultimately effective learning environment for parents and kids alike but it is interesting to think about this in this way.
Here is a nice link from Mr. Brown's company that may inspire more play ideas in your family:
http://www.ideo.com/thinking/focus/kid-play/
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Social Story for Christmas Morning
Guest Post by
Tamera Pogin M.A. C.C.C.
Speech & Language Pathologist
Opening presents can be an overwhelming experience for any child, especially for a child on the autism spectrum. Typically, people are talking loudly exclaiming over presents. There is strewn paper and a lot of extra commotion.
Helping your child know what to expect and organizing the environment are two great ways to reduce stress and prepare for a happy experience on Christmas morning/eve. A social story is one way to accomplish this. A social story should be individualized for your family. The main ideas are creating and describing in the story a designated space for your child to be while opening presents, creating a structure for opening presents, and having a designated place for everyone’s presents to go after opening them. Below is an example that you can modify for your own family Social Story for Christmas. You will add your own details and take digital pictures and add these pictures to your story. In other words, take whatever pictures you need to before to help your child understand the story that you write. If your child understands some language and understand pictures, a social story will help your child understand what to do during your family celebration. If your child is not yet able to understand words or pictures, and really does not do well opening presents, modify the Christmas celebration at your house so that it is enjoyable in whatever way you need to. The real tradition is happy family time together. You might need to communicate with extended family so that they understand if you are going to do family traditions in any way that they do not expect.
The Kopf family on Christmas morning.
On Christmas morning, my Mom will come into my room and tell me it is time to open presents. Our family will go downstairs and Mom and Dad will sit on the blue couch.
I will be on the floor on my Ballerina Blanket. Sara will sit on the floor on her red blanket.
First, I will choose a present with my name on it from under the tree and open it. My family will watch me open my present. I'll say "Thank-you" and put my present into my basket. I can put the wrapping in a garbage bag.
Then it will be Sara's turn to choose a present with her name on it from under the tree and open it. I will watch Sara open her present. I can say something like, "Great present." She will put her present in her basket.
We will take turns opening presents.
When we're all done opening presents, I can choose one new present from my basket and play with while Mom makes us pancakes.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
What a Child with Autism Can Do with Grandpa
I get asked by grandparents and aunties and others for tips on how to play with a relative who has autism. They tell me that they feel standoffish and uncomfortable but actually want to play and interact with their young relatives. I believe, if they work at it and they get a little help, Grandpa or any loving relative can create a meaningful relationship with a youngster who has autism. If you are the parent and you have learned how to play and interact with your child, the next step may be to help other willing relatives learn a way to be part of your child's life.
Identify a Starting Activity
One trick is to help important relatives find an appropriate starting ritual or game to do with your child each time they are together. If your child is young, one of the games from austimsgames.org may be just right for the two of them. Or maybe your relative already has a good starting ritual, but has not identified it as such or does not use it consistently. "You know, Dad, how you often take your hat off and put it on Emily's head and then accuse her of stealing your hat? Emily loves when you do that." Explain that your child likes things that he or she can predict--that have happened before and will happen again. Tell each important relative that you are trying to find some activity that will become a bond between them and your child.
Think Simple, Brief, Unique
Simple: If Grandpa is a singer, help him find a unique song that he will sing to your child each time they are together. If Grandma paints (or even if she is willing to paint) encourage her to sit down next to your child at the kitchen table (your table or hers) and pull out the water color paints. They don't have to talk much, if your child is not too good at conversation yet. Your child does not even need to paint with grandma until he or she is ready. But in your child's mind, Grandma becomes the person who paints with me.
(Here is a unique painting activity that anyone can do with a child on the computer. Just start moving the cursor around and click to get a new color.)
Auntie can create a bonding ritual each time she comes by bringing a sticker for your child if your child loves stickers. Encourage your uncle who is an airplane mechanic to email pictures of "Cool Airplanes" to your child, or just parts of the airplane like the tires or the engine--particularly if your child likes mechanical things. A teenage cousin might engage your child in a simple board game or a wrestling match every time they come together.
Brief: You know how long your child can interact with others. If it is two minutes, then create a one minute routine for your child and the important person to do together. A one minute song for Grandpa to sing. A one minute art project for grandma to do next to your child. Tell Auntie to present the sticker with a flourish and then smile and move away. Find longer activities for your child to do with relatives as your child is able. Let relatives know how long to continue and when to quit.
Unique: The trick to this strategy is that your child associates each person with one enjoyable but unique activity. Maybe one cousin throws socks down the laundry shoot with your child. Another plays a tickle game. Or one grandpa fishes with your child and the other takes him to the library, each person becomes a unique but predictable source of pleasurable social interaction.
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