Teaching Autistic Children through Play Skills

This book discusses the deficits in the development and presentation of play behavior and social skills that are considered central characteristics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The book explains why play provides an important context for social interactions and how its absence can further exacerbate social deficits over time. It highlights the critical roles of social skills in development, and the social, cognitive, communication, and motor components of play. Chapters offer conceptually and empirically sound play and social skills interventions for children with ASD. Play activities using diverse materials and including interactions with peers and parents are designed to promote positive, effective social behaviors and encourage continued development. The book provides unique strategies that can be tailored to fit individual children’s strengths and deficits. Topics featured in this book include: Naturalistic Teaching Strategies (NaTS) for developing play and social skills. Teaching play and social skills with video modeling. Peer-mediated intervention (PMI) strategies that promote positive social interactions between children with ASD and their peers. Visual Activity Schedules and Scripts. Parent-implemented play and social skills intervention. Play and Social Skills for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder is a must-have resource for researchers, clinicians, and graduate students in clinical child and school psychology, behavioral therapy/rehabilitation, social work, public health, and related psychology, education, and behavioral health fields.

The Identiplay intervention helps children on the autistic spectrum, and those with specific communication disorders, learn to play. Through the use of play scripts the approach promotes the development of social skills, understanding, imagination and exploration. By learning these skills the young person can enjoy reciprocal play with an adult or peer. Supported by case studies the theory behind the approach is fully outlined and scripts are provided for instant use in a number of settings. The new edition of this popular book includes: - More on developing your own scripts - How to assess the child′s current play skills - The adult′s role in play - The use of visual/verbal support - New case studies - New scripts - Advice on taking learning outdoors - Links to resources and useful websites A supporting CD ROM contains video clips of the intervention in practice, printable scripts and a PowerPoint presentation to facilitate professional training making this a vital resource for anyone working with young children on the autistic spectrum or with communication difficulties.

What do you do when a three-year-old with autism falls on the floor kicking and screaming? How do you communicate with a child who looks away and flaps his hands? Who can help if you suspect a child in your class has autism? Preschool can be overwhelming for a child with autism. Autism affects how a child communicates, behaves, and relates to others. Teachers need to know what they can do to help children with autism reach their full potential. Teaching Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder is a straightforward, easy-to-understand guide to working with children who have autism. It explains the major characteristics associated with autism and helps teachers understand the ways children with autism relate to the world. Each chapter offers specific strategies for teachers to use, including setting up a proactive preschool environment, helping children learn life skills, managing behavior, helping children with autism communicate, encouraging children with autism to play, helping them to get along with others, and working with families. Teaching Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder helps teachers connect with all children in meaningful ways, allowing children with autism to learn and grow. Putting All the Pieces Together: Understanding This Puzzle Called Autism From Hand-Flapping to Obsession with Routines: The Way Children With Autism Relate to Their World Planning for Success: Setting Up a Proactive Preschool Environment Learning Life Skills Misbehavior or Missed Communication: Managing the Behaviors of Children With Autism Signs, Symbols, and Language: Helping a Child Communicate Inside Their Own World: Encouraging Children With Autism to Play Building Social Skills: Getting Along With Others Lights! Camera! Action! Sensory Integration and Autism We're All in This Together: Teaming Up With Families.

Educators, psychologists, speech and language pathologists, school adjustment counselors, and parents can use the teaching guidelines in this manual to help children on the autism spectrum acquire the social perspective taking skills that are so vital to social competency. Beginning with basic nonverbal communication skills such as eye contact and pointing skills, and using concrete, step-by-step instructions, the manual provides systematic teaching programs designed to build progressively more complex social perspective-taking skills, including joint attention and pretend play skills. Identifying and predicting emotions in themselves and others, making social inferences, understanding false and nested belief, and avoiding faux pas are some of the featured skills. Teaching scenarios, with corresponding illustrations designed to enhance comprehension, are provided as well as recommended activities for promoting the generalization of acquired skills. This book includes reproducible materials on CD-ROM.

Everything you need to know to educate students with autism Every 20 minutes, another child is diagnosed with autism. Are you ready to meet this growing educational challenge? This authoritative guide for practitioners—early interventionists, teachers, school counselors and psychologists—provides practical strategies for addressing the unique needs of children on the autism spectrum and their families. Drawing on current research and evidence-based practice, the authors discuss the causes of autism and present methods for educating children and assisting their families in supporting the educational process. Each chapter focuses on a critical issue and offers solutions, including: Improving communication, social, generalization and self-management skills Designing instruction, intervention, and assessment Including families in developing goals and interventions Using students′ special interests to deliver instruction Understanding and preventing challenging behavior Evaluating practices to promote successful outcomes for students, families and practitioners Included are forms, charts, and activities to help practitioners and families fulfill learning programs. Educating Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders will give you insight and tools to make a difference in the learning and lives of students with autism spectrum disorders.

The Verbal Behavior (VB) approach is a form of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), that is based on B.F. Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior and works particularly well with children with minimal or no speech abilities. In this book Dr. Mary Lynch Barbera draws on her own experiences as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and also as a parent of a child with autism to explain VB and how to use it. This step-by-step guide provides an abundance of information about how to help children develop better language and speaking skills, and also explains how to teach non-vocal children to use sign language. An entire chapter focuses on ways to reduce problem behavior, and there is also useful information on teaching toileting and other important self-help skills, that would benefit any child. This book will enable parents and professionals unfamiliar with the principles of ABA and VB to get started immediately using the Verbal Behavior approach to teach children with autism and related disorders.

Chapters on choosing an effective treatment discuss how to evaluate claims about treatments for autism, and what the research says about early behavioral intervention and other treatments. Subsequent sections address what to teach, teaching programs, how to teach, and who should teach. Also addressed are the organization and funding of a behavioral program, working with a speech-language pathologist, and working with the schools. Answers to commonly asked questions are presented along with case histories. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

An easy-to-use resource for professionals and parents, this book provides fun and practical ideas to help motivate and extend communication and play skills in children with autism with the support of pictures. The book describes how picture scripts can help facilitate play and learning and provides 40 photocopiable scripts across a range of different activities such as drawing, cooking, using construction toys, imaginative play, arts and crafts, and life skills. Tasks are presented in small manageable step-by-step picture sequences and support a range of skills including following instructions, increasing independence, comprehension, story-telling and choice-making. Readers can print copies of the scripts from the online downloadable content that accompanies the book. Ideal for special education teachers, early years practitioners, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, and parents, this will be an excellent tool for any classroom, home or therapy setting.