weeks previously.
I hope that this example illustrates that even if there is only one activity in which your child seems responsive, there are ways of associating this so closely with a new activity that the same enjoyable feelings allow him to extend the times when he is responsive to your attention and create opportunities for him to communicate.
Most of the parents who completed my survey stated that their children were often more receptive during rough-and-tumble play, and had worked out by trial and error that there are ways of using these periods to encourage even more interaction; other parents were stuck for ideas on how to move this on. At the time of my son’s diagnosis we were aware that he connected with us better and on many levels during this type of play, but were at a loss as to how to use this as a bridge to other activities. Once we eventually discovered how to associate it with new activities, we were able to introduce a range of things that could be used as tools to bring him back to us when he seemed less receptive and as rewards for more demanding activities such as speech therapy.
I would advise that it is counterproductive (and totally exhausting!) to attempt to gain your child’s attention most of his waking hours. In our early post-diagnosis days, I often panicked if I felt my son had drifted into his own world. I now feel he needs some time to do exactly this. You know your child best and can make the decision as to how intensive/relaxed your approach will be and what is right for your child.
As well as these play-based activities to encourage interaction you can also create opportunities for your child to communicate at other times:
Once you have discovered there are tools to gain your child’s attention and situations that you can create to encourage him to communicate, then some real playing can begin! Always hold on to your secret weapons – you never know when you might need them!
What is Intensive Interaction?
Intensive Interaction is a teaching method of exploring and using the very fundamentals of communication with children and adults who have severe communication challenges. During the first year of a typically developing baby’s life, a highly complex but very natural series of social responses and communicative exchanges happens between the baby and the adults around him. Intuitively, parents follow their baby’s cues to respond, they put the child in control of the type of engagement and the duration, it may be blowing raspberries, imitating vocalizations or pulling faces. Invariably these early interactions involve eye contact, sound making and turn-taking and lots of repetition – the building blocks of early language. We can learn a lot about communication by looking at these natural processes, breaking down exactly what happens and working through the stages with older children whose autism has interfered with this natural and vital early development.
As a teaching approach for nonverbal hard to reach children, Intensive Interaction builds on these principles of following the child’s lead in interactive rather than directive play. For children beyond baby years this type of playing can seem uncomfortable for parents to engage in at first. We are employing strategies that we inevitably used the first time round when our children were indeed babies. So why revisit this stage of development? There will be parents reading this book desperately hoping for ideas to connect with a child so withdrawn into autistic aloneness that activities such as structured learning and language building are out of reach – your child needs to connect with you first, even fleetingly. The natural processes of early communication have been altered by autism, but that is not to say that they have been damaged for good. By extending and intensifying the period of early pre-verbal parent/child interaction you are giving your child’s brain more time to respond – your child may be developmentally delayed so playing at this very early parent/baby level with your older child will be appropriate and right for him. Ultimately if Intensive Interaction has significant results with adults on the severe end of the autism spectrum (and it does), then a child can benefit even more from the ‘neural plasticity’ that young brains have.
The goal is to create some sense of meaning and enjoyment in just being with others, to ‘re-wire’ the processes that drive a child to resist and avoid relatedness at all costs by engaging in an activity that is intrinsically motivating and rewarding – this is the first and most important aim. Enjoyment comes from your child being calm and sharing control, feeling safe and having fun in the most basic form of interaction. This is sharing space at foundation level: enjoying being with another person. Intensive Interaction is not an overnight autism cure, it is one of many intervention strategies which with lots of effort, perseverance and repetition can increase your child’s motivation to relate.
You may wish to explore Intensive Interaction further, to attend training or watch it in process. For information, newsletters and training information, visit: www.intensiveinteraction.co.uk
Chapter 3
Structured Play
Why do children on the autism spectrum need structure?
Despite common communication impairments, children on the autism spectrum vary considerably, in fact autism may be seen as an ‘umbrella’ term in itself, like the description ‘learning disability’. As autism does not just affect the ability to learn and understand but affects processing by all the senses, the potential for its various subtypes is endless – different degrees of problems with speech, social communication, learning difficulties, sensory problems, physical problems…, and on top of this are the individual’s responses and ability to cope with his condition.
As much as we all hate labels, for most parents the diagnostic label should be the passport to relief, to being able to find the most appropriate services, the right professional help and the best approach for them and their child. Confusingly, however, for parents of children on the autism spectrum there doesn’t seem to be one best approach. There are a number of routes all with worldwide advocates who devoutly believe that this is the only way to help, if not ‘recover’, your child from autism. For parents of very young children, this diversity of advice is confusing, pressurizing and piles more stress on top of an already strained household.
Despite this barrage of what seems like contradictory advice there are some golden threads of agreement and one such element is that of structure. It would appear that those therapies and approaches to autism that have stood the test of time and demonstrated quantifiable results have a central theme of structure. In describing what structure is, it is probably easier to describe what structure isn’t, with all the contradictions that this encompasses!
It isn’t about providing a great deal of choice (though creating opportunities for choice is a part of structuring the environment).
It
