http://www.bothhandsandaflashlight.com/2009/07/27/autism-mondays/ Parenting, Autism, and the Pursuit of Being Awesome Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:51:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= http://www.bothhandsandaflashlight.com/2009/07/27/autism-mondays/comment-page-1/#comment-9519 Mary Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:46:56 +0000 http://www.bothhandsandaflashlight.com/?p=852#comment-9519 Abby, We SO know what you mean about "teaching kids how to play." That's a lot of what they work on at preschool! One of my friends came over for a playdate, and her son got in the J-man's little tent shaped like a bus, and started turning the steering wheel like he was driving. I commented that the J-man would never think to do that on his own, and she was shocked. I forget that not everyone knows as much as we parents do about some of the issues surrounding autism, and one that all of the kids in the J-man's class last year had was "lack of functional play." At school they try to combine "functional play" with sensory stuff as well, so for example, they try to get the J-man to roll a toy car... through fingerpaint. He's rolling the car (functional play), he's using an object to put paint somewhere (functional play), AND he's touching fingerpaint and the car (sensory activity). This is why they are professionals and I'm not, because that wouldn't occur to me. Abby,
We SO know what you mean about “teaching kids how to play.” That’s a lot of what they work on at preschool! One of my friends came over for a playdate, and her son got in the J-man’s little tent shaped like a bus, and started turning the steering wheel like he was driving.
I commented that the J-man would never think to do that on his own, and she was shocked. I forget that not everyone knows as much as we parents do about some of the issues surrounding autism, and one that all of the kids in the J-man’s class last year had was “lack of functional play.”
At school they try to combine “functional play” with sensory stuff as well, so for example, they try to get the J-man to roll a toy car… through fingerpaint. He’s rolling the car (functional play), he’s using an object to put paint somewhere (functional play), AND he’s touching fingerpaint and the car (sensory activity). This is why they are professionals and I’m not, because that wouldn’t occur to me.

]]> http://www.bothhandsandaflashlight.com/2009/07/27/autism-mondays/comment-page-1/#comment-9502 abby schrader Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:52:21 +0000 http://www.bothhandsandaflashlight.com/?p=852#comment-9502 Yes, definitely spend more time on Mondays than any other day, investigating autism. Today's subject: teaching kids how to play. Why? Because we've had the weekend to observe our kiddo (now part time in preschool) with other kiddos and find this disturbing. To remind you, we have a just-three-year-old micropreemie (23 weeker) who has been provisionally cleared of being on the spectrum because of successful joint engagement on the ADOS but whose language, conversational, and I think, play skills (or lack thereof, in all three) make her seem very spectrumy. Floortime/DIR helps, but she's lacking in pragmatic language, and I've been googling this, in relation to play, and the ASD for the past twelve hours, off and on. We check in with you guys to get some ideas. Yes, definitely spend more time on Mondays than any other day, investigating autism. Today’s subject: teaching kids how to play. Why? Because we’ve had the weekend to observe our kiddo (now part time in preschool) with other kiddos and find this disturbing. To remind you, we have a just-three-year-old micropreemie (23 weeker) who has been provisionally cleared of being on the spectrum because of successful joint engagement on the ADOS but whose language, conversational, and I think, play skills (or lack thereof, in all three) make her seem very spectrumy. Floortime/DIR helps, but she’s lacking in pragmatic language, and I’ve been googling this, in relation to play, and the ASD for the past twelve hours, off and on. We check in with you guys to get some ideas.

]]>