Children will test boundaries, children with autism are not necessarily going to be any different. Be very clear about which behaviors are acceptable to you and then create clear boundaries, ensure that the rest of the family is also clear and that you all act with consistency. However, be realistic. A child with autism, by definition, has difficulties in social interaction, you will have to make some allowances.
Be realistic also about what lengths you are prepared to go to, do not create a boundary and then not enforce it, if you do you may find that your child will keep trying to test it. Boundaries should be clear-cut. If you regularly engage in intensive play with your child, and they are enjoying playing with you, a natural way to minimize your child's tendency to push boundaries is to simply stop the interaction whenever an inappropriate behavior occurs and calmly wait for more appropriate behavior before continuing.
A child with autism may not necessarily care to act in a way that pleases you just for the sake of it. However, they may well be very interested in your reactions, and a purple screaming face can be just as interesting as a beaming smile, perhaps more so. So, put all your energies into making extreme whoops of delight when you are pleased with your child, and make the minimum of fuss when they engage in behaviors that are unacceptable to you.
Sometimes children work out which of your buttons to press to get an interesting response and then persist in trying to get those responses.
For example:
Johnny, aged 5, was adorable and very active. He often engaged in activities that seemed designed to get a response from adults, these included: shouting loudly, ripping books and posters, and urinating on the floor.
Typically adults addressed Johnny's behavior by telling him "no shouting", "no ripping", etc. However, this did not appear to have much impact on the behavior, if anything it sometimes made Johnny even more excitable, and he would repeat "no shouting", over and over again loudly, laughing.
What made a difference with Johnny was having clear boundaries and enforcing them with the minimum of fuss. Rather than telling him "no" whenever he did something he should not do, I gave him clear positive directions he could follow, e.g. "Johnny, come here", "sit down". I kept my voice and face as neutral as possible.
When Johnny was calm I would then address the behavior, I found that this resulted in much less excitable responses from Johnny. Most of his inappropriate behaviors disappeared in class in the course of a few weeks because he was no longer getting the interesting adult reactions he had been used to.
Sometimes they find a way of playing a game at our expense, and then persist in playing it:
Steven, aged 7, enjoyed playing chasing games. He would often run off and giggle when adults ran after him to bring him back. A number of strategies were tried, including giving Steven lots of attention when he was not running away, and very little attention after he had run off. However, Steven's running off behavior persisted.
What eventually worked was to ignore the running away behavior, monitoring his safety from a distance and waiting for him to return, even if it took ten minutes. When it became clear to Steven that we really were not going to chase after him, the behavior lessened. After that whenever Steven started to run off, I would cheerfully shout out "Bye Steven" and wave. As soon as he heard this he would turn and come back. Not much fun running off unless someone is chasing you!
And of course, you will want to reward your child for when they are behaving appropriately. Remember though that your child may not be as motivated by pleasing you as they are by getting access to a favorite toy.
If you have been engaging in intensive play with your child, perhaps a suitable reward may be a favorite game that you play together. This would be ideal as you would be rewarding appropriate behavior in a way that also teaches that social interaction is fun. Whatever the reward, for it to be meaningful, it has to be something that your child likes and not what you think they should have.
Having high expectations of your child's behavior can make a difference too. For example, I have spoken to a number of parents who have found it difficult to get their children to eat with a fork.
However, I have not really ever found it to be an issue with the children I have worked with, as my expectation is that everyone will use a fork. At the end of one summer at camp, we had a message from Cameron's mum asking us how we had managed to get her son to eat with a fork. We were a little surprised by the question as we had not done anything really other than ask him to use it, as we did with every other child.
When designing a playground to include children with autism, you must understand that there is a spectrum of severity and every child is different. Some children have a more moderate type of autism, while others will have more severe symptoms. There are other diagnoses on the spectrum, most commonly Asperger's Disorder and Pervasive Developmental Disorder. Some researchers even put ADHD and ADD on the spectrum. Despite the differences along the spectrum, there are common symptoms between people with autism and one of those is that 95% of people diagnosed on the spectrum have Sensory Processing Disorders.
Dr. A. Jean Ayres is generally credited with developing both a theory of sensory integration dysfunction, now called Sensory Processing Disorder, and the therapeutic interventions for children who have it. Her work emphasizes the importance of three of the senses: tactile (the sense of touch), vestibular (the sense of movement and gravity), and proprioceptive (the sense of how our body works (muscle and joint information).
People with Sensory Processing Disorders maybe hyper-responsive to sensory input meaning they overreact. While other people maybe hypo-responsive to sensory input meaning they under-react. In many people it is a combination of both. This leads us to the fact that every child is an individual. Therefore, just like every other child, children with autism react differently and enjoy different activities on the playground. However, we can take some information about the three senses talked about above and make some general observations of what should go into a playground that actively welcomes children with autism.
1. The playground should be fenced so that when a child feels the need to flee from over-stimulation, he isn't able to leave the area.
2. The playground should include nature: gardens, grassy areas, trees, etc. Recent studies from University of Illinois found that a walk in nature helps children with ADHD stay attentive.
3. The safety surfacing must meet or exceed all guidelines. Children, who do not feel their senses strongly, may want to climb as high as they can go and jump off. The intense fall enables them to feel the impact. They may not recognize the danger so it is important that the safety surfacing material is maintained on a regular basis.
4. There should be quiet areas where a child may go to regroup when she is over stimulated. This quiet area can be made through landscaping or the use of playground equipment, such as a playhouse.
5. The playground equipment should be spaced a little further apart enabling the child to play without touching or being touched by another child.
6. There should be playground equipment that swings, goes around in circles, and enables children to climb and jump. These activities help children with both their vestibular and proprioceptive systems.
7. There should be equipment such as monkey bars where a child can hang. This puts pressure on their muscles and joints and helps to develop the proprioceptive system.
8. Parents who are raising children with autism often talk about how much their children like to slide, so it is important to keep slides in your playground. You might want to include different types of slides since different types of slides often provide different sensory input.
9. For tactile input, sand and water activities work well. You might want to include a very large sandbox, where a child could cover himself with sand. The weight of the sand will calm some children.
10. There should be play activities that the child can do by himself, while keeping out of the major line of traffic. Play panels such as tic-tac -toe, or a marble maze, often can meet this need.
11. Children with autism often need to work on where their body is in space. Crawling through tunnels is a good activity for this. It may be important to have windows in the tunnels for the caregiver to watch and provide assistance if needed.
These are some beginning thoughts for designing a playground for children with autism. But as always when planning a playground it is important to have members of your community involved in the planning. Some people you might want to include on your planning team to ensure you get good feedback on the needs of children with autism are parents (especially parents), Occupational Therapists who specialist in Sensory Processing Disorders, and Physical Therapists. You may also want to find a few children with autism that are willing to give you their input as they are the ones who will be using the playground.
When the needs of children with disabilities are taken into account at the beginning of the design process, you end up with a playground that can be enjoyed by everyone in your community.
Both Alan Yau & Mara Kaplan are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Alan Yau has sinced written about articles on various topics from Kids and Teens, Massage and Autism. Alan Yau heads up the Autistic unit at a primary school in North London in the UK where he is responsible for teaching 18 children across the whole Autistic spectrum. See. Alan Yau's top article generates over 2400 views. to your Favourites.
Mara Kaplan has sinced written about articles on various topics from Birthday Gifts, Health and Kids and Teens. Mara Kaplan is a play expertt with 15 years experience in play space design and operations. She is currently conducting research on what parents who are raising children with autism want in a playground. Give your input by completing a short. Mara Kaplan's top article generates over 3600 views. to your Favourites.