Leisure skills are important. Mucho Importante! or I guess it should be "muy importante". Hey, don't distract me! I've been thinking about leisure skills for our kids with autism since my last blog...and it's bugging me! You may or may not know that, besides having a son with autism, I am a speech language pathologist in a public school, and I work with children who are on the autism spectrum. I also have many friends who have kids with autism, as well as having a nephew who has autism. There must be something in the water here in NJ! (haha, not actually so funny because there IS a lot of crap in the water AND in the soil AND in the air). Well, in our schools, social skills groups are usually in everyone's IEPs because that's how social skills are adressed, right? Well, I had forgotten the fight I put up when my son was younger and had recess...I couldn't figure out why social skills were not addressed every moment of the day. And I kept asking why couldn't the aide who was with him at lunch and recess facilitate some kind of appropriate play interaction with the other kids? I never got an answer, except that maybe I was asking too much.
OK, so this year in school I am 'pushing in' to the cafeteria in order to work with 4 of my students at lunch. It's tricky. First of all, my being there could embarrass them, or at the least draw attention to them, attention that they don't need. Second, the noise in the lunch room is deafening. I have to read lips in order to get what they are saying to me. Plus, they all are chewing! 20 minutes of intense auditory stimulation, and then they run out to the playground. Hmmmm. I wonder what happens out there? I follow, formulating a plan that involves a game I played as a kid called "4-Square". I get outside, and a different kind of mayhem meets my eyes. Motion!! Activity! It takes me a few minutes to get acclimated, but I am finally able to locate my students. 1 student is running with a group of kids who are playing football. He clearly doesn't know why he is running, but there he is, running along side of the others. Another joins a kickball game...well, sort of joins it, because she's kicked the ball when it wasn't her turn, and all the other kids have to go chase it. She's happy that they're responding to her action, but they're not. They're annoyed. 2 other students are wandering in and out of the clusters of kids, talking to themselves and stimming. I see gestures and hand-flapping, hops and skips, and the other kids ignore them. One child has been approached by a typical mainstream classmate to play a simplified game of soccer. The 2 of them kick a ball back and forth between them. This is lovely to see. I know the typical boy - he is a compassionate 4th grader who is happy to spend time with his quirky classmate, and confident enough to not feel self-conscious about giving up his recess to help another child. I start to get excited. This is where I should start working on social skills! OK, what...where....hooboy, this is great, but I should calm down and think this thru. I will need to approach the mainstream teachers about letting me talk to their students. I will explain about autism in detail, with time for Q and A, and then ask them to think about volunteering to play in an organized outdoor game twice a week with my students for 15 minutes. Do I need parental permission? I realize I must present all this to the principal, and prepare myself for getting denied. But young children in general are so caring, so patient, they are some of the best nurturers! Perhaps I can sweeten the pot by proposing a pizza party at the end of the year for all who participate in my scheme.
You can tell that my mind is racing with ideas. I am now going to ask all of you -as parents of kids with social deficits - what would you advise me, request of me, demand of me if I were your child's speech therapist? I need any and all input! I thank you all in advance, all of you experts in autism. Sher
I completely agree that it
I completely agree that it is extremely important to include social skills practice in every activity for children with autism. I'm a behavior therapist and a piano teacher and during some of my piano lessons I allow the student with autism to learn alongside a neurotypical friend. This not only makes it more fun for my student but it allows him or her to practice social skills such as taking turns, keeping quiet politely when the other student tries something, giving praise for their friend's attempts at new material and coordinating their activities such as singing or clapping a rythm. This improves not only their piano learning experience but also works on social skills outside of the behavior therapy sessions. I encourage all parents and teachers to try this approach with music or art students on the autism spectrum.
Yeva Delband
http://www.ypiano.com
Boy, where were you when my
Boy, where were you when my son was growing up. What a great idea and I really hope that you get the support you'll need from the school to pull it off. I have a very helpful little book written by Carol Gray (the Social Story lady) entitled "Taming the Recess Jungle: Socially simplifying recess for students with autism and related disorders." The inside cover indicates that it was published in 1993 by Future Education, 424 Lamar Blvd., East, Arlington, Texas 76011. If it's still available, you might find it really helpful.
Sher202020 I will try and
Sher202020 I will try and find that - sounds very good!
I meant to ask you (but I'm still figuring out how to manuver this site) where you come up with all the good info on music therapy? My 17 yr old DD who is a musician has just decided that she wants to be a music tx in college. I also do a teesy weensy bit of music tx in my speech sessions, using percussion instruments. I play with rhythm, try to get the kids to copy me, etc. Do you hhave a background in music or tx, or has your son had music tx?
I'm not a teacher nor do I
I'm not a teacher nor do I have a really strong background in music. I did take classical guitar lessons for a number of years, but never really gained much proficiency. I do REALLY enjoy music and find it very relaxing just to listen.
In my son's school, band was a compulsory subject, and much of what I've learned about wind instruments I learned from hanging around him and the other kids in the band. As I mentioned in another post, the first band teacher put my son on triangle and xylophone thinking that any other instrument would be too frustrating for him to learn to play. Since he was having difficulty reading, it was assumed that he really would not be able to read music.
A relative on my husband's side had some musical background though and gave us an old, but nice sounding sax, just as the old band teacher was moving on and a new one was taking over. Because my son was miserable on the triangle and the xylophone, I just got brave and asked the new teacher if he could be given a chance to play the sax. She was reluctant, but agreed. The band's rules were that he learn the clarinet a little first, which he did and soon proved that he naturally kept a good mouth position and could produce a good tone from a wind instrument. I was absolutely amazed the first time he picked up the sax at home - he played it so well I had tears in my eyes. I've tried to play it a few times, but I can't even get any sound to come out. He also played trombone (which he also learned through band at school) and guitar (which he picked up on his own) and he sight reads music very well - so, so much for everyone's assumptions about what he was capable of doing..
Regrettably, he hasn't played too much since he's been out of school, but we keep trying to encourage him to join a community band. Hopefully some day he will pick it up in earnest again. He is still very sound oriented and likes doing sound mixing and lights, which he does now for a local amateur theater group.