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Does anyone know any good books with strategies for play?

4 replies

Smartiehouse · 06/04/2011 12:48

Dd1 (4yrs) exhibits some autistic behaviours and is very difficult to engage in play - she is constantly on her own agenda or off in the internal world she inhabits. I am really trying to help her with being focussed in reality, and wonder if there are any good books or something with useful games and play ideas that I could enjoy with her. Looking on Amazon is a bit mind blowing!

OP posts:
amberlight · 06/04/2011 13:21

www.amazon.co.uk/Playing-Laughing-Learning-Children-Spectrum/dp/1843106086/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302091965&sr=1-5 is a reasonable starting point.

Things that might help...(all generalising)

We see pretty well out of the sides of our eyes. Looking straight at someone to play with them is heckishly scary, thanks to the different brain wiring that sends eye contact signals straight to the "run! It's a monster and it's going to eat you" part of the brain, rather than the "ooo, who's this, is it a friendly person" bit.

We play alongside people rather than with them, but for us this is our preferred way of playing. We find it very strange indeed that others want to play 'with' us. See it as a difference rather than a fault, and it becomes easier to share our way of being rather than think we just don't know how to play.

If you want to share a game, it helps to know that, to us, play toys feel like our babies. Imagine someone coming up to you in the street and taking your baby out of the pram and playing with them. How bezerk would you go? Our brains put 'things' in the place where 'most precious person in the world' goes in your brain. So treat our stuff with respect and get our permission to play with it or move it etc. It'll help a lot.

Use our special interests. If we love cars, get our interest by getting us to draw cars, count cars, learn the colours of cars, play games involving moving the cars...then gradually teach us about different other vehicles...and about the shapes that make up cars (circles for wheels etc). The more you can base it on something we love, the more interest you'll get.

Take it slow, keep it as low-sensory as possible. If we're battling background noise and you chatting all the time, plus social demands, we'll shut down our ears and not listen. We can hear and see and sense three times more detail than you can, so for us, a little is a lot.

Enjoy!! Our world is absolutely fascinating. Wish you could experience it for yourself...

blueShark · 06/04/2011 14:02

amberlight - I read that book recently and is great, I wish I had done when DS was 2 or 3 but its never too late to learn new strategies!

Thanks for the insight of how it feels...

Smartiehouse · 06/04/2011 14:03

Thank you, Amber, your comments are really helpful too and have made me stop and think a bit about how dd plays.

OP posts:
TotalChaos · 06/04/2011 16:57

agree that the book amber linked to is good. also strongly agree about trying to follow your child's interests, as that's half the battle. this is also a useful book:-
www.amazon.co.uk/New-Language-Toys-Teaching-Communication/dp/0933149735

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