Hey all,
Welcome again to our new readers out there!
Apologies that I wasn’t able to send out my regular weekly tip last week. I was fortunate to have a few days off with my family which was a very nice break.
This week I thought I would share with you a new and slightly ‘nutty’ therapy idea that I only trialed for the very first time this week. Because each of the children I treat are so unique, I’m constantly testing and trialing new therapy strategies to find out what works and what doesn’t in order to get the breakthroughs and results that families are desperate to see.
So I really wanted to share this one with you because it worked wonders for this client of mine, Sam.
It still blows me away how incredible it is that such a small change in therapy can make such a huge difference.
Sam is a visually distracted 5 year old boy with autism. He interacts and communicates very well but the moment that something catches his eye he is compelled to go and check it out. This can be very frustrating when we are trying to work on his ability to maintain attention and develop a great connection with him. Sound familiar?
To address this we needed to somehow get rid of all of the clutter in his play room to minimise as many distractions as possible. But as most of you will appreciate, mess and clutter are a natural part of having a child and you can’t simply lock everything away in a big box every time your child gets distracted by something new!
In Sam’s case this was no different. It simply wasn’t possible to have a room in his house completely clutter free… so we needed to think a little creatively….a little outside the box 😉
The solution was simple but effective.
We decided to use a TENT!
Yes a tent! One of those very large, light weight, collapsible sunshade tents that you might take to the beach, that you can just spring open anywhere.
We faced the opening towards the wall and filled it with comfy pillows so that it was a fun, enticing and reassuring place to spend time in. Sam loved it! And better still he was able to concentrate and focus on a single activity for nearly twenty minutes without being tempted by all the other objects in the room.
Previously without the tent his best time had only been about 5 minutes.
So a 400% improvement… not bad for a few minutes of creative thinking 🙂
It really was the perfect solution.
To be honest, I was blown away with this dramatic improvement and you can be sure that I will be remembering this therapy idea for many years to come!
Till next week.
Happy Connecting
Monique
P.S For many, many more great therapy techniques and ideas just like this one, please check out my Autism Essentials DVD Training Program.
P.P.S Got any terrific ideas or tips that have worked with your child?? Please leave us a comment below.
Tags: concentration, Connecting, therapy goals, understanding children with autism
