How and What Play Skills to Teach Young Autistic Students who have a Moderate to Severe Diagnosis.

In my classes, the students always had a range of IQ and, without intervention, some students would choose to play in a repetitive manner, such as spinning objects or tapping objects against furniture. Autistic students, without play skills, may run or climb, or break objects, or interfere with other students' play.

For these students, it is important that they have play sessions built into their daily routine as they need lots of repetition to play appropriately and to move them on in their play skills, social skills and communication skills. Remember, that while they are learning to play, they are interacting with you, learning vocabulary such as nouns and verbs, requesting and following directions.

How To Structure A Work Session to Include Play

1. Remember the Motivators chart I mentioned in an earlier post? Extremely important for autistic students.That should be on display and regularly updated (don't lock autistic students into a rigid routine and forget to update this list as they have preferences that change also). Use a strong motivator on a mini-schedule, either in first or last position. This will give them some time to practise familiar play skills while it frees you up to work with another child. It helps them to stay independently at their tables also. When you are free to do a 1:1 with the student, show the student the finish symbol or say 'finish' and you are ready to move them onto their other tasks.

2. Place a picture (or objects, if on object level) on their morning work mini-schedule to show them that another play activity is being done, as well as other familiar tasks. You could have a box of unfamiliar toys next to you and you could choose from a selection of pictures to put on the mini-schedule, such as 'different' or 'play' or 'toys'. The idea is to always try to find activities or toys that are motivating for autistic students.

If you have a very rigid child that rejects anything new, I found the best thing to do is show that student how you play with it-once again, modelling is so important. It does not have to be a long session-just show, then put it in the finish box. Try to extend the time you model each activity and see if the child is willing to join in, in some small way, then build on that engagement next day.Do this over a few days, then see which activity he chooses from a selection of pictures or objects, if the student is on object level.

NB: some students may not have progressed to picture level yet and may need object representation to make choices. For these students, you can present a remnant or just one part of the activity to make a choice.

3. You now have access to a new activity to teach play skills with the child. The play session may not be exactly as a mainstream child would play sometimes. For example, autistic students often like Connect Four but do not understand the strategy or may take a long time to understand the strategy. So your aim, when playing, will not be to teach the strategy. Your goal for the student may be to turn take or to request colours. However, it does give the child a constructive activity to do independently down the track.

4. Last activity on their work session mini-schedule could be a motivating activity again, followed by a finish card. Remember, it is important for these autistic students to want to sit down so motivators work well in first and last positions. You know you are making good progress when you don't need the strong motivator in first place anymore.

5. Always be prepared to use a First, Then card or go back to a strong motivator in first place, if you notice regressions or if the student is unwell or tired.

6. Remember to use labels while playing so that the student is hearing your language. You could be naming items you are playing with, giving directions like push or roll, using colour names , or using directional language such as in, up ,down. For a non-verbal child, pair the words to pictures or objects so they can use them when given choices later.

7. As the student becomes familiar with the game, you can choose a communication focus, such as requesting specific objects or colours. Play then becomes the basis for a communication session.

8. Autistic students often like the company of other students so move them on in their social skills by having them play a familiar game with another student. This may need an adult and turn take cards at first to help them turn take. Then take away the turn take cards when they understand what to do. So a work session can actually have 2 or more children playing a short game together. If the student has a low IQ, the time you allocate to playing in pairs may be very short.

If a child is very sociable, but not understanding strategy, he can still be paired with another child in games eg Draughts. You could set up 2 pairs of children and the higher functioning child can give directions to his partner. I have seen this work well.

Some children get over-excited with quantities of items, and will start throwing them around. In this case, remember to reduce the quantity while the child is learning to play the game. I reduced the number of cards given out when playing UNO and made sure the pile was in a safe place.

Construction activities are always good for engaging peers of different levels. While some students play independently, you can use your questioning to help the student make decisions as to what block he will choose, or where he will put it, or how many blocks does he want, or what colour etc. For non-verbal students, have colour cards, number cards or shape cards ready for requesting.

Some Play Activities to Put on their Mini-Schedules.

1. Puzzles-great for turn taking, requesting parts, independent play,word, letter or number recogition.

If you are introducing a new puzzle, or the student is moving on to playing with more pieces, introduce the puzzle with parts missing instead of constructing the whole puzzle.

2. Gears-students like to watch the gears moving. Adult modelling is important here.

3. Kerplunk

4. Matching activities- cards to cards, objects to cards.

5. Kinesthetic type toys that are sensory based-movement or matching activity.

6. Connect 4

7. Marble and Ball runs.

8. Cause and effect games-push the button and something happens.

9. Construction type games - Lego, blocks, airport or garage buildings with different parts to assemble and add to the board. Teach the students to follow a schedule to put the blocks together. Teach them how to use other toys with them, for example, you can build fences with blocks and put the animals inside. There are games that have colourful baseboards and they match the blocks to the pictures on the base boards. I used to find other toys to put on, as well, such as adding animals to place in the village board.

10. Spinning toys- require some fine motor skills.

11. Magna Doodle type boards- introduces students to early writing.

12. Chalkboards and white boards.

13. Playdoh- Mr. Potato Head, cookie cutters, shape cutters, playdoh play boards that have a focus, such as rolling or flattening, and the student follows the steps to make an object.

14. Ipads and computer.

15. Bubble blowers

16. Percussion instruments with music

17. Books with push buttons.

18. Stacking toys.

19. Pegboard and pinboards.

20. Magnet Play.

21. Water/Sand/Shave foam play.

22. Art activities. Yes, I do include them for students if it is a motivating activity and it can lead to the development of leisure skills in the future.

Mini-schedules.

You will have to decide at what level your student is at, and what he is able to tolerate.

Some children will have a set of First, Then schedules until they can tolerate 3 or more pictures on their schedules. I found that some children would not tolerate a mini-schedule of 3 things so I started those children on sets of First , Then schedules.

Have about 3 First, Then Schedules prepared with toys and activities (I had the other activities under the table so that the student woud not have access to the other motivating activities until it was on their schedule).

One activity on each schedule was unfamiliar or less desirable, and the other activity was a strong motivator. You can use a timer to go off when the motivating activity is finished. Then present the new First,Then schedule.

I did not find presenting a few First, Then schedule was a problem with children but you have to be flexible here. I found it beneficial to spend more time on the very basic things, like First,Then schedules and 3 part mini-schedules as it seemed to build up their tolerance and then we were able to work up to have more activities (5 or 6) on the mini-schedules in a short time, without fuss,and they were engaged for longer periods. That is a personal choice for you to make, depending on your observations.

If your student is able to follow a 3 part schedule, it may look like this -first motivating toy, a 1:1 focus activity, followed by a motivator again.

As the student becomes more familiar with the tasks you set, and more independent, you can increase the number of activities you put on their mini-schedule. If the student is having a bad day and you notice things early in the morning, reduce the expectations. For example, reduce him from 3 activities to a First, then schedule

As the autistic classroom is such a busy one, try to have a mixture of activities for each student that allows you to move away to give other students their 1:1, as well.

I always have a mini-schedule going down vertically,using ordinal numbers.

I always have a Choice board set horizontally.

So horizontal and vertical schedules have different functions! I have seen a day schedule board without numbers or time of day appear as a square grid and I was confused as I did not know if the second activity was underneath or beside the first picture.

I tried to have play as a daily routine so the students would have acces to play skills development daily. I could see if I was making progress by setting up Choice strips throughout the day and seeing what they requested, and seeing how they played independently and for how long.