A fun game: Spears Polar Panic

I bought this great game the other day from Tesco's for only €6.  You place the polar bear on the ice and you take it in turns to hit the ice with a hammer making sure that the polar bear does not fall into the sea.  This is the game of choice for the majority of my clients at the moment!  It is great for working on turn taking as the children are so motivated to take a turn.  It is also great for working on motor skills and strength.

Social skills for adolescents and adults on the autistic spectrum

There is a really great guide on the National Autism Society website (UK) that helps adolescents and adults with autism develop their social interaction skills:

http://www.autism.org.uk/Living-with-autism/Communicating-and-interacting/Social-skills/Social-skills-for-adolescents-and-adults.aspx

Information like this is really crucial as adolescents and adults rarely get the same access to services as children on the spectrum.  Once they leave school there is a black hole and services disapear, especially for those who are not intellectually impaired.

Using timers

Children with autism can become distressed if they do not know when an activity starts and when an activity ends.  Some activities have a natural start and end, for instance puzzles.  If you give a child an activity like playing with cars of a favourite toy, these activities do not have a natural end.  This explains why children can become very upset when you try and stop them from playing with a favourite toy.  To help children understand when they need to finish an activity, I use timers.  Sand timers can be very useful as the child can visually see how much time they have on an activity.  You can buy a great range of sand timer on ebay:

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_trksid=m570&_nkw=sand+timers

They have lots of timers for different amounts of time at good prices.

This book looks fantastic!

I was looking on Amazon and I found this book that is coming out in February 2011.  It looks really interesting.  It's an activity and story book that can be used with children that may have an autistic child in their class.  It helps them to make sense of their friends behaviour and how to include them.  Work with peers is often something that gets missed, but is vital if you are trying to improve the social interaction of a child with autism.  Social interaction is not one sided!  I will be buying this!

My Friend with Autism: Enhanced Edition with Free CD of Coloring Pages!

You can follow the link if you want to pre-order this book.  I will be giving a full review once the book has come out!

Games for encouraging turn taking in pre-school children

• Sheet swing: Get an old sheet and one adult should take one side of the sheet and another adult the other.  The child lies in the sheet and the adults swing the sheet like a hammock.  The child can initiate another turn by either saying 'swing' or putting a corner of the sheet in the adults hand if they are non-verbal.
• Bouncy ball: The child sits on a gym ball and the adult takes their hands.  The adult says one, two, three bounce or ready steady bounce.  The adult should keep saying this until the child gets the idea of what is expected of them.  The adult can then start the interaction and let the child fill in the missing word i.e. one, two, three ..... or ready steady .........  The child is encouraged to say bounce.  The child can also initiate the interaction by carrying out the action themselves.
• Bubbles:  Same as the bouncy ball activity.  The adult models ready steady blow.
• Chase:  The adult starts the game by saying "coming to get you".  Chase the child pretending that you can't quite reach the child.  Eventually catch them, give them a big hug and say "got you".  To start the interaction again you can tell the child to 'run'.  Your child will eventually make eye contact with you to start the game again. 

A great toy: Chatimals

My parents bought me a great toy for Christmas and I have been using it with my clients.  He's called Ocscar the hamster and he is a chatimal:

http://www.chatimals.org.uk/

When you talk to the hamster he repeats back what you say.  Each time the hamster speaks back, his voice changes.  Sometimes it's really squeaky and sometimes it's a very deep voice.  There are three hamsters to choose from and I believe there is also a Meerkat.

I have been trying this toy out with some of my clients and have had some good results.  Whilst Some of my clients were initially a little scared, some had an amazing reaction to the toy.  One girl in particular could not stop laughing.  She quickly got the idea and had fun saying different words and phrases to the hamster.  Her mum was amazed as her daughter does not typically talk so much (I am working with this girl to help her use the language she has functionally).

Book recommendation: Blue Bottle Mystery : An Asperger Adventure (Asperger Adventures)

This is a brilliant book for explaining to children that they have autism (book one of two).  The book manages to explain autism without bombarding a child with technical language.  The story is exciting and all the children I know that have read the book could not put it down.  They felt like they were part of the adventure.  The book is available from amazon: you can follow the link below or try your local bookshop.