Tips for Working with a Child with Autism

Tips for Playing and Working with an Autistic Child

Tips for Working with a child with Autism.

We are sharing some tips for working with a child with autism. I know, I know, you  don't want to use the words Autistic child, but these words help those who aren't as in the know find this information when searching the web. After several years working with children of all ages, races, and denominations, I have tips for playing and interacting with an autistic child, and all types of childhood disorders, diseases, or states of mind. Let's face it, there is no such thing as normal!

Social Interaction is a key concern for parents with a child who has Autism. Remember, play is the work of children. Does your child engage with you or with other children while playing? If your child has been diagnosed with Autism, the answer is more than likely no. 

As parents or caregivers you can adjust your style of play to make playing with a child with a sensory processing disorder more enjoyable for everyone involved.

Making small adaptations to the environment will help parents to observe and begin to understand how their child’s mind works. Forget how you remember playing as a child; be open to a new way of playing and a different kind of interaction.

All children like to make their own decisions and choices. If you set up several stations with various types of play opportunities, your child may be drawn to one or more of them. Don’t jump in or show too much excitement. Sit back and become a silent observer doing research while your child explores his new environment. At first, it may be interesting but intimidating for the child. Let them explore or simply observe the invitations you have provided for play.

Perhaps, you have ordinary cardboard boxes in varying sizes. Leave some empty to let your child explore his imagination.  Fill others with different types of toys. Depending on the age of the child, make appropriate “toy” choices. A box filled with pots, pans, and wooden spoons is a scientific experiment. Contain your desire to show your child how to bang on the pots or wear one as a hat. 

Let your child teach you how they want to play. A simple thump on the pot could frighten the child and ruin the experience for everyone. The idea of wearing the pan as a hat could also discourage the child. 

In the coming days or weeks, as your child becomes more comfortable observing or playing with the toys, you can slowly introduce your style of play. Sit across from the child; don’t worry if they are not watching you. Just play.Gently, put the pan on your head. Pretend to stir soup in a pot. What happens if you scrape the bowl? Observe how your child reacts, but don’t force or ask them to play yet. 

Be patient; if your child isn’t interested today, move on to a new toy. By playing by yourself, you are demonstrating how to play, how you play, and letting your child know it is okay to play alone. 

Remember, it is okay to play alone! All children learn through play, so never discourage them.

In time, your child may begin to feel less threatened.They may do what you do, or they may choose a toy and hand it to you to see what you will do with it. If they don’t, keep trying with quiet encouragement. Keep experimenting with new ideas, but always watch your child’s facial expression and body language. If they don’t like what you are doing, change it.  

Hopefully, one day your child will accept your invitation to play. 

Need some more ideas? Here are ten sensory play activities for kids.



Recommended:


Circle Time Activities


Autism Breakthrough: The Groundbreaking Method That Has Helped Families All Over the World*

Play Based Learning Linky full of Sensory Ideas for kids

It's time to join the sensory play based learning linky party, "Play to Learn". Link up your creative ideas and visit your favorites. We're working to get this off the ground with Nikki at Spectrum Psychological.

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.spectrumpsychological.net/1/post/2013/02/play-to-learn-february-blog-hop.html" title="Play to Learn Blog Hop"><img src="http://www.spectrumpsychological.net/uploads/1/4/9/5/1495826/3711599.jpg?1358187461" alt="Play to Learn Blog Hop" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

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Active Learning in Early Childhood Education

What is Active Learning?

If you're an early childhood education director, teacher, or a homeschooler of a preschooler, you will benefit ChildCare Education Institute's CCEI122: Active Learning in Early Childhood course. This course is a great way to get continuing ed course credit for any ECE program, but it is also a wonderful tool for parents of toddlers and preschoolers to educate themselves for homeschool learning. So, what is the definition of active learning in early childhood education?

This post contains Amazon Affiliate links, if you make a purchase,I get a small commission.

Wikipedia describes active learning as:

Active learning is a form of learning in which teaching strives to involve students in the learning process more directly than in other methods. Bonwell states that in active learning, "students participate in the process and students participate when they are doing something besides passively listening."

Sensory Play = Active Learning

As a childcare professional, I am well versed in sensory play and its connection to cognitive learning. Here on the blog, you'll find many sensory play activities and other movement games for early childhood educators. However, I wasn't aware of much of the proven science behind these preschool activities until I took CCEI's online professional development course CCEI122: Active Learning in Early Childhood.

This course presents practical methods for integrating movement and active involvement across all curriculum areas, including art, language arts, mathematics, music, science, and social studies.

The course only takes about an hour of your time. Be sure to print out the handouts or save them as pdfs so that you'll have access to note taking and a record of some of the valuable ideas and knowledge base taught in the class. At course completion, you’re issued a certificate showing that you've successfully completed the 1 hr. course. Here's mine:

Through the years, I've taken many continuing education courses. The courses offered by ChildCare Education Institute are by far the most convenient. The courses are also very informative. They not only include valuable information and recent studies in the childcare industry, but they also include sample activities that you can try with your own students.

ChildCare Education Institute® provides high-quality, online training courses and programs, applicable to those who work in an array of child care settings, including center-based care, Head Start, family child care, prekindergarten classrooms, after school environments and more. Over 150 English and Spanish training courses are available to meet licensing, recognition program, and Head Start Requirements. CCEI also has online certification programs that provide the coursework requirement for national credentials including the CDA, Director and Early Childhood Credentials. CCEI, a Council for Professional Recognition CDA Gold Standard℠ Comprehensive training provider, is nationally accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC) and is accredited as an Authorized Provider by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET).

● 99 percent of students say they would recommend CCEI to others

● Over 4.4 million online course hours completed  

● Graduated over 12,000 early childhood professionals from CDA and other certificate programs

● Web-based coursework, available 24/7/365

● 30 hours of new content added each year

● IACET CEUs awarded for completed coursework at no additional cost

During the CCEI122: Active Learning in Early Childhood course, I had many aha moments. There were so many things that I've done in my early childhood programs where I missed valuable opportunities to incorporate movement and music in daily lesson plans for language arts, science, social studies, math, and art. The course lists out many different ideas and further explains how these activities aid in cognitive development and increase brain synapses.

After taking the course, you’ll want to add more movement activities to your daily active learning activities. Here's a list of our most popular posts on early childhood games and sensory play ideas for preschoolers.

● Circle Time Games for Active Learning in Early Childhood

● Physical Activity Movement Games for Early Childhood

● Marshmallow Movement Game

● Sensory Tactile Alphabet Activity

● Group Cooperation Games for Preschool and Early Childhood

If you're in need of continuing education for your career in early childhood, start here with our review of ChildCare Education Institute. CCEI offers many amazing continuing education courses for professional development in early childhood education. The extensive course list is sure to please even the most hard to please daycare providers and program directors. I encourage everyone involved with childcare and early childhood education to sign up for a course or two. It’s such a convenient way to expand your knowledge in early childhood education. Be sure to check it out!

Recommended:

Featured Preschool Crafts and Activities 

All Preschool Activities

Active Learning Tools

10 Fall Play Date Ideas

Keep Busy with Fun, Fall Play Date Ideas

It is fall, y'all. Fall is our favorite season of the year. No matter the season, we make time to get outside and play every day. Are you stuck inside? Bored? Get out and try some of these Fall Play Date Ideas. Enjoy!

Fall play date ideas don't have to be fancy... Just play!

The Voice of Play is an education and advocacy initiative of the non-profit membership association, IPEMA, formed to educate and promote the benefits of children’s free outdoor play and playgrounds. They encourage the scientifically proven physical, social, emotional, and cognitive benefits of play.

Outdoor play is free! Once a week, we visit a different local park and have unstructured play dates with a local homeschool group.

We are fortunate in that we have been able to live our dream life on a beautifully wooded, five-acre property. Everyday, we go for a walk, visit the fish and ducks on our pond, take a paddle boat ride, check out the creatures of the creek, and just play in the yard.

The best part about fall, of course, is the changing leaves. What fun to scoop some up and let them flow through the air! Rake up a pile and jump. It is simple. It is sensory. And, it couldn't be more fun if it cost money.

We wanted to share some pictures of how we play at home. For more fall play date ideas, keep scrolling down.

Little ones enjoy the sensory aspect of leaves. They crunch, they crumble, and crack.

She made the leaves disappear!

What happens when you put a leaf on a slide? Play = Preschool Science.

Go on a hike to collect leaves for a science project.

Hide and seek is always a hit.

Climbing trees is cool too.

Monkey see. Monkey do.

I dub the Sir Fall.

Raking leaves is good exercise.

Leaves = Happy Kid.

We need to build a tree house.

• Play Disc Golf with your Trees
• Play Date Ideas for Preschoolers
• Ideas for Nature Based Circle Time
• Pirate Pretend Play
• Outdoor Play Date Ideas
• Visit an Apple Orchard with Friends
• Cold Weather Play Date Ideas for Toddlers
• Play with Shaving Cream Outdoors
• Outdoor Play Ideas
• Go for a Hike and Pretend you are Secret Investigators

*This post is sponsored by the Voice of Play. All words and opinions are my own.  #YearRoundPlay 

Recommended:

Outdoor Geometric Dome Climber*

The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons*

ADS DISCLOSURE: We've partnered with some wonderful advertisers who may sponsor blog posts or send us samples to test. Some companies pay us to review their products. *We also use affiliate links, if you make a purchase we get a tiny commission. Kids Creative Chaos participates in the Amazon LLC Associates Program*, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a mean for blogs to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon properties, including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com. We also offer Chitika, Google Adsense, Sverve, Izea, and Social Spark ads here. Thanks so much for helping us keep the lights on! :)

Creative and Sensory Play Blog Hop = Fun Activities for Kids

I'm co-hosting a new blog hop for those who love to PLAY!  Nikki who works with children with autism and adhd is a Neurofeedback Specialist over at Spectrum Psychological invites anyone who has a great idea for play-based learning to link up in this fun, new blog hop. When we pool talents, we can't help but find fantastic, fun activities for kids of all kinds. Play is the best medicine for children with sensory disorders and issues. So, grab the code, add your link, and hop around the wonderful, play based blogs.

Grab the code.

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.spectrumpsychological.net/1/post/2013/01/play-to-learn-blog-hop.html" title="Play to Learn Blog Hop"><img src="http://www.spectrumpsychological.net/uploads/1/4/9/5/1495826/3711599.jpg?1358187461" alt="Play to Learn Blog Hop" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Blog Hop Rules

Feel free to link up to 3 posts related to play-based learning.  Please leave comments on 2 to 3 other linked posts and only link posts you have written yourself, no other link ups or blog hops.  It'd be awesome if you could add our blog hop badge to your site, either on your sidebar or in a post.  Thanks for playing!

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Summer Messy Play Activities for Preschoolers

Fun In The Sun - 6 Tips For Creating A Mud Kitchen For Your Kids

Kids love mud! And as dirty as they may get, it’s time to advocate messy play so they can learn new skills the fun way. The fastest and easiest way to encourage your kids to get outdoors is to build them a mud kitchen.They'll be tripping over each other to get outside

Building your own mud kitchen is a creative, cost-effective way of enabling messy play for your kids while saving money on an expensive play kitchen. 

You can build your mud kitchen in your own way, and in the end, your kids will have the perfect environment in which to get their hands dirty anytime.

This post contains Amazon affiliate links for your convenience.

Photo: Jelleke Vanooteghem/Unsplash

Six tips to create your own mud kitchen

1. Use What You’ve Got

Poke around your garage and see what you can recycle to save money on your mud kitchen. You can use wood, recycled pallets, and old timber for the construction. Old cookware and bakeware, utensils, and decorations can also be used to finish out the kitchen,

Remember, the idea is to ignite your child’s imagination, so your DIY mud kitchen doesn’t need to resemble a brand-new toy kitchen set. 

2. Stove Tops Add to The Fun

While it’s great to leave some things up to the imagination, it’s a good idea to make your play kitchen resemble a real kitchen by creating a stove top. You can paint the burners on a piece of timber or wood, and you can even add broken or thrifted appliances to your outdoor kitchen to enhance its appearance. You can also use good, old cardboard to create a play stove.

3. Bake Mud Cakes

The fun part of having a mud kitchen is that your kids get to play with mud and get as dirty as they want. All you need to make mud cakes is some sand or soil and water. You can use old cookware and bake ware to contain them and shape them like cakes and cupcakes.

Parents can get involved by showing kids how to create funky-shaped cookies with cookie cutters and molds or add colored pasta to the mud for added texture. This kind of sensory play is an important part of childhood development, but above all, it’s a whole lot of fun.

Pistachio Pudding Play Dough

4. Set the Table

A mud kitchen is a fun way to teach your child table manners. Guide your preschoolers through setting a table and laying out the dishes. Show them the way to arrange cutlery and allow your children to bring some garden leaves to create napkins for a rustic table setting.

5. Add a Sink

Since you’ve introduced messy play to your preschoolers with colored pasta and mud cakes, it’s a good idea to take care of the cleanup. The most logical way to do this is to add a sink to your mud kitchen! To create your sink, use a silver or grey bucket and fill it with water or a big flower put with the bottom plugged works nicely too.

Add a hose in the bucket so that there’s an accessible faucet. This is a great way to teach children how to clean up after themselves. Add some dish washing liquid and a sponge so you can wash all the cookware the kids used before bringing it back into the house!

How to Make your own Dish Washing Soap

6. Dress For The Occasion

Every chef needs a chef’s hat and apron, so make sure to get these for your child. They will love it! Plus, the apron will offer some protection from mud splatter while playing. Rubber boots are a good idea too. Preschool age kids and toddlers love to wear galoshes!

How to Make your own Chef Hat

 

Have fun with your kiddos and their mud kitchen. You may want to wear some rubber boots yourself! Encourage your children to enjoy free and imaginative play, and you can bet they’ll learn tons of kitchen tricks in the process. Pretend play is the best way to learn!

Recommended Reading:

Pretend Play and Play Date Ideas from Adventures of Kids Creative Chaos

Fun Books about Galoshes from Amazon

Wordless Wednesday: Things to do with Peanuts: Sensory Play

Packing Peanuts are Fun for Sensory Play

Baby Shipment via U.P.S. Baby had so much fun, even though he looks serious. Careful though, playing with packing peanuts makes a fun, sensory experience for babies and toddlers. Make sure you stay close, peanuts are a choking hazard and with this many peanuts baby could sink and get frightened in the pile of peanuts.

Baby playing in Packing Peanuts.

We never left his side, packing peanuts are a serious choking hazard.

Serious thinking while playing in packing peanuts.

"I feel like I'm inside a peanut avalanche."

Chillin' in Peanuts; now that's a fun thing to do with packing peanuts.

Rainbow Fish Theme Sensory Fishing Activity and Craft for Preschoolers

Make a Rainbow Fish to the Rescue Sensory Pretend Play Fishing Activity for Preschoolers and Toddlers

Looking for fun, fishing activities? These aquarium crafts (fish in a bag) and make believe hoola hoop fishing ponds are perfect activities to try after reading one of the Rainbow Fish stories.

Rainbow Fish is a fun story about a school of sparkly scale fish who won't allow a little fish without the sparkle to play, similar to the story of Rudolph and the Reindeer Games. This is a great story to teach about inclusion and kindness. What theme for preschool could be more fun than Rainbow Fish?

Sharpies and Ziploc Baggie for Aquarium craft project for kids.

To Make Baggie Aquarium, You will need: 

Ziploc Baggies

Sharpie Markers

Blue Hair Gel

Blue Shampoo

Foamies

Fill the aquarium with foam fish or make a dino terrarium.

Color an underwater scene on the bag. As an alternative, you can cut out fishy shapes and insert them to slosh around in the goo. Fill bag with about 1/4 C. of gel for a sparkly, ocean effect. For bubbles add a small squirt of shampoo. (Little ones loved squishing and watching the bubbles appear.) Tightly zip bag and tape to window or mirror. Squish away your stress!

Gel is sparkly, add a little blue shampoo for fishy bubbles.

Creative Play Element Fishing Activity: Pretend a Hoola-hoop is a fish pond.

Companion Games and Activities for Rainbow Fish:

Rainbow Fish to the Rescue is a perfect story compliment.

Then using a sparkly piece of foam, I cut out a scale and taped 

it to "its" shirt for Tag.

It took the little one a few minutes to catch on to the game of

tag. (Some didn't want anything to do with the scale.) But it is

so much fun watching as they learn the game and start running

after each other.

Tip:  Miss Lora preferred the gel to the shampoo. It is thicker

and looks more like real ocean water but the little ones loved

the bubbles. 

Moral:  It's not about making the perfect craft, it is 

all about the process and the fun of experimenting!

We like to add a creative play element.

• Hoola-hoop Pond
• Pool Noodle Fish (Cut-up)
• Pail for the Catch
• Squiggly Pole to pretend 

Cut a scale from sparkly foam and tape to shirts.

Best Rainbow Fish Ever

I adore this beautiful clay and sequin rainbow fish craft activity from Sun Hats and Wellie Boots.

Sequin and Clay Rainbow Fish Craft Activity.

Recommended Reading:

5 Aquarium Crafts for Kids: Fishing Activities

Rainbow Fish to the Rescue*

Sensory Play with Gummy Worms Game

Take a Field Trip to the Manatee Viewing Center in Florida













ADS DISCLOSURE: We've partnered with some wonderful advertisers who may sponsor blog posts or send us samples to test. Some companies pay us to review their products.

*We also use affiliate links, if you make a purchase we get a tiny commission. Kids Creative Chaos participates in the Amazon LLC Associates Program*, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a mean for blogs to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon properties, including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com. We also offer Tapinfluence, Google Adsense, SoFab, and Izea ads here. Thanks so much for helping us keep the lights on! :)