|
|
In the years of doing ABA, I have realized
how important play skills are for children and especially children with
autism. It is during play that children learn:
and most of all to have fun. Play,
essentially, is an important skill that compliments ABA and generalizes
skills taught formally.
Below are brief summaries of clients that I have worked with who, after
years of dedication, learned to have fun with toys.
One child I worked with started with no play skills and did not enjoy formal
teaching of play. After three years of rigorously playing with a variety of
toys, he now has favorite toys and will spend time independently playing.
Although there are kids who must be taught formally on how to play by
putting play tasks in an ABA program, this particular child was not having
fun. The team worked especially hard to motivate this child to play. This
particular play program was taught informally and had to be fun. Attention
to a task was also difficult for this child, as he would not sit for more
than a few seconds at a time.
During countless sessions, I did everything possible to make this child
ENJOY play and not just go through a rote script that was taught to him. I
used a lot of social reinforcement, as this was something he liked. As an
example, the child and I would build blocks and then crash them. When the
blocks crashed, I fell back and pretended that I was dead. This sparked
laughter, so we did it again and again. Another instance that I can recall
is playing a bead maze. As a way to prolong sitting and playing, I would
make funny noises or change the tone of my voice when talking. This child
enjoyed this tremendously. I was able, through social interaction, to pair
this enjoyment with playing.
Sitting down to play with a toy has also gradually increased and he now sits
for up to 15 minutes playing with a variety of toys.
This child is now 5 years old. Through years of dedication, our team was
able to drop our SD voice and formal teaching style and have fun with play.
In turn, this child learned that playing IS fun and it is not a chore that
must be completed.
Now, when I do therapy, this little boy will sit happily playing with one of
his favorite toys while I set up a program. Every time I see this, I smile
and always treasure these precious moments.
Since each child with autism is unique and possess different strengths and
weaknesses, I have had other clients in which there was a formal toy play
program. Play was geared towards appropriate usage of certain toys. For
example, when teaching play-dough, certain tasks were targeted such as
rolling play-dough with a rolling pin, cutting play-dough and making shapes
from cookie-cutters. For these children, SD voices were used, but in a
natural tone of voice.
After targeting task in play, this child will now naturally roll play-dough
with a rolling pin and enjoys making countless shapes from cookie-cutters.
As well, therapists have also taught numerous other play tasks for
play-dough in a natural manner such as making snakes, balls, or spaghetti
from the play-dough machine.
For other children, certain rigidity patterns were targeted in a toy play
program. For instance, a child may string beads in a certain order, or must
complete the whole task of beading and cleaning up with no interruptions.
For children that have rigidity behaviors, therapists work at breaking these
patterns by interrupting a child’s play sequence. As an example, to break a
child from completing a play task, a therapist can call them to the table or
do something else while the child is in the process of completing the task.
In the beginning, children with autism will resist any change in their play,
and therefore will try anything to make a therapist stop. It is the
therapist’s job, however, that once a goal has been set, to go through with
the procedure. In other words, physically guide them to another activity in
order to break a rigidity of task completion. Children with autism will soon
learn to break their rigid patterns and learn to tolerate other ways to play
with a toy.
Written by Elna Sund. Reprinted with permission from the author and
www.abatherapists.com.
|
 |
|
|
| |
Get tips for
dealing with sibling issues in the
articles section of the library. |
|
 |
|
