Flora, as well as many children with ASC have difficulty with developing vocabulary, social interaction, attention as well as following instructions and sharing joy with others.
This is why it’s important when we are planning our activities to include and consider the following.
Use of visuals, such as the toast activity.
To give opportunities to the students to develop their vocabulary and their communication skills, such as the balloon activity.
The activities need to be fun and stimulating to attract the students’ interest and support them with maintaining their attention for longer periods of times, such as the slime activity.
The adult to be a role model demonstrating the desired behaviours. You can find more information about the role of the adult here.
In order to achieve all of the above, we can use Attention Autism, a method developed by the Speech and Language Therapist Gina Davies.
Attention Autism™ has four stages.
Stage 1 - The box
Aim: To focus attention. The adult presents engaging toys from the bucket.
Stage 2 - Attention builder
Aim: To sustain attention. The adult demonstrates highly stimulating practical activity.
Stage 3- Interactive Game
Aim: Turn taking . The students are taking turns to take part in the practical activity.
Stage 4- Activity at the table
Aim: Students to follow instructions and complete a simple creative activity.The adult demonstrates the activity in small steps, then the students have the opportunity to complete the task independently or with adult support. For example, I follow the steps to make my own playdough. You can find the steps here.
This method is ideal for speech and language therapists, teachers, teaching assistants, psychologists, occupational therapists and parents.
You can find more information about Attention Autism™ here.
We will share more tips and activities in the future, so keep visiting us.
We are looking forward to hearing your views and experiences. You can email us at florastophasma@gmail.com.