COPING WITH PLAY GROUND

Hi

Sorry I did not post any article yesterday because I was busy playing………… wow  awesome play  and play ground “means a lot”  to  most of the kids, ooh la la la but  it’s not the same for children with autism. Yesterday I went for walk in the park, all I could see was kids kids  kids playing out joy , I m sure when they play they forget the entire world. Am I right?

Play in simple words- “it is a  sensory motor delight”

The playground can be really threatening environment to a child with autism. There is no structure or routine to recess and lunch time.  As we know Children with autism love routine, so they often feel stressed or anxious during this time. So called normal children or normally-developing children use play time to release stress and just enjoys that break time; but our beloved kids accumulate stress during this period.  In the playground, there is a lot of free movement, noise, and vast open space. There are unwritten rules that must be adhered to. There are many sights, sounds and smells to deal with. These often cause stress and anxiety (sensory over load).

Most of our children lack imaginative and creative play skills; he is comfortable in solitary play and doing repetitive pursuits such as playing the same puzzles again and again and playing computer games. This will not allow him to mingle with other children and puts him at a disadvantage socially. One more important aspect we should not over look is, the child will be vulnerable to teasing and bullying, both physically and verbal, during recess and lunch time. His unusual behavior and poor social skills make him stands out as an easy target. Lack of assertiveness and coping mechanism to deal with this situation, may result in anger outbursts in class sometime after the event. It is often difficult to the child to express the feeling of distress to an adult because of poor language reciprocity and poor social skills .  We have to look in to very important aspects- child’s poor motor co-ordination skills  will be painfully obvious to all, while other children play ball games, the child with autism avoid playing because of poor co-ordination and motor skills , attempts to join him to ball games lead to  disaster ..….. Added to that their attention where the child unable to concentrate or focus on the activity. The child may not know the boundaries (where to play, what is safe zone etc) of play ground, as we know some children with autism are “wanderers” who have little sense of personal danger and no understanding of school boundaries.

I am very much pleased to accept that the child may need to be on his own at times, but provide support should the child wish to join social activities.

STRATEGIES

  So what should we doing to make it right…..and pleasurable to our pals

-Tell them or prepare the child for the playground by showing visual cues

-Reading social stories and helping the child to cope with  play ground, reading story has to be done before taking to playground.

-Encourage the child to learn by watching others play, if the child has integration aide in the school  it would be helpful to assign some aide time supervising and supporting the child in the play ground.

-Talk through the activities and his role during group play( when he has take turn and when to share turn etc)

-Train him/her in co-ordination skills that way he will not be out of sync child in the play ground
-Mark a school map with boundaries and no-go areas to ensure the child clearly understands where he can and cannot go.

-Prepare child by telling him to turn for help or support when he is distressed in the playground  he can come to his aide or teacher by saying I am done with play I need to rest for some time)

-Initially the child can go for pre arranged area of play ground with the help of aide, gradually encourage him to actual play

-Specify break times; if possible allow the child access to the computer and to favorite activities, this provides as a reinforcement.

-Make a picture schedule of activities. One hour of unstructured activity seems to be great stress to our child, spilt the hour in to segments: 20minutes –ball games 15m-break and computer time another 25minutes- other activities

-Allow the child 10 minutes of time out after returning from recess. Give him favorite activity, time at his special interest or listening to music.

-Choose a mature child from the class to act as a buddy during recess and lunch time

-Using business card holder the child can keep in his pocket with ideas for conversation starters, activities to try, etc

-Encourage the child whenever he goes to playground without jerks by giving positive reinforcement

-Teach some opening lines to help the child join in conversations like.. Good evening what game r v playing today etc

THAT’S ALL BUDDIES; LET’S TAKE A DEEP BREATH…..  GET READY TO PROVIDE PLEASURABLE EXPERIENCE TO OUR NAUGHTYS, WEAR SHOES AND RUN TO PLAY GROUND. OH YAH NOW ,IT’S TOTAL FUN,ROCK IT.