Floortime Play Therapy for the disengaged autistic child.
The autistic children you will find most concerning are those who seem to live in their own world, and seemingly not interact or show any interest in the environment around them.
These children will consistently move away from the group or individual, avoid eye contact, or not react to his name. This child seems to prefer to be on his own, doing repetitive things or not doing anything much at all.
It is so important to build relationships with autistic students and the child who does not react to you, let alone interact with you, is of great concern to educators and parents.
I have found Floortime Play Therapy to be an invaluable therapy to use and I would highy recommend educators of autistic children to read it.
The aim is to get children to engage and interact and it is a naturalistic method as the child initiates play and takes the lead. The adult focus is on creating opportunities for interaction from the child's play.
Whenever we learn something new, we are left with a snapshot of all the thousands of words we have read and learnt, and this process is further refined by our practice.
I do not wish to give a lecture on Floortime Play therapy, but a snapshot of what I did to give you an idea of what you can do, and how diverse it is.
It is my version of adding circles to the original circle of play.
The snapshot!
In Floortime Play therapy, the adult takes the child's lead- ALWAYS. Focus on what the chid is doing and what is motivating to them.
You interact with the child in an unstructured spontaneous manner.
Copy what the child is doing.
Add something to the play. Build your circles of interaction by adding dimensions to the play.
Create communication opportunities while you play.
After successful interactions, the adult reinforces the play behaviour in a positive manner and asks the child to repeat the play or social interaction.
What It Looked Like
Example One:
While walking with the child, I mimicked the sounds he was making a few times, until he looked at me. This was a big deal as he previously had not acknowledged me!
I did this a few times until he was acknowledging me each time I copied his noises.
Then, I added a circle (Floortime language). I repeated what he was saying and added my own ( I made a silly sound at the end of his sounds). This is when I melted as he jerked his head and looked at me, showing surpise.
I added an action also.
I repeated this and it became a game and I made a break through as he smiled at me. He knew I was playing with him and he was interactng with me. He did not repeat the sounds but he did repeat the actions ie. clap.
*This child was in his first year of school and was frightend by his new surroundings and adults.
Example Two:
I sat on the floor a little distance away as he was showing by his body language that he needed time away from the group.
He was playing with a train. I found a train so he would not be anxious, at this stage, about sharing the train. I mimicked the actions he was doing with the train, and added sounds for the train.
Over a period of time, I introduced additions to his play e.g. train line, bridge. I named the items and actions as we played.
When he was calm, I mimicked his actions, using one toy. When he didn't tolerate sharing, we used two same objects to play with, if possible.
* over the months, i introduced children sitting near him, sharing the train building kit. He would watch and, by the end of the year, was able to sit alongside a group, using the same toys. He would keep a certain amount of toy parts near himself but his overall tolerance had grown significantly.
Example Three:
This child enjoyed percussion instruments so I made them available for him to request during free play after lunch.
When he played the xylophone, he would often bang it vigorously, using one key.
I copied him for short time and them played softly on one note.
When he started to follow me, I played softly, saying 'softly' as I played.
My next circle was to move to different keys. He watched intently and then eventually copied, after repetition.
He would show me that he had enough by starting to bang vigorously and that was my queue that it was over! The focus language for this activity was gaining an understanding ofloud and soft, which was also a music objective.
He was saying individual words in his first year. They were related to names and actions used in play sessions, and he was also saying other words, such as bag, no, stop etc. Unfortunately, this did not continue the following year.
I have included a short video on Floortime Play Therapy DIR Approach. It is used by parents wanting engagement and interaction with their autistic child. The summary is excellent.
https://youtu.be/MSXyMTRy_6o
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